On faceBook there's a page called "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..." Those of us who have any connection to the town can drag up old memories and say something briefly to others. Its amazing the viewpoints and memories that wind up there. Nearly all happy nostalgic things. For the most part we were a happy bunch. Maybe we didn't have sense enough not to be happy, but that's how we were. So many have come through the schools and gone on to other places. The younger ones have different memories from the older folk. Funny, we older folk used to be the young folk.
Here's one conversaton from "You're Probably From Wharton, Tx..." Even though all the remarks here were made out in public, the speakers may not have anticipated just how public their remarks were going to be, so I've xxx'd out the names for the sake of a modicum of privacy.
XXXXXX Football. Current Tiger Stadium, the field at the Jr. High, and the (now gone) field at WCJC. Did WHS play home games on any other fields? Like · · Unsubscribe · 13 hours ago
YYYYYY likes this.
YYYYYY Wow, I hadn't thought about field at WCJC in long time. My sister was cheerleader there and for wrestling fans "Stone Cold" Steve Austin played football at WCJC as well.... 12 hours ago · Like
ZZZZZZ It's been so long now, refresh my memory on exactly where the WCJC Pioneer stadium was located. I went to games but I'm foggy on the locale. 10 hours ago · Like
XXXXXX It was on the WCJC campus, in a field just behind the buildings. In the early 60's, they decided to build more offices or classrooms or something and needed the room. That's when the high school had to begin playing their games at the Jr. High, which had been the high school. Around 1970, they built the current Tiger Stadium. When the games were at the Jr. High, there was not enough seating. So the band had to set up chairs in concert formation near one end of the visitors' side. We couldn't even see most of the game. 4 hours ago · Like
ME pioneer stadium was still there in 'xx/yy ,, don't know after that, I was gone a good long time about an hour ago · Like
XXXXXX Yes, that's right. I can remember the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines. 33 minutes ago · Unlike · 1 person
ME you betcha !!! were you in the band in those days?
XXXXXX Some of the best times of my high school. Percussion. Graduated 'XX.
Oh dear, and there followed a few messages behind the scenes in which XXXXXX remembered my dad and XXXXX reminded me about a mother who taught Geometry. I wanted so hard to please that dear lady because she had always been so kind to me and she worked to hard to help me get it, but I was such a flat liner back then ,,, and for that, after I got out of the Air Force, God sentenced me to about 25 years hard labor at a job in which one of my functions lay at the intersection of Plane and Solid Geometry. No one has any idea how many times I thought of Mama Rock or how many times I begged God's forgiveness for failing her. But God was relentless in His punishment. It took me about 10 years, but I got to the point where I could look at a truckload of logs and know, just know, how much veneer and how much lumber that load would produce. I got to the point where I could gaze out upon a sawmill floor and tell you accurately how much was stacked out there and I could look at an aerial photo and tell you fairly accurately how much timber was standing on a particular plot. Maybe Mama Rock would have finally been proud of me, but I never could do the math. That's a job for the accountants, God bless them, or these days for my computer. I still have a problem with math.
In the band, XXXXX was percussion. I was a few years ahead. I played clarinet, and we both have the same memory: "the cheerleaders dancing to Julida Polka on the sidelines." Some Friday nights over in Pioneer Stadium you might have thought the Julida was our school fight song as often as the band struck up that song. Oh heavens, our side of the stadium would sound out along with the band. You knew we were there! So many people knew all the words back in those days.
I put this song over on CANOVALS on YouTube back on November 4, 2010. It hasn't been one of my most watched videos, but a good number of folk from Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as Texas and the United States seem to have enjoyed it as well as a few folks from all over Europe and even from far away India. Even Hrvati from Australia were singing along with the song.
Maybe you noticed we've switched back and forth between spellings for the song "JULAJDA" vs Julida. Hej, so a Hrvat has a Czech Song on his Hrvat pages. Ok, it's Teksikanski Czech anyway. Hej hej, that's just how it is, don't worry about it. The song was and is part of our lives and maybe always will be. Play it at my memorial service when the time comes, will you please?
Dennis Svatek, once one of "The Dance Hall Boys" from Texczechpolka on YouTube and were kind enough to allow me to use their recording of the song. Dennis lived next door to Wharton in Boling for part of his life. I used to listen to this recording on KULP - EL CAMPO when they played it as I was passing through at the right time of day.
Someday I will make another video to go with this song. It deserves a better video than I knew how to make at the time . It was meant a bit as a dream sequence going by to youthful days. The little mouse all tucked in and sleepy - that's me. Maijka moja used to love to sing this to me. Hej, its a happy song and it passed for a lullaby in our house. Dear Mom. I liked the turtle playing the keyboard in the video - if keyboards had existed back then that's about how Mom might have looked with her kerchief on her head playing. Yes, XXXXX, I was remembering our cheerleaders. I hope they don't mind that I used the dancing mice to represent them. :)
Here are the words - sing along with Dennis as you watch the video:
Ten panský kočí, má modré oči,
On se mě vyptáva, kde já spím v noci.
R.:
Julajda, Julajda, já mám tě ráda,
Julajda, Julajda, já tě ráda mám.
A já spím sama na naší půdě,
Žádný tam za mnou vylézt nemůže.
Čtyři tam lezli, jeden tam zůstal,
Jak jsi se, Pepičku, jak jsi se vyspal.
Já jsem se vyspal, ale jen málo,
Mně se tam něco hezkého zdálo.
On English these words are approximately:
The carriage driver, he has blue eyes,
He is asking me where am I sleeping at night.
R.:
Julida, Julida, I like you,
Julida, Julida, you I like.
And I sleep by myself in our attic,
Nobody can climb up there to see me.
Four of them climbed there, one stayed there,
How did you, Joe, how did you sleep.
I slept, but only a little,
I was dreaming about something nice.
Now you just must understand these are not the words we sang when we sang this on english - "I got the honey if you got the money" was how the refrain went on english.
What's funny is the song was probably first sung on polish or on english. It was written by Walter Solek, the Polish - American song writer / radio polka show host. Solek was with the Krakowska Orchestra organized by his brother Henry, with which he recorded on the RCA Victor label. Julida was his first major hit after World War II with Columbia Records. It vaulted him to the top of the charts in the polka scene for a number of years. His motto, Bringing people together through music!" helped him compete with Elvis and the Beatles. A member of St. Stanislaus Church, Solek's seventy-five year career in music ended in 2005.
Just a few minutes ago I found out that my friend from High School is gone. His family has kindly allowed me to dedicate this little video to Bob McCulloch who was a good friend and one of the smartest guys I ever knew. I swiped this photo from his sister's FaceBook page with her permission. Except for the mustache, that's the same smile Bob had in high school all those years ago.
 |
| Bob McCulloch |
JULAJDA POLKA
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
3 Rujan 2011
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