Revelry at the Michiana MCC Sale

Made the trek to Goshen for the "Michiana" MCC Sale this weekend. Major differences I notice between the Michiana sale and the Kansas sale are:

1. In Michiana, you stand in line for an hour to eat pancakes and sausage. The sausage is pretty good, I suppose. In Kansas, you stand in line for an hour to eat verenika, bohne berrogi, cherry moos, pie, zwieback, and borscht. And sausage. Every dish better than the next.

2. In Kansas, people play the Mennonite game with me. In Michiana, people play the Mennonite game with lots of other people, but not me. That is because I am a Mennonite of the Russian variety. This is the land of Yoders, Millers, Stoltzfuses, and Shenks, not the land of Schmidts, Goerings, Krehbiels, and Voths. I'm lucky if folks up in these parts have even heard the last name Gaeddert, let alone have a guess as to who I might be related to.

3. In Kansas, the people who direct cars into their parking spots in an open field are old men who point with yardsticks. In Michiana, those people are young men who point with one hand and wave the other in a continuous circular motion.

4. In Kansas, unlike Michiana, there are no buildings in the middle of the fairgrounds that have been burnt to a char in a manner resembling a nuclear holocaust. (Although I've been told this was the first year for that sort of thing at the Michiana sale, and that perhaps it was even an accident. I did hear that hundreds of homemade pies went up in flames. Seriously, that's a travesty.)

5. Michiana breaks up the monotony of the quilt auction with periodic hymn sings. A good idea, I think. Kansas should take note.

6. Apple fritters (Michiana) instead of Porzelke (New Year's Cookies) (Kansas).

Major similarities:

1. Michiana, Kansas ... doesn't matter. Money flows out of my pocket. Anybody have an idea of how much money is spent per capita at the Sale on a yearly basis? I suspect: $30, or maybe upwards, if you factor in the people who drop 5 grand on a quilt.

2. Lots of reveling in one's Mennonite identity. Total, unabashed Bakhtinian carnivalesque. Dionysiac, almost.

3. People of all ages participating in the same activities and enjoying them equally well. Amazing, when you think about it.

4. Likely uninteresting and somewhat alienating to someone who doesn't know anything about Mennonites.

5. Overwhelmingly Caucasian, except on MCC pamphlets and posters, which usually have pictures of non-white people.

Concluding thoughts:

I've spent too much time writing this.