Today is the first day of fall. It is also the opening of Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Since Munich is six hours ahead of us, the mayor has already tapped the first barrel of beer and things are in full swing by now. Oktoberfest in Munich is pretty much at the top of my Bucket List and has been for years. Unfortunately for me, it will stay on the List for at least another year.
I have been to Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia on many occasions. While Oktoberfest in Helen is a grand time and a lot of fun, I am certain that it is a mere shadow of the real festival. And while I have never been to Munich, I do have one of the big glass beer mugs that came from Oktoberfest. Notice that I referred to it as a mug and not a stein. A stein is a metal or ceramic vessel with a lid on the top. It can be a small simple one or one of the large ornate kind, but if it has a lid, it is a stein. Although mine is heavy glass with a strong handle and will hold a liter of beer, it’s not a stein. If the top is open, be it glass, metal, stonewear or ceramic, it is a mug. Incidentally, the lids on the steins were not devised to keep the flavor of the beer intact. They were devised to keep the flies out of the beer.
How I came into possession of the mug is an interesting story. My late brother-in-law was drafted in the mid-Sixties. If you were drafted in the mid-Sixties, it was pretty much a given where you were going. However, he was a mechanical genius and had the good fortune to be stationed in Munich, working in the motor pool. He brought the mug home with him and when he passed away, my sister-in-law gave it to me. When I am gone, it will be passed on to my nephews.
The mug has the Lowenbräu logo etched into the front. When he first showed me the mug years ago, I looked at him and said, “Lowenbräu?” He said, “Yes, and the Lowenbräu in Germany is not the “Tonight Is Kind Of Special” Lowenbräu you’re used to here.” He told me that Lowenbräu was the only beer brewed on the grounds, in the Lowenbräu tent. They call them tents, but they are actually portable beer halls. “All of the other beers are brought in on trucks,” he said. So I guess my mug is “kind of special.”
“How does it not just turn into a drunken brawl?” I asked him. “Well,” he replied, “if you think the German police don’t have a sense of humor, they REALLY don’t have a sense of humor during Oktoberfest.” He then went on to say, “It really couldn’t happen here in America. It’s nothing like Mardi Gras, it’s actually very family oriented. There are lots of rides, games, shows and more strudel and schnitzengruben than you can shake a spazierstock at.” For the record, a spazierstock is a walking stick.
“Let me give you an example,” he said and went on to tell me this story. One day he and a buddy got a twenty four hour pass and decided to go into town to the festival. They became separated, so my brother-in-law asked one of the vendors where the phones were so that he could call the base and have someone come and pick him up. The vendor asked when he was due back on the base and my brother-in-law told him nine the next morning. The vendor invited him home to spend the night with he and his wife. They would take him back to the base the following morning. My brother-in-law went home with the couple, spent the night in their guest room and the next morning the wife cooked him a big German breakfast. They then drove him back to the base and dropped him off well before zero nine hundred hours. He said that he stayed in contact with the couple for years afterwards.
So once again I will have to wait until maybe next year. As time ticks on the possibility becomes less and less that I will have the opportunity to go. Which is probably just as well. I’ve seen from the pictures that the crowds are huge. I’ve heard that everything costs twice as much during Oktoberfest and you need to make reservations up to a year in advance. And I’m sure that much beer and that many people could possibly lead to the occasional round of fisticuffs. So maybe it’s better that Oktoberfest just stays in my mind and imagination. I could have a few liters brought to me in the Lowenbräu tent by a buxom, jolly German fräulein wearing a dirndl, like the one pictured at the top. I could stuff myself with knackwurst, kraut, pfannkuchen, giant pretzels and shout “Holz Vor Der Hütte!” to young ladies like the two pictured here.
I have to say, my Lowenbräu mug is pretty heavy when full. I can’t imagine picking up twelve at a time, let alone picking them up and moving through a crowd. The fräuleins have to be pretty strong and hardy to be able to do that. Maybe that’s why there aren’t that many incidents at Oktoberfest. You wouldn’t want to make a fräulein like that mad. So maybe it is safer, easier and certainly less expensive to visit Oktoberfest in Helen, or just have a liter of beer on my back porch. Maybe I’m better off with the festival in Munich remaining a romantic notion in my head. Maybe. Nah, I still wanna go!