John Delach

My one and only Octoberfest experience took place in 1994 when the Munich Re Insurance Company hosted a meeting with our firm and our client Exxon. The meeting was planned for the first week in October, the same week that this annual beer festival began.

Curiously, on the Saturday morning, September 29^th, before I began my journey, my AM radio was tuned to WCBS-880, and this news station actually reported that Octoberfest was to begin tomorrow, Sunday, September 30th.

“Some coincidence,” I thought, “I’m about to make a trip to Munich with Exxon’s Treasurer, who doesn’t understand that insurance underwriters don‘t view Exxon the same way as their money managers does. Underwriters don’t worship having Exxon’s business. For them, you present the danger of loss whereas investors recognize Exxon as a safe place to put their money. Money managers didn’t have to deal with the Exxon Valdez!

“Oh well, this is what I am paid to do. Munich, here we come.”

I arrived in Munich early Sunday morning, gave the taxi driver the name of my hotel that turned out to be in downtown Munich along the route of the Octoberfest Parade. The driver had his radio on a station playing songs dedicated to today’s event. One song  grabbed my attention. It was a musical version of the beer commercial that I knew as:

My beer in Reingold, the dry beer. Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer. It’s not bitter; not sweet; it’s the dry flavored treat. Won’t you try extra dry Rheingold beer.

I thought about this musical version of the Rheingold jingle and realized that this must be a classic piece that the beer company’s advertisers adopted for their brand.

This thought bounced around in my head until it eventually faded into my memory’s background.

The trip went well and the Octoberfest was a hoot. The fest takes place in a series of pre-fabricated structures packed with picnic tables that they call tents. We had twelve people in our group and our hosts did the ordering. Naturally, beer came first and our server brought us twelve steins of beer. My first reaction upon seeing my stein was, “Where’s my glass to pour this pitcher into?”

Finally, I realized that pitcher was my glass and the Octoberfest brew was outstanding.

 Supper was definitely German fare, pretzels for appetizers, various brats, and frankfurters for the main course with potato salads for sides.

The trip went well allowing me to establish a better relationship between my client and our team.

One German oddity about Octoberfest. The rest rooms are not free  and the user must buy a token from vendors to enter!  

Fast Forward

Far removed from 1994, earlier this November, Mary Ann and I were watching one of the last episodes from the series, Golden Girls, when the script led these stars to all sing, My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer, Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer…both of usjoined the cast in singing the lyrics as well as we could.

It reminded me of my experience listening to the song in that cab, 29-years ago.

A simple hunt on the internet revealed that the music for this piece was written as a waltz by Emile Waldteufel: 1837-1915. His waltz was originally six- minutes long.

Can you imagine a six-minute beer commercial? Neither can I!