Yesterday we went to the GermanFest in Gluckstadt, MS.
It was much bigger than I expected for such a little festival in the middle of nowhere. The anticipated attendance was marked to be 15,000 people and I'd believe it. You had to park at the jeans distribution plant and get shuttled in school buses to the site since the parking was already packed by then. (By the way, since when did yellow school buses have AC on them? SO not fair. We never had such luxuries as kids.)
Once you get there, there was three things to do: Buy food, eat food, listen to the polka bands. If you were a kid, there was a ton of little simple kiddie activities and a horse cart ride. We got our brats and our beer, listened to the band and talked for about an hour before we were ready to head back home. But not before Jack taunted everyone into getting little plasticly German hats.
A few photos
Since there's no wiki on this town, here's a little info I gleaned from MPB and the Clarion Ledger:
The community of Gluckstadt was founded in 1905 by families of German descent. The first church was built in 1917 and today St. Joseph Catholic Church is attended by some one hundred and twenty families. The roots in this community run deep and the people are proud to preserve their German heritage and traditions that stretch back hundreds of years. The name means Happy Village and that's exactly what it is, noted more for the jeans distribution plant off the interstate and their catholic church than anything else.
It's so small that I can't find any reputable population counts or city information online as it seems to be an unincorporated town. I did find this though: "A nice, brick ranch home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms with 1,400 square feet of living space would be about $116,000." I'm guessing that a lot of Madisonites and Cantonese (hee) live in Gluckstadt if the property really is that cheap.
Anyone out able to give me more information on this town?