Assignment Iowa Classics; 408; Durant Polka Festival

Simon to Iowa with marriage. Tonight. With. The creative boosterism of Iowa's towns is expressed in a number of delightful ways. There are hot air balloons in Indianola tulips in Pella covered bridges in Winterset and hobos in brick and 1972 Durant's a town of about fifteen hundred located just west of Davenport. Organized a promotional offering of its own a polka fest. If you're not fond of the music best you avoid your rant around the first of September. In fact if you feel that the polka is slightly but did me you might consider avoiding this edition of assignment as well. It's Friday September 8 1978. This must be to rain. It can be argued that a large portion of the Midwest Minnesota

Wisconsin and the Kotas is a ok just begging to be ignited by heavy concentration of German Scandinavian stock ancestry almost assures that. The largest ethnic segment is German. So you rant like a number of other towns reflect feminists godliness and lockable stability and a distinctly Arion motif. It may not be Munich but it will do until the real thing comes along. The direct poker fans just loosely designed as an October fest like the new unique prototype it is held in September but activism in their community version the last 16 days Duran's only two in Germany

they forbid dancing in their ranks. They almost mandate community bands provide movie music more or less. But in Duran the polka band all 20 of them. Finally more people pass out during Munich's October fest than live in the land. But in the end festivals like this always see Grandmother bite and other cosmic sophistic varying this in mind we now Jackie and with Jackie tells Rowe who is organizing a polka fest menu. It's the first morning 1078 party. We kind of hate it that there are many of our crowd. Here. Thirty five hundred. Pounds of.

500. And there. Are yesterday started one hundred forty four pounds which would be good for me. But. That dressing around 30. Prepared for what. Somewhere in the vicinity of 400 and

yes. Jackie says when you're talking about the poker fest you're talking about big figures. There's no doubt about that. We here at anchor company in Moline help 27 you know sort of what you know. Here at the end of the festival. Cost is approximately thirty eight hundred dollars. Over. Twenty seven. Thousand. Thirty three. Hang on that you don't hear them. At all in my belly you know you're dealing. With. An average of one bit after today. I guess. Where. We're from. But while. We spent the winter in a way

less. Tired all week to. Travel way go. There. Today. This will. Go this way or. Conservatively estimated poker lovers from 15 to 20 states. You heard John Deere back during the past the 1978 edition included band Oregon Texas and Arizona and then others. They and their fellow poker lovers will increase the town's population by six times before it's over. Will. Will. Will. Will. Will. Will. Will over. Here.

A. Place. For. Them. To. Live. It's early afternoon on the first day and the mood is clearly evident.

What usually happens at events like this is that different parties begin to sprout up around the central core. For example just east of town a pamper club is doing what the German word for worming up. I've. Got live music I would die. Meanwhile at the other end of town the east side task is beginning to steam. By late afternoon the mood is established. It's characterized by that rosy

hue that one secures by having a beer for back. We're back in the latter camp area where an impromptu jam session has started. During the process something like six thousand gallons of beer are. Now next Tuesday to pull all of them out but it's safe just to eat it for these 48 hours. To Randy West Janet Cook who works for the state's liquor monopoly puts it in another perspective we just have a good old time when everybody comes down and

have a few beers and listen to some good music. Everybody drinks a lot of beer and we get. A good thing here for the weekend. A lot of wine and. A lot of. Usually with me. Mostly this is a good German community and everybody likes their shop you always have to make sure you've got plenty of that on hand because that. Is a good one to start the night with or in the night with one of the two. And. Friday night and then start Saturday around noon and go still one hour at night and a small community of sixteen hundred people and the stands never lay across the street are volunteer. Come down we bake cakes and we make potato salad and everything else that goes along with it. And generally have a good time. The planners of the first Duret fest developed the dancing area in a summary refreshing manner. They simply blocked Highway 6 the town's main street

since they had neglected to get official permission. The local law eventually showed up to find thousands of people faced with the hopeless task of clearing the highway. The sheriff wisely waited until the next year to apprise the committee that authorization to block the street would have to be empty it was and the basic form of the poker past has never changed. Three city blocks including the park are fenced off and dotted with flatbed trucks with service band stands there are beer and food booze and a big concession in the park. At the height of its fury the area more resembles Andersonville than Popov Hill. Six bands perform simultaneously and one does not wander from band to band but flows with the crowd. The movement is involuntary and triggered by either collective body heat or primal to be impetus. The crowd reaches an apotheosis on the last night and is simply in the scribing at certain times the direct bulk of fast is the unity equivalent of stuffing a

Volkswagen with college students. Therefore in order to be a coherent portrait of all the fun is quite impossible. We will instead present a portfolio of random impressions that include some of the bands. A few of the revelers and some reasonably irrelevant footnotes along the way. These are the poker chips. A local favorite. They are college students and hometown boy. About two weeks after the fest they performed in Austria. I know that the future the typical sad alternate focus and one

with an occasional schottische thrown in. Incidentally the term poker describes a dance not a musical style. It was as the news gatherers say and invented by a young Bohemian Girl named Denise Jackson the scat and 1830 and it's your time to dance because you credibly copy. If you're out you're up and was even included into the basic polka to beats to his ear and a foot movement that involves steps that has steps to follow. Well tis of course before their time. We listen to the classics from Davenport will observe that in France one is treated to a lively blend of all known dance styles and as with any art there is ample room for self-expression. We will identify some of the styles as they occur. Where is he stood when we need him. Three people with a brain.

Worst with. Their hands. Her the sky. For you. Lol. Babe. Such. Was mad and threw it on a Sunday.

If you're good at it there are a good bit of that in there. This is the band whose value name is Joe speller and he runs a music store and dodge the brass guy who stash is the one in the middle playing with troops. Boy for me.

The official mascot of their.

Playing the bear is an aptitude for relating to youngsters and surviving in 90 degree heat inside the suit. Next up your brothers in the poker capital. Group the fath from Wisconsin.

Through. Eh. Eh eh. Eh eh.

Eh eh. Eh eh. I am. I am. I am.

I am I am. I am. I am. I out of the hour. Wow. With. With.

Me runs a music store and Hutchinson Minnesota and you are not hallucinating he plays two trumpets at once. No mean feat. And that's not the half of it. It's actually do their job. It wasn't brass and the way. It's not chopped liver. And so we conclude the sixth annual Durant's book with Fast Six thousand gallons

of beer a tunnel between. Seventeen thousand eighteen and with this later the fast actually continued for a few more hours but our crew could not move through the streets to shoot. About all that remains to recount is an old German hangover cure. They could last a brandy top it with a slice of lemon sprinkled with sugar and coffee drink the brandy and eat the lemon. If that doesn't work you can always attend a polka mass. We like to welcome you all to our second album asked back by popular demand. I would like to thank our choir for their volunteer efforts were saying since June 1st last year at its ships for lending us their talents and their services this morning. Good news and bad news following the 1978 fest there was some

acrimony Duret the vox populi I question the poker committee's profit picture based as it turns out on incorrect newspaper reports that 40000 people attended the fest. That is of course slightly exaggerated but when Wally pickle gets on his pogo stick who counts. The good news is that there will be another poker fest next year. By the way if you're interested in attending but have trouble finding just drive on Highway 6 until you bump into 10000 people in the middle of the road getting up. There.