Svacina Project

See the baby held between the couple in the foreground. Sweet! On Labor Day weekend this month, I spent Sunday at the 130th Annual Sacred Heart Parish Fall Picnic in Hallettsville at the Knights of Columbus Hall. I know this hall very, very well. It's almost walkable from my grandmother's house on Alt. Highway 90.  My extended family has the Morkovsky reunion there annually; my grandparents' 40th wedding anniversary party was held there; I attended Fiddler's Frolics there most of my junior high and high school years; my Uncle Bobby was a drummer for bands that played dances there; and I've been to the picnic many times, though not in a while.  There was so much activity going on when we walked into the hall and so many people there, I couldn't believe the church actually holds the exact same event twice in the year... once in the spring and once in the fall. The number of poeple was even more amazing when you consider that Shiner (a little more than 1

On July 30th, a wonderful lady and loving mother/ grandmother/ great-grandmother/ friend passed away... Victoria “Vickie” Klimitchek, 86, of Hallettsville. Mrs. Klimitchek was the mother of my Aunt Pat and the adopted grandmother of my first cousins on my mother's side. I remember her as talkative in that accent of native Tex-Czech speakers, very outgoing, and one of the most positive poeple I've met. She was also a goldmine of information about how early life was for a dying generation of Texas Czechs. Their invaluable knowledge is being lost daily in this state.  She was born on Dec. 5, 1925 to Joe and Mary (Michna) Vanek in Hallettsville. Vickie grew up on a farm and worked in the fields while attending Sacred Heart School. In her obituary, Vickie's family wrote, "It was very difficult to balance that life style with getting an education. She would tell us stories about how far she had to walk to school and how physically demanding farm life could be."  She