Octoberfest

One of the more distressing stories I have had to do for The Sun was about five years ago.  I was aware of this phenomenon, Oktoberfest, going on in some undesirable part of the Valley, but I had never been to it.  I had an almost prophetic feeling that it was not for me.

But the call came: Would I go and "do" it?  Naturally being a "team player!!!!!" I went along and interviewed the originator, who professed to have been brought over from Austria by his parents, and began this about 30+ years earlier.  I have noticed that we have enormous numbers of Austrians out here and virtually no Germans, which is extraordinary!  I did the interview in the morning, and agreed to return later in the day to take some pictures.

It was simply dreadful.  There were hundreds of Americans dressed in lederhosen, with their women trussed into in the sort of frocks where the bosom is pushed up and out.  In the somewhat overweight this can be disturbing to say the least.  But perhaps the worst part was the appalling oom-pah-pah music being played by so-called musicians.  I could take the swilling beer, the bosom laden dresses, even the lederhosen - well maybe not the lederhosen.  But the bloody oom-pah-pah was enough to make the blood curdle.  And I though we had stamped out that sort of behavior in 1945.