Svacina Project

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 &quo

I was recently babysitting my nieces and asked what they like to eat for breakfast. The older one, Eleni, said "Well, we're Greek, so we like to eat toast, cheese and olives." This statement made me both happy and sad. I was happy that she identified strongly with her father's cultural heritage, but she's almost as Czech as she is Greek, so I was sad that she didn't identify with her mother's cultural heritage, too. Or not for breakfast foods anyway. But of course she'd say she's Greek.... she's a first generation Texan on her father's side, she goes to a Greek school, has very Greek first and last names, learns Greek, her father speaks Greek and has favorite Greek and Cypriot foods, she goes to Greek festivals, has a grandfather that lives in Cyprus, and has visited Cyprus several times in her 7 years. 90 years ago when Eleni's maternal great-grandmother was 7, she did some of the exact same things and was a first generation Texan her