wetumkaWetumka is a small town about 40 miles southwest of Henryetta on Highway 75.  When I was growing up in Henryetta in the 30s and 40s, my family often traveled through it on the way to other places but I don’t recall any instance when it was our specific destination, except that we might have stopped on occasion or two to eat in a café that could have been located there. 
It appeared to be a pleasant town with a few blocks of Main Street, and a small business district with a hotel, some grocers and a café or two.  For the most part, it was just a small town that people didn’t give much notice – it was even less than half the size of Henryetta.  But a couple of years after I headed off to college, Wetumka had an event that has gone down in its local history for all who were there to remember and for residents who arrived later to be told about so they would join in its annual celebrations.
con artistIn early July 1950, F. Bam. Morrison, a tall likable man, arrived in Wetumka as the advance man for a traveling road circus called Bolin’s United Circus.  He began making arrangements for its arrival to spend two Wetumka performance days to take place on July 24 and 25.  He enlisted the support of the Boy Scouts to sell tickets, arranged for the reservation of some ground where the circus would be held, reserved 20 rooms at Meador’s Hotel for the performers, talked the hotel owners into repainting the reserved rooms and buying new linens, talked  grocers into buying extra groceries and a restaurant into buying extra beverages and 100 pounds of frankfurters for the circus concessions.  He placed advertising at places on roads near Wetumka to spread knowledge of the circus’s pending arrival, promised local merchants that the circus would buy all its necessary supplies only from them, sold advertising posters to be placed on the circus grounds, and arranged for the purchase of a truckload of hay for the elephants.  In the process, he convinced merchants of the opportunities the circus would bring with tourists, and they stocked their storage areas with even more supplies. 
By the middle of July, he completed the arrangements and left to make arrangements for the next circus stop.  Wetumka residents  were waiting for the circus with excitement and anticipation.
circusThe evening of July 23, some a few residents first wondered why nobody had seen any evidence of advance equipment arriving or of circus employees in or near the area to begin to make the circus area ready for the big event.  Still, the morning of July 24, residents lined Main Street to see the circus arrive.
But no circus arrived and residents soon realized they had been scammed or suckered by F. Bam Morrison.   But they then quickly decided that since they had so many supplies on hand, to have a day of celebration anyway.  It was small in comparison to what they had expected, but they did have sidewalk sales, concessions and street dancing.  And when it was over,  they decided to have an annual celebration of the day they had been suckered, and to call it “Sucker Day.”  By the time of the nest year’s celebration, the whole affair had become well known far beyond Wetumka as a result of the whole situation being the subject of an article in Time Magazine.
Through the years, they had annual Sucker Days with parades of trackers, antique autos, horses, riding clubs, arts and craft festivals, music, and dancing in the streets.  At one point through the years, and maybe more than once,  they published a widespread invitation for F. B. Morrison to join them with no hard feelings so they could thank him for all the years of celebration and publicity he had caused to take place for Wetumka.  In addition, there were years when Wetumka residents jokingly walked down Main Street trying to sell $10 bills for $9 just to see if people would think the sellers were trying to sucker them.  I never heard if there were any buyers, but I suspect that with the whole idea behind having Sucker Day, there probably were some.  I understand that at some point early in the span of years (maybe in the 1960s)  they skipped having a Sucker Day, but the residents became upset about skipping the day of fun, and it was reinstated the next year.
suckersAbout 15 years ago, I happened to be driving from Houston to Henryetta and left the Indian Nation Turnpike at Atoka and drive Highway 75 to go through the little places of Coalgate and Lehigh where my mother had taught school before she began teaching in Henryetta in 1921.  When I passed through Wetumka, I stopped for gas and asked the station clerk if they still had an annual Sucker Day.  She told me they still have it every year on the last Saturday in September.  It might be fun for current Henryettans to check it out next September.  Now – I didn’t make all this up just to try to sucker current Henryettans to thinking they would see a celebration that doesn’t exist.  As far as I know, they still have a Sucker Day in Wetumka, but Henryettans might try to check to see if it still exists before going,
Publisher's Note: Wetumka civic leaders apparently were in a forgiving mood at one point. They invited Morrison to come back to town and serve as grand marshal in the Sucker Day parade. According to local stories, Morrison agreed, but only if they sent him money to cover a bus ticket. Burnt once, Sucker Day organizers said no thanks.