SOMEBODY SCREWED UP!!

A long, long time ago somebody must have screwed up big time.

Currently our Tour with Blue Devils is taking us through the beautifuk state of Pennsylvania, and we are housed in the picturesque Landisville, near Lancaster. Our original housing site in Coatsville fell through. Would have been nice going there, since the band director was one of the assistent drum majors with Reaging Buccaneers back when I marched with them in 1987.

Well,... Landisville is right in the middle of the so-called Pennsylvania-Dutch area, known specifically for the large number of Amish that live here.

Now the screwing up part is where the hell they got the name Dutch in Pennsylvania-Dutch. Come on,... us Dutch have got nothing to do with this! It should have been Pennsylvania DEUTSCH!!!

The Pennsylvania Dutch are the descendants of German immigrants who came here prior to 1800. Some say that the word "Dutch" in this case owes its origin to an archaic meaning where the word "Dutch" designated groups that are today considered German and Dutch - prior to the Thirty Years' War, the Netherlands were part of the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch were generally regarded as one of several German peoples. (Yeah,... as if we liked that!!!)

I am not going to write a lot about the Amish and their nice horse-drawn carriages. They're a very interesting community. Back in 1987 I did some carpenting work in this area, so got in touch with a few as well. They have an amazingly unique way of living! Check Wikipedia or Google to learn more about them!

One of the stupidest things I have ever seen in Pennsylvania Dutch county, is the windmill symbol, which reminds everyone so much more of the Netherlands, rather than Germany.

The best example is probably " Dutch Haven" , the Amish souvenirs and crafts store in Ronks (PA), that has a huge windmill up on their roof.

One of the best cakes I have ever had is "shoe fly pie", which happens to be an Amish specialty! GREAT STUFF!

Willie Schouten, a friend of mine, lives in Ephrata, which is quite near the school we're staying at. I think it's only some 15 miles. I called her today. Some Jubal friends are arriving in the States today and will be staying with her. So I will most definitely see all of them tomorrow or Friday. I am looking forward to that!

Talked to my friend Lisa on the phone too today. Am trying to hook up with her on Thursday night in West Chester after the DCI show and spend all day Friday with her. I just heard that her Wind Symphony concert which was scheduled for tonight (Wednesday) was cancelled and is now going to take place on Thursday night.

So I will have to find out how we are going to arrange things. Don't know... there might be a train from West Chester to Wilmington... I will do some research on that later tonight.

Blue Devils are staying at this Hempfield High School for four days. The corps is now rehearsing in a nearby stadium, so I have the whole night to work on updating the blog and sending photos out. A lot of my Blue Devils photos can be seen on the corps' website (www.bluedevils.org) in the media section - photos 2008.

From here we're moving on to Allentown for a show on Friday, and then to Akron (Ohio) for the Canton show. we will spend three days there too, before moving to Indianapolis for DI Championships week. That should be exciting.

The corps is doing really well. They are undefeated so far, and still have a decent lead over their competition (about 0,8 points) at the last show.

Enjoy,

HK