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Thursday, the first of the so-called “crazy days” leading up to Lent, is known as Weiberfastnacht or the Women's Carnival, where women cut off men's ties as a symbol of power reversal. The women sometimes reward obliging men with a bützchen, or friendly peck on the cheek, a less common tradition today. Source (You can also read about it in more detail here.)
So yes, Thursday, Lincoln's Birthday, was Altweiberfastnacht. (I think the "Alt" part of the name was lost to political correctness some time ago, as it means "old," just like no one says "Fräulein" any more. Modern times, yuck.) I saw mention of this on the internet on Friday, brought back a memory it did. Of the old days. (Hhmm, mentioning the "old days" and Germany in the same context is problematic, innit?)
Anyhoo.
There I Was ...
Sitting at my desk at Geilenkirchen AB, Germany, compiling a bunch of C++ code as I recall. It was a large-ish program and compiling and linking all of it took some semi-lengthy amount of time. Perhaps 30 minutes or so. Then if something is amiss, you fix it and start over again.
Normally (normalerweise, auf Deutsch) I would occupy my time during a long compile by playing cards (FreeCell to be precise) on the computer while monitoring progress. One Altweiberfastnacht (I believe it was 1999, some three months prior to retiring from the Air Force) I was doing just that. While doing so, a band of celebrants of the female variety entered my office on a mission to cut the ties off of any man they encountered.
As I normally wore my BDUs¹ to work, having occasion to sometimes crawl about the lab and other places where computer equipment was in use to check on cables (which the cleaning staff would sometimes inadvertently unhook or otherwise cause to lose connectivity) and having once destroyed a rather pricey pair of uniform pants doing that, I felt justified in doing so. (My colonel once chided me for that, after explaining myself, he relented, in fact he started wearing his BDUs to work as well. Now it seems to be all the rage.)
Long story short, one does not wear a tie with BDUs, now on Altweiberfastnacht the ladies, especially the European ones, get annoyed if one does not wear a tie so that they can destroy it, so I adopted the expedient of fashioning a false tie out of cardboard and affixing that to my attire in lieu of wearing an actual tie, which would get destroyed. Not being made of money, as the saying goes, I did not wish to lose a tie once a year. So ...
Anyhoo, long story short ...
I'm sitting at my desk, monitoring my compile job and having a game of FreeCell when I hear the clamor of a group of females approaching my position. When they entered I presented my fake tie for destruction which some of the ladies (the Europeans) chuckled at, as they knew me well by this point, this being my 8th Altweiberfastnacht. They snipped it and prepared to move on to find their next victim when one paused, looked at my computer screen, then looked at me. I should note that this lady was an American captain (O-3 Air Force type, not O-6 Navy type).
"Playing games on Air Force time?" she asked in a semi-serious tone.
"I'm compiling ma'am, while I'm compiling I play FreeCell. And yes, I'm compiling on Air Force time, as well as playing a game."
"Hhmm, that seems less than professional."
I realized at that point that she might be serious after all, it seems to be a habit of our non-rated officers to be somewhat, shall we say, pretentious. As a senior noncommissioned officer, I felt it was my duty to respond in a corrective manner.
"Perhaps ma'am, but maybe just as professional as running around the building cutting off ties."
At which the European ladies all had a good laugh and our young captain blushed mightily, realizing the absurdity of her position. The ladies left without further ado.
When the compile was done, I went and picked up The Missus Herself and went to join the festivities at the club on base. Fun times were had, no ties were harmed on my part.
I miss Germany at times.
Good times.
¹ Battle Dress Uniform, or BDUs for short.
My years in Germany are fond ones. Good people even though the moped "gangs" were still an occasional annoyance.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have those where I was at.
DeleteNo Turkish workers around your area?
DeleteGood come back there Sarge, someone always likes to be the judge of what others should be doing.
ReplyDeleteIt's a malady not confined to young officers.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. That O3 obviously did not have the "loving guidance" of a senior NCO whilst still a Margarine Bar. Every O1 MUST be assigned to an E5 or up when first assigned, and told by the Old Man "listen to Sarge. If you do not, I will know about it and there will be hell to pay!". Being sent after "100 feet of flight line", or "2 gallons of grid leak bias" a couple times will remind a margarine bar of his place in the universe. I'll bet she was CBPO, or JAG, or worse, CC's aide.
ReplyDeleteNope, software/systems type.
DeleteWell...some of us had the benefit of having been that E-5 before being busted to O-1
DeleteBG
Heh. "Busted" to O-1 from E-5. Saw an E-9 get "busted" to O-1. Wasn't sure of his motivation.
DeleteThe Germany we experienced when AFN announced the Mark exchange rate at noon is long gone. Even 10 years ago, the taxi drivers, pensioners or those at the Stammtisch would complain about the invasion of those following Islam. They would frequently point out the fact that the foreigners, who didn't work at all, were paid more by the Bundesregierung were given more than those who had worked their entire lives in Germany.
ReplyDeleteDave
The Left destroyed Germany, they're still working on it here.
DeleteWe had a very similar system in the fighter flying branch of the Air Force. Four categories, Fighter Pilots, fighter pilots, Shoe Clerks and shoe clerks. Fighter Pilots were the folks that knew what the mission was and did their absolute best to get it done. Many, but not all flew. But still that group met the conditions of being Fighter Pilots. The next group, fighter pilots flew but not well and were the first folks to look for a desk job and could rarely make room in their busy schedule to fly, unless they were about to not make their required level of flying to continue to receive flight pay. On the other side of the coin, the Shoe Clerks did whatever they could to do their job to perfection and make sure the needs of the flying wing didn’t get impeded by bureaucracy. Got a post about that next Monday. The last group, the shoe clerks, did as little work as required. Knew what rules they could use to minimize their work tasks. And, yes some fighter pilots were shoe clerks also. They usually got out of the Air Force on the first day they were eligible and were off to the airlines. I know of a couple of Squadron Commanders (Fighter Pilots) when asked by the airline about the candidate from that squadron didn’t pull any punches. That was always bad for the fighter pilot. Most of the time though, they were just happy to rid himself of them and wrote a letter saying “ Capt Schmedly is an excellent instrument flying pilot and is on time very often.” But that only happened after the resignation papers were in and could not be rescinded short of a declaration of war.
ReplyDeleteWhen one of those occasions arose, there was a period of time when the fighter pilots shaped up and put some effort in to do better. I don’t recall that lasting very long however.
Just my $.02
juvat
Ah, the shoe clerks. Don't miss THAT bunch at all. In the Air Force or at Raytheon either.
DeletePre-Lenten traditions are interesting. Shrovetide, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras (I HATE the American version), Carnevale (literally remove the meat), Paczki Day, or Maslenita. Various ways to use up meat, eggs, and milk before Lent. Usually in excess. Some traditions involve pranks and even organized fights, sometimes between entire villages.
ReplyDeleteBut all that is meaningless if not followed by at least an attempt at observing the solemn and introspective Lent.
I don't make that attempt to be frank. Not a Protestant tradition, at least not where I grew up.
DeleteAnd now, I know what BDU actually stands for.
ReplyDeleteThere are a great many people in the world that make it their business to tell others what to do, whether or not they fall into the "chain of command" or other actual authority chains. The world could be improved by a lot of people just minding their own darn business.
And always, just do your job.
Delete