Dan’s Bake Sale and Rush Limbaugh – 16 Years Ago Today
Finny's Mom Posted on 5/22/2009, 3:48:07 AM by Finny
Dan’s Bake Sale and Rush Limbaugh – 16 Years Ago Today
ONLY Five Years After Rush’s Show Became Nationally Syndicated (1988)
Letter from my Mother
May 24, 1993
Fort Collins, Colorado
Dear [Finny]:
If there were liberals there, they were quiet as Republicans at Hyannisport. Dan’s Bake Sale. Fort Collins, Colorado, Old Town Square. May 22, 1993. Tens of thousands of Rush listeners were there, from all over the U.S. and the world. Local newspaper headlines proclaim 20,000-plus. No way – the number had to have been double or triple. They started arriving in the Ft. Collins area as early as a week before, in chartered and private planes, buses, cars, vans, and R.V.s, like your dad and me. Some even came by bicycle. They came alone and they came in caravans.
Maybe you don’t know how Dan’s Bake Sale came about. A couple of months ago, Dan Kay called Rush’s show and mentioned an issue of the Limbaugh Newsletter which had been, in violation of copyright laws, copied for him by a friend. When asked why he didn’t have his own subscription, Dan replied that his wife said their budget wouldn’t allow the necessary $29.95. Rush nearly capitulated to giving Dan a subscription, but finally said he couldn’t do it, that to give the subscription away would only make Dan a “dependent ward of the EIB radio network” and would inhibit his drive to “be the best he could be.”
Rush then hit upon the idea of Dan’s Bake Sale, satirically following the fad of elementary school children holding bake sales to reduce the national deficit.
The suggestion was instantly and gleefully embraced by the millions of listeners of EIB (Excellence In Broadcasting, Rush’s network), many of whom called within minutes with offers of help. From there – a card table on a street corner – Dan’s Bake Sale grew, and the card table became 70 vendor booths in the city’s Old Town Square.
The crowds that came were the most colorful, happy bunch you can imagine. Their cars, trucks, vans, whatever, were covered with signs. “Rushing to Dan’s Bake Sale.” “Dan’s Bake Sale or Bust.” “1,200 Miles to Buy a Cookie.” Their kids, and there were hundreds, wore hats, and t-shirts with every kind of conservative message. There was even one baby boy in a stroller complete with a sign, “Rush Look-alike,” and he certainly was a chubby, round-faced, alert miniature Rush Limbaugh.
It was definitely not a crowed of religious zealots, redneck fanatics, or cult followers. They may have been there; I didn’t see them and they certainly did not dominate. The many people I spoke to were family oriented, educated, thoughtful, concerned, and most of all, optimistic. Rush was scheduled to appear at a midway point in the day to accept a check for $29.95 from Dan Kay in return for a year’s subscription to the Limbaugh Letter. The weather was beautiful from early morning until shortly before his scheduled appearance, when a thunderstorm descended upon Ft. Collins.
People were by then packed into every corner of the town’s streets spoking out in circular fashion from the central dais, and when I say packed, I mean they were standing back to belly, breathing in unison! When that thunderstorm hit, complete with thunder, lightening, hailstones, and drenching rain, wouldn’t you think there would be just a few complaints? I was there, about 15 feet from the platform, and all I heard was cheers and a lot of laughter as some began dragging out umbrellas.
Then, as suddenly as the storm had hit, the sun came out and the crowd went crazy with cheers. Eight mounted police were escorting Rush through that crush of people. Somehow they managed, ever so slowly, to make an opening down the center of the street we were on, straight to the stage.
It was crazy, just unbelievable. No one was upset, angry, panicked, or otherwise distressed. Even those mounted police were smiling and kept saying, “What a great crowd! What a crowd! Thanks, folks!”
Well, Rush got to the stage just as the last clouds left. How’s that for an omen? The brief ceremony opened with the national anthem sung by a 14-year-old girl. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. The check was delivered and accepted. The mayor, a senator, a few other dignitaries, and Rush spoke briefly, but no one could doubt that the day belonged to Dan, aided and abetted by Rush.
Dan Kay was the ideal catalyst for bringing together thousands of “conversationalists from across the fruited plain,” as Limbaugh calls his listeners. A “flea-mart clerk” just out of college, married and with a large student loan debt, Dan was an attractive young man who handled with real grace what must have been an overwhelming experience. When we arrived at about 7:30 a.m., he was smiling and chatting with the hundreds already there anxious to meet him and wish him well. He was clearly surprised at the numbers there so early for something billed for an 11 a.m. opening. He was still there when we left shortly before 4 p.m., the publicized closing hour, still smiling, still sitting for the hundreds who wanted pictures taken with him next to his cookie stand where his pretty wife and a throng of friends worked, and which, incidentally, was almost immediately sold out of cookies.
No one who was at Dan’s Bake Sale could avoid talking about the crowd. It was made up of every demographic possible. I believe the crowd probably numbered 50,000 to 60,000. In the middle of the day, air traffic was reporting a seven-mile-long bus caravan moving slowly in heavy traffic between Denver and Ft. Collins. Traffic into town was backed up for miles and hours, according to other reports, and cars were directed to out-of-town parking where free bus service was provided into town. From early morning until late afternoon, downtown was jammed.
It was an extraordinarily well-behaved group. Every city official and police officer commented on it. There was not a single incident of vandalism nor a single arrest. There was no clean up problem; most litter was neatly centralized around overflowing dumpsters. Later reports said the clean-up crew was completely finished by 6 p.m., a record two hours after the advertised end of the event.
Limbaugh’s staff, well known to his listeners, was there and signed autographs for hours. They talked and joked with anyone who approached them. There were many favorite Rush callers, celebrities in their own right. Mick, raconteur from the “high mountains of New Mexico,” was there, a little overwhelmed at his own notoriety. Tiia, from England, was there. The couple from Guam. So many, and great fun to meet or even see.
There was entertainment all day long. Bands, dancers, singers. The booths sold everything from food to t-shirts to memorabilia. Snapple, “the official Rush Limbaugh beverage,” was available all over the place. Brennan’s of New Orleans, a five-star restaurant of international fame, was there with its two best chefs selling the famed dessert Bananas Foster. They sold more than 8,000 servings, a near-inhuman feat considering the complexity of the dessert, at $3 each and gave all the money to charity. Most of the vendors did the same.
I found the anti-liberal comment to be, in the main, light hearted. I thought Clinton-bashing was at a minimum, given the general crowd sentiment.
If there were any protestors, I didn’t see them. The only negative things I saw were laughable. One was a penciled slogan on a restaurant electric box which read, “Get a life, Rush.” (Whoever wrote it should have such a life!) Another was a nice-looking young man wearing a perplexed smile and a tight black t-shirt which admonished, “Question Authority.” Also, two teen couples came into the square around the end of the day, and one of the girls – a grubby-looking specimen – hopped up on a brick wall and screamed out, “Hey you stupid conservatives! Open your minds!”
The response was interesting in its disinterest. The only comment I heard was made quietly and with a smile: “Open our minds to that?” The girl looked around belligerently for a moment or two, then hopped down and the four teens ambled out of the square.
Dan Kay called in to Rush’s show the following Monday. He said he’d hoped to make enough money to retire his student loan debt but fallen short – not enough cookie bakers! People had tried to press money upon him after his cookies were gone. He wouldn’t take it! He said he wasn’t looking for a handout; if he didn’t have something to sell, it wasn’t right to take the money. Maybe that attitude could become a trend.
Some folks are pushing for another bake sale, another year. I rather hope not. It really was a one-of-a-kind happening. You had to have been there to know. Inevitably, it would become commonplace; then again, wouldn’t it be wonderful if that sort of one-of-a-kind became commonplace?
Love,
Mom
