Wayne County Town Prepares For Its Annual 'Pickle-y' New Year Eve's Tradition

Posted 3:02 p.m. Dec 31, 2001 — Updated 3:02 p.m. Dec 31, 2001

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. — Sometimes, traditions are hard to figure out. Mount Olive is preparing for its annual 'pickle-y' New Year's Eve tradition.

Two years ago, the Mount Olive pickle company was selected to be the official pickle and pepper of the millennium. That year, they dropped a pickle in a fermentation tank on New Year's Eve. This year, the whole town is being invited and they started practicing on Friday.

Forty million pounds of pickles sit in tanks fermenting near the corner of Cucumber and Vine streets in town while one of the company's first tanks is waiting under the flag pole to catch the plummeting plastic pickle.

"It's just a lot of fun and something silly to do on New Year's Eve, do it early to let the kids come, eat pickles, sing Auld Lang Syne and get home and be in bed before midnight," said Lynn Williams of the Mount Olive Pickle Company.

The pickle will start down at exactly 7 p.m. New Year's Eve, which is midnight Greenwich time.

Suggest A Correction