Bizarro World

This morning I was looking up some information using our village website when I realized that I was not looking at Lindenhurst, Illinois, but Lindenhurst, New York.  The site must get a lot of this, because the first message that came up said something like "if you were looking for Lindenhurst, IL, you're in the wrong place, but come on in and take a look anyway".  Well, shit like this intrigues me, so I decided to see what was going on in our sister village half-way across the country.  I was surprised at some of the similarities, but of course, there are some differences besides the obvious geography.

Both villages have about the same population and occupy approximately the same amount of land.  Both are governed by a mayor and a board of trustees.  And just for fun, Lindenhurst, NY is the birthplace of singer Pat Benatar and 50's game show host Jack Barry.  Alas, Lindenhurst, IL has no favorite celebrity sons or daughters.

However, as I investigated further, I began to discover some not-so-fun things about our New York cousin. While Lindenhurst, IL (LIL) was incorporated from a farm in 1956 by gentile farmy folk, Lindenhurst, New York (LNY) was founded by descendants of fierce Germanic tribes from Silesia in 1873.  Originally named Breslau, the name was changed to the more innocuous Lindenhurst in 1891.

As Arte Johnston of Laugh-In fame would say:

Verrrrrry Suspicious

I dug further and found that  Nazi sympathizers of the German Bund were centralized in Breslau Lindenhurst in the early part of the 20th century.  In the 1930's many LNY residents were tried and convicted for treason.  And in 1937, up to 40,000 bundists would blow into town on any given Sunday to celebrate Nazism in America, greeted by young Siegfrieders lined up to meet them at the train station.

Just In Case You Wondered What A Siegfrieder Was

Hmmm ...  I looked at some pictures from the website ...

Parks Department Employees

Wehrmacht Welcome Wagon Members

Christmas Parade

Village Mayor and Trustees

And then to top it off, I found this headline ... ripped from the local Topix page:

Village of Lindenhurst is Corrupt

Oh my ... the things you learn on an innocent data search on a Sunday morning.

Postcript:  Just in case any of you litigious leaning Lindenhurst, NY residents read this ... I'm just kidding! I'm sure you have a wonderful little community!  Except, what's up with those two middle pictures which are actually on the village website?  I mean, really?