Reply #7: The Rich's Pink Pig in downtown Atlanta [View All]

[RubyDuby in GA]

The Pink Pig was introduced back in 1953, and originally was located inside the Rich's Department Store, giving children a bird's eye view of the toy department decked out for Christmas.

In the 1960's, the Pink Pig ride became so popular that a second pig was added, named Percival, who with the original Priscilla was moved to the rooftop of the Downtown Atlanta Rich's, where it rode around the Great Tree, another holiday tradition of Rich's. In the early 1990's, the Pink Pig was part of the Festival of Trees at the Georgia World Congress Center, before retiring in 1996, and taking up residence at the Atlanta History Center.

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the Pink Pig named Priscilla, a carnival ride of sorts around the store's toy department. A second one, named Percival, was later added on the roof, around the base of the tree. Riders got a sticker that said "I rode the Pink Pig" when riding either one, inspiring the book I Rode the Pink Pig: Atlanta's Favorite Christmas Tradition. The ride moved to the Festival of Trees in the 1990s, and resided at the Atlanta History Center until it was brought back to the tree site in 2004.

After the Rich's chain was sold to Federated Department Stores, it abandoned the store in the 1990s and moved the tree to nearby Underground Atlanta. Since 2000, Underground has also been abandoned in favor of Lenox Square, which is not near downtown or midtown. The fate of the tree is unknown in the face of Rich's being eliminated by FDS in early 2005 in favor of the Macy's name.


Damn you to hell Federated Department Stores, Inc! You ruined Christmas! Sonsabitches!

On edit: Whoa. Sorry - got a little bitter there. I remember riding the pink pig as a little girl then going to tell Santa everything I wanted for Christmas, which was everything I just saw while riding around the toy department!

And after reading one of the above posts - we used to go on field trips to Fernbank Science Center that had a natural history museum. Well leave it up to Rubyduby to screw things up! I was one of the last kids going through the exhibits because I loved to linger and look at absolutely everything. The exhibit of the saber tooth tiger and the cavemen totally captivated me. I had to see it - up close. I ended up knocking the tiger over and one of its teeth fell out. My class wasn't asked back for some reason :shrug: