Even in our latitudes, it is a lottery game to catch a date in the meantime, where the weather god has an understanding. On this Saturday, however, everything was perfect. So it seemed in any case. Our hard-boiled ones had already arrived the day before with camper and caravan in sea-stable and had begun with the construction work. Therefore we could set off leisurely and full of confidence on Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine. I still had our Eva, with meanwhile 81 years our oldest member, on board. When we arrived at about 3 o'clock, everything was well prepared. The pavilion was set up, the drinks were cold, the coffee was prepared and the cake was waiting to be eaten. At 4 o'clock we already counted 16 people and in retrospect we had to realize that it was perhaps quite good that not all of those who had announced their coming actually came. Because shortly after 4 o'clock a black wall of clouds moved in our direction, accompanied by a strong wind, which in turn made our campfire sizzle lively. And then, suddenly, as if on command, all the sluices in the sky opened. 8 men and/or women were now busy preventing our pavilion roof from taking off. This activity was further spiced up by the fact that with arms stretched upwards, the downpour could run unhindered along the inside of the arms under the shirt or T-shirt until finally all the clothes were soaked, including socks and shoes. A car in the car wash must feel like this was my thought. Meanwhile, our Werner, the cast-iron man, was busy securing and lashing the pavilion roof with a herring and hammer. Now the 8 anti-aircraft guns could let go again and everyone sought shelter in our garden hut. In terms of area, sufficient standing room was available. And it became suddenly warmer again in the hut, since all those inside were dripping and steaming with wetness. An experience afternoon of the special kind thus. Meanwhile our campfire didn't make a fizzling sound anymore. In the presence of a fire department it would certainly not have been extinguished any faster. At about this time our Michael and his wife arrived in his Ford Mustang. And lo and behold, the wind died down and the rain decreased noticeably until it finally stopped completely 20 minutes later. All of them had gained at least 2 kilos in weight in the past 90 minutes without having eaten a single bite of barbecue meat, caused by the totally soaked clothes that everyone still wore. Now the turning point had come, according to the motto "on to new shores". The tables and benches were rubbed dry, a rather funny undertaking with almost exclusively soaked rags. In the end it was not so tragic to sit down on a bench that was not dry with wet trousers. Only when sliding back and forth a certain frictional resistance became noticeable. Christoph now developed the first attempts to make the campfire sizzle again. Gunter helped several times with accelerant in the form of gasoline. And lo and behold, at some point it began to glow and blaze again. Dry wood was added, and when the fire reached a height of almost one meter, you could start to stay close to it to let the spreading heat dry your clothes. Meanwhile Gertrud, Brigitte and Franz started to put the grill into operation and put on the first meat. This brought us much closer to the real reason for our being here today.

In the end, we had reached our goal despite all adversities: The MAA organized a wet, thoroughly literal, cheerful barbecue. Those who were there experienced something, those who did not, missed something.