[Culturechat] Garden Gnomes

[jane haslett]

Home owners in Royal Oak Mi and environs often have
faux geese in their front yard. they dress them up in
little outfits usually appropriate to the season or
holiday. this practice has spread to Ohio and
Illinois.It was reported last year in the WALL STREET
JOURNAL. May of us in the Midwest have germanic roots.
 roots<giglisaw@aiconnect.com> wrote:
> Many visitors to CH in the summer notice the gardens
> of vegetables and
> flowers. Some comment on the little statues often
> seen in these gardens.
> These little funny looking things are called
> "Zwerge". Exactly what their
> function is is a puzzle to me. Anyway, I have a
> couple of my own. They range
> in size from 6 inches or so to a couple of feet and
> are dressed in colored
> garb like one would expect on a minature clown.
> There are an estimated
> 15,000,000 of these little guys across Europe,
> mostly in Germany and CH.
> 
> It seems that now a german company has decided to
> produce a female garden
> gnome. I had never noticed them to be all males, but
> I guess until now, they
> were. There is a Basel group called the
> International Association for the
> Protection of the Garden Gnome, and these folks are
> fit to be tied about
> this gender change in garden gnomes. They got so mad
> that they fined the
> manufacturer, an outfit called Griebel, the sum of
> CHF 100. They paid up but
> defended their choice to make female gnomes.
> Apparently, these gnomes are
> decorative only. Even if you talk badly to your
> gnome, he will just sit
> quietly and nothing serious will happen.
> 
> So, the next time your are cruising along the garden
> paths in Germany or CH,
> tip your cap or wave at the gnomes and look for
> girls (gnomies that is).
> 
> Vance Roy
> gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
> 
> 
> 
> 
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