Penn’s Store Great Outhouse Blowout in Gravel Switch

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Community camaraderie brings Blowout back

GRAVEL SWITCH — Two teams from Danville High School spent weeks crafting the perfect privy to race in the Penn’s Store Great Outhouse Blowout Saturday. But an hour before the first heat, coordinators deemed both vehicles unfit for action because their front wheels were not properly fixed.

Never fear — turtle team to the rescue.

Jake Ison, son of a DHS teacher and a member of Turtleman Ernie Brown Jr.’s “Live Action” racing crew, saw the students’ hangings heads and stepped in to tighten handles and lift sprits with the tools from his truck and the metal flag pole from his faux potty.

The DHS students enthusiastically offered hyperbolic thank-yous like “you saved our lives” while exchanging hugs and high-fives as though they’d already won.

“I’m very relieved because we didn’t want all the hard work we’ve done for the last month to go down the drain,” DHS senior Rob Caudill beamed, too excited to realize his own pun.

Hundreds of visitors who attended the Blowout could find teamwork and community camaraderie in nearly every aspect of the Gravel Switch event, which starred a warm, sunny fall day as much as live music and local celebrities.

Penn’s Store General Manager Jeanne Lane considered cancelling the Blowout — created when the store’s first outhouse was built in 1992 — after floods severely damaged the store and a rain-soaked event kept visitors at bay last year.

But Perryville-based construction company Chaplin Hills Timberwrights stepped in this spring for two months of emergency stabilization efforts including restoring the base of the building and installing a new floor. As a result, the store shone as brightly as the weather Saturday.

“It’s like at total 180,” Lane said. “Last year was a washout, and this is just almost perfect.”

Bill Faulconer of Chaplin Hills said the pleased Blowout crowd provided gratification for his crew’s hard work and dedication to the store’s historical restoration.

“We’ve gotten to enjoy it for eight weeks,” he said. “So it’s time to turn it over to everybody else.”

Attendees took Faulconer up on the offer, basking in live bluegrass music from bands including Dix River Crossing and Payne & Waters, and greeting guests like author Paula Sparrow and “Mule Man” Boyd Sandusky, who provided free wagon rides.

Turtleman and his Animal Planet entourage drew the biggest crowds as they filmed an episode of his forthcoming reality TV show “Call of the Wildman.” But his rising celebrity and famous yell couldn’t conquer two-year-old Zayden Pevley’s cuteness in the Ugly Legs Contest. Pevley made out with $99 from spectators who choose the winner by giving money to their favorite contestant.

Emcee Dan Houston congratulated Pevley while noting that his angelic face more than his young legs made him the top money-maker.

“There ain’t no way those legs is ugly, but you did a good job,” he said.

Turtleman’s “Live Action” team also lost the first heat of the six-team outhouse race to one of the Danville vehicles they helped repair.

But DHS senior Karl Hempel said he’ll be sure to repay them by watching their show when it premiers Nov. 6 at 10 p.m.

“It shows what kind of people they are, and they are truly kind people,” he said. “It just shows how the people in the counties in this area are so nice. It’s a great place to be.”

By Mandy Simpson
The Advocate-Messenger