Matt wrote:I hesitate to mention it so please help keep the profile low -- the Soulard Ocktoberfest is a great little neighborhood festival that gets better each year. I'm sure some of the smaller villages surrounding the area have good German festivals too.

Nora wrote:It's still fun though if you can take it for what it is. I've had a great time there the past couple of years. There's nothing European about it, but it certainly is a celebration of contemporary German-Midwestern-Americanism however distorted it may seem.



C'mon it's in short company as street festival downtown that brings out families and drinking buddies until well after dark.



Last year I went with a friend from Germany who also had fun despite his recognition that it's not how they do it in Germany. He ended up talking at length to a vendor who had left Germany 50 years ago.



I say check it out.

Probably not



Actually the Germans came here straight from Europe, kept Missouri in the Union, fought against slavery, established the St. Louis Symphony orchestra, gave us the a lot of the architecture that we still value today, established the Turnvereins and the network of armature athletic associates, built Concordia and Eden seminaries, built breweries and wineries and tried to establish all that was good with German society in the new world.



All of this can not be celebrated with a funel cake and Butch freaking Wax



In short the hoosier as we know him is a lost soul, yearning for the freedom and independence of self-sustained rural life, yet hemmed in to modern urban (or semi-urban) environment that frightens and confuses him forcing him to consume great deals of cheap beer, procreate often without understanding the consequences of those actions, yearn for the South in misguided search for individualism and identity, and listen to crappy classic rock and country. all of this in a vain attempt to free his very essence of being from the shackles of society that we impose on him, like decent haircuts and resisting the urge to remove ones shirt after beer 6 at the ballpark.



So you see its not him, its us. Embrace your inner hoosier. Drop the F bomb in a crowd of children, put a southern cross bumper sticker on your car, loose your job and blame it all on the gov’ment.



All-right now everyone "Sweet home Alabama….”



Well anyway that’s my dissertation, no really that was my dissertation, amazing what you can do for a masters these days

Beer City wrote:In short the hoosier as we know him is a lost soul, yearning for the freedom and independence of self-sustained rural life, yet hemmed in to modern urban (or semi-urban) environment that frightens and confuses him forcing him to consume great deals of cheap beer, procreate often without understanding the consequences of those actions, yearn for the South in misguided search for individualism and identity, and listen to crappy classic rock and country. all of this in a vain attempt to free his very essence of being from the shackles of society that we impose on him, like decent haircuts and resisting the urge to remove ones shirt after beer 6 at the ballpark.



So you see its not him, its us. Embrace your inner hoosier. Drop the F bomb in a crowd of children, put a southern cross bumper sticker on your car, loose your job and blame it all on the gov’ment.



All-right now everyone "Sweet home Alabama….”

Nora wrote:You guys are really harsh, I don't get it. I think the crowd at this event is pretty much average St. Louisans.

TheWayoftheArch wrote:

Bastiat wrote:

Probably not



Actually the Germans came here straight from Europe, kept Missouri in the Union, fought against slavery, established the St. Louis Symphony orchestra, gave us the a lot of the architecture that we still value today, established the Turnvereins and the network of armature athletic associates, built Concordia and Eden seminaries, built breweries and wineries and tried to establish all that was good with German society in the new world.



All of this can not be celebrated with a funel cake and Butch freaking Wax



In short the hoosier as we know him is a lost soul, yearning for the freedom and independence of self-sustained rural life, yet hemmed in to modern urban (or semi-urban) environment that frightens and confuses him forcing him to consume great deals of cheap beer, procreate often without understanding the consequences of those actions, yearn for the South in misguided search for individualism and identity, and listen to crappy classic rock and country. all of this in a vain attempt to free his very essence of being from the shackles of society that we impose on him, like decent haircuts and resisting the urge to remove ones shirt after beer 6 at the ballpark.



So you see its not him, its us. Embrace your inner hoosier. Drop the F bomb in a crowd of children, put a southern cross bumper sticker on your car, loose your job and blame it all on the gov’ment.



All-right now everyone "Sweet home Alabama….”



Well anyway that’s my dissertation, no really that was my dissertation, amazing what you can do for a masters these days

The Germans can do no wrong...



What's with the South bashing? The South doesn't have hoosiers, it has rednecks. It is completely different. Okay not completely different, but there is a difference.

As BC said, a hoosier is just a redneck trapped in a urban environ. He's much like his wild brethren, but confused and with slightly slower fight/flight reaction to things like soap, condoms, and mouthwash.