Known as the “Granddaddy” of all Oktoberfests, the City of La Mesa once again hosted a phenomenally successful annual event that even Munich would have been proud of.
It was the first weekend of October and over 400 vendors were lining the center of La Mesa Boulevard. Surrounding streets were closed for La Mesa’s 37th annual Oktoberfest, a German-inspired block party complete with Bratwurst, Beer Gardens and of course – oompah-pah bands!
And, when I arrived for my shift Saturday morning, downtown La Mesa was already buzzing!
I started to wind through the maze of booths, remembering a scene from Charles Dickens’ with vendors gathered on cobbled London streets, singing their wares. Of course, no one was singing their wares — not at 9:00 a.m. at least. (Though there may have been some singing coming from the old “Biergarten” later in the day!)
At our booth, I tidied up the tables from Friday’s events, arranged our product, charged batteries, switched on lights and was ready to go. I’d barely finished when people were already making their way through the crowd into our booth – before the official opening time!
Soon Jimer herself arrived to help out, and from that point on, we never stopped! We had a constant crowd of people – shopping for Christmas, looking through the catalog, asking about parties, taking advantage of our specials, men shopping for their wives, moms and teens buying our $5 grab bag items – WHEW! Was I ever glad to see Diane and Kira show up for the night shift (which, incidentally, was twice as busy as we were during the day!)
Despite the hot, muggy, and even sometimes rainy weather, the crowds just kept on coming and coming — and then came back for some more! Sunday began much the same as Saturday with people constantly streaming in and out of our booth. In fact, we had many repeat customers from the day before come back with their friends.
As the festival came to a close, and it was time to assess our fabulous (albeit exhausting) weekend, nearly every flyer, catalog and business card had been given away, our stock had been depleted to almost nothing and our cash box was healthily laden with the proceeds!
Our Jimer Oktoberfest was a huge success … And, so, from all of us at Jimer to La Mesa Oktoberfest Committee and City Officials, we’d like to extend a very hearty, “Danke und gute Nacht!”
… a FREE genuine leather jewelry tote! Plus, 
) advertisement, as Jimer DeVries (founder) has always said, “our best advertisement is you (our advisors, hostesses and customers) expressing your total satisfaction to your family, friends and acquaintances!”
