Saturday, April 9, 2011

Smile, It's the Law


It's about time I participated in the Etsy Bloggers Blog Carnival. I've been a slacker of late.

This week's topic:
The first Public Library (in the US) opened on April 9th, 1833 in New Hampshire
Peterborough is the town where the first library opened. What's your town known for? Show us around!

My town, Pocatello, Idaho, is known as the "Smile capital". Here's the information on how this came to be from the City's home page:

In 1948, the Mayor of the City of Pocatello, George Phillips, passed an ordinance making it illegal not to smile in Pocatello. The "Smile Ordinance" was passed tongue in cheek as a result of an exceptionally severe winter, which had dampened the spirit of city employees and citizens alike.


The ordinance unintentionally remained on the books and was discovered by staff and later by a local reporter who wrote an article appearing in 1987 in the Idaho State Journal. The American Bankers Association chose our outdated ordinance to use in their national advertising campaign, emphasizing the theme of outdated laws to convince the United States Congress to modernize banking laws.


On December 10, 1987, in response to an invitation from Pocatello's Mayor, representatives from the American Bankers Association visited Pocatello and declared our community the “U.S. Smile Capital.”


Pocatello received a great deal of national and international media attention for the “Smile Ordinance,” and in the spirit of fun, the event was perpetuated by making “Smile Days” an annual event.


Traditionally, our status as the U.S. Smile Capital is celebrated with a poster contest for elementary school children; a smile contest; “arrests” of those who do not smile; and a community celebration at the end of the week.


Join the fun and help us celebrate the universal language of a smile!


Keep Smiling!

Note: This post was written as part of a blog carnival by my EtsyBloggers Team. If you're a lover of books and libraries, you might want to read how Etsy shop owners are influenced by Public Libraries while others give you a glimpse into their home towns, like this post.

8 comments:

Memories for Life said...

That's a great thing for your city to be known for! What a fun "law" :)

SarahBeth said...

How fun! Every town should have official "Smile Days!"

TiLT said...

That's great! What fun :)
I think we could use that law here...the winter days get so long & dreary

Anonymous said...

That is one of the first things my sister read about Pocatello before I moved here. She thought it was a great sign. Well it seems to be true, one of the friendliest cities or any place I've ever been to.

Martha

Honey from the Bee said...

How great is that?! You know if we became the Smile country - imagine the effect we'd have.

Do dentists flock to your town?

: )

storybeader said...

isn't that neat! I hope you feel better soon, and can join the town in their outward show of happiness! Thanks for participating in the carnival and our new Simplylinked! {:-D

Alice's Owl said...

Awesome! (And adorable picture!) That is reason enough for me to consider a move :-). Positivity is so important and smiling brings so much positivity to you!

When I first went away to college (for the first degree) I went to a college that was known for being friendly (everyone smiled, everyone greeted one another, etc.). It was an amazing place to be. It's wonderful there is a town that has a philosophy like that!

Unknown said...

A smiling town - how fab is that?