Alaaf – Helau – Ahoy…
…those were the days! Carnival or Mardi Gras is no longer what
it used to be – at least not in our neighborhood. Many of us –
who are now “Old-timers” may still remember the lavish
productions at the Palace Pier; the Lakeshore Inn or the
Harmonie Club on Sherbourne Street, where the first
“Dreigestirn” of the Prince, the Farmer and the Virgin (all
male) was introduced to the foolish crowd in Toronto.
 Who still remembers ‘Old Severin’ and the City Hall takeovers in
Pickering, the elaborate events at the Convention Centre in
Hamilton – or the Parade there? I am not even going to mention
the fantastic “Manöverballs” there and in Toronto, where
visitors from all over North America came to participate and
where, in Hamilton, the greatest attraction for the visiting
girl-guards was the swimming pool in the hotel. Those
 groups of
dedicated young ladies loved what they were doing and enjoyed
the friendships, camaraderie and prestige they encountered.
Most often the girls from the ‘Narragonia’, Brantford
walked off with the First Place ranking.
In the early days many of them dragged their boyfriends along,
at least once. Most of them did not come back because everything
was done in German – a language they were not familiar with,
thus they never caught the exhilarating spark of carnival.
Neither did we ever see many new faces at events like the ‘Ball
in Blue-Silver’ hosted by the Treue Husaren
 Society of Toronto
at the Galaxy Club in Oakville where the event was hosted by the
local society. Many will also remember a “Prinzenball” where all
available past and present princes were invited to attend
complete with “Hofstaat” and retinue.
Since the carnival season starts traditionally after the 11th
of November and ends with the Herring Dinner on Ash Wednesday
there were hardly enough Saturdays to celebrate carnival for the
then still existing carnival societies.
I remember well the year when Otto Wimmer was Prince of the 1st
Torontoer Carnival Society, often we visited five different
events on one Saturday evening – including one held at the
Holiday Inn at the Airport and one in Pickering.
 That was quite a
bit of traveling! Yes, we also visited the KG Hansa and the GKG
Narrhalla and the Narrenzunft, in Kitchener, and the Loreley
Club on another Saturday. By the way, the Club Loreley may still
maintain the largest body of Girl-Guards both Seniors and
Juniors in training!
Being the official press representative or media relations
person I never officially joined any of the societies,
preferring to remain neutral or ‘unattached’ although I became
an honorary member in many of them and attended the meetings of
the ‘Festausschuss’ in Toronto as a press representative for
many years.
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| The head table of the
GKG Narrhalla '58 with Heinz Ollesch, Horst Rewald,
Albert Kergl, Hugh & Monika Turner, Lori & Richarch
Kramolowsky |
 Those were the days. Now most of the Carnival Societies are
defunct. The members are either too old or already six feet
under and most of us, who still survive, are on the way out or
all we have left are fantastic and colourful memories plus lots
of photographs!
| A very active Club Loreley |
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Switching to English as the language of carnival has not helped
since it was too late to encourage our siblings to join the fun.
They now think of themselves as all Canadian. President of the
BDKK Armin Hellmann and Echo Germanica tried. At one point it
looked as though we succeeded, but the idea never quite caught
on.
Our memories should also include some of the driving forces
behind the success of carnival in Ontario, such as Fred Wagner,
Brantford; or Albert Kergl, Hamilton, Frank Kluksaritz, who left
us unfortunately too soon and are still sorely missed. There are
many more that fit into this category and are still remembered
and mourned.
I could be rambling on long enough to fill a book, but this
should only be a small reminder of what is in the hearts and
minds of the true Carnevalists.
As always, now with a mournful “Alaaf and Helau”
Dick Altermann
Dick reports about community, historical,
cultural, ethnic events within the distribution area of Echo Germanica
from a German-Canadian perspective.
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