Walk through the nearby village streets or the adjacent campground at Pulaski Polka Days, and you’ll see license plates from all corners of the country.
A walk through the park grounds will result in friendly conversations with some of the people attached to those far-flung license plates — and several from Wisconsin as well.
Carol Taft and Karen Schaefer, who both live in Florida now, use Pulaski Polka Days as a backdrop for visiting family in the area.
“This is a great way to come up, see the family,” Taft said. “Other family joins us, so it’s a great time to get together.”
The two women were in charge of holding down the group’s eight chairs under one of the music tents while others checked out the snack shop.
Taft is originally from Chicago, and Schaefer is from Thorp. They’ve been making the trip to Pulaski for about 25 years.
“We grew up with polka music,” Schaefer said. “Every Sunday morning, my dad would put on ‘Polka Appreciation Hour.’ We’d have polka music playing on the radio.”
“I’m a polka dancer. I love to dance,” Taft added. “I guess my favorite bands are from a long time ago, but as long as they play some old songs, I’m happy. It’s a fun time.”
On the opposite end are Richard and Kelly Olsen, of Appleton. They were at Pulaski Polka Days this year for the very first time.
“This is my wife’s idea,” Richard Olsen said, as he was about to dig into a plate of food. “It’s a good time.”
Before eating, the couple made the rounds at the craft and vendor fair put together by Assumption BVM Church.
“I wanted to check it out for the first time,” Kelly Olsen said of the festival. “Neither one of us had been here.”
Then there’s Roger Neumann, of Pulaski.
He’s been at the festival every year since it began nearly a a half century ago, but he’s judicious about his time at the festival grounds. He doesn’t mind the crowds, but he avoids those times when it’s shoulder to shoulder under the music tents.
This year, he made it a point to catch Live It Up perform.
“Somebody else said you had to come and see them when they come to Wisconsin,” he said, as arrived early Saturday morning to get a good spot on the bleachers.
For him, the bands are the highlight.
“Music and music and music,” he said.
Neumann likes the music, but he simply sits and taps his foot to the beat. No dancing for him.
“That’s done,” he said of his time on the dance floor. “When you become senior citizens … heart failure and all that,” he said.
A quick check of license plates in the campground showed visitors from New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.
“It’s a vacation for some,” he said. “Some of them with the campers, they go from festival to festival all summer long.”
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
Pulaski Polka Days draws from all across the state, country
