Rimbach 2009 was great, right up there with 2004 and 2007. With spouses, significant others, and friends and children, there were at times 41 of us. Activities included visiting with our Rimbach family, the Hill, and the Schönblick. Side visits to Domazlice and the glass city, too. Charlie Hess and all were perfect hosts. The BierFest was 3 days of fun. Looking forward to the next reunion (2014 or sooner?). Pivo will obvioulsy have to go back for the Fire Department festivities or he’ll be thrown off the force!
Special thanks to Charlie and his wife Rita who were our primary contact and liasion with officialdom in Rimbach. Also special thanks to Erwin and Rike Brandl who were with Charlie and Rita helping to make our stay great.

GOOD TIMES
GOOD FOOD
GOOD FRIENDS!

Even though I have not yet been to a Rimbach reunion does not mean I am not interested.  And there are probably others like me who have not yet been able to get away to meet up with everyone and be part of the festivities.

Please continue to plan for the nest Reunion and I (& hopefully others) will try to attend. 

Thanks for the pitures and stories!!!

Jim Beaudin
Spec5 Herzo Base 98G2LCZ 1969 to Nov 1971
Married a Canadian while stationed at Herzo in 1971 and then moved to Canada after discharge in Nov 71.
Presidio for CZ in 1968.  Pan Krasa was “homeroom” teacher.
Supported Rimbach & DET J from Herzo Base and drove the deuce& Half to both stations when required for fun.

Pineapple Layne - 18 June 2009 01:25 PM

GOOD TIMES
GOOD FOOD
GOOD FRIENDS!

Nice shot, Pineapple. Shows just about everything!

jkbeaudin - 21 June 2009 04:26 PM

Please continue to plan for the nest Reunion and I (& hopefully others) will try to attend. 

Thanks for the pitures and stories!!!

Will do, Jim. Just watch the forums. There’ll be lots of talk and discussion about it when the time comes.

Jim,
I was glad to see your name when you first registered with the website - even more so now to see your post and interest in a future Rimbach reunion.  It would be great to see you someday at a Rimbach reunion in addition to our smaller reunions with Joe, Wayne, Enos and Skip.  Please keep checking in and leave a message now and then.

Hi Bill (Lamb)
Let me say that handing you a bottle of my local Upper Mosel wine was the least I could do for all your (AND GLENN’S) efforts over the years to keep the Rimbachvets image and story afloat.
The Reunion turned out very well indeed. I will post another entry with my tilsiter hmmmm or maybe ementhaller is a better comparison of thoughts of events in Rimbach June 2009; I am sure with everyone else providing some form of input we shall end up with a reasonable chronicle of Rimbach 2009.
I am glad you and Steve Bringle enjoyed the red and hope you had some BabyBells (cheese paddies) left over from breakfast to eat with it.
Higher-quality Dornfelder wines are velvety textured, slightly floral, often show flavours of plums (Kaipo should like that), blackberries or cherries, and are typically oaked. Sometimes the wines have a hint of sweetness…..a very good wine but not the harder to grow pinot nois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornfelder

The Pinot’s are “Burgunder” wines and on the Upper Mosel we do have some nice Spätburgunder which I think Larry Conner or mayybe Dave Vaughn ended up with to taste. As a matter of fact I am sipping one now as the local getränkemarkt is closed on Monday leaving me unable to replenish my beer supply.
The Pinot Gris or Grigio for those who travelled up through Italy ended up in Ami Charlie’s hands (Grauerburgunder) as he was the only person with a fridge to cool it down to drinking temperature.
Didn’t our weekend just turn out great weather wise…...high tweenties eh….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spätburgunder
As well as anything else in maintaining our thoughts of Reunion 2009 I would ask all to post their thoughts of our gathering under this link as it also give an extra thanks to Bill and Glenn for all their efforts.

Menz
Chad Rat
67-71

On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 4:33 AM, Bill Lamb <blamb@suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:

Jim,

Just wanted to thank you again for that wine. Steven Bringle and I killed the bottle later that night at the B-hof, just sitting around and talking about things. It was our last drink in Rimbach this trip.

Good wine! Reminded me a pinot nois, which I suppose it might be, or at least a variety thereof. Afraid I’m not up on my German red wines!

At any rate, it was good, and much appreciated!

Great to see you again, and hope you’ll be able to make to any upcoming reunion we hold stateside in the future.

I got to Rimbach on Tuesday and there was Bill Whitney standing on the Kollmerhof steps looking to get into trouble - so obviously I had come to the right spot. Wednesday we visited Bob West and his lovely wife Rita. Bob is living in Rimbach for about a 6 month period. There was also a visit to Domazlice with Charlie, Rita, Erwin and Rike Brandl, and Dennis Hohn and his wife Susie (new to the reunion scene). Visits to the glass city (Arnsdorf?) also.

Friday the Fest began with the parade. We were very honored to be the first contingent after the mayor (Theo) and dignitaries. I held the American flag supplied by Bob West. Inside the tent, Charlie had several tables reserved for us and we partied. Not long into the night we were dancing on tabletops singing football fight songs. Saturday was Bavarian night at the Fest and there was some very good dance troops, one was especially exciting where the guys danced and told a story at the same time.

It was Saturday where the Burgermeister presented me with a fire fighter’s badge and triangular flag. I had a 2 year history of sending Theo firefighters patches and of putting my Rimbach patch prominently on my Harley vest. So I was invited to become the first non-resident of the Rimbach volunteer fire fighter’s support group. This is something that the local residents may join, but it was an honor to be asked for a “foreigner” like me and to have Theo himself present it to me. Charlie said he’s lived there for 40 years and doesn’t have a badge. Theo was really good to us and even came over and sat with us for awhile.

Sunday we went to the Schonblick with a visit to the forest chapel on the way. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed your toast. When we returned to Rimbach, we all gathered at the BH for a case of Czech beer supplied by Pan Hlasny’s nephew. It was sort of an informal end to the reunion.  Sunday night was the last Fest night and I attended with Larry, Melody, and their great friends Jerry and Lea (pronounced Lee). They are now members of the group. At the close of the Fest Sunday, I continued to party with Josef Heinrichmeyer Jr. and the new local pizza shop owner Massimo until almost 3 am. Great fun.

Charlie and Rita were the perfect hosts, again!!!!! Charlie is so valuable to the success of the reunions with his local contacts, liaisons with local officialdom, and his wonderful Bayerisch. His neighbors and friends Erwin and Rike are part of the group and are so friendly and accommodating. Sigfried and Christian Volkner from Madersdorf were in and out of the group, too. Conny and Max Bablick are the owners of the ice cream cafe next to the church and they have become very integrated in our activities. They have a biergarten to the side of the cafe and it it a frequent gathering point. One morning, I got up at 5:30 am to help Max make the ice cream for almost 3 hours. Then Conny made me a beautiful Bavarian breakfast. What a perfect morning.

I can’t say enough about our local hosts, Charlie and Rita, their friends, Erwin, Rike, Conny, and Max. If it were not for them, it would not be such a smooth event. Kudos to them all.

That’s how I spent my summer vacation this year.

Pivo

For attendees, I will attempt to get them all. Please anyone contribute to this list. When I said 41, I was including all the people who would show up including our locals:

Dick Dishman - I heard he arrived early but I never saw him

John Campbell

Cindy Campbell

Steve Bringle

Larry Connor

Melody Connor

Jerry - friend of Melody

Lea - friend and coworker of Melody (pronounced Lee)

Pineapple Layne

Annemarie Layne

Annemarie’s sister-in-law

Annemarie’s brother

Annemarie and Pineapple’s daughter

Chuck Russell

Marie Russell

Dave Vaughn

Les Fulsome

Tatiana - Les’ daughter

Bill Whitney

Brother Eubank

Brother Eu’s ladyfriend

Jim Menzie

Hildegard Menzie and Molly

Hall Toye

Bill Lamb

Pivo

Charlie Hess

Rita Hess

Erwin Brandl

Rike (Frederike) Brandl

Also attendees at some events:

    Conny Bablick

    Max Bablick

    Sigfried Volkner from Madersdorf

    Christian Volkner from Madersdorf

More:

Bob West

Rita West

Annemarie’s niece

I only get 37 here but I am sure there were more form Les’ and Annemarie’s local relatives, etc.

Only a couple of names to add for your very complete list Pivo—

Dick Dishman and Maria (?)
Annemarie and Pineapple’s daughter—Andrea
Brother Eu’s Texas Belle - Cathy

Early meeting at Lindner Bräu in Bad Kötzting we must add Less Fulsomes girl friend and her friends names to the overall list and
Marie Russell’s brother and wife and their daughter who ferry Chuck and Maria around.

Now I am into downloading pictures from camera and mobil. With a bit of luck they will help in continuing the pictorial story begun by Bill Lambs collection.

Oops - left out

Tony Jetter and Lisa and their dog .....

Tony turned out the lights as The Hohebogen came to an end.

When going out to the Bavarian Forest this year I knew we were going to have another Reunion and I was sure it would all be okay in the end. 2004 and 2007 were wonderful events but 2009 got off to a very weak cyber start. I was only hoping for the best and gosh did we get the best. A very good gathering of new and old faces. I will try to put together my thoughts this next week but in the meantime please view the following 100 plus pictures which tell the story of reunion happyness. It will be awhile before the CD gets to Texas for input so have a happy google
Menz

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/menz711/RimbachReunion2009#

PS Oklahoma is missing—- how can this be ...

Ha! Great stuff, Jim! Look forward to getting the CD for the site.

Thanks!

Pivo, Bill and Jim. thanks for the pictures and reports. 

Pivo, your list of 37 attendees didn’t include Dennis and Susie Hohn, but you had already mentioned them in your first paragraph so you actually have 39.
Adding Tony and Lisa Jeter, Dick Dishman’s friend Maria and Maria Russell’s brother and wife and their daughter gets the number of participants of one description or another, vets, spouses, family, etc., to 45.  That’s super!

Many will not know that Charlie had no home telephone after an electrical storm when arranging our weekend trips. Yet he managed through snow sleet and storm, ice cold summer evenings and too many evening beers to arrange our trip up the the Schönblick and a special bus stop at the Kolmerhof for the German festivities.

Lets turn back the clock a bit to see how some of this developed.

Yup months in advance we knocked around travel plans and really thought that a great program was made available. It was very good but did not meet the prospective Reunion attendees criteria. Virtually no response. If fact it looked like only 7 or 8 people would come to R 2009. And 6 of those live in Germany. Expectations were being wound down. But as in previous years “last minute” confirmations were coming in and it started to look good but far to late for formal travel plans. This is probably for the best as no travel agency is attached to organisers of R Reunions.

Mobil phone calls were made and presto we had a pre-pre meeting of those who had just arrived in R area. The meet was planned for an evening at the Lindner Bräu bier garten. Some may remember that it was cold and that the gardens of Lindner on the Weißer Regen with moat and fountain s and covered drinking tables and music and dirndl’s was not so appealing. So we moved indoors to the side stubberl with a large kaklkamin and cosy environment. Seating for 50 or so and it was ours…. well for a while but the most surprising event was that Americans kept trickling in; so instead of the 8-10 people we ended up with 7 tables full and several tables full of cold but hungry and thirsty Germans. The room was full and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Hildegard and I met up with Chuck and Maria for an evening in Furth im Wald. After a stroll around town we ended up in the local Greek Restaurant which had very good food. It’s nice to sit down with old friend and just chat. A very nice evening. Hildegard drove towards home and decided to take the route which led through R. I suggested a quick glance into the Kolmerhof to see if anyone was in town and still up…. Stupid thought—another table full of Ridgerunners. I rapped on the window to the terrace garden and Charlie looked up surprised and waved us on in. This was the firts time I met Shothimselfinthefoot Dennis and his lovely wife Suzzi. In fact I was in very best mood and form as I never mentioned that “tale from the Hill” once during the whole Reunion. However I did have a bit a trouble holding back when I asked him how his pig ankle tasted when he ordered a hax’in in the bier tent. Trotters are used for sulze, hax’in are the joint below the knee for grill and eisbein and the thigh for ham and other steaky products. Ahh porking fun ......

Well in the pre-pre meet we heard that on Thursday we would have another pre meet to decide the weekend events. Whew we got started a couple of days earlier than planned. Anyway on Thursday we crammed into a tiny cigar smoke filled room in back of the local bookie—oops wrong story—it was the gaming room of the local Eisdiele run by Connie and the room was very full indeed. It was loud but the process of defining the weekend went on. Hands raised and votes counted the agenda past muster. The only fault of the Eisdiele is that you cannot eat there - so we split off into factions of hungry and thirsty. H and I headed towards the Kolmerhof not really a great selection for local cuisine but better than an icecream. Another evening of chat and off to home in Viechtach to take care of Molly and a very ill mother-in-law. We had planned to stay overnight with Charlie and Rita but it just was not possible. I think my body thanks events as I am sure I never would have made the late evenings of the biertent or the all night session that Bill Lamb and Steve Bringle managed.

More later regarding other evenings.

Menz

A tribute to John and Cindy - Made in the EU

Thanks you so very much John and Cindy for bringing a few small but missed products to the Rimbach Reunion 2009

1. That totally unhealthy Crisco shortening came into use yesterday a Saturday when I sawed off the crown to my cherry tree to get at the loads and loads of cherries up there just out of reach. Yup we made a cherry pie. Unfortunately I followed the old Betty Crocker Cook book, yeah the one where every other item comes out of a can or package, which was subsidised by the sugar industry. Whew was it sweet but very good cherries and the Crisco pastry came out just the way I like it. I cut back the sugar to 1 cup from 1 1/3 but it wasn’t enough. Have marked the book now in red 1/2 cup sugar maximum. Later in the season comes the blackberry and apple pies and those pages are already marked 50% of sugar quantities max.

2. Sunday morning brunch. Hildegard and I have not indulged in that delightful practice in many years. Our breakfast is usually restricted to fresh baked crusty rolls and croissants and fresh ham from Luxembourg and maybe a cantaloupe but a real chow down has been missing.
It has been beaucoup und funfa or donkey years since we have had some Buckwheat pancakes. Thanks to John and Cindy we decided to jump in head first into this wonderful made in the EU breakfast with ingredients from around the world. The buckwheat mix was from the good ol USA (not China), the English bacon backs from Wales (that’s a funny one) , the farm fresh eggs from the Upper Mosel, the milk from Luxembourg and the butter from France to be topped off with maple and cranberry syrup from Canada. Washed down with Arabian coffee and juice from Israel. All assembled, prepared and cooked and eaten in Kreuzweiler. Wadda feast.

Under the believe it or not column comes that out of the three sets of quarters I received Oklahoma was missing from each one. Nothing to fear I will pick that sucker up in November when I visit Seattle for my Mom’s 90th Birthday.

Getting to the Beer Tent

Muster was called for 1730. We all met at the Kolmerhof parking lot, counted heads and walked up to the parade staging area at the Bayerischehof. Bob West insisted on someone carrying his American flag on a 3 meter aluminium pole as he could hardly walk with his cane.
Several of my pictures presently at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/menz711/RimbachReunion2009#5350287513148328850
show ol Glory in motion.
One of the reasons for arriving at the B-hof so early is that you can get an extra hour of pre-drink drinking in before the march to the Bierzelt. Erwin brought some local schnapps for us to slug down and so the evening began.
Forming up and parading through the town is always nice but I think this year there were more people in the parade that watching it. Could have something to do with the very cool weather conditions. But down the street and back and then up the hill to the sports ground where the fest tent was located we went. We were number three in the parade but number one into the festzelt as the volksverein and band played and clapped the participants into the tent.
I and a few others had a very long wait indeed for our first beer. Seems our waitress had a system of setting down and selling her biers at the first available table. Mind you she was carrying 12 liters at a time and targeted delivery uses up a lot of strength. Any way we finally got the bier in and the clinking and clanking of glass moss jugs began.

This year the music was at a level which still allowed for shouting communication at the tables and a party atmosphere which can only be achieved at a small bierfest. Three cheers to the Rimbach organisers for a job well done. I had beer tent throat for 10 days. It was worth it for all the shouting laughing and enjoyment of a good festival.

Well with Ridgerunner wives bouncing on the benches and three mugs of bier under the belt it was time to shove off. It is rare that I am not the last in place but the years are taking hold, my dog Molly was yowling for me and most of all Hildegard said it was time. Not like others we still had a twenty mile drive to get home. Our plans to overnight with Charlie and Rita were dashed by a very ill mother in law so it was off to Viechtach for me at least to return the next day for the Kötzting link.