The Polka and Cajun Dance Site for Texas (with a little western swing)
Hi, and welcome to our site! We like to dance. We dance polka, Cajun, and C/W
swing. We dance mostly within a three-hour radius
of Houston, and also go out of state for polka festivals. In 2002 we reached our goal of
dancing in all 50 states, and are striving to dance in as many Texas dance halls
as we can. We have now danced in 440 Texas venues (and 123 in other
states).
This site is intended to help others learn about polka and Cajun dancing in Texas. You might begin by reviewing the History of Polka music and dance.
If history is not your bag, you can go
directly to Polka
in Texas
If you’re looking for a great
polka publication, check out The
Texas
Polka News. This monthly publication is one of the
premier polka newspapers in the nation.
It is the preferred national polka newspaper for the central and western
part of the nation, with a circulation of over 1800. It features interesting articles about
polka music and dancing, Texas and U.S. dance calendars, polka advertisements,
human interest stories, and much more.
We also have a page summarizing the Texas Polka Music Association (TPMA) and the Annual Awards program of TPMA during its eight year life 1991-98. It's a litany of the top Texas polka talent through 1998. See TPMA.
A Texas
Polka Radio listing is your guide to polka
radio programming throughout Texas.
If you like Texas Czech music and history, then you need to tune into Czech Melody Time on the web. A labor of love by Dennis Svatek of the Czech Melody Masters band, this web site lets you listen to great Texas Czech music. Now he has added some historical video clips. Check it out by going to the Texas Polka Radio link. In a similar vein, check out "Mike's Texas Polkas" maintained by Mike Konvicka.
Texas has a great number of Czech and German polka bands, and one each of Polish and Slovenian flavor. See Texas Polka Bands for a listing of bands with contact names and numbers. This page includes a separate list of Texas-based "performing" bands that specialize in general entertainment for Oktoberfests and the like. It also has articles on various Texas bands or musicians.
I write a monthly Texas Dancing column in The Texas Polka News. Now those articles (since 2007) have been provided here for your review.
But polka is not the only fun dancing in Texas! The Sabine River still separates Louisiana from Texas but it never did much to stop Cajun music from migrating into Texas. You won’t want to leave this site without exploring Cajun Music & Dancing in Texas! A new article has been included outlining a Cajun Adventure weekend.
Western swing is not only a Texas tradition, it's almost a religion! Check out the CW Swing page, beginning with with an article on the legendary Bob Wills, and articles on many other artists and venues.
We have also included some Texas Links that you may find interesting, including Texas bands with web sites, and the Texas Accordion Association. We have added a few out-of-Texas links that may be of general interest (but do not try to link nationwide polka bands; that is already done very well by Nancy Noltkamper at Nancy's Place For Polkas.)
Looking for polka festivals nationwide? See US Calendar.
And remember, Polka dancing is "aerobics with beer!"
While you're here, we invite you to check out the social issues Commentary page, entitled Enduring Freedom. The articles include: Obama-Nation; Respect Life; When the Crosses are Gone; About Thanks, and Giving, How Are Jobs Made?, Deficits and Debt, The Case for Perry, It's a Strong Field, America Proud, Our National Budget, The Party's Over, Broke? (parts 1 & 2), State of the Union, How the Grinch is Stealing Christmas, I Believe, Real Hope & Change Nov. 2, Jihad 101, What's Good About America, Deficit Means Doom, Glenn Beck, The Supreme Court, Tea Time April 15, The Party's Over, I Believe, Obama-Nation!, Stop the Insanity, Obamacare - Does It Make Sense?, Can Common Sense Save Our Republic?, Health Care Costs, Obamacare, America, What's a Conservative to Do?; The First 85 Days (of Obama); Keep the Change; In-Debted!; Leftward Ho!, The Economic Crisis II, The First Right (on the Tragedy of Abortion), The Economic Crisis, The Best Choice, Obama-Nation?, Drill Here-Drill Now-Pay Less, Greenwashing America, Gas Pains, The Great Ethanol Scam, The Economy?, Vote Informed, Primary Borders, A Primary Role, Thanks ...for Nothing, Noah 2007, Jihad 101, Secure the Borders, Secure Borders First, Memorial Day, Global Warming? Or Hot Air?, Bush-Whacked at the Border, What is an American?, Stem Cell Issues, America's Enemies - Abortion, America's Enemies - The ACLU; America's Enemies - Hugo Chavez, Decisions 2006, Islamic Fascism, Jihad 101, Order on the Border II, Movies to Make and Miss, Order on the Border I, Husbands - Love Your Wives, Waking Up In America, An Aging Nation, Resolve to be a Better Citizen, The Death of Christmas, Defending Marriage, The Looting of Katrina, A Purpose Driven Life, The New Wars for Independence, Texas Property Taxes, Fixing Social Security, Controlling Our Borders, Bush Leads, I'm Thankful for...Supermarkets, The First Right, The War on Terror, Clear Choices 2004, Rediscovering Reagan, Jihad 101, The Hand That Rocks (Mother's Day Tribute), The Passion of The Christ, Choose or Lose (The Coarsening of America), The Death of Christmas, The First Right, Borderline Insanity, Reflections on Sept. 11, Hope Springs Eternal (Bob Hope), Innocent Lives, Texas Tort Reform, Memorial Day, Support our Troops; A World in Peril; The Death of Christmas; It's About Life; Doing Nothing (the Saddam problem); Political Correctness; The Pledge; Stifling Speech; Choking on Clean Air; Courage to Profile; Energy Freedom; Rebirth of Resolve; The Right Man; Assault on Freedom; and An Open Letter to Muslims in America.
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Try
God - the original 24/7/365!
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Living legend Ray Price celebrated his 86th birthday by performing a concert in Bullard, Texas January 7. Thanks, Ray!
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Folks, aren’t you glad you live in Texas? Well then, how long has it been since you’ve celebrated Texas? ….. Folks, that’s too long! But you can fix that on Sunday, Feb. 5 by taking part in the big “Celebrate Texas” dance at the Wallis American Legion Hall from 1-5 p.m. Fittingly for a “Celebrate Texas” dance, the music will be by the River Road Boys, featuring good old western swing (in the tradition of Bob Wills). It’s a free dance sponsored by John & Marlys Rivard. The Armstrong Family will play bluegrass for your listening enjoyment during the band breaks.
Wallis is the small community on Hwy 36 about a dozen miles south of Sealy. The hall is about two blocks west of Hwy 36 on “Legion Road” which is also hwy 60. The American Legion Hall has a great wood dance floor. Western dress is encouraged. It’s open seating with doors opening at noon. Cash bar, and food will be available for purchase from the hall. Folks, you can come to this dance and still be home in time for the Super Bowl! Texas is a great place to live! Let’s celebrate!
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Paul Berlin is Pure Entertainment
Houston area radio music fans may recall the magic of listening to Paul Berlin, the pre-eminent music DJ and raconteur who fascinates his loyal listeners with great selections of music from the 40s-50s-60s and a story with every selection. Good news folks! Paul Berlin is back, 6-8 p.m. every Saturday night on KSEV 700 AM (“The Voice”). The 79 year-old master, Paul Berlin has an infinite memory bank of personal anecdotes about musicians and songs. In October 2002, Berlin was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. We urge you to check out Paul Berlin on KSEV. It’s pure entertainment. Listen on-line at www.ksevradio.com/
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Christmas in a One-Room School
Nowhere does the promise of Christmas shine brighter than in the faces of children. Watching our grandchildren proudly perform the story of Jesus’ birth took me back to my early childhood years in rural Wisconsin, during the 1940’s.
Our
Christmas pageants played out in the one-room rural schoolhouse that was at once
a model of learning efficiency and a community center for the hard-working
farming families struggling to improve their lives.
It was in this setting that we experienced all the childhood excitement
of Christmas, while learning music, acting, team effort, success, failure, and
the importance of hard work.
We learned by accomplishment, and with
that accomplishment earned self-respect.
In looking back, I believe there is no better example of a learning
institution than the one-room country school, and no better way to tell its
story than through the magic of the Christmas Program.
But
first, to set the stage.
It’s 1945 and the United States is just beginning to emerge from the
horrible insecurity and deprivations of World War II.
Many have lost family or friends in the struggle to survive as a nation.
On the home front, ration books have been a way of life.
The farms are electrified, but many are still without an indoor bathroom.
Farm equipment is old, teams of horses still used by many, and new cars
and tractors are still several years away for most.
But the war has been won, and the nation is optimistic.
Patriotism is in, built on a solid foundation of sacrifice.
Families are strong, divorce is not an option, and doctors still make
house calls.
And Christ is still in Christmas.
But
so is Santa Claus!
And the Christmas Program at our one-room school will celebrate the birth
of Christ and the secular Christmas.
This was not an easy line to walk in a community of mixed Protestants and
Catholics, with ecumenism still 15 years away.
But with the common goal of educating their children, the farming
families were pulled together into the center of their community - the one room
schoolhouse.
The
one-room schoolhouses that dotted the countryside created communities with the
school itself acting as a unifying force and magnet.
The school buildings varied in size and structure, but were large enough
to accommodate a typical enrollment of about 15-30 pupils, spread out in two’s
and three’s over the eight grades.
The classroom itself was a single, high ceiling room with eight overhead
light “globes” hanging by chains over the six rows of desks, which were
graduated by size.
The 1st and 2nd grade desks were on the left side of the room, near the
continuous row of very large two-paned windows that provided light from the east
and north sides of the building.
The larger desks for the 7th and 8th grade were on
the right side of the room, with intermediate grades in between.
The traditional pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stood
silent watch over the learning process, just as they had over earlier and
mysterious generations of pupils.
The desks bore many of their names, “engraved” by many hours of
tracing into the hardwood cherry desktops.
These “autographed” desks themselves were a history book, open to be
read, but never telling enough, except that others had been there before us.
While we recognized some of the names, for the most part we could only
imagine who they were, where they were now, and wonder about their thoughts
while sitting in the same desk.
I didn’t realize it until much later, but these desks were our
introduction to history.
In
the front of the room was the teacher’s desk, angled into one corner to
provide maximum space for the blackboards which spanned the south wall.
The set of “rolled” Rand McNally maps occupied the center of the
wall, mounted above the blackboard.
Like a set of spring-mounted window shades, the maps could be pulled down
for geography lessons, and then released to roll back up.
The teacher’s pointer - equipped with a small hook at the blunt end -
was used to reach the pull rings for the uppermost map rolls.
The
teacher “held class” for the younger grades in the front of the room, in
small chairs semi-circled near her desk.
Older classes were held at a table in the back of the room.
School began at 8:30 (allowing the boys to assist with the morning
“chores” of milking and feeding the dairy cattle) and was done at 4 p.m.
With two 15-minute recesses and lunch, this allowed about six hours for
instruction.
Four subjects - reading, arithmetic, social studies and science - were
taught to each of the grades.
Phonics reigned supreme (and still should).
Reading became English and literature for the older grades.
Music and art found their way into the curriculum, as appropriate for the
grade level.
Arithmetic ranged from telling time and counting through multiplication,
long division, fractions and decimals.
While one group was “in class.” the other grades did assigned work,
read library books, painted with water colors, made dinosaurs, snakes or pottery
with modeling clay, browsed National Geographic magazines, or day-dreamed.
Even allowing for doubling up some classes (two grades at once), class
length was only about 20 minutes.
Precious little time.
And yet it worked!
Because
the teacher made it work!
Although governed by a three-member school board of local farmers and
reporting to a county-wide Superintendent of Schools, the teacher in a one-room
school was totally responsible and accountable for what we learned, being
principal, teacher, nurse, playground supervisor, and janitor.
Ours (Mrs. Levings) did her job well.
One of the things she did best was the Christmas Program.
The
Christmas Program, presented on the Friday night which marked the beginning of
the two-week Christmas vacation, was a two-hour pageant of songs and short
plays, involving each and every student, played to a full house of parents,
family, and Horseshoe Lake faithful.
It was the culmination of many weeks of preparation, rehearsal,
decorating and excitement.
It was - in a few words - wonder-filled!
Traditional
Christmas music, performed by the entire student body (usually about 20 at
Horseshoe Lake), was the mainstay, with smaller groups performing traditional
Christmas songs.
In between the songs, short plays were presented, with a mixed cast of 1st
to 8th grade students.
Lines to be learned.
Rehearsals.
Entrances and exits.
Stage fright!
And
the excitement of “the stage.”
Up from the recesses of the basement storeroom came the stage platforms
and the boxes of dark blue curtains that magically transformed the front of the
classroom into our Carnegie Hall.
The stage platform elevated the players about 18 inches, while the wire
suspended curtains provided back and side drops, complete with painted stars.
Off to the left of the stage we placed the 10-11 foot Christmas tree,
fresh cut from nearby “woods” by older boys, and trimmed during school hours
by the 7th and 8th graders.
(As 8th graders, my friend and 8-year classmate Jack and I
would spend an unforgettable day trimming the tree with the help of our
teachers’ attractive daughter, then about 18 years old and wearing a blouse
that provided a unique perspective on life and things to come when viewed from
the stepladder!)
In
addition to practicing the songs, rehearsing our plays, painting winter scenes
on the windows, and trimming the Christmas tree, preparations also included
hanging the crepe paper streamers between the overhead light fixtures.
This was definitely a job for the “big” 7th and 8th
grade boys, involving the biggest stepladders.
When all the preparations were finished, the effect on the classroom was
wondrous to behold, at least in the eyes of a rural youth as yet unspoiled by
television.
On
the day before the Program, the excitement was almost too much to bear.
The stage and curtains (temporarily suspending all math sessions at the
blackboard)!
The Christmas tree!
The painted winter scenes on the windows!
The decorated streamers connecting the lights!
The rehearsals, with the frustrations of memorizing (and forgetting)
lines and learning entrances and exits!
The exhilaration of accomplishment, tempered by the inevitable tears from
someone struggling with their lines!
The careful balancing act as our teacher tried to protect the belief in
Santa Claus, still intact in some of the 1st or 2nd grade
students. With
all this activity, about half of the regular classes were still held, even
during the last few days of preparation.
Finally,
the day of the Program arrived.
Our family shared the excitement, with talk at the supper table about the
program, the roles we had, and which adult would play Santa Claus this year?
Finally, with chores done and our clothes changed, we bundled into our
winter coats and overshoes, and got into the gray ’36 ford sedan for the
short, cold trip to the school.
The tires made crunching sounds in the snow-covered gravel road.
The stars in the clear cold sky shone with a brightness that promised
great things, perhaps even as they had shone on the shepherds watching their
flocks. My
sister and I would look out the window, knowing that Santa Claus was not real,
yet ever hopeful that we might see something in the sky, because the magic of
Christmas makes anything possible!
And
then we were in the school, outer garments heaped in piles in the boy’s and
girls cloakrooms, adults wedged into small desks, or seated on the available
chairs, or standing in the back.
A full house, packed with excitement and anticipation.
The
rest seems like a blur.
The welcoming remarks by our teacher.
The opening songs.
The stage fright during the first short play.
The excitement of looking out into the sea of faces, and finding the
approving faces of family.
And the feeling of accomplishment - real, solid accomplishment!
We were somebody!
When
the program was over, it was time for Santa.
As the final applause ended, a commotion would begin outside, and Santa
would appear, with a bag of gifts.
The gifts were brown paper lunch sacks, each containing the mandatory
orange and apple, brightly colored hard “ribbon” candy seen only during
Christmas, some peanuts, and perhaps a walnut.
The big question always was “who is playing Santa this year?”
This was usually solved by looking around for the usual suspects, with
the person not present being the likely candidate.
Santa
stayed only briefly (busy season, you know).
After Santa left we would run outside to burst loose with excitement in
the cold night air, while our parents were congratulating Mrs. Levings or
discussing the Program.
And then it was over!
Except for the trip home, and the exhilaration of discussing it all with
our parents.
Who had done good?
Who forgot their lines?
How did we cover up the mistakes?
Did they like it?
Over 65 years have passed since these events, but time has not diminished their importance. In this one-room country school we received our basic education. But we also learned acting, singing, art, success, failure and the importance of hard work, perhaps much better than these things are taught today. Through the Christmas Program we learned about team effort, with younger children emulating the older ones and older children helping the younger. We learned the great pride and satisfaction of accomplishment. We grew in self-respect. After all, we were somebody! It was a Christmas present that keeps on giving.
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We hope you enjoy this site and would like to hear from you. Send us an e-mail with your question, comment or suggestion.
Thanks for stopping by, and
remember…
“Polka Dancing is Aerobics with Beer!”
(updated 01/17/12)
E-mail John &
Marlys Rivard
jlrivard123@sbcglobal.net
Visitors since 1/13/04
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