CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Nobody won the special prize for being the first person to whistle and laugh at the same time, or whistling a high enough note to shatter a crystal goblet.
But whistling Mitch Hider, the sponsor of 'Holiday For Lips,' Oregon's whistling festival at the Benton County Fairgrounds this weekend, said those contests were 'tongue in cheek -- or should I say tongue in lip, anyway.'
What the people did win for appearing onstage were their choice of plastic lips or birdseed. The audience, which at times during the six-hour festival filled the 400 folding chairs, also won the chance to hear amateur and professional whistlers pucker up and perform.
Hider of Alpine, Ore., has staged the festival for the past three years. In past years, he's won the International Whistlers' Competition at Carson City, Nev., and has performed on the Mike Douglas Show.
Hider's local festival draws other professional whistlers. This year they included Nancy Foran of Yakima, Wash.; Patty Ediger of Dayton, Ore; Annette Culley of Salem, and Sally Cohn of Portland -- all international whistling trophy-winners.
But 'this isn't a contest or a gathering only of experienced whistlers,' Hider emphasized. 'It's a chance for everyone to hear a variety of whistling styles and to personally experience, as many of us do, the joy of whistling for and with others.'
Hider welcomed participants from the audience -- many of them elderly, but a good mix of youngsters, too. Later in the afternoon, he donned a wizard's costume to whistle 'Over the Rainbow' from the 'Wizard of Oz.'
Then, with a gathering of children onstage, he performed a few wizard tricks. One little girl, he said, had 'rocks in her head.' To prove it, he pulled a styrofoam rock from her ear. Hider said he thought a boy appeared hoarse -- and he removed a green frog from his throat.
Hider then led his chorus of young whistlers through renditions of 'Old McDonald' and 'Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah.'
As quitting time came, a group of elderly whistled 'Amazing Grace.' Hider and a few of his friends finished the program with 'Now is the Hour.'
Said Hider, 'In the four years I've been a performing whistler, I've only met two kinds of people -- those who whistle or those who try or have tried.'
