Columns & Opinions

Polkadate November 2021. I finally got the courage to tackle the Baca Band family history last month. To the layman, this sounds like a rather simple straight forward project, Find a few newspaper articles, look in a book or two (which is about the total of books on polka bands), or ask some older folks around Fayetteville. Such is not the case. This column, hopefully, will answer a common question I get asked. Where do you get this information for your music histories? Of course, having multiple decades in the data business, helps a bunch in compiling information.

Polka Date October 2021. This is the second half of the column that began in last month's issue.

Polka Date September 2021. Polka Music came into my life on a jukebox at the Lakeside Café in Schulenburg. I was of bicycle age and taking a break from fishing in the lake next to the café when someone put a coin in the jukebox and played Peanuts. I was instantly mesmerized and rushed to see the name of the music which was so energetic. Being raised in a non-polka household, this was like music from another planet, the monies scrounged from picking bottles along the way to Lakeside went directly into the jukebox to hear Peanuts. My parents and I traveled in a roadside diner’s era. A good many of them had remote jukeboxes at each table and it was magic when Dad gave me a coin to put in it and from the big jukebox in the corner Bob Wills would come blaring out. I was mesmerized by flipping the little arms back and forth to change the pages of the selections, also the Bakelite buttons to push for the song, sometimes they glowed.