Terry Flanagan: Eat, Drink and Be Merry, for Swedish Days Ends Too Soon

While Rick Nagel engages in , I’ll settle for the more genteel and less-risky activities at Swedish Days, such as the , the at all of the booths along Third Street, and finally, a cold one at the American Legion beer tent, where the greatest danger I’m likely to face is having a beer spilled on me. Spilt beer can be an unnerving experience, especially if it’s my beer, but at least it’s not a threat to life or limb.

Gathering at the American Legion beer tent has been a Swedish Days tradition for us almost as long as we’ve been attending Swedish Days. We try to make it there at least once or twice during the festival if only to give Alderman Ron Singer a hard time. He usually volunteers some time working the refreshment counter. We’ll “remind” Ron we’re there to take him up on his offer to buy us a beer. But Ron is much too clever, or too cheap, to fall for that old ruse. I bet he never gets tired of that routine. Right.

The beer tent is open from noon until ten Tuesday through Thursday and stays open an hour later Friday and Saturday. It wraps up at four on Sunday. Friday and Saturday are usually the most crowded. The beer garden is fairly bursting at the seams on those evenings. The Legion also serves wine, soft drinks, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, fries, nachos, and their version of Swedish meatballs on a stick.

One nice thing about the American Legion beer garden is that you can get together to talk there. There are plenty of places to go during Swedish Days, including the center stage, if you want to listen to live music. But if you want to enjoy a drink and some conversation in a sort of backyard barbecue setting on a pleasant summer’s eve, then it’s hard to beat the Legion beer tent. Even if it rains, you can still enjoy the shelter of the huge canopy that covers most of the beer garden.

Proceeds from the beer tent go to help the American Legion with their volunteer efforts to help veterans, advocate patriotism, and work with youth. So the money you spend at the Legion beer garden is money well spent. Where else can you go to have a beer and help support the troops at the same time? It only looks like we’re enjoying ourselves and having a good time. We’re really helping out in a worthy cause.

So if I were Rick, I’d start looking for a stunt double and plan on relaxing at the beer garden with his beverage of choice one of these afternoons or evenings. A man of his advanced years can’t be too careful.