Flashback

Take a look back to September 2005 in this blog. Near the beginning of the month, you will find a piece entitled, "A Treatise on Modern College Dancing." In said post, I discussed at length the dynamics of the 'Street dance' on the first Saturday of School. Now, almost exactly a year from that date, I will again set fingers to keys to tell about the street dance of tonight.
My opinions as to the dancing, music, and people have not changed. However, again I risked sanity and ability to hear low sounds for the remainder of my life by again attending. However, this time, somthing had changed. I had something to induce me to go. A very strong, and very intriuging inducement. No, it wasn't a girl. Had nothing to do with a girl.

One Word.

Lederhosen.

Yes, Lederhosen. See Below.


For some reason, today while walking back to my room from playing racketball, I thought of lederhosen. I don't know why. But, after I showered the sweat off, I decided to experiment. After that, I decided that I had to wear this and go to the dance. If I couldn't enjoy the dancing or music, I could at least try to talk to people and amuse myself with watching people's reactions. In this, I was amply repaid.

First off, all of my friends enjoyed it. Walking around (I still had nothing to do) I watched people's eyes - 'looking around, hey! Hang on! was that guy...no it can't b...yes. Its lederhosen!' These facial reactions were amusing. A couple of people asked me about it - one conversation

Girl - Can I ask you a question?
Me - Sure!
Girl - Are you german?
Me - No.
Girl - Are you of german descent, then?
Me - not really. I think my mom might be about a quarter german, but not really.
Girl - Well, THEN WHY ARE YOU WEARING LEDERHOSEN??!
Me - /abbreviated synopsis of above/

I thought it was funny, anyway...maybe you had to be there.

Construction:
I rolled the legs up from my knees and held the pant legs there with bungee cords. Not very authentic, but I don't exactly want to put holes in my good pants.
I used my rugby socks for the hose. They worked. Nice clunky shoes.

I used my belts and borrowed another for the suspenders, which worked decently well. I used one of my ties for the cross-piece half-way up.

My favorite was the bolo that I am wearing. I cut off a piece of rope that I had brought from home, and used that with one of my Jamboree belt buckles to make a bolo. I decided I needed one because the web site that had pictures of the german outfits had most of the guys wearing something like that.

In synopsis: I had fun tonight at a dance, but not due to the events given out by the dance, but by the changes that I put into it. I hope that you enjoy this - I convulsed a couple of my hallmates and their friends.


Jeremy Turpin