Barbara Lawlor, Central City.  Before gambling moved into Central City, town leaders filled the summer weekends with myriad town events and fun activities that drew in a money-spending crowd from down below. One of those events was the Lou Bunch Bed Races, in honor of the mining town's Madame.

Lou and her gang of Sporting House girls entertained the miners and became angels of mercy when many of the town’s people were struck down by epidemic diseases or were hurt while working in the mine.

It was the sporting girls that held the town together during times of crisis and ministered to the ill and injured and depressed of spirit.

On Saturday, June 17, the traditional Madam Lou Bunch Day celebrated its 43rd anniversary.

Before the first bed wobbled its way down the hill, local performers entertained the crowd that jammed the sidewalks, cheering on their favorite teams. There were a few dancers and local gunmen that moseyed on into town looking for a good time.

Before the races began, the teams made their traditional parade up the hill, posturing, waving to the crowd, making promises to win. Some teams like the O'Danny Boy, Blue Frog team have never pushed a bed with two people in it before. One of them came all the way from Toronto to give it a try.

The hard part of the course is staying on it. Like a grocery cart, the wheels have a tendency to waver and sometimes have a mind of their own. Now and then, they will swivel in a 360 circle and head straight for the sidewalk crowd. Each bed has one pusher, one woman and one man in the bed. Making the switch at the end of the course makes for some awkwardness. The push back takes some brawn; at least a ton of tenacity.

When it was all over, the novice racers O'Danny Boy and Blue Frog won the event with a time of 1:07; Green Grass was second with a time of 1:10 and Johnny Z's came in third with a time of 1: 13.

A spokesperson for the Toronto team said they brought a lot of "mindfulness to do the race."

The Costume Contest was won by Famous Bonanza/Easy Street. Barbara Thielemann was named Honorary All Time Madame and Marshall Jonas was named All Time Dandy Dan.

A team of former Sporting Girls and Madams made sure the race was run smoothly, as possible, and that everyone was safe from being run over by a runaway brass bed.

(Originally published in the June 22, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)