Regular Life

Bavaria - A state in southwestern Germany famous for its beer; site of an automobile factory.
— TheSage’s English Dictionary and Thesaurus

To hear Bob Marley sing “Edelweiss,” you must go to a German restaurant in Texas.
— Me

August is a very busy month for us. I’m hoping to run low on material in September.

Among the other fun things we do for Shannon’s birthday each year, we have dinner with her mother and stepfather, and Shannon picks the place. They do the same for me, but that’s not why we’re here.

Our server plays bells in an attempt to sound out “Happy Birthday.”
Funeral dirge, anyone? (click to make bigger and whatnot)

Click the play button below to hear it.

Shannon and Ben pose.

Over the years, Shannon has developed a knack for choosing places where the servers love to make fools of their customers. She may act shy at times, but she’s a real ham and don’t let her tell you otherwise. At least twice she has chosen Joe’s Crab Shack. The first year, our server asked her to Hula Hoop in the dining room. She did, and failed horribly, only to find out later that it was a rigged Hoop.

Just between us? She probably would have failed that test anyway.

A subsequent year, she had to don a makeshift bird’s beak and wings and walk around the dining room flapping and clucking like a chicken (or was it cawing like a crow?). At this, she excelled.

And that could be the reason she chose her latest birthday haunt — another chance to do the chicken dance.

At the Bavarian Grill, the moment you walk in you hear music. Friday night it was played by two men — Manfred, at about 5′8″; and Alan, who goes abou 6′4″. Manfred plays several instruments, including sax and guitar, and Alan plays accordion, sings lead, and (rarely) pushes buttons on a drum machine. In their repertoire are everything from German beer drinking songs to “Rocky Top (Tennessee).”

They also like to poke fun at the guests — a major source of fun for all.

Accompanying our usual crowd that night were Shannon’s aunt and uncle. Of the six adults sitting at our table, all have spent most of their lives in Arkansas, and it’s possible all of them were born there (my fact checkers are fast asleep as I type). That includes yours truly.

(”Geez, poking fun? Arkansas? Where is he going with this?”)

At one point, Alan asked who has a birthday. I raised my hand and pointed at Shannon.

“So, it’s her birthday, huh?”

I nodded and held up three fingers, then four, to indicate Shannon’s age.

“She’s forty-three?”

“No, thirty-four!” I shouted. It was a noisy place, and we sat at least 15 or 20 feet from the heckling musicians.

Alan acted surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty hot, isn’t she?” I said.

Apparently that was his chance, or he created it on the fly.

He looked at Shannon. “So, is he your brother?”

The crowd laughed.

He continued. “No, that’s only in Arkansas.”

More laughter.

My wife proudly proclaimed, “We’re from Arkansas!”

The crowd roared.

Her uncle, who shouts louder than you might imagine humanly possible, yelled in his thickest Arkansas backwoods accent, “How the hell’d he know that?” (think, “thayut”)

The dancing didn’t start until the bane of Oktoberfest bands the world over reared its beaked head. It was the chicken dance, and every mother and child flooded the small area between the stage and the diners. When this happens at Bavarian Grill, servers barely make it through the cramped space.

What were the fathers doing?

Videotaping it, of course!* Alan had to make a wisecrack about the number of men doing so. “Now I see why they call it the paparazzi. Otherwise, it would be the mamarazzi.”

To hear Alan’s impression of Bob Marley singing “Edelweiss” (can you think of a better way to spend a minute of your Thursday?), just click the play button below. You might hear Shannon’s uncle say that Bob Marley was, “That one who was on the grass, lived in Jamaica.”

The hills are alive with the sound of reggae.

Here was one of the crowd’s favorites (lyrics below):

Dough is what I buy beer with,
Ray, the guy behind the bar.
Me, the guy I buy beer for,
Fa, the distance to my ca.
So, I’ll have a another beer.
Fa, la la la la la beer.
Tea? I’d rather have a beer.
That will bring us back to beer, beer, beer, beer,
(skips some)
So (and on)

In short (ha!), we had a great time.

(The Bavarian Grill’s wienershnitzel in cream sauce is out of this world. I can’t remember what it was called. In case you don’t know, weinershnitzel is basically a pork chop filet pounded flat, battered, and then pan fried.)

Ben chomps a sausage.

*video clips may or not be forthcoming

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