This place reminded me not so much of my old Polish-American neighborhood and events in Chicago (our parish had picnics out in the forest preserves & a carnival in town), but more of Louisville, as these private outdoor picnic groves/beer gardens used to be a feature of summer life there as late as the ‘70s…Swiss Park (for the Germans), the Jackson Democratic Club out on Cane Run in Saint Denis, Mike Linnigs fish house and picnic grove on the river in Pleasure Ridge. 

 

Dayton has at least one other like this, The Eintracht (for the Germans), not too far from here. It's right on the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The food here (including the sausages was advertised as “Sig’s”.  Now Sig closed his store years ago and retired to Florida (?) so I wonder if these are the kids using his old recipes.

 

 

The Wheel of Fortune was a feature of every parish picnic or fish fry I’ve ever been to.

 

 

The sausage grill. Bratwurst and “Sigs” (and hot dogs. No one was buying hot dogs)

 

 

The kolachki hut

 

 

Dance floor, entertainment by the Duane Malinowski polka band.  Apparently he has been playing Dayton for the past 30 years.  Not sure if he is based here, though.  Usually he and his band are at the Czechoslovakian Club.

 

 

 

 

Next weekend…German Day (or days), at the Fairgrounds this year, and the Blues Fest at Dave Hall Plaza.

 

 

 

Looks like a laid-back good time.

 

Berne, Indiana has Swiss Days every year in July, kind of fun, with various music acts, a play, and events at a historic farm just outside the town. It's sort of gotten corrupted with things like a car show that's mostly customs and street rords, but still a good time.

 

Fort Wayne's Three Rivers Festival includes events featuring various ethnic communities and there are ethnic festivals mostly at Headwaters Park in summer. The big bash is Germanfest, reflecting the city's German heritage, but there are Greek, Hispanic and other events including a Black Expo.

 

The old German neighborhood has sort of diiffused with the advent of suburban sprawl, and aside from a few street and place names the early French heritage of the settlement seems to have faded away into the mists of time.

 

I've often thought that if we want to liven up our image, we need to see if we can exchange a bunch of our German Lutherans for some Polish, Irish and Italian Catholics.

I saw DOA at this place about a million years ago.

 

http://www.suddendeath.com/bands_DOA.html

 

hey thats a good thread jeffery.

 

timely for me too -- on my recent visit home i noticed the last few of these old ethnic picnic places near my mom on the westside of lorain have been lost to development.  :|

Nice!