I fell in love with the beauty of the country as well as the residents there just like my grandpa had many years ago. You see, my ancestors are from Pittem, a small city in Belgium. My grandpa has a lot of pride in this so he formed the Sister Cities program about 30 years ago. Shawnee, Kansas is a sister city of Pittem, Belgium. When I visited there this summer, I got to stay with the local residents of Pittem. They knew my grandfather very well and only had good things to say about him.
Even though my grandparents are too old to travel over to Belgium as often as they used to, they keep the Belgium spirit alive in Shawnee by listening to Belgian music, eating frites with mayo, being a part of the Shawnee Belgian American Club, and attending the Sister Cities State Championship Rolle Bolle tournament every year during Old Shawnee Days.
Anyone and everyone is invited to compete in the Rolle Bolle tournament. It's an old Belgian game that my grandparents love so much they built a Rolle Bolle court in their back yard!
The tournament takes place tomorrow, Saturday June 4th at the Rolle Bolle courts at 58th Street and King Avenue (just north of Johnson Drive). Beer, brat worsts, hot dogs, and other food will be served starting at 12:00. The tournament will start soon after. Grandparents, parents and kids will all be in attendance. It is a game that anyone of any age can play.
The game started in the 13th century in Belgium and was an outlawed activity for a while. Those who play the game are called boulders, and they play using a hard rubber disc that the game takes its name from. Rolle bolles are about eight inches in diameter and four inches thick and can weigh six to eight pounds.
How to play the game:
One at a time, starting at the backstop on one end of the court, two teams of three boulders take the rolle bolle and roll it toward a stake or pin raising about five inches from the ground. Rolling the rolle bolle is not so easy, however, because a bevel running down the center makes the surface uneven. Getting the rolle bolle as close to the stake as possible is the object; if the rolle bolle hits the backstop behind the stake, it is considered dead.
Players can try to use their rolle bolle to knock away those of the opposing team, bringing in some shuffleboard tactics.
I hope you will come to the Rolle Bolle tournament! I will be there as early as 9 AM helping to set everything up. My grandpa has instilled a Belgian pride in me and I hope that long after he is gone I get to pass it down to my grandchildren and keep a little bit of his spirit alive as well.
