Too much?

[Brunhidden]

Okay, ive come to accept that my home state of Wisconsin is weird (it has me after all), and its pretty obvious we like festivals to anyone who has ever heard of us, but ive just now heard of one that probably takes it too far.

to those of you not familiar with the festivals of Wisconsin let me brief you. our big city of Milwaukee and our scenic door county both produce a great number of celebrations that, for lack of a better word, are called 'fests'. these include summerfest, the biggest music festival ive ever heard of, the three festivals of the biggest ethnic groups- German fest, Polish fest, and Festa Italiana, theres also the lesser ethnic festivals like Irish fest and Arab fest, theres even pride fest for all the overly happy people to hug each other and wear humorous pink T-shirts (one year i may go there, its gotta have the highest hugs per acre of anywhere on the planet).

other fests celebrate things that make Wisconsin special, like our prime exports. thus we have the strawberry festival, crayon berry fest, and the johnsonville brat days. we couldn't do ALL the prime exports- seeing as how they include crayon berries, cheese, beer, toilets, and horseradish... yeah, those last two would be fun festivals but it would be waaaay too embarrassing (fun fact for all you sushi lovers, most 'wasabi' is just horseradish with green food dye). somehow a week long celebration of marshes is not considered embarrassing though. 'beerfest' and 'cheesefest' are known as 'the rest of the year', just in case you were wondering.

then theres lesser known fests like seafood fest (held in the baseball diamond of a local park), chocolate fest (i expected more chocolate, but they gave away free crunch bars), winterfest (about one fifth as big as summerfest), the booyah cook off ('booyah' is actually a chicken stew served in a cup. i know, i was surprised too), and audobon days (in honesty nobody remembers what they're supposed to celebrate).




Now, ive given you a bit of a warning of how excessive Wisconsinites are about festivals, THIS is the one that puzzles and mystifies me.

Hobo fest.

I am happy to say this is NOT in Wisconsin, its in Iowa. Britt Iowa for the last century has held the national hobo convention. Although actual hobos no longer show up in droves there are hobo wannabies and hobo hobbists who beyond all reason consider it a hobby. Theres a few real hobos for sure, and several people who hopped a rail long ago and never forgot.

Big attractions include a parade complete with floats, classic car show, a tractor pull, and bed races. after the parade the 'king and queen' hobo are elected based on storytelling ability and dancing. Hobos are, apperantly, very contentious people- a hobo museum containing a century worth of hobo memorabilia resides here as well, and hobos regularly visit nursing homes in the neighboring cities.

a final word on the subject was given by a man called "Grandpa Dudley", the 2001 king of the hobos, reads as follows "The basic difference between the outside world and the hobo, is that the society wants you to be the same. hobos expect you to be different."

grandpa dudley also says to learn more about hobos visit www.hobo.com

Sure, i find this funny, but is anyone else weirded out by this?

I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.

[RJ]

Just don't bring anything valuable to the festival.....

[xHaZxMaTx]

I heard about this on the History Channel.  Seems pretty pointless to me, but hey,a party's a party.

[Brunhidden]

Even if its not that spectacular, go to the website and click on 'westbound' for a list of hobos known to have been buried there, and others known but buried elsewhere.

the names they have are hilarious.

Your trying to steal my thoughts aren't you? well it wont work, I don't have any.