Loaves and Fishes

Since the 1930s, delighted throngs have gathered just outside Linesville, Pennsylvania, to toss bread to a writhing stew of carp and ducks at the Linesville Spillway. The carp are so thick that mallard ducks literally hop, skip and jump on the fishes' backs to compete for a slice of bread. Famous worldwide as the place “where ducks walk on the fish,” the Spillway draws as many as a half-million tourists a year, part of a small but critical tourism economy bolstered by the sale of day-old Wonder Bread from bread shanties that line local streets. But recently, the people of Linesville learned about some big changes planned for the spillway. Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister paid a visit and, in collaboration with musician Tim Fite, have the fishy tale of the fight for the right to throw bread - the latest in their Song+Story series. (Produced in 2008; description from the original broadcast.)