Columns & Opinions

Editor’s Log Polkadate March 2022. The sausage has been a food staple of many cultures throughout the centuries. This writer’s introduction to sausage was a weekly Saturday morning journey on his bicycle to the City Market (still in operation) owned by the Smrkovsky family in Schulenburg to fetch a link of hot sausage. Parking my bike in the alley behind the market, walking by the glowing pits, in the back door, and placing my order while eyeing the large mounds of wieners, my order arrived. Arriving home with the parcel wrapped in pink butcher paper with a little grease stain on the bottom, the noon meal was unwrapped on the table and the McKee family dove in, sometimes getting zapped with a squirt of grease as the fork went in. Flash forward fifteen years, aboard the USS Independence, upon opening a “care” package, from my Mother, the most wonderful gift presented itself, several links of dried Smrkovsky sausage. This precious commodity was quickly hidden as bunkmates generally shared our packages. Not to be thought of as greedy, the slightly moldy sausage was shared with my best buddy, who was from San Antonio, because, you know only a fellow Texian could appreciate sausage.

Editor’s Log Polkadate February 2022. Though it is not a Leap Year, the next one is 2024, this report of a Leap Year dance was too interesting to not share.

Editor’s Log Polkadate January 2022. Thoughts after completing another trip around the sun.