Word: old
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Very serious. Throughout the year, in more than 100 clubs in West Germany, devotees of the Old West spend thousands of man-hours and deutsche marks preparing their costumes or polishing such arcane skills for the council competitions as tomahawk throwing, quick-drawing, and tossing lariats. Then, at the three-day camp-out, they can relive the American frontier days in full dress with almost complete historical veracity...
...German fad for the Old West dates back to the 1890s, when Buffalo Bill toured Germany with enormous success. His visit coincided with the popularity of potboilers by Karl May, who wrote Zane Grey-style novels about an Old West he had never seen. Since then, with May's books selling in the millions, Germany has never forgotten its home on the range...
...Muslim," he told TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs. Special guests at this year's council were a group of authentic American Indians. Dave Bald Eagle, a full-blooded Cheyenne River Sioux from South Dakota was amazed at the expertise. He said: "These people know as much about the old ways as some of us do." Surprisingly, only a handful of West Germany's Westerners have ever been to the U.S., and their English is generally limited to a drawled "howdy" or "podner...
...rgen Haase, 26, one of the council's six "sheriffs": "Most Americans don't know enough about their own history to make a contribution. They think Wild Bill Hickok's real name was Bill." (As every authentic German cowboy knows, his forenames were James Butler.) Old Joe, like many of his Western Bund friends, refuses to watch the two U.S.-made westerns currently appearing on West German TV, Gunsmoke and The Virginian. Nobody, he scoffs, ever really said in the Old West, "Sie ritten da 'long " (They went thataway), much less, "Streck...
...council came to a close, the Indians, cowboys and even a few dance-hall queens gathered for a final ceremony: a 36-star Old Westera flag was lowered to the accompaniment of a drumroll and a trumpet call by immaculately turned-out cavalry units in Union uniforms. It had been, proclaimed Old Joe, "the best council ever, the most authentic yet." But what about that German beer and Schnaps! "Well," he said, "none of us is perfect...