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Toupstown Origin
Labor Day weekend of 2007, about 40 or so friends from all over the country (and 1 from Australia) gathered at Wildhorse Campground near the Gorge Amphitheatre for 3 nights of The Dave Matthews Band. Many of us flew into Seattle and rented cars, including 2 RVs, for the 2+ hour drive to Wildhorse in the city of George, Washington. I (the Mayor) was with a group of 10 people that drove 16 hours in an RV from San Francisco. There were also a few groups that drove from Sacramento and SoCal.
My group was the first to arrive at Wildhorse and we explained to the nice people running the campground that we had a “few” more people coming. To our amazement, almost everyone arrived within the next hour and we were ALL able to camp in one big group. Since I was the one to coordinate all of us being together, someone commented that I was the “Mayor” of our camp. I’m known by most people as Toups, which is my last name. This led to our camp being called “Toupstown”.
Over the course of the next few days this idea of “Toupstown” took on a life of its own (encouraged no doubt by the massive amounts of libations the townspeople brought with them). The first night we were hanging out in this grassy area (later dubbed by the Mayor “the long haired golf course”) looking up at the stars and Gina offered to get some of us refills of our drinks and she became known as “Commissioner of Refills”. (However, she was fired from that job for messing up the Mayor’s refill request, not once… but twice.) April’s morning ritual was to make pancakes. One morning she made the Mayor M&M pancakes and she became known as “Commissioner of All Things Pancake Related”. At the end of the weekend almost everyone had some job or title that they assumed.
Toupstown also had a public pool. Steph brought the blow up pool and on our first night she gathered some townspeople to go gather water. They found an empty ice cooler with wheels and off they went to find water. After several trips back and forth the pool was filled water and people
On the first full day of hanging out at camp and waiting for DMB, some people in our group started playing wiffle ball on the long haired golf course. Other people became the spectators. The Mayor noticed one lone tree (later dubbed “the Dreaming Tree”) off in the distance, grabbed a chair, and sat in the cool shade. The next person to join the Mayor was Tommy and that earned him the title of “Vice Mayor”. One by one all the spectators gravitated to the tree. The Mayor and Vice Mayor said that it felt like they were in a sky box at a baseball game and thus the area surrounding the Dreaming Tree became known as “The Sky Box at Toupstown”.
The next morning the Mayor noticed that there was a hose near the Dreaming Tree and suggested that the pool be relocated to the Sky Box. It didn’t take long for all the townspeople to head over to the sky box.
And this is where we spent our days partying while waiting for DMB at night. We had drinks, a 1 gallon bag-o-fruit and vodka to pass around.
Music.
A small pool to dip ourselves in, and entertainment watching people play wiffle ball & other sporting activities (including Louisville Chuggers). It was like tailgating all day long!
One day after walking back and forth between Toupstown and the Sky box, and then from the shuttle in the parking lot to the amphitheater, a couple of people expressed how tired they were with all the walking. That night after the show, Tony approached the Mayor with a proposal to build the “Toupstown Monorail”. For obvious reasons he was then hired as the “Commissioner of Transportation & Engineering.”
I hope you now have an understanding of how to build a great town, how to have a great time, and what Toupstown was all about. I’m truly thankful for all the great memories and the great friendships that the came from that weekend.
Respectfully yours,
Mayor Brian Toups
