The Swedish Thing

This past week brought the return of the annual Swedish Days in Geneva. For reasons I have not quite entirely figured out, there seems to be a lot of hype surrounding this event in the downtown area. The typical selection of food vendors, tents with wares being displayed, info booths, people walking dogs, and the carnival madness, blaring the latest kid-friendly rap hits.

I certainly don't have anything against festivals that bring out the community spirit. It's a great opportunity to walk around and get to know your neighbors. Well, at least that was the case when we lived in Winfied. Their annual Good Old Days celebration was a smaller, sweatier version of Swedish Days, but more home spirit. You never knew who you might run into at the beer tent. But Geneva is an entirely different animal.

Don't get me wrong -- Geneva is a beautiful city. The river location makes it especially quaint. Yes, it's high priced. And yes, the almost-famous shopping along Third is for those with a lot more money, a stonger need for purchasing baskets, fashion, or trendy dining. But you can almost push that all aside and enjoy the picture-perfect setting -- if you have enough cash in your wallet to stay long.

But unlike Winfield and other smaller local festivals, you don't usually run into people you know. For some reason, people will travel a long way to come to this event -- as well as others in Geneva (Festival of the Vine and the Christmas Holiday Walk). What this means is that you tend to be more alone in the crowd. Unless you are a neighbor to one of the $800K homes nearby, you're not likely to be sharing any home-grown spirit here.

So what's left? A little pizza, some soda, some walking around, face painting (inset shown--Su with ladybug) and a chance to play on the fire engine.