The Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center in La Grange will host the annual Heritage Festival & Muziky on October 15th and 16th. The Fest will open on Friday in front of the Main Center and TCHCC’s famous homemade Chicken & Dumplings will be served while it lasts in the Hanslik Banquet Hall beginning at 5:30 pm.
Please check polkabeat.com, venue websites or call to confirm as we update the schedule daily.
The 1922 vintage building that houses the Pavlas Tavern sits at the south end of the two-block strip of buildings that compose downtown Moulton. It supposedly entered life as a saloon and has remained so throughout the nine decades. In 1959, George and Vlasta Pavlas purchased the business which became known as Pavlas Tavern, where Vlasta worked for 58 years proudly serving the public and friends. A family oriented establishment; kids had crayons, coloring books, games, and various toys for them to play with and the adults generally behaved themselves. The youngsters even had their own couch to sleep on when they got tired.
The Czech immigrants who settled Texas represented a great cross section of the working class of Central Europe. Among those hard-working folks were musicians and visual artists. Then, as now, a talented person couldn’t make a living in the rural artistic world, thusly most of them farmed. The musicians, such as the Bacas and the Majeks, were well represented by their performances, but most still farmed during the day. The visual arts were not so well promoted, however it takes ingenuity to operate a successful farm in the early 1900s, where most equipment was homemade, and a few of the farmers were more creative than others.
Polkadate August 2021. I have a shirt that says “What is a day like without music, I wouldn’t know”. This column is just a few stray thoughts rounded up to share with you.