Orange Beach, Ala. - (OBA) - It’s National Limerick Day, a time to break away from the seriousness of the mundane work daze and welcome some silliness. The familiar five-line poem is famed for its clever, entertaining, and often titillating topics. We celebrate the day on Edward Lear’s birthday, May 12th each year, although he didn’t invent the style of the poem, he is accredited as the one who gave them popularity after releasing his A Book of Nonsense in 1846… Typically, the longer first, second, and last lines will rhyme, leaving for a shorter fourth and fifth line that rhyme known as the AABBA rhyme.

There once was an Island of fruit trees

The Islanders loved to pick and eat these.

The trees later gave a name to the town

But soon they would most come down

For the fruit would die in a great freeze

Did you know the Orange in Orange Beach was given its name for the once flourishing Orange tree groves?  It was good ole Alabama that was responsible for the orange crop shipping to other states in the US.

Citrus was brought over by the Spanish in the 1500s and including Satsumas. According to Margaret Childress Long, and Michael Shipler, authors of “The Best Place to Be - The Story of Orange Beach, Alabama,” Oranges and Strawberries were the main source of grown and sold produce on the Gulf Coast. The stories go that one tree aged 12 years once held 2,000 oranges for its fruitful season. The Bay winds and mostly rare winter freezes caused difficulty in those days and are the reason they are not grown on a commercial scale even today. However, it was one particular freeze, the 1916-1917 winter, that wiped out almost all the citrus trees along the gulf coast and deep south inland groves. A mere nine years later, in 1926, another ruinous freeze sealed the deal for the production and sale of citrus fruits as a resource in Orange Beach. Although, a few fruit trees were spared and can still be found in surrounding areas of local gardens and yards as reminders of days gone past.

Now, when you stop in at one of our Orange Beach retail shops to pick up a top seller comfort color sweatshirt, you can wear it proudly knowing you represent a little bit of Orange Beach history. And don’t forget to laugh and be silly on this National Limerick Day.