Bay City Celebrates Five Years

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last weekend on Sunday May 19th was the 5th Anniversary celebration of Bay City. The day was marked with a street parade down the main road of the area and a party at the Fairgrounds in the east end of the region.

Bay City was created in May 2008 "by a set of resident builders known as 'moles' with in the Linden Department of Public Works," a group dedicated to improvements on the mainland. Bay City was described as "the American urban experience between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best typified by Chicago circa 1950." The region has seen a number of improvements every year, such as it's near-doubling in size with the merger of the sims from the former Teen Grid Bay City in 2011, and the "Hairy Hippo Fun Land" amusement part with mesh objects last year around the time of last year's anniversary.

The day before at a table with a Bay City Welcome Basket and tour guide, I ran into Uccello Poultry, the writer of the Poultry Report as well as the partner of the winner of the Miss Bay City Pagent Angela Seale-Poultry. She made a few jokes about the "mer-moles" in the canal getting upset if someone didn't find the key to the porto-potties on the big day, "There are quite a few swimming around the waters off the Hairy HIppo Funland, and one in the aquarium in Oak Bluff." She added a lucky 7Seas fisher might catch one around "Hippo." Marianne McCann, one of Bay City's prominent residents,  joined us soon afterwards. Marianne shared a picture of a number of the city residents gathering for a picture, which had appeared on the Second Life Viewer.

Marianne then talked a little about Bay City's first days, "I still remember when the Lab started to promote Bay City, pre-opening. Shots of the city 'in progress' an' stuff. and I was soooooo disappointed when I didn't get the parcel I wanted. ... I got one a couple days later. Uccello commented, "I remember meeting the Governor when she was at the train depot trying to setup the freebies. (giggles) Had to toss a script to her and explain 'Buy for L$0.' " Marianne went on, "I remember first coming into Bay City when it first was gridded. (It was so new, you could not TP into it. (The) map did not recognize it yet. I had to fly in from Cape Haven. My first in-person view was of Farpoint Park. A friend of hers invited everyone on his friend list over, which was the precursor of their weekly meetings.


The following day at Noon, people began gathering at the Hawich sim in the southwestern part of Bay City. Some would walk. Others were in cars and floats. Daniel Voyager would write that over 30 were at the gathering point.  Miss Bay City Angela Seale-Poultry was also there. And so was Marianne in her marching band director outfit, trying to organize this chaotic gathering. It didn't help when someone began showering the place with particles. Some wondered if this was a grieving attack at first, then someone noticed it was confetti. Unfortunetly, it was enough to send a number of residents crashing, including yours truly.

By the time I got back on, the parade had already started. I ported ahead to get some pictures. While enough razzed for me to see what was going on, sorry to say the lag meant most pictures were of fair quality at best. Fortunetly Daniel Voyager had taken a number, and gave his okay for the Newser to use some (like the one above).

Daniel was also in the parade as a flying dragon.

Other things in the parade included a huge "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man" avatar. Behind it was a "flaming noob" balloon.

And there was this float full of faux noob avatars.

Draxtor Despres of "The Drax Files" was also there at the parade (second image Daniel's).

 Bay City residents are always there to lend a hand, in this case a giant hand for a float.

And at the finish line, one car with Rosie the Robot doing chauffeur duty can be better seen with lag less of a problem.

Miss Bay City at the finish line of the parade.

Another car at the parade.

The parade went down "Route 66," the main road of Bay City. It went on to the Fairgrounds in the North Channel sim, which is several sims west of Ahern and Luskwood.

There, the paraders and onlookers whom had been watching from the streets joined up with the small party, which had already started at the stage and dance floor. DJ GoSpeed Racer was starting things up with her selection of tunes. The number of avatars there was close to 40 at times.

Among the dancers, a "Primitar" from "Linden World," the unpublished alpha version of Second Life.

Marianne dances with Loki Eliot of "The Goonies," and a few other child avatars. Daniel for whatever reason put on a carrot top. Holocluck Henley was also there.

Following DJ GoSpeed, there was a performance by live singer Christov Kohnke.

Overhead, there was a blimp getting a view from above.

The party went on for a few more hours and two more live musicians. There was also a display of fireworks. Marianne sent this message after the end:

Thank you to everyone who made out anniversary such a success! Our performers, our parade block captains, Ever for work above and beyond. Those who tossed into the hat to provide some great performers, and all our marchers, viewers,and partiers. Thanks for making Bay City’s fifth so great!

For more pictures, you can find more in Daniel Voyager's and Marianne McCann's Flickr.

Happy Birthday Bay City.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources and Links: Second Life Wikia, Daniel Voyager's Blog, Daniel Voyager Flickr,