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Hear Philly: The Shore Thing - Pageants, Weird Week And An End Of Summer Plop

By Andrew Kramer

OCEAN CITY, N.J. (CBS) - August in Ocean City is full of many of the town's signature events.

Michele Gillian with the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce says the month-long fun begins August 6th.

"The Hermit Crab Beauty Pageant is what Ocean City's really known for. It's a spoof off of Ms. America. We don't have Ms. America, we have Ms. Crustacean. Lot's of people participate in bringing hermit crabs down to the beach and they participate in hermit crab races. then we also have a beauty pageant where they compete with decorated hermit crabs and decorated participants in a Ms Hermit Crab contest."

The winners are determined based on most creative display.

After that, things get a little strange in Ocean City during Weird week, which consists of "wacky, not tacky events that take place on the Ocean City Boardwalk," explains Gillian

The family friendly events take place at 11 a.m. each day that week, starting Monday, August 11th with taffy sculpting.

"Tuesday we'll have french fry sculpting," Gillian says, "Wednesday we have pie sculpting that you have to do without your hands and with you tongue, Thursday we will have wet T-shirt contests...throwing, and then we will have the crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Klutz and that's for people who have never been able to be in a beauty contest."

Next up -- one of the oldest baby parades in the country.

"We have hundreds of children participate," Gillian says. "we really relish that we are one of the oldest baby parades in the country, certainly the oldest on a boardwalk. It's something that lives on from generation to generation."

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The Ocean City boardwalk. credit cbs

The 105th annual Ocean City Baby Parade crawls down the boardwalk from 6th to 12 Street on August 14th.

That weekend marks the culmination of a week's worth of activities with the crowning of the new Little Ms. Ocean City.

"They begin on Monday (August 11th) and they finish on Saturday with the crowning, but they learn all different thing about Ocean City. They do all different kinds of activities, play different games and they go through different parts, but they also learn to compete in a somewhat beauty pageant form. It's a great learning experience."

And wrapping up August, a special King and queen with be crowned.

"The King and queen of Plop takes us from the hectic days of summer into the fall," Gillian says. "You're at the end of the year and your all ready to start that second season in Ocean City. We have all of our mascots and friends throughout Ocean City come and we plop down on the sand to let them know we are going forward into the fall for our second season and we hope you enjoy still coming to the beach the first couple weeks and then enjoy our weekends in Ocean City."

Folks will come up with all sorts of creative ways to plop on August 26th.

For more information on all Ocean City events, go to oceancityvacation.com.

And that's The Shore Thing for this month.

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Listen to the full podcast (runs 3:24)…

The Shore Thing: Ocean City in August

Listen to podcasts any time at hearphilly.com.

 

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