CONWAY — People looking for Toad Suck Daze paraphernalia can find everything from technology to T-shirts at the Toad Store this year.
Shoppers can stock up before the festival, which will be May 1-3 in downtown Conway.
Tiffany Thornton, a member of the merchandise committee, works every day at the store, 1321 Oak St. in downtown Conway. She pointed out new items, plus some favorites that fill the shelves.
“New this year, we have three designs of Toad Suck Daze shirts,” she said. One shirt has a design of a toad on a mushroom, and it comes in purple, red or green — “antique” colors, Thornton said. Another shirt, available in tangerine or gray, has an outline of the state of Arkansas and a toad. Both of those have the date on them.
A third option is the Toadally Conway shirt in green, which has the date the festival was established — 1982 — but no other year, to make the shirt timeless.
Another nod to the history of the festival is on the $5 coffee mugs for sale. “This year, we put the legend on our coffee mug — that was new. They’re only $5; it’s a good souvenir-type thing,” Thornton said.
Here’s the oft-repeated legend, as printed on the mugs: “Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn’t, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: ‘They suck on the bottle till they swell up like toads.’ Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze.”
“All our cups are selling pretty good,” Thornton said, as were the T-shirts.
Customer Sherry Koonce of Conway, who works in the Faulkner County Assessor’s Office, was picking up a couple of T-shirts on Thursday afternoon. “I’m picking up one for me, and I’m getting one for my secret pal,” she said. “I was doing her a basket of Toad Suck stuff.”
The Toad Store also keeps up with the times. Thornton showed the Toad Suck Daze flash drive, “and it does say Toad Suck Daze,” she pointed out, and a new item is the “on-the-go rechargeable phone charger.”
Cellphone users (and who isn’t these days?) can pick up a pocket that adheres to the back of a cellphone to hold ear buds or a credit card.
Toad Suck Daze has jumped on the social-media bandwagon, Thornton said, and store promotions are offered on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Toys are always popular, Thornton said, and this year, tadpoles can find everything from stuffed animals to bubbles and “squishy frogs.” Although the F word is to be avoided, packaging on items often come with the word frog on it. Once it’s in the store, however, it’s a toad.
A Toad Suck Kids Club package that was started last year is the most-expensive item sold, Thornton said, at $25. It includes a T-shirt, five Toad Bucks, a special Kids Club line for the toad races, a goody bag and a birthday card from the Toad Master.
Other items in the store’s inventory include bibs, Toad Suck Daze lunch bags that can be drawn on and decorated, and what no kitchen should be without — a toad-shaped “pull-apart” cake mold.
Jewelry is available — toad pins, earrings and necklaces — as well as hair bows for little girls.
Although organizers hope for good weather each year, it is Arkansas. Three styles of umbrellas, one especially designed for kids, are sold at the store, and it stocks rain ponchos.
Little camp stools that double as coolers could come in handy while waiting to hop on a ride or just while taking a break at the festival.
Thornton also said the Toad Store has new hours. This year, it is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays and closed Mondays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
For more information, call the store at (501) 327-8623 (TOAD).
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.