By Mark Schmerling
The city of Saluda’s fifth annual Coon Dog Day celebration, in 1967, drew 500 visitors, an amazing feat at the time. Started as a fried chicken dinner to benefit local raccoon hunters, today’s celebration now draws crowds of more than 10,000, and includes a parade, 5K race, street dances, art vendors, street food and more, while keeping the local charm and focus uniquely Saluda.

Making each successive celebration of Coon Dog Day a huge success takes enormous planning, achieved by those who have grown up amid Coon Dog Day traditions. July 11, 2015 marks the event’s 52^nd year.

Tangie Morgan and other committee members have been toiling since early this year to continue Coon Dog Day’s traditions, including the family-friendly atmosphere, while expanding some of the components to appeal to visitors of all ages. Expect a greater variety of food and carnival rides this year.

 

A Saluda native, Morgan grew up around Coon Dog Day. She related that when several Saluda City employees (who were also Coon Dog Day planners) left within the past year, “Daddy asked if I would help.” Her father is Leon Morgan, a Saluda City Commissioner, and now a member of the event’s planning committee.

 

She agreed. How could she not? She’s attended dozens of Coon Dog Days since she’s been old enough to do so. Her sister Tonya had been a Coon Dog Day Queen. Leon Morgan designed the 50^th annual Coon Dog Day T-shirt, and the city adopted that design.

 

Tangie recalled that as a child she used to watch the fire departments have the barrel race in which the winning prize was earned by directing water from a fire hose accurately enough to push one’s barrel across the finish line ahead of the others.

 

She also remembers when the coon dogs had to stand around on the summer-hot surface of hard city streets. These days, the dogs (and their paws) are thankful to spend much time in the field at the elementary school.

 

Tangie runs Somewhere in Time, an established Saluda business on Main Street, so what induces someone who already has enough to do, to get involved with the planning of the celebration?

 

“Coon Dog Day’s always been a tradition in Saluda,” she replied. “It’s like a city celebration. It’s a city heritage.” She added that many of her family members have grown up raising coon dogs.

 

“My gosh,” she noted, “I’ve been here all my life. Coon Dog Day was such an important tradition in town. We needed to keep it going.”

 

“During Coon Dog Days past, people would come from miles around for the dance.  Coon dogs are so much a part of the area. When I was in high school, every pickup truck had a box in it,” she said. The boxes are used for transporting coon dogs.

 

Those are powerful traditions to help uphold.

 

A friend, Cissy Thompson, complimented Tangie Morgan for her role in helping plan today’s event.

 

“She’s very civic minded,” Thompson said. “She chose to do what others didn’t want to do.”

 

That planning has taken many months.

 

“We started on this the first of the year,” Tangie Morgan emphasized.

 

One of Tangie Morgan’s focuses this year, has been to get the event back to where it was, meaning “more family-friendly.”

 

Among those working with the Morgans this year is Terry Baisden, wife of Saluda Mayor Fred Baisden.

 

She said that when Monica Pace, who organized so much of so many Coon Dog Days, resigned as Saluda City Clerk, Pace told Mayor Baisden that someone needed to form a committee to plan this year’s and future events.

 

“I’ve been coming to Coon Dog Day for at least 36 years,” Terry noted.

 

“No matter what we do, there will always be a Coon Dog Day,” she affirmed.

 

What has Coon Dog Day meant to her?

 

“It’s a special time to get together with family and friends. My oldest son says his favorite holidays are Christmas and Coon Dog Day,” said Terry.

 

Since being part of the planning committee, Terry Baisden admits, “I have a whole new perspective on Coon Dog Day. A lot more went into it than people realize.”

 

Other members of the committee include city employee Bill Obermiller, Jessica Desiano, Cindy Hemenway and DeWayne Elliott.

 

“We just came together as a group,” Baisden said, adding, “Tangie’s worked really hard getting vendors. We’ve always had great vendors.”
Today, three items will be raffled off to benefit future Coon Dog Day celebrations. They are a Char Broil grill, a 32-inch flat-screen television and, appropriately, a coon dog carved from wood by Tryon resident Bernard Edwards.

 

This is Leon Morgan’s 12^th year planning for Coon Dog Day.

 

“It’s the biggest day of the year for the merchants,” he observed. “We strive to keep it a local festival. We strive to have great police protection. I think it’s a lot of good fun for a lot of good people.”

 

Monica Pace, Morgan noted, “did a super job.”

“I think it’s a representation of the City of Saluda,” he said. “We’ve got great people helping.”

 

Leon Morgan assessed the role in two of this year’s planners.

 

“If it hadn’t been for Tangie and Terry it’d be a disaster. They put their hearts and souls into this.”

 

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