Sunday, August 2, 2009

A Tale of Tell City

Following Lady Tammy's excellent blog on the Dublin Irish Festival in Ohio...and taking a break from all things English (still many more blogs on the England trip to come)...I decided to immerse myself back into real America...here in the Rolling Hills and Ohio River Valley of Southern Indiana.



Like so many communities in this part of Indiana, Tell City has German Catholic roots, with the land being fertile, the River open for transportation, and the scenery a reminder of the homeland. Of course the land also reminds me of the Somerset area of England. Tell City is about 40 clicks up river from my town of Newburgh. It was settled by the Swiss-German Colony in 1856 and named after the Swiss Hero, William Tell.



My reason for the visit was a joint business venture with Sir Tigger of Kidd, a native of the area. After our successful business venture we went to celebrate in Tell City's oldest Tavern, which has been a continuous tavern since 1872.




Originally called the Arbeiter Halle, which in German means Workers Hall...it's now called Braunie's Bar. Still sporting its original bar...modern Germanic faces belly up to a perfect place for a PBR!



Looking at the Pool Table (Billiards if in England) and Pin Ball Machine, the spacious bar looked like the perfect place to introduce Table Skittles and Shove Hapenny!



The Hoosier and Colts road signs hanging above the bar also hide gunshot holes, where the bartenders in the 1800's would shoot their guns up in the air to quiet the rowdy crowd! Now that's America! (Sir D can now see why I wasn't nervous at the Crown and Scepter in Frome!)



I'll be making quiet a few trips to Tell City in the future, so I can see Braunie's becoming a Sacred Watering Hole in the not too distant future.



Of course, just down the street is another historic building turned restaurant called Capers, where you can get classic American cooking. We also found Sara Palin hiding out behind the bar petting her latest hunting victim, a big Bull Moose. So, now you know what she's up to ! LOL!

Sir Hook Who Tells No Tell Before Its Time of Warrick

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice little Blog there pardner..heh...deep in the heartland of America...complete with cowboy Signwriting , bullet holes and Moose...
As a signwriter I'm fascinated to see on Wiki that the towns original name was Helvetica ( the old name for Switzerland ) which to us typographical types is the name of one of the most used sans serif fonts. ( cos it was invented in Switzerland by Max Miedinger)

Also interested to see that one of the most famous residents is Aaron Riley the martial arts guy... so Bowie i'm sure will be rightly proud today to see both sides of his germaniic and riley heritage getting a shout on the blog:)

Actually Hooks, i'm disappointed in you...I thought, being Hooky, you would have gone to a grocery store, bought an apple and put it on the statue of the Son, and had a photo taken next to it:)

Mebbe next time eh?

Sir D ( who absolutely loves learning about places he has never ever heard of before, and why he wanted to be a Knight ) of Show n' Tell Oxfordshire

dkWells said...

Actually I ripped the statue photo off of Wiki, because by the time we left Capers it was dark and my iPhone didn't get a good shot.

So, thanks for the "Hooky" idea. I'll send you the photo when completed and sober!

Sir Hook Who is a Good Shot with the Bow Too of Warrick

Sir Bowie of Greenbriar (a.k.a. David A. Kuhn) said...

Guten Morgen adelt Gefährte.

Voice come from cow on wall!

Moose! Moose, you imbecile!

-- Murder By Death

Neon. Now that's something that was missing in England (along with PBR).

You post today reminds me that we need to create the "every tavern in the area" list and start on conquest.

Sir Bowie "Germania Maennerchor's Volksfest is just around the corner" of Greenbriar

dkWells said...

Ja Mein Heir! Let's plan on the Germania Maennerchor Volkfest. We'll be getting back from Lollipoloza in Chicago just before. PARTY ON!

Yes, we need to get the tavern's thing going. Since we did such a bang up job in England, it's only right to do our own neck of the woods PROPER!

Coming soon...KMSA UTube Channel!

Sir Hook the Producer of Warrick

Lady Allwinky of Warrick said...

Can Sara Palin see Russia from Tell City, Indiana?

dkWells said...

Sarah can see Russia from anywhere...just ask her! LOL!

Sir Hook the Cossack of Warrick

Anonymous said...

Thats no way to talk about your next president LOL...

Clinton Vs Palin 2012 lol can you imagine???


Sir D ( booking my seat in the TV debate right this minute ) of errmmm where am I?

mommakin said...

What a cool little visit! Thanks!

Clinton v Palin? Well that would be something to watch, huh? I wonder if Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have their fingers crossed...

Lady T. who has made it to her next festival and is temporarily of Bethlehem (um, PA that is...)

Anonymous said...

oooo oooo Lady T. refer to my Blog of DEC 30th 2008

http://knightsmsa.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

i was there then .. go check the brewery out... LOL..

yummmmmmmmmmmm

Sir D