Everywhere you looked in downtown Belleville this weekend, the Oktoberfest spirit was evident…and by that, I mean beer and German flags everywhere!
Prost!
Belleville200–Oktoberfest
Belleville200
Belleville200–200 Foot Long Brat!
One of the highlights of Belleville200 was the city’s attempt to grill a 200 foot long brat…a world record attempt. Just for perspective, the brat pretty much stretched from Main St. to A St…that a lot of bratwurst! 120 pounds of meat was donated by Schubert’s Packing Co., of Millstadt, and they were on hand to guide the effort. Also on hand were the mayors of Belleville and our sister city of Paderborn, Germany, and Belleville resident and St. Louis TV personality John Pertzborn. Several trial runs had been done on smaller sausages, and they ensured that today’s event went smoothly. It’s not easy to make sure 200 feet of sausage gets turned and cooked evenly, and keeping the meat and the grill well hydrated seemed to be very important. Everyone did their jobs, however, and the sausage looked and smelled great! Over $1,500 dollars was raised for area food banks during this event, which made it not only fun, but a great community service as well.
What a fun, quirky way to celebrate Belleville’s birthday!
Belleville200–Vintage Base Ball
Another Belleville200 event that we’ve been really looking forward to is the 2014 Gustave Koerner Belleville Vintage Base Ball Festival. There are nine games scheduled over two days, and we went to see our hometown Stags play the St. Louis Brown Stockings this afternoon. It was just as much fun as the last time we went, and, like last time, the Stags were victorious! Huzzah!
Belleville200–Civil War Encampment
Another event going on at the Belleville200 celebration this weekend is a Civil War encampment.
Of course I loved it! All the cool items on display, the tents, the folks in period dress…and it was all held in a historic Belleville location. A very cool addition to Belleville’s 200th birthday party!
Belleville200–Plein Air Art
As part of the Belleville200 celebration, the Belleville Historical Society had a plein air art auction this afternoon. The paintings, which were done by local artists, all focused on historic buildings and sites in downtown Belleville. The best part of this event was that we got to watch several of the artists at work. As someone completely lacking in artistic ability, it always fascinates me to see how artists create their paintings!
Belleville200–The Beach Boys!
Tonight The Beach Boys played on the Belleville town square. The crowds were amazing…I think the entire town (and some of the surrounding area, as well), was there!
It was so much fun to hear them play…and I loved watching my children dance along!
This was the biggest event of the Belleville200 celebrations, but the weekend is just beginning…there’s plenty more to come!
Belleville200–The Naturalization Ceremony
The big Belleville Bicentennial weekend kicked of this morning with a Naturalization Ceremony on the step of the county courthouse on the Public Square. It was beautiful, hearing all of the countries our newest citizens (109 of them!), were from (so many…and truly from every corner of the world! The Philippines, Turkey, Nicaragua, Luxembourg, Zimbabwe, Portugal, and so many others were represented!), seeing many of them in native dress, alongside our judges in their robes, and then listening to them take their oath. Such a momentous occasion in their lives, and I’m glad we could be a very small part of it!
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.” The Oath of Allegiance
Vintage Base Ball
This afternoon, we drove down to Waterloo to see a vintage base ball game (that space between base and ball seems to be an important distinction in the vintage game). The Belleville Stags were playing the St. Louis Perfectos. We got there just in time to see the players line up on the field:
Things looked familiar, yet different. For example, the bats and balls generally looked like they do now, but both were a little bigger than today’s models:
The terminology is different, too. For example, there were arbiters, instead of umpires:
And the mayor of Waterloo “hurled” the first pitch:
The rules can also make it seem like a different game. No sliding, spitting, or cussing, or the arbiter would throw you off the field. There’s no such thing as a foul strike, no players wore gloves, and the batter was out if the ball was caught off of one bounce (which makes sense, as they don’t wear gloves…you wouldn’t expect them to catch fly balls barehanded, although some players did occasionally!). But looking at the game on the field, you do still know it’s baseball!
As far as I could tell, this bell was rung every time somebody scored:
I loved the uniforms:
Especially the high socks!
And the tally keeper for the Stags was wearing a long dress and carried a parasol…I think I’d like that job!
I also loved the…well, today I guess we’d call it trash talking…that went on between the players. It was all very good-natured, and quite clever. There was a lot of laughter at that ballgame! I also appreciated that one of the players walked around and explained the game and answered questions…that helped clear up some of our confusion!
The Stags won the first game of the doubleheader 6-5. It was too hot for us to stay for the second game, but honestly, we didn’t even care who won…it was just fun to watch the players perform!
And, for those of you who couldn’t be there with us today, a little something special to help you get into the vintage spirit:
We will definitely be going to another Stags game when we get the chance…it was a blast!
“For the glory of the game! Huzzah!”
Belleville Bicentennial: 200
To celebrate Belleville’s 200th birthday this year, an exhibit, Belleville Bicentennial: 200, has been put together at the Schmidt Art Center on the campus of Southwestern Illinois College.
Similar to the 250 in 250 exhibit at the Missouri History Museum that celebrates St. Louis’ 250th birthday, this display has 200 items that illustrate Belleville’s long history.
It is broken up into six sections, which focus on Belleville’s beginning and growth, the jobs that people in Belleville have had, the opportunities for service in the city, and education and recreation:
How else to illustrate “Belleville Begins” than with a copy of the original hand-drawn plat map of the town?
The children liked that baseball was displayed in the “Belleville Plays” section:
And of course you can’t have a “Belleville Learns” display without some report cards:
This Civil War drum in the “Belleville Serves” section looks like it has a lot of stories to tell:
Our old our county courthouse was so beautiful, and the model of it in the “Belleville Grows” display showcased its beauty even more than old pictures do!
And a big part of the “Belleville Works” display was this architect’s drafting table, which I thought was really cool!
The section of the gallery dedicated to Belleville’s German heritage was of particular interest to me:
Of course there was a tribute to one of Belleville’s most famous sons, Buddy Ebsen:
There were so many other cool things to see…I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!
And at the end, you have a chance to ponder a final thought:
Even though it is in a very small space, this display was very well done, and does a good job of telling the Belleville story. If you have a chance, you should go take a look at it yourself!
Fireworks!
As part of this year’s 200th birthday celebration, Belleville actually had an Independence Day fireworks display. On the 5th of July, but still…this is the first time Belleville has had fireworks since we moved here eight years ago!
The show started late, but it was worth the wait…I hope our town considers doing this every year!