My brother did not like dancing with me in this picture at the wedding of our childhood best friend. We were polka dancing, and while the polka dance isn't really that hard in and of itself (it's essentially just hopping from one foot to the other in 3/4 waltz time), I suck at it because it involves letting the guy lead. Polka is that "uum-pah-pah" German music with the accordions and tuba that you don't hear too often anymore--unless you grew up milking cows on the dairy farm in my family (which happens to be very German). The only thing "fancy" in polka dancing are a few spins and turns that I've only seen my parents do when they were much younger. Nothing provocative nothing hyper-sexualized, nothing risk-ee, and certainly nothing too emotional about polka dancing. It's pretty strict and clean--it's German remember? You can't have too much fun, you know? (If you could hear me say that, you'd hear how German it sounds)
My siblings and I (Ben...affectionately referred to by my sister and I as "Bonita"-is the dude in the blue shirt), grew up listening to polka music on WTKM 104.9 out of Slinger, Wisconsin. I can still hear Gene Dudley's voice saying that tag-line. My grandpa had it permanently set on the archaic 1960's radio in the barn--to high for us to reach (he said it was so the cows didn't knock it over, but I think that was a fib. It was so that we couldn't turn off the polka!) I am pretty sure we were even taught how to polka in our middle school dance unit of phy ed.! Polka, despite the beer-drinking-fat-old-guy stereotype that it has, is actually sort of fun! And let me tell you, if you want to sweat, dance a few polkas around a dance floor! If you're not sweating, you're not working hard enough! Of course it had to be a work out! It's German, remember? If you're going to have fun, you might as well be working for it, ya know? (sensing a theme yet?)
The songs are ridiculously funny sometimes. For example, I will give you the first few that come to my mind. These are the ones I could probably sing word for word if you got me started...that's how many times I've heard them. Most Wisconsin-ites at least have heard of the Beer Barrel Polka--a song devoted to our beloved beverage of choice (especially if you're German). It's pretty simple, there isn't too much underlying meaning in it. Beer is good. We like beer. Or how about this one, "In Heaven There is no Beer," and the song goes on to explain, "so that's why we drink it here." Once again, life is short--drink beer. My last example was my sister Ruthie's favorite barn-time polka, "Horsey Keep Your Tail Up." This one was really sort of silly, and the jist of it was "horsey keep your tail up, keep the sunshine outta my eyes..." and it ended with the horse aging as they sang, "Well, the old gray mare she's old and bent, but she keeps on hoofin' along." The songs added lift and a joking-type satire to a life that wasn't always easy. I poke at my German heritage a lot, but most Germans know that being serious and stoic is genetic. Most of us use sarcasm and silly uum, paa, paa polka lyrics to lighten it up a bit. It's what we know!
Fun is where you find it. Sometimes you have to look for it. Sometimes you have to make it up all on your own so that you don't go crazy from working so hard and being so serious all the time! When my grandma would tickle us as little kids, she'd always say (with a smile on her face), "now don't laugh, don't laugh, nope, nope, don't laugh! Make a 'sober face.' Where's your 'sober face?'" The simple fact that she was smiling as she told us not to laugh tells you that Germans make satire of their own stereotypical behavior. So, in short, yes, I would love to dance a polka! I'm not very good at it, because I can't seem to let the man lead the dance. My brother's comment to me as this picture was being taken, "Mandi!! You suck at letting a guy lead! Then you think you should lead, but you're not very good at that either!" So, I laughed. Apparently I wasn't even a good German girl back then either! I talk too much, I cry a lot, I act silly in public, and I don't like to follow, keep still, or keep a 'sober face.' Worst of all, I let people talk about their feelings--for a living?!?!?! I can't possibly be German, can I? Too bad, my German friends, you're stuck with me--the German anomaly!
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