Editor’s note: for simplicity, all references to peoples originating from the Moravian, Bohemian, Silesian areas of the Austrian- Hungarian Empire in Central Europe will be referred to as Czechs, regardless of the time period.
Well, I’m not sure if Annie and that farmer were doing any “fancy dancing” at their dance last month, but there was certainly a lot of fancy dancing going on at SPJST Lodge 88 in Houston! I’ll speak about that fancy dance shortly, but I first want to thank everyone for the comments and compliments on last month’s column.
Hello, all! Before I talk about the awesome time we had at our January meeting and dance, I was asked to write a little something to follow along with this month’s theme of polka and agriculture. So, I hope you enjoy the following little story that is neither factual nor agriculturally correct, but I think most of the song titles are accurate.
Czech and German immigrants to Central Texas in the mid to late 1800s were impressed with the richness of the soil and the fact that it had never been tilled. This was a major selling point to their families in the old country who were trying to extract a living by growing crops on land that had been drained dry of nutrients from centuries of farming.
A great many polka musicians come from farming families. It’s probably not a coincidence.