Last year was our first Oktoberfest in La Crosse and we didn't do any "festing." I was still sort of shell-shocked and exhausted from the move and new job, and figured I could drink beer on my own, minus the crowds. This year, a bit more rested and less dazed, I decided to check this Oktoberfest thing out. We haven't made it to the Fest grounds yet and I'm not sure we will, but Juniorette and I did go to the Maple Leaf parade. The Maple Leaf Parade is the largest of several O-fest parades. I had been led to believe that it was a total mob scene and that it was hard to get a good viewing spot, but decided to give it try. Mr. Raccoon dropped Juniorette and I off a couple blocks away from the parade route, and we headed down to 2nd street, noting that nearly everyone else heading to the parade was toting chairs, coolers and open, frothy beverages as if heading for a campout.
We found a perfectly fine viewing spot--Juniorette even found an abandoned chair to sit in. It was sort of a rowdy crowd, but not the off-the-hook revelry I had expected. Folks were 2-4 people deep on each side, but everyone had a great perch or seat. I didn't see any streams of beer flying through the air and no one was falling-down drunk. (Someone, who shall remain nameless, told me about attending an Oktoberfest parade in the early 70s, when youth unrest had just made its way to the Heartland, during which lots of frothy beverages were tossed at that much-loathed enemy of the people, that tool of the state, Kate Smith.)
I'd been told it was a realllllllly long parade. It was a pretty standard-issue parade, dressed up in lederhosen and dirndls, but fun nonetheless. After an hour or so, and about the time it started sprinkling, Juniorette started asking if we could go. I kept urging her to stay for one more marching band, which kept us there for quite awhile, as there are a bunch of marching bands in the parade. It eventually started to rain in earnest, and it appeared that the parade was over (maybe 90 minutes into the start), so we left to go find some lunch, pleased that we'd made the effort and that we stuck it out for the entirety.
It wasn't until our Tuesday morning team meeting that I learned we'd missed around half of the parade! I guess we left during a really big lull. I was a little disappointed, but felt like our 90 minutes gave us a positive view of Oktoberfest as a fun, community-building event.
I also enjoyed just being out in the community during the first few days before and during Oktoberfest--just walking downtown or stopping into Quillin's for groceries. Last Saturday, while getting groceries, an older woman asked, "Are you festing?" She nodded approval when I said the extent of my festing was that I had a crock pot full of pork and sauerkraut waiting at home. I heard countless other local folks talking with each other about how they were Festing (or avoiding the whole deal). Oktoberfest does, unquestionably, pull in tons of tourists, but it truly is a community event. There's a part of me that could write sort of bratty post focusing on the negative aspects of Oktoberfest, but this year, I decided to go along for the ride and found it quite...festive. There are plenty more pictures from our parade experience at Flickr--just click on the photo at the top of the story.
