Simsbury Restaurant's TP-Flinging Celebration A 'Resounding Success'
SIMSBURY, CT — What does 88,000 feet of toilet paper look like when flung into the trees?
All one has to do is look at images of what took place Wednesday night, Oct. 30, at Antonio’s Restaurant, 1185 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury.
Wednesday evening, the local community came out to the popular Simsbury eatery to “purchase” the right to fling rolls of toilet paper into the trees at the site.
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All they had to do was donate a non-perishable food item to the Simsbury Food Pantry.
And while 88,000 feet (in the form of 1,175 rolls of “TP”) is an impressive statistic, the real stat of the night is 2,400 — as in 2,400 pounds of non-perishable food loaded onto two trucks.
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That is merely 100 pounds shy of a ton-and-a-half of food for those less fortunate.
Steven Antonio, owner of Antonio’s, was downright ecstatic about the night.
“The night was a resounding success,” Antonio said Thursday morning, Oct. 31.
“Similar to seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. This event allows us to continue seeing this event through the eyes of the many children of all ages who participate. “
And participate they have since the 1960s, thanks to Antonio’s late mother, who in addition to cooking up fine Italian food, cooked up the current incarnation of Cabbage Night.
According to Antonio, his mother started this particular tradition as a means to safely celebrate the Halloween-Eve event (often featuring pranks and mischief prior to the day of trick-or-treating.)
As Antonio explained, the restaurant, which has been a local institution since the mid-1960s started flinging TP into the trees in 1968 and it now uses the fun event to collect for the less fortunate.
Antonio said Simsbury’s link with the “Cabbage Night” tradition dates back to when the Simsbury Flower Bridge was still being used for vehicular traffic (it’s not a footbridge).
He said locals would hang toilet paper on the bridge structure, but his mother (and other locals) thought that was unsafe to both revelers and motorists.
Hence, the restaurant took over the pre-Halloween celebration.
Now, in addition to providing a safe outlet for Cabbage Night revelry, it also does a lot of good in the community.
And, Antonio said, the restaurant grounds and trees are immediately cleaned up at the conclusion of the event. The toilet paper is already gone.
Said Antonio: “It is truly magical. My mom would be so proud to see her tradition carried on.”
From Oct. 29: ‘Toilet Paper In Trees A Good Thing At This Simsbury Restaurant.’
For images and video of the ‘Cabbage Night’ event at Antonio’s in Simsbury, click on this link.
For more information on the origins of ‘Cabbage Day/Night’ in New England, click on this link.
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