On the way out…
…is the sad feeling I took home from the recent brunch that the
GKG Narrhalla 58 hosted in Hamilton. Only a few handfuls of
Carnevalists attended this wonderfully organized event.
Delegations attended from the Kitchener Narrenzunft and
Narragonia, Brantford groups with some of Mississauga’s Treue
Husaren, K.G. Hansa and a few other guests.
| Delegations from carnial
groups & enthusiasts |
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A large video screen, over the stage, featured “Carnival Scenes”
from Germany - to set the mood. The hosts were all in uniform –
as were some of the other guests – all wore the required
headgear, since the event had originally been planned as the
annual “Kappenabend”.
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| The head table of the G.K.G.
Narrhalla '58 Hamilton |
| with Heinz Ollesch,
Horst Rewald, Albert Kergl, Hugh & Monika Turner, Lori &
Richard Kramolowsky |
After an unusually scrumptious lunch consisting of cream of
vegetable soup, roast beef and pork, a vegetable medley with
mashed potatoes, the tasty apple strudel served with coffee as a
desert was almost too much and a meal by itself.
| In the Bütt
(barrel) |
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| Richard Kramolowsky |
Armin Hellmann, President
BDKK |
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| Helga Koch |
Inge Wagner |
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| Mike Klefas |
Members were invited to entertain the audience with the
customary tales and jokes from the available “Bütt” – or barrel.
With Heinz Lindlau and the Variations it did not take long for
the audience to start a conga line and some serious dancing.
With this kind of hilarity, the sombre mood had lifted soon
 enough; and when the “Garde Girls” and two Funkies performed it
was almost a normal carnival atmosphere in the great hall again. The dances were exceptionally well choreographed and received
almost thunderous applause - even from the Narragonia,
Brantford, who have been featuring the winning teams for many
years!
| The first solo by
a Funkie |
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But unfortunately it was nothing like the festivities we have
had in the past. I remember a time, when Otto Wimmer was
‘Prince’, and we attended five events on one Saturday evening
alone! – Many other fabulous events were staged all over the
place in the past.
Let’s face it, we are all getting older and there is no
“Nachwuchs” available to carry on.
Many of the carnival societies just closed down, after they were
so strong for a long time that they even split into two groups,
such as the Treue Husaren and the KG Ascendia.
Switching the language from strictly ‘German’ to English did not
seem to attract younger members either. Unfortunately it was too
late. For 20 years Echo Germanica advocated including the none
German speaking youngster into the fold, but the “German only”
crowd appears to have won the battle and lost the war. The young
boyfriends of the dance guard girls could not be won back and
did not accompany the Garde Girls to the carnival events any
more, and unfortunately neither did many of the children of the
original carnevalists.
Us old-timers “missed the boat”, as the saying goes and our
children became Canadians and German was and is spoken only
rarely in the homes.
The Italians, by the way, are now also facing this problem but
only with their third and fourth generations; their second
generation still maintained a cohesive and unified ethnic group
– see the CHIN Picnic etc, - and are only now, as the original
immigrants are rapidly fading away, realising that they are
having the same problem with their youngsters – of whom some
only understand a smattering of Italian. And they are not the
only ethnic group that is experiencing this. They have become
‘Canadians’!
‘Quo vadis’, carnival? I have attended almost every carnival
event in the last thirty years of my journalistic career and
always maintained neutrality. I received many honourary
memberships and more medals than I could carry – I have always
been critical, as many of my readers may remember, of our
shortcomings as a group. To no avail! Now we must do the math!
We are a dying breed. How long will we be around and participate
in carnival? Can a young Albert Kergl successfully step into his
father’s shoes? Without help? Where is the Nachwuchs? Oshawa
appears to have a strong base for continuity. Let’s hope that
pocket of Carnival remains a stronghold for a long time.
However there are still some events on the horizon this year,
even though the KG Hansa is not having an event this year. A
Masquerade Ball in Brantford on the 30th of January
hopefully attracted a good crowd and the ‘Crazy Ladies Night’ in
Kitchener on the 13th of February sounds like fun.
I am still wondering if this is my last “Alaaf and Helau”?
As always
Dick Altermann
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