Culture & Carnage -8/2

Lots more of the same. I'll just note three things we did that were a little different. First, we went to the Port Summer Theater production of The Wizard of Oz at the high school auditorium. I'm not a big fan of the theater and musical theater least of all, but I was curious to see a small town production of a play I was familiar with. The woman sitting next to us said, "I picked this seat because my daughter said it had the best view of her. She's a Munchkin. Who are you here with?"

 "No one. We just came to see the play," I said.

She got a look of utter amazement on her face. It seems the play choice was made in part because about 40 children could play Munchkins, flying monkeys, etc., thereby guaranteeing a large turnout. They also switched up the various Munchkin roles for each show so parents would come to every performance. That explains why people waiting to enter the auditorium were carrying enough bouquets of flowers for a Mafia funeral. The production was actually quite good. They had someone who had worked on Las Vegas shows help with aerial stunts so there were flying monkeys and witches along with people and cows carried off by the tornado.

I felt the Wicked Witch of the West was the star. She played it pretty much as a straight copy of the witch from the movie, but was quite good and is only going to be a sophomore in high school. After the show I saw her with the rest of the cast and took her picture. Still in character she looked at me and said, "I don't like surprises, my pretty."  

We also went to the county fair for the sole purpose of seeing the demolition derby. I hadn't been to one in over 40 years and frankly in today's law-suit happy, airbag encased society I assumed this old county fair staple had gone the way of lawn darts, but at least one survives. The premise was the same though watered down a bit. The arena was long but narrow and intentionally soaked to create a lot of mud. This significantly reduced high-speed collisions but there were still enough smoke, flames, and mangled metal to keep everyone happy. They had eight heats scheduled with one being labeled as "amateur". I assumed this meant the rest were actually pros, but this wasn't the case. By amateur they meant 14 and 15 year olds - or too young to actually have a driver's license. I'm sorry but I have to question some folks parenting skills here. Many cars were sponsored and had a sign on their roof advertising their sponsor. I cheered for a self-financed guy who had a sign on his roof saying, "DRINK BEER. SHOOT GUNS. DRIVE 100." He lost.

My fellow patrons for the demolition derby were an interesting group. I don't know where they've been, but I haven't seen them in the prior two months. These weren't the same folks getting off their boats in the marina after motoring or sailing in from Sturgeon Bay or Milwaukee. These weren't the same folks I'd seen in the coffee shops in town. These weren't the same folks I'd seen at other festivals and concerts. These weren't even the same folks I'd seen in my personal Port Washington pub crawl. These were more like attendees at a cast party for Deliverance. When I had a beer at the fair before entering the derby, I found it interesting that they also sold pitchers of beer.

I thought to myself, "Why would someone buy that much beer at one time at a fair?"

In the derby grandstands I saw that "pitcher" simply meant "large beer". Many dispensed with the nicety of pouring from the pitcher into a glass. Folks just drank from their own pitcher. These were my kind of people.

We also went to Hollandfest in Cedar Grove. They had the same parade units, same midway rides, and same vendors we have become familiar with, but they had a unique pre-parade ritual. The mayor walked the parade route and pronounced the streets too dirty for a parade. You would think they would change whoever is responsible for this since the same pronouncement has been made for each of the prior 63 years. Then the town children in their Holland costumes and wooden shoes go into the streets to scrub them with water that has been placed strategically along the parade route. After the streets were scrubbed and reinspected by the mayor, the parade could begin led by wooden-shoed dancers.