November 13, 2015 9:00 AM EST
There are many ways to celebrate National Pickle Day on Nov. 14, the tastiest of which would be to enjoy a half-sour or a kosher dill. Another option? Floating in giant vat of pickles, as modeled by Mr. Dill Pickle, a fortuitously named resident of Mississippi, during the inaugural Pickle Week celebration in 1949.
In what may be the most alliterative article ever published in LIFE magazine—“Packers preach their product’s perfection with a peck of publicity,” reads the deck below the headline—an image of Mr. Pickle appears above a description of the activities organized by the National Pickle Packer’s Association:
They invented liquor-flavored pickles, crowned a Pickle Queen amid flaming pickles in a Chicago nightclub, and proclaimed as their Man of the Year Mr. Dill Lamar Pickle of Rolling Fork, Miss., who obligingly posed in a vat of pickles.
From a business standpoint, the week was a success: Pickle sales increased by 22%. From a floating-in-a-vat-of-brined-cucumbers perspective: also a major win.
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.
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