Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Gypsies Visit Humboldt

Gypsy Musicians
From Pat Miller Herzog via Mike Rustad:
Dad was at Letellier for something or other regarding Customs and heard this strange language that he had not heard before and it was a bunch of Romanian gypsies that had just moved there. Dad spoke 5 languages and this was not one of them so he was really intrigued. Thru various interpreters they had a interesting dialogue and Dad was invited back to their home for lunch. He went. He spent the rest of the day with them. They are a colorful people and I mean that in the nicest of ways. Their home was bright and cheerful and their mode of dress was the same. All of them were polite and he enjoyed the lunch and almost all of them came for lunch which were about 35 people.

So, Dad, being Dad invited them to Humboldt and issued a written invitation as they would need that to cross the border. Then he asked them if they would go to the school to talk to the children and explain where they came from, what they did for a living and their culture. They were delighted and thus we got the benefits of that conversation that began it all. That was a day trip but they came back several times. A couple of the men brought their huge guitars and none of us had ever seen that before and oh-how they could play them and sing and we were enthralled. I have had tremendous respect for Gypsies ever since.

2 comments:

  1. The "gypsies" came to our rural house offering roof repair (around 1960)in central Minnesota. Unfortunatly my mother was fearful and we hid behind the couch until they went away. Thanks for interesting article. I've always been fascinated by gypsies and their wagons. LTD

    ReplyDelete
  2. LTD: Me, too. In the last few years, I've been fortunate to meet and become friends with a couple of Roma, and learn a LOT about their culture, etc. As is often the case with things we don't know, they are an often misunderstood people. They have a rich and complex culture, varied depending on the particular groups, which there are many...

    ReplyDelete