The Night of the Long Cock
Rocky River Brewing Company has been celebrating The Night of the Long Cock since its inception in 1998. The annual celebration takes place the night before Thanksgiving. It is a celebration to welcome our friends and families back home in anticipation of the great tradition ahead, to gather once again at a table to share food, love, laughs, friendships and to be thankful for what we are blessed with. Many do not know that the actual Night of the Long Cock started many, many years ago right here in this area of Rocky River. And so, the story goes like this…
A Long Time Ago many settlers braved many hardships in return for the fruits of freedom this land of America would provide. We know pilgrims began the tradition of Thanksgiving to celebrate everything this new world would provide for them. We celebrate today, this great American holiday by giving thanks to God as well as to to ur family and friends for the simple things we that cherish most.
What we do not hear of is another tradition born from the pilgrims failed celebration of Thanksgiving. It is what was known as…
Night of the Long Cock
The story begins many years after the pilgrims first celebration of Thanksgiving. As settlers headed west in search of greater opportunities, along came a widespread virus which decimated the turkey populations across our fertile land. The turkey supply was scarce and panicked settlers had to make way with what little food they could scrounge together for that year's Thanksgiving celebration.
“...along came a widespread virus which decimated the turkey populations across our fertile land.”
In a small Western Reserve settlement on the south shores of Lake Erie near a shallow and rocky river, there was not a turkey to be had because of the horrific Turkey virus. It was 1799 and legend has it that on a cold, blustery night before Thanksgiving, two men grappled over the only feathered fowl available for the next days feast – a cock from the old rooster coup. This bird was surely not enough to feed the entire village. As women cried and children held their empty stomachs, these two men wrestled, clawed and fought over this lone bird. The villagers knew that whatever there was of this bird to begin with, there surely would be nothing left of it after this wicked fight.
“Women cried tears of happiness, children jumped for joy”
The two men, each with both hands tightly clenching an end of the bird, pulled with all of their might. It was an epic tug-of-war. But as the horrified villagers looked on an amazing thing started to happen. As the men pulled and tugged, the bird stretched and grew right in front of them. The harder they pulled, the bigger the bird got until it grew to amazing proportions. The cock was now enormous. Realizing the miracle right before their eyes, the village erupted in celebration. Women cried tears of happiness, children jumped for joy and the men, every available man in the village that is, hoisted this gargantuously long bird onto their shoulders and took it to the center of the village and began to cook the humongous bird on one humongous fire. The people ate, drank, danced, and gave themselves to one another. They forever gave thanks to this one amazing bird.
Thus it began, the oft’ forgotten legend of the Night of the Long Cock.
