Shades Of Food Fights Past: Colorado Tomato Battle
COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. (AP) -- The cry of "Remember the Tomatoes!" doesn't have the historical heft of "Remember the Alamo!" but the cross-border veggie brawl does have a history in Colorado. And it's being revived, kind of.
The Tomato Battle Saturday at the Copper Mountain resort in the central-Colorado mountains evokes memories of the annual Colorado-Texas Tomato War of the 1980s.
The frenzied food fight was launched in Twin Lakes about 140 miles southwest of Denver as a way to vent about Texans vacationing in Colorado. The weapons were truckloads of rotten tomatoes.
The fight ended in the early 1990s amid concerns about insurance. The new battle's organizer tells The Gazette he wasn't aware of the original faceoff. Clint Nelson likens the new, non-competitive event to Spain's La Tomatina Festival where people throw overripe tomatoes.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
