Al Shank Sez……It’s Pancake Day….Version 74

International Pancake Day is just around the corner on February 21st. It is the 74th year for this interational event. We are proud to partner with KSCB radio, Electric Motor Service and EpicTouch to cover this event and there is even special coverage that will come direct from Olney, England, our sister city and friendly rival (Paste and copy  the link below in your broweser to learn more.) A Liberal native, Tim Louderback we be in Olney to cover the event and report back to Liberalites that day. To my knowledge that has never been done before. As some of you may know, my late father, Al Shank Sr. and now, myself, have announced the Races and Parade for probably 67 out of the 74 Pancake Days. I’m even known, as declared by the Pancake Day Board, “the Voice of Pancake Day.” Certainly an honor I never expected. It was probably an honor suited better for my father. I learned to follow his example. Here are a few secrets you learn if you hang around the events that day: 

1. Some band instruments don’t play too well in really cold weather. 

2. For one Pancake Day, the weather was so bad, the only event held was the International Race. All other events were cancelled, the race course was cleared, flame throwers used to dry it off and the race run. That was it!     

3. No matter how hard the Rotary Club tries to set a line up and place for all participants to be for the parade, there is always someone that will show up to register the at the last minute or get out of sequence. 

4. Always……I repeat….always get a list of the racers for all the races the day before and go through them that night to at least have a fighting chance of pronouncing their names correctly. Even if you do that…..you will screw up some poor kid’s name. My apologies in advance. 

5 and finally, drum roll please, if you are in charge of setting the parade order of the participants………….Never Ever put the horses in the parade in front of the marching bands. Bonus points to you if you can guess why.  

 Here’s the link to learn more about this year’s special coverage:     https://fb.watch/izyLEEXxTw/

Happy Pancakes everyone!!