Tom LaMotte has been involved with Crazy Days for the past 60 years, actually he said this would be his 59th Crazy Day, but he wasn’t about to allow anyone to set a crown on his head or to call him the King of Crazy Days, “Oh, no, we were all doing this together,” he reminisced. “It was a lot of fun for everybody!” He talked about the Crazy Days of years gone by that featured a parade and all the stores and their employees in downtown participating, wearing costumes, “getting in the spirit of Crazy Days.”
Fourth Street and some of the side streets, Third and Fourth Avenue, were filled with items for sale and activities for young and old he recalled. “We anchored the west end of Main Street and JC Penneys and the Devils Lake Journal anchored the east end.”
“Remember the “needle in the haystack” search they had right outside LaMotte’s a few years back? It was a big pile of hay or straw and in it were hidden several “prizes” but you had to dig for them?” Tom asked.
He also talked about climbing to the roofs of buildings in downtown and tossing paper plates down to the crowds below – each one had a prize or discount coupon attached to make their Crazy Day shopping even crazier!
Target Shelf Pulls
Well, this year LaMotte’s is going all out for an old fashion Crazy Days and had some help from Target stores. They sent an entire semi tractor trailer filled with Target “Shelf pulls” – items that were on the shelves at Target stores. Most are familiar with the quality of the merchandise sold in Target.
Crazy prices!
For those items LaMotte’s will not only be charging half price, but half of half price!
It’s like the BEST rummage sale you’ve ever seen, but EVERYTHING is brand new and there are many, many tables of items to go through.
Several tables are filled with shoes of all sizes – especially kids shoes and snow boots. (Yeah, we are going to need them in just a few months already!)
There are clothes, tables and tables of Target labels – good quality clothing – winter hats, purses, coats, blouses – women’s and children’s sizes! Men’s, too!
There are tables filled with household products like cleaning agents, rust removers, hardwood restorer, polish, cook top cleaner and much more! And there are gift items, like blank journals, calendar books, stuffed animals, toys, games, and Grab Bags for $5 each. Take a chance and purchase one to see what’s inside! A little bird (her name was Amber) told me that each bag definitely has Yoga Dice in them and household items, gift items, lots of interesting and fun things for yourself or to give away to someone else, all made up of the items provided in the shipment from Target.
LaMotte’s items
Plus, LaMotte’s is offering a large selection of their own home and commercial carpet tile for sale. Thinking of doing some home updates? How about vinyl plank flooring starting at 79 cents per square foot!
They have large round area rugs for $20 each! Many rolls of carpet at 88 cents per square foot.
LaMotte’s entire gift department is 20% to 75% off!
All Benjamin Moore Paints are 25% off for gallon sizes only.
All merchandise is sold “as-is” and there are no returns. All sales are final and there are no warranties. All sales are cash, check or credit card.
Gerrell’s Sports Center
Gerrell’s Sports Center just a block or so down the street from LaMotte’s is also planning to have items out on the street for Crazy Days. Kurt Hanson, co-owner with Kevin Smith, says they have lots of racks of clothing that will be 30 to 60 % off and tables of clearance shoes – everything inside the store will be at least 20 % off. There will be hunting specials, fire arms and ammo on sale, as well. Like LaMotte’s they plan to have most everything outside for Crazy Day, Aug. 3, but will continue the sales inside the store on Friday and Saturday.
Old Main Street Cafe
Old Main Street Cafe is also participating in Crazy Day this year on Aug 3, with hot dogs and tacos in a bag (plus pop and all the fixings) for sale on the street and inside the restaurant, that also serves as an unofficial museum for this part of North Dakota, they will be offering the Soup and Sandwich – All You Can Eat Special. Order one of five featured sandwiches and you can try any or ALL of the soups this hometown restaurant is well-known for.
Quilt Essentials
Katie at Quilt Essentials, 206 5th St. NE, will be participating in Crazy Days but only indoors because it’s important to keep material clean and folded and not so easy to do that when it’s outside laying on tables on the sidewalk or street. Check out their deals while you are shopping on Crazy Days!
The Main Event
Gayle from The Main Event, 421 4th Street NE, is participating in Crazy Days, too, with special deals inside and out on the street they will have Grab Bags: different sizes -$3, $5 and $10 – marked for kids or adults and boys or girls, etc. and they will be selling cotton candy, too. Inside there are sales and discounts all throughout the store. It will be worth your time stopping by to see what they’ve come up with to mark Crazy Days, Aug. 3, 4 & 5. Gayle says there will be other food vendors setting up along Main Street, too, so it’s worth stopping by to see who is there!
The Devils Lake Journal
The Devils Lake Journal at 516 4th St. NE is participating in Crazy Days on Aug. 3 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a subscription special $99 for a whole year! If you were to buy each issue on the newstand, it costs $1.50, for a total of $150.00 a year, we publish every Tuesday and Thursday except Federal Holidays, that makes 100 issues a year. This time around you can’t just call in to get the Crazy Days $99 deal – you HAVE to come in to the lobby to do sign up — we hope to be able to provide special 5 minute parking places outside our building so you can quick come in and get your deal and not have to park so far away. Inside the DLJ lobby you’ll find Louise’s Lemonade Stand. (and that’s ALL I’m going to say about that!)
Others to look for:
The Odd Fellows will be selling hot dogs and hamburgers on 4th Street somewhere between 3rd Ave. and 6th Ave.
The Girl Scouts will be having a Rummage Sale fundraiser and selling something to eat, as well, the rumor is they will be serving Sloppy Joes for sale. Their building is the former Tradehome
The Devils Lake Volunteer Fire Department will be having a truck downtown, probably using their hoses to “put out fires.”
There will be a dunking booth with celebrities to dunk, like Devils Lake Mayor Jim Moe and Fire Chief Nate Bennett.
All Devils Lake merchants are welcome to participate in Crazy Days, but traditionally it’s been the downtown merchants who have kept the popular event going year after year. Stop in to downtown Devils Lake anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to see who else may be celebrating Crazy Days 2023. The more the merrier!
