Roll Out the Barrel

Last weekend I happened to be in the next suburb over. It’s a tourist-y place, probably because the ferry to Whidbey Island comes and goes there. It was a nice day and when I got out of my car I heard an accordion playing down the street. A lot of people will say unpleasant things about accordion music but for me, an accordion always brings nice childhood memories. I grew up in a tourist town too, but in far northern Wisconsin, a long way from the Puget Sound area where I live now. When I was growing up, every Thursday night in the summer, a large red and yellow band wagon was pulled onto the side street just off the main drag. The street was closed to traffic and a local trio took the stage. The music du jour was mostly polkas. “Roll Out the Barrel.” “The Pennsylvania Polka.” “Hoop-De-Doo.” And of course, “In Heaven There Is No Beer.” It was Wisconsin, after all. Some of the local people had roots in Croatia or Poland and they loved these weekly musical gatherings. But so did the tourists. A certain song, and I can’t remember what it was, unofficially mandated that everyone snake around in a huge circle and do the Bunny Hop. Both visitors and locals took the waist of the person in front of them and did that silly dance through the street. Call me a hick at heart, but I love to hear polka music. I also adore other ethnic music that uses an accordion or concertina. Tejano and Norteño Mexican songs using a button accordion, Eastern European folk music, Yiddish-sounding folk tunes. After the polka that initially drew me in, the group that day morphed into some of those. I could have listened forever.

(I don’t know where I got the Accordion Buddha photo, I think I may have stolen it from a friend’s Facebook post long ago so I can’t credit it but I love it!)