Postcard: Alpenfarce
Jul. 11th, 2006 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
A few weeks ago this town's biggest single employer, a particle board plant, closed.
It opened 42 years ago. At that time particle board was still a new product in the USA. Much of the equipment and all the expertise for setting up the plant came from Switzerland.
To celebrate the opening of a large, smelly industrial facility on the upwind edge of a Northern Michigan resort town, the local businessmen decided to hold a little celebration. They tried to make it Swiss, in honor of our overseas visitors.
It could have been a really cool festival, featuring examples of fine watchmaking, chocolates, Nazi gold in unmarked accounts, rifle matches.. all those things. But the only real example of Alpine culture this town had was the Bavarian Village of Frankenmuth, down near Saginaw. So for this celebration, we became a sort of Frankenmuth North. Green hats with feathers, vinyl leiderhosen, all of that.
42 years later, particle board is dead, but Alpenfest goes on. I doubt many people know why it started, and they sure don't know why it continues, but there you have it.
The business district downtown (which, since K-Mart, Kohl's and Wal-Mart came to town, is actually the tourist district; all real business goes on elsewhere) is closed to traffic. There's a carnival set up in the streets, with rides, food stands, and crafts.
My friends in the Elks make a big thing of it. Their award-winning float will appear again. It's an animatronic elk head that breathes carbon dioxide smoke. They decorate it differently for each parade; shamrocks for St. Patrick's, probably alphorns and a green hat for Alpenfest.
They also run a hamburger cart and hold a raffle. Like many of the organizations in town, they make a big chunk of their operating expenses at this festival.
It's a great success. It has helped spawn a whole litter of this-fests and that-fests and t'other-fests all over northern Michigan. Every little crossroads town has one, set on some otherwise dead weekend in summer. Iceburg. Tip-Up Town. Lumberjack Days. Victorian Days. You name it.
It is the biggest, most elaborate event in the entire year here.
I've never gone to it, myself.
It opened 42 years ago. At that time particle board was still a new product in the USA. Much of the equipment and all the expertise for setting up the plant came from Switzerland.
To celebrate the opening of a large, smelly industrial facility on the upwind edge of a Northern Michigan resort town, the local businessmen decided to hold a little celebration. They tried to make it Swiss, in honor of our overseas visitors.
It could have been a really cool festival, featuring examples of fine watchmaking, chocolates, Nazi gold in unmarked accounts, rifle matches.. all those things. But the only real example of Alpine culture this town had was the Bavarian Village of Frankenmuth, down near Saginaw. So for this celebration, we became a sort of Frankenmuth North. Green hats with feathers, vinyl leiderhosen, all of that.
42 years later, particle board is dead, but Alpenfest goes on. I doubt many people know why it started, and they sure don't know why it continues, but there you have it.
The business district downtown (which, since K-Mart, Kohl's and Wal-Mart came to town, is actually the tourist district; all real business goes on elsewhere) is closed to traffic. There's a carnival set up in the streets, with rides, food stands, and crafts.
My friends in the Elks make a big thing of it. Their award-winning float will appear again. It's an animatronic elk head that breathes carbon dioxide smoke. They decorate it differently for each parade; shamrocks for St. Patrick's, probably alphorns and a green hat for Alpenfest.
They also run a hamburger cart and hold a raffle. Like many of the organizations in town, they make a big chunk of their operating expenses at this festival.
It's a great success. It has helped spawn a whole litter of this-fests and that-fests and t'other-fests all over northern Michigan. Every little crossroads town has one, set on some otherwise dead weekend in summer. Iceburg. Tip-Up Town. Lumberjack Days. Victorian Days. You name it.
It is the biggest, most elaborate event in the entire year here.
I've never gone to it, myself.
