Who are The Clampers?

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Posted by FDR on January 15, 2007 at 11:39:40:

Monday, January 8, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
JON CARROLL
Jon Carroll


Glory be, there were not that many quibbles and niggles for the 25th
Annual Xmas Quiz. Just one stupid misspelling, one judgment call and
one
cool but unknown-to-me fact. And then there was some huffing and
puffing
by the Clampers, but we'll get to that.

I also asked a question about the meaning of "E Clampus Vitus." ECV, as
it's called, is a group dedicated to historical preservation and
mischief,
not necessarily in that order. Some self-identified Clampers, as
they're
called, claimed that the group's name did indeed really mean something,
but they would have to be very drunk, or I would have to very drunk, or
both, before they could reveal that meaning. I still suspect that the
secret is that there is no secret, but then, it's a secret. What do I
know? Indeed, the origins of the group are shrouded in mystery, most of
it
generated by the members themselves. They cling to their outlaw past,
assuming that they have an outlaw past at all, and are given to various
sorts of mumbo-jumbo that everyone pretends to take seriously but no
one
does.
Here's a representative paragraph from Wikipedia: "Clamper meetings
were
held in the Hall of Comparative Ovations, generally the back room of a
saloon. Some chapters even built their own Halls of Comparative
Ovations.
... The Clamper flag was a hoop skirt, with the words, "This is the
flag
we fight under." Meetings were held "at any time before or after a full
moon." New members were called "Poor Blind Candidates." They were
required
to present a poke of gold dust, although the value of the poke was left
to
the discretion of the brotherhood, and was frequently waived entirely
if
the prospective member could not afford it."
The truth, in my experience, is that E Clampus Vitus is rather more
earnest than it pretends to be, and actually does try to rescue
overlooked
historical places and incidents from the river of forgetfulness. Its
main
preoccupation is the Gold Rush, but they'll slap a plaque on pretty
much
anything they consider worthy. In other words, it's an upstanding and
honorable group pretending to be a raffish bunch of ne'er-do-wells,
unlike, say, the Senate of the United States, where the reverse is
true.





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