Yes, it's ANOTHER reunion post. I feel like I've done too many of these, but I go (generally) to four reunions a year (Morkovksy, Kallus, Orsak and Hahn/Zielonka.) They're so full of family and food and other things this blog is supposed to be about that it's hard not to write about them. The Kallus reunion was last Saturday at the church hall in St. Mary's, outside of Hallettsville on FM 340 in Lavaca County. Kallus is my mother's maiden name.
The bad news - only 75 people attended this year, down from 100 in 2011. The good news - the poeple, music and food. They were 75 wonderful people, clearly committed to maintaining family ties. There were lots of traditional dishes on the long food tables and a keg of Shiner. Three relatives brought instruments this year -- two guitars and an accordion -- and the music was sweet. It was lovely to hear Al Mladenka playing Czech waltzes on the accordion as we ate lunch. And in the afternoon, people sang along to "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain," "The Streets of Laredo," and "Amazing Grace." There were only 6 children under the age of 11, but they played together even though they didn't know each other, which is partially the point of a reunion.. re-uniting, re-connecting.
Above is my son playing his great-great-grandmother's guitar. My great-grandfather played piano and organ and he wanted his wife to play something, too, so he bought her this guitar. It got passed down and refurbished and the current owner brought it to the reunion so the children could have their picture taken with it.
Texas-Czech food was well-represented on the lunch table this year, though going through the photos I took, I realized that all the traditional food I shot was BROWN.
My plate groaned with starches, but Uncle George and Maggie brought fresh green beans with onions and someone else brought roasted beets. My son always goes straight for the pork products. For dessert, I personally sampled the strudel, coconut cake and apple brown betty. My favorite overheard comment of the day.... "Tofu! Who eats that stuff? They're certainly not Czech."
The list of foods we had this year:
Meat - barbecued chicken, fried chicken (4), pork roast with gravy, barbecued pork loin, sausage (3), baked penne with meat sauce, spaghetti with meat sauce, turkey spaghetti.
Sides - roasted beets, pinto beans (3), green beans (2), buttered corn (2), corn casserole (2), potatoes with butter and onions (2), mashed potatoes (2), macaroni and cheese, potato salad (3), three bean salad, cole slaw, green bean casserole, ramen noodle salad, home-canned dill pickles.
Desserts - chocolate chip cookies (2), poppyseed cake (2), fresh fruit, vanilla wafer cake, pecan pie, apple strudel (3), coconut cake, pineapple upside down cake, chocolate sheet cake, cream cheese bars, coconut pie, dump cake, apple brown betty, apple pie, poppyseed cupcakes.
Not only was there great food for lunch and lots of discussion of food, but half the auction items were food-related. Every year, the family sets up a silent auction to help defray the costs of the hall, disposables, tea, etc. plus the income allows the family to make donations to a local church or buy flowers for Grandpa and Grandma Kallus' graves (my great-grandparents whom I never knew) and have masses said. (It's been over 40 years since Alois and Theresa Kallus died and the family is still buying flowers for their graves. I can only hope someone will be doing that for me some day.) Homemade foods (canned and baked goods) are always the biggest sellers. Auction items included a gallon of homemade noodles (which my Dad bought me for my birthday), plum butter, home-canned pears, dilled okra, peanut brittle, plum jelly with jalapenos, pepper sauce, breads, vodka-soaked apricots, and garlic pickles.
A package called "All Things Czech" included a pear strudel, a Dujka Brothers CD, a 6-pack of Shiner Bock, cream cheese kolaches, homemade noodles, dewberry jam, and garlic pickles. It pretty much encapsulated Texas Czech culture for a high bid of $45. Someone donated a framed family portrait of my grandfather with his parents, brothers and sisters. My favorite item, though, was a set of very old glass bottles dug up from/out of the cellar of my great-grandfather's general store in Wied, TX which closed in 1936. One of the great-grandchildren was studying archaeology and wanted to do a dig. The family located the cellar and is apparently still digging things up a year after starting. It was simply wonderful that the auction was not a garage sale dump of sorts, but items were thoughtful reminders of where we as a family came from and what we hold important.
I had a long chat with a second cousin who also drove from Austin. She told herself this was the last year she was going to come to the reunion. We lamented how hard it was to fit this event into our busy lives while feeling like we don't even spend enough time with our most immediate family... mothers, sisters, aunts. She started a "Czech Girls Beach Weekend" to try and honor those closest relationships and that's difficult enough. Once the oldest generation passes away, the fabric of family starts to unravel at the top and families re-cluster from the bottom up. My grandmother was the last of the oldest generation in the Kallus family and she died in January. I don't know that the 25 people who didn't come to the reunion this year that came last year didn't show because my grandmother passed on, but maybe that had a bit to do with it. I have 24 first cousins and 3 brothers and sisters and only one of those 27 people came to the reunion. Of my 9 living aunts and uncles, only 2 came. I'm not trying to instill guilt if any of them read this post. I'm illustrating how time and the busy, busy lives we lead wears away at extended family, even in the Czech community where family ties have historically been the basis for its social structure. I wonder what the reunion attendance numbers will be like next year.
The bad news - only 75 people attended this year, down from 100 in 2011. The good news - the poeple, music and food. They were 75 wonderful people, clearly committed to maintaining family ties. There were lots of traditional dishes on the long food tables and a keg of Shiner. Three relatives brought instruments this year -- two guitars and an accordion -- and the music was sweet. It was lovely to hear Al Mladenka playing Czech waltzes on the accordion as we ate lunch. And in the afternoon, people sang along to "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain," "The Streets of Laredo," and "Amazing Grace." There were only 6 children under the age of 11, but they played together even though they didn't know each other, which is partially the point of a reunion.. re-uniting, re-connecting.
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| The lunch line. |
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| The dessert table. |
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| Barbecued Chicken |
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| Poppyseed Cake |
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| Apple Strudel |
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| Potatoes with Butter and Onions |
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| Three Kinds of Sausage |
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| Potato Salad |
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| Roast Pork and Gravy (Steve Orsak) |
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| Homemade Noodles (auction item from Marion Dierschke) |
The list of foods we had this year:
Meat - barbecued chicken, fried chicken (4), pork roast with gravy, barbecued pork loin, sausage (3), baked penne with meat sauce, spaghetti with meat sauce, turkey spaghetti.
Sides - roasted beets, pinto beans (3), green beans (2), buttered corn (2), corn casserole (2), potatoes with butter and onions (2), mashed potatoes (2), macaroni and cheese, potato salad (3), three bean salad, cole slaw, green bean casserole, ramen noodle salad, home-canned dill pickles.
Desserts - chocolate chip cookies (2), poppyseed cake (2), fresh fruit, vanilla wafer cake, pecan pie, apple strudel (3), coconut cake, pineapple upside down cake, chocolate sheet cake, cream cheese bars, coconut pie, dump cake, apple brown betty, apple pie, poppyseed cupcakes.
Not only was there great food for lunch and lots of discussion of food, but half the auction items were food-related. Every year, the family sets up a silent auction to help defray the costs of the hall, disposables, tea, etc. plus the income allows the family to make donations to a local church or buy flowers for Grandpa and Grandma Kallus' graves (my great-grandparents whom I never knew) and have masses said. (It's been over 40 years since Alois and Theresa Kallus died and the family is still buying flowers for their graves. I can only hope someone will be doing that for me some day.) Homemade foods (canned and baked goods) are always the biggest sellers. Auction items included a gallon of homemade noodles (which my Dad bought me for my birthday), plum butter, home-canned pears, dilled okra, peanut brittle, plum jelly with jalapenos, pepper sauce, breads, vodka-soaked apricots, and garlic pickles.
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| Pears, dilled okra, and plum jelly with jalapenos. |
I had a long chat with a second cousin who also drove from Austin. She told herself this was the last year she was going to come to the reunion. We lamented how hard it was to fit this event into our busy lives while feeling like we don't even spend enough time with our most immediate family... mothers, sisters, aunts. She started a "Czech Girls Beach Weekend" to try and honor those closest relationships and that's difficult enough. Once the oldest generation passes away, the fabric of family starts to unravel at the top and families re-cluster from the bottom up. My grandmother was the last of the oldest generation in the Kallus family and she died in January. I don't know that the 25 people who didn't come to the reunion this year that came last year didn't show because my grandmother passed on, but maybe that had a bit to do with it. I have 24 first cousins and 3 brothers and sisters and only one of those 27 people came to the reunion. Of my 9 living aunts and uncles, only 2 came. I'm not trying to instill guilt if any of them read this post. I'm illustrating how time and the busy, busy lives we lead wears away at extended family, even in the Czech community where family ties have historically been the basis for its social structure. I wonder what the reunion attendance numbers will be like next year.
I had lunch with my brothers the day after the reunion in Austin and one of them was telling me about hearing Deepok Chopra speak. Chopra talked about a person being made up on a molecular level of bits from trees, precious metals, rivers, even other people. This made me think about what grounds me. Reunions help. I must have a disproportionately high percentage of molecules from Czechs in me... and maybe the Beskydy Mountains, plants like caraway and cabbage, and maybe some garnets.
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