Columns & Opinions

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Fri, 07/01/2022 - 12:00am

Thanks for your article on Page 2 (Gary E. KcKee's Editor's Log column, which was about local baseball clubs and their dances last month). I can remember as a kid visiting my grandparents in Giddings and going out to Fireman’s Park (I believe) and watching adult “hardball.” The teams were from Giddings and nearby towns. Also, I have a handful of letters (in German) that my grandad wrote to his soon-to-be wife. He spoke of taking her to a “ball” if I can “get a wagon.” You are on target!

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A Sea of Polka People

Fri, 07/01/2022 - 12:00am

It was an exhilarating experience to come out of the kitchen area at the National Polka Festival in Ennis, walk into the ballroom and find a sea of polka people doing the Seven-Step Polka. It was so crowded, I wasn’t even daring to get on the floor. So, I sat that one out and enjoyed watching all the smiles and laughter of all the polkaing people from the very young to the very young at heart. The dance floors stayed full in all the halls all day long!

O N T H E B E AT

ON THE BEAT ...with MICHAEL MORRIS

Fri, 04/01/2022 - 12:00am

Rural East Bell Co., Texas – The year is 1998. It’s summertime and the heat and humidity are typically Texan…scorching and oppressive. The skies are blue and the atmosphere is humming. And somewhere in a ditch along a dusty gravel road… under a discarded and faded Shiner beer can…an idea to form a brotherly-love polka band is percolating…evolving… growing…taking shape…and is about to emerge on the scene. And that, my friends, is how and where the Praha Brothers were born. SPOILER ALERT: Not one member of the band is from Praha (Texas or the Czech Republic) and none are brothers. Credit long-time friend and band supporter, Ron Horick, with conjuring up their catchy moniker. It just stuck. End of story.

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