Feb. 8, 1999

Grand Forks, N.D.

Dear classmates and friends,

My friend Colleen, who has heard more than her share of my Eureka stories, couldn’t wait to tell me this joke the other day:

Q: What do you get when you combine LSD and knephla soup?

A: A really bad trip to Wishek.

Isn’t that great? We need more jokes about the Germans from Russia, don’t you think? The Irish tell jokes about the inebriated O’Malley brothers, the Norwegians have Ole and Lena. Shouldn’t we have Gottlieb and Magdalena jokes or something? (I say this with apologies to my own Uncle Gottlieb and Aunt Magdalena, may they rest in peace.)

I guess there’s always Milo Hatzenbuhler. He’s a guy from Bismarck who has made the rounds doing his "Cherman" shtick at various banquets, annual co-op meetings and other public functions in North Dakota and South Dakota. He was very popular a few years ago but I haven’t heard much about him lately. I never saw his performance but I heard he was hilarious. He appeared in Eureka at least once and was a big hit.

There is a lot about our German culture that is funny – the way we talk, to start with. I remember all the times when I lived in Eureka that I heard other people – never Eurekans – laugh about going to "Chereka out." And let’s face it, we all have the German accent, maybe not as pronounced as when we were growing up in Eureka, but it’s still there. I still stumble when I try to say certain words, especially on those beginning with "j" or "ch." I don’t speak German, but I do understand it (at least the way my parents spoke it), and it’s easy for me to fall back into those lilts and cadences especially when I get back to Eureka.

Just being on the telephone talking to my Mom, I can hear my voice falling back into "Eureka talk." I have to laugh now when I remember that in high school we made fun of the kids from Hosmer because we thought they were so "Cherman." Remember that cheer, "Hosmer, Hosmer, orange and black"? Was that ever a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Then there are the funny ways we have of saying things: "Make out the light" and "Plug out the coffee pot," or "Come here once" and "It’s first 11 o’clock." Or those expressions like "Bahs oof" ("look out") or "shpot nohma," which as I understood it meant, just keep making fun and see what happens. If something was all confused and mixed up it was "fahoodled." And what was the purpose of saying "Gal?" at the end of every sentence? (Warning: I spell all German words phonetically.)

The other night we worked a fundraising dinner at Calvary Lutheran Church (gotta raise those bucks so our Emily and all the other Lutheran youth can go to some big shindig in Seattle next summer) when I got to talking to a fellow parent named Bruce. As we talked, I learned that Bruce had grown up in Beulah, N.D., and the more we shared, the harder we laughed, and the more we began to feel as if we had lived parallel lives. We attended the same kinds of schools, grew up with similar

German grandparents, even listened to the same radio programs on KFYR Radio in the early ‘70s: Padre’s Platters on Saturday nights and The Old Reb in the mornings. One thing we laughed about was how really blunt (read: totally tactless) our German grandparents and other elders had been at times. Bruce told me his grandmother was once visiting with some of her old lady friends and one of them remarked on another woman and how poorly she had been looking. "Oh," said Bruce’s grandmother, "I’ve known her all her life and she’s always looked like that." Bruce told me another story about a German accent and he swore it was true. He had gone to Minnesota to help his brother build a garage (or, if you’re from Eureka, a "car shed") and while they were working Bruce’s brother accidentally ripped out the crotch of his jeans. Their sister had witnessed this, and when the men came in for lunch later, she asked the brother, "How’s your crotch?" To which the brother replied, "Oh, it’s coming along pretty good. We’ve got almost all the rafters up." I’d say any Gottlieb and Magdalena joke would have to be pretty good to top that one.

Your friend, Paulette