General Discussion

I lived in Germany as a teenager. A beautiful country, historic buildings everywhere, amazing food, picturesque cities and villages. I loved it.

Near where I currently live is a "theme" town based around a German theme. Its quite popular with the tourists who constantly visit there. IMHO its a ridiculous place and is no where close to the beauty I saw all around me in Germany.

A few years ago I was working out of town. I had shared a ride to the job with a co-worker with a plan to ride a bus back home after the job was over. The bus route passed by this theme town. On the bus was a young German couple who were visiting the United States on vacation. When the fellow bus riders around them found out the couple were German the other passengers began animatedly talking up how wonderful this German theme town was. "We'll be driving right through it. Just wait until you see it!" was the general tone of conversation. The highway goes through a narrow river valley with steep mountains on either side of the road. The town is not visible from the road until you drive around a final curve in the road. Once around the curve the small valley the town is located in becomes visible. The anticipation level went up amoung the passengers eager to show off the town to the German couple. We rounded the curve. The German couple were looking out the bus window. A WTF look came over their faces. They looked at each other and started laughing quietly in an obvious attempt to not insult the fellow passengers.

Cracker Barrel and other similar businesses and theme towns in this country are an attempt by a lost country to recreate a quality that no longer exists in this lost delusional society.

Who cares what their logo looks like?