I Love My Culture

As is obvious to anyone who knows me, I'm of significant German ancestry (See FAQ). Today my family and I attended the Kolping Schüetzenfest. Kolping is a German society here in the Cincinnati area and the tradition goes that at the Schüetzenfest, the male members who wish to participate use .22 cal rifles and they shoot at a wooden eagle up on a tall post. When enough of the eagle is shot away, it drops down the pole and the man who is the final shot wins and is crowned the king of the Kolping society for that year. It's a pretty big production and we've attended this before. It's a great time, even if you're not a member (I'm not... yet) and it's a great opportunity to delve into German culture. There's music everywhere, plenty of good German beer and food and tyrolean hats everywhere you look. It's one of the few places where you can hear people having conversations in German and get the feel for traditional Germany. Personally, I'm always more comfortable with beer in hand and surrounded by my ancestral culture. While it was godawful hot, we managed to have a great time. Erin rode everything, some things twice, we took in the sights sounds and smells and a lot of water (I took in a litre of beer) and just generally had a good time. Now it's getting late, we're all dog tired and (speaking of things German, or in this case, Canadian) I'm giving some new weirdness called "Lederhosen Lucil" (read the bio) a listen. It's actually kind of cool in a really odd sort of way. I'll give the Cannukians this, they're an original bunch up there. It drives me crazy, all of this original music and interesting sounds and American music is so full of this regurgitated crap. Maybe I'll write more on that tomorrow.