'Barnum of Bitburg' has organized
annual BASH for past 43 years
By Marni McEntee,
Kaiserslautern bureau
George Price |
BITBURG, GERMANY — Call him the P.T. Barnum of Bitburg.
George Price, retired Air Force first sergeant, has organized the Spangdahlem military
community’s biggest show on base for the past 43 years.
Friday marked the start of the 45th Big Annual Summer Happening, or BASH, at
Bitburg’s French Caserne. Up to 50,000 people a day are expected to flock to the base
for the occasion — a three-day festival of carnival rides, candy corn and cotton
candy.
This year, just as in many years past, they have Price and his team to thank for it.
And there’s no end in sight for the 73-year-old athlete who still pumps iron, runs
and cross-trains every day of the week.
"I’m gonna do it as long as I’m breathing," Price says with a wide
grin. "Nobody’s gonna run me off. I love it."
Price is something of an icon in the Bitburg community — where about a third of
Spangdahlem Air Base’s 13,000 military, civilians and their families live on and off
base.
He was around when Bitburg Air Base closed as a fighter facility in 1994. He did four
tours of duty in Bitburg himself, along with tours in Vietnam and Korea. After he retired
from the Air Force in 1976, he served as the base’s athletic director for 20 years.
He has been the base’s special events coordinator since then. The BASH, he said, is
one way he can thank a community that has treated him well for decades.
Now, the lanky ex-airman’s flat-top haircut is gray. But his handshake is as firm
as a vise. When the daily 4 p.m. retreat sounds, Price stands at attention, then holds his
hand over his heart as "The Star Spangled Banner" plays.
"That’s the highlight of my day," he said.
This year’s BASH has at least one new offering — a bazaar tent filled with
collectibles, antiques and rugs. It also will have five world-class adult rides, two
children’s rides, 14 games of chance, five booths and 20 booths run by private
organizations, which make the bulk of their yearly money at the BASH.
It takes nearly the entire prior year to organize the festivities. The final five days,
however, are the hardest, said Price and his right-hand man, Frank Marisel. The two men
log miles each day roving the carnival grounds. Price, Marisel said, never seems to slow
down.
"He’s the man. He’s the one who does all the legwork," said
Marisel, a 20-year veteran of the BASH.
After 43 years, Price said, he’s starting to see the grandchildren of the carnival
operators. As he wandered the ground this week, he stopped to check in on one of them.
Tammi Schneider, administrator of the 52nd Services Squadron, said Price has
"taken care" of her since they first met in 1992. He knows a lot and does a lot,
she said.
"George has his good days and his bad days," Schneider said. "But he can
always make you laugh, no matter how he feels."
What motivates Price to make the BASH work each year?
"Fear," he said. "Fear it will rain. Fear something will go wrong."
This is one party, however, that few in the field-studded farm area are likely to miss.
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