Svacina Project

I love potlucks. Last night, I attended the monthly meeting of the Austin Czech Historical Association (ACHA) at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall. Members share a potluck meal together and then listen to a speaker or musician or other interesting person present some topic related to Czech or Texas-Czech culture. This group has the evening's timing down right. BEFORE the program, we go through the line on either side of the long tables set with dishes and we make our plates. And the event is BYOB, which people do. We are Czech, after all. I heard someone comment that this evening there were too many meats and not enough vegetables in reaction to a previous meeting where the opposite was true. That's the nature of potlucks and the fun. I personally loved having three kinds of sausage on my plate. And Czechs do know how to balance the flavors of a meal. A little rich pork and something sour to cut it - pickles, olives, vinegar-based cole slaw, vinegar-dressed gr

On Sunday the 10th, my cohort Lori Najvar and I went to the annual church picnic in the community of St. Mary's outside of Hallettsville on FM 340.    Parishioner volunteers measuring out picnic stew to sell by the quart in the "drive-thru" line. The first religious activity in Lavaca County happened in the area around the present St. Mary’s Catholic Church, near Smothers Creek, which dates back to a missionary effort in 1841.  And the beginning of Sacred Heart Parish in Hallettsville (where my parents were married) resulted from this effort. My mother's father's side of the family has had their reunion at the St. Mary's church hall the last few years, so I'd been there several times for that event.    But Lori and I were there to work - interviewing, filming and photographing for the travelling exhibit we're producing called Texas Czechs: Rooted in Tradition . Lori's been collecting film footage from church picnics i