My wife and I visited Odessa last summer on our way from Port Orchard to Kellog Idaho for vacation. We had never been to Odessa before but we were able to look at it in a new light as she had just learned from her cousins about her mothers family history. She knew that they were german, but assumed they were from Germany. She was surprised to learn they were from the Ukraine. So then she thought her mothers family was Russian. They explained to her how germans had migrated to the Ukraine and lived separately from the Ukrainians and Russians, maintaining their own language, schooling and religion. Her mothers family migrated to North Dakota and settled down in towns similar to Odessa. So the german names, Deutschesfest signs and the memorial in the town cemetary made sense to us.
The war memorial is very familiar to me. As a youngster in Port Orchard the highlight of the Fathoms o' Fun parade was the M60 Main Battle Tank driven by soldiers from Company A, 803rd Armor, Washington National Guard out of the Port Orchard Armory.
Hopefully next year we will come for Deutschesfest’s 51st year, the third weekend of September.