JULAJDA POLKA - The Dance Hall Boys

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.

Sigh, jedno davno i daleko daleko, another long ago and far away thing.

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

Silences ,,,

As of precisely 00:01 hours this very morning train horns went silent forever in El Campo, Texas.  Shannon Crabtree writes in the El Campo Leader News  "You’ll still be able to hear the train a comin,’ but those lonesome whistles won’t be a blowin’..."  

There was another silence a few years back.  On Saturday morning the 23rd of June 2007. Bobby Jones, the "Polka King" of Wharton County didn't come to work at radio station KULP and  he hasn't been heard from since.

Wharton police found some car tracks leading down to the Colorado River and a license plate from his car but that's all.  The river was high and it was a long time before the search could really get under way in the river.  

On the State of Texas Missing Persons bulletin his is case MO706013.
Race: White Sex: Male DOB 8/13/1958 Age Missing:48
Height 5ft 7 in Weight:185 lb
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Green
last seen: 6/22/2007 in Wharton County.
May have been traveling in a red 1993 Chevrolet four door
Lumina bearing Texas plates F37YHR.

There was a lot chatter about all this for a while.  Gossip and such too.  Maybe too much chatter and too much gossip. Last time,  I mentioned a certain silence between me and Clint Robinson about this.  Some of us just don't talk about this much anymore.  We would probably rather take a few seconds of silence and remember this fellow who was once among us.  Other than that the public liked the man and he played pretty good music, the fact is, this is about all we know. Anyone with any further information about what happened to Bobby Jones ought to call the Wharton County Sheriff's Department at 979 532-1550 and let them in on what they know.

Jim Bordelon, an obvious fan, wrote a poem 
Bobby Jones is Still the King
 (Read with the song Bob Wills Is Still The King in mind)

Bobby Jones

Well the polka halls in Texas
 Are the places we call home
 And since we live in Texas
 There is no need to roam


We grew up ’round polka dancing
 And the girls we love to swing
 It don’t matter who’s playin’ polka
 Bobby Jones is still the king


Well I can still remember
 The times we danced all night
 And if Bobby Jones was playing
 Everything would sound all right


You can listen to the Dujka Brothers
 And the “Ravens” and “Hobos” sing
 But no matter who’s in Texas
 Bobby Jones is still the king


From the 88 Lodge in Houston
 All the way to San Antone
 To the KC Hall in Sealy
 To a place we call Sweet Home


In every hall in Texas
 And everywhere in between
 When polka music’s playin’
 Bobby Jones is still the king


When you hear the polka music
 You dance with a three-step pace
 The sound of Bobby’s accordion
 Puts a smile on every face


No matter what band is playin’
 When the polka music rings
 And you’re talking polka music
 Bobby Jones is still the king


Well if you ain’t never heard him
 Well you just haven’t heard the best
 But if you’ve heard his band a-playin’
 You know he’s better than all the rest


It’s the home of polka music
 Where the bands make your heart sing
 But no matter who’s in Texas
 Bobby Jones is still the king

I don't know about Bobby Jones being "The King" and all that, but whatever you thought about Bobby, there is no doubt Bobby Jones was one of ours and he was a pretty good musician.  I think about everybody misses that big old smile he usually had when he was out among us.   Here is a video Dennis Svatek came up with over on his Texczechpolka channel on YouTube.  Dennis tells  us that this was Recorded at the SPJST Lodge 88 in Houston in May of 1985.  This has Bobby Jones - Accordion and vocals, Dennis Svatek - Trumpet, Joe Zetka Sr. - Trumpet, Teresa Zetka - Bass, Joe Zetka Jr. - Guitar, and Harvey Fajkus on the Drums.

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,


Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

UNDER THE BRIDGE - Pod mostom

"IT STARTS AT 7:00 PM," the headline screamed.  The end of the world  you'd have thought it was.  Carmageddon they called it.  A bridge over the 405 in Los Angeles was coming down.  You half way wanted to break into song: 

"London bridge is coming down, coming down 

London bridge is coming down, my faaairrrre lady."

London Tower Bridge

Even though Americans seem wont to do such things as build a bridge at the cost of millions of dollars and then turn around and tear it down, its not surprising that there was a lot of hullabaloo about tearing  down a bridge.

"New" Bridge

All over the world people are emotionally attached to their bridges.  In Brownsville, Texas, we have the "Old Bridge" and we have the "New Bridge" and we have the "Los Tomates Bridge" which is newer than the "New Bridge" but the "New Bridge" has been the "New Bridge" for more than half a century and it will remain the "New Bridge" until hell freezes over.  

Mostar

During the Balkan wars of the '90s the bridge at Mostar was  destroyed.  Almost instantly everyone was horrified.  I think even the ones responsible were horrified.  What had they done?  The stones of a bridge that had stood for 500 years lay in in  the river. The bridge itself was a symbol of unity which needed to be restored, and quickly it was.

Charles Street Bridge, Praha

Then there is the Charles Street Brige in Praha.  On the far side rises the magnicent wonders of the Hradčany. Perhaps the largest Hrvat monument in the world, it houses the government of the Czech Republic.  Did I say Hrvat?  Jup.  I shore 'nuf did.  First of all, history bears me out.  Secondly, half the names in the Prague phone book are Croatian names.  Thirdly, the only really important difference in the language of the two is that the Czechs want a complicated set of spelling and grammar rules and we Croats don't.  Aside from that we are pretty much the same.

There are other bridges too which are the stuff of poetry and romance.  Sometimes bridges are the stuff of stories ,,, 

A few nights ago I was chatting with Crandall Notes. Here is how that  conversation went: 

me: do you know the story of billy goat gruff?

Crandall Notes: Oh that has faded into the mists of memory.

me: billy goat gruff loved to play and play

Crandall Notes: I remember the Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho though.

me: Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho?   that you will have to tell me sometime

me: once upon a time ,,, long ago and far away

  there were three billy goats

  little billy goat gruff

  middle billy goat gruff

  and BIGGGGG billy goat gruff

Crandall Notes: Oh my

me: they decided to go up on the hill to eat the grass there 
  but they had to cross a fast moving stream on a little bridge

  under the bridge lived an ugly old troll

  with BIGGGGGGGGGG eyes

   and a BIGGGGGGGGGG nose

  and BIGGGGGGGGGGG teeth

Crandall Notes: ooooooh my!

 me: and BADDDDDD BREATH

Crandall Notes: Ewwwwww

me: here comes little billy goat gruff

  trip trap trip trap crossing the bridge

  and the Troll says

  WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDGE

 and the little billy goat gruff says ,, its me little billy goat gruff I want to eat grass and grow big

  and the troll says I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP

 and little billy goat says ,, why don't you wait for the next billy goat I'm just a mouth full for you

  and the troll says ,, SCAT

  here comes middle billy goat

  trip trap trip trap trip trap crossing the bridge

 and the trol says WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDIGE?

  and middle billy goat gruff says ,, its just me middle billygoat gruff

  and the troll says IM GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP

Crandall Notes: hungry troll

me: but middle size billy goat says oh please troll , I'm just two little bites for you I need to eat 

some grass and get big ,,, why don't you wait for the next goat, he's bigger

  and the troll says SCAT

  TRIP TRAP TRIP TRAP TRIP TRAP here comes big billy goat gruff

  and the troll says WHO IS THAT ON MY BRIDGE?

  and big billy goat gruff softly says ,, just me billy goat gruff coming across to eat some grass

  and the troll says I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALL UP!

  and big billy goat gruff says ,, yeah? you and who else?

  and the troll came to eat billy goat gruff all up

Crandall Notes: Uh oh

me: but billy goat gruff lowered his head and gave him such a butting that the troll ran  away across the bridge to the the north and that that's why we call that country HUNG'RY 

because its full of trolls our goats butted up that direction and they are all hung'ry.

I still have to hear Crandall Notes story about the "Harbor of Hush-a-bye Ho," but  while we are waiting for that story, over on her blog are a number of wonderful stories well worth the read.

Today's song is "Under the Bridge."  I didn't make the video, Dennis Svatek doesn't perform in it, but it is on Texczechpolka which is Dennis' Channel.  This is the LeeRoy Matocha Orchestra, another one of the greats of our time.  LeeRoy is gone now, but he was important because he was a leader in replacing the tuba with the string bass in his band thus taking a major step away from dechovka back toward Hrvati tamburasi with his instrumentation although he did retain brass in the ensemble.  

Under The Bridge.  A place where trolls live and the setting for romance, mystery, and intrigue.  Here is LeeRoy:

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

STRAŠIDLO - The Spook

Time passes and memories fade a little, but I never will forget the day I didn't have school in Wharton so I rode over to El Campo with mother.  At that time she was teaching in the El Campo Independant School District.  Mom was at a turning point in her career.  She  worked very hard to bring that about too.

Mother had made a lot of milestones in her lifetime already.  She had been woman's swimming champion for Missouri in her youth.  She had won a writing contest the Baptist Women's Missionary Union in Missouri had held and in a day when young women did not travel unaccompanied, she had made her way to New Orleans to present her work at a conference there.

She was one of the first women school teachers in the public schools in  Missouri.  Did I mention once before that we Slavs sometimes consider this as our land but because there is so much space here we are just downright hospitable about letting everyone else move in and live around us?  There are limits.  On her first assignment some official of the school district thought that a single young woman should be in "need" of uh,, ah ,, shall we say "comfort?"  When he refused what I am sure was at first a very polite "ne," the official learned a lesson about the limits  of Slavic hospitality.  The moral of the story is, don't jack with no žena who say to  you "hvala ti, ali ne."  If you don't listen to her when she says "thank you, but no", she just might shoot your kneecap right off of you and make you walk funny the rest of your life so you remember how to behave.  Majko moja, my mom - the Pistol Packin' School Marm of south eastern Missouri!

She went back to college after that school term was over, finished her first degree and married papa on graduation day.   I suspect papa was a bit more courteous than that fellow from the school where she had worked.   Their trail to Texas is something for another day I think.   She had already been one of the first, if not the first, certified "bi-lingual" teachers in Texas. Now she was in the process of becoming part of the first wave of "Special Education Teachers" in the State.

This was the woman I was with on kind of a mother and son day that October so very long ago. As soon as we were out of the driveway and out of earshot  of papa she punched the button on the car radio which was already set to KULP El Campo.  We didn't listen to the radio with papa in the car, not that he didn't like the music, he just didn't think people ought to drive and watch the radio at the same time.

There on the radio was Schwartzkopf I believe his name was, but oh dear, the brain cells might not have that just right anymore.  At  the time he was who we listened to at the stroke of 9:00 every day we had time for the Polka Hour.  Imagine my surprise as we entered El Campo when she didn't turn down the street toward her school.  I had no idea where she was going.  She turned on Jackson Street and then she parked by the radio station.  Bewildered,  I followed her in.  Out to meet us came our favorite Disk Jockey.  I was floored.  Awestruck!  My mother knew the MAN! So cool. He gave mom a record and shook my hand - "dobrodošli" he said and quickly wrote out his autograph for me.  In a moment  he had to get back and change the music on the show - he was still live on the air when he slipped out to see us.

Mom used the record in her class room for Halloween that year.  I don't remember exactly what song it was now and the autograph has long since been lost along the way.  Dennis Svatek and the Dance Hall Boys do a song that reminds me of that day with mom everytime I listen to it. It's called "Strašidlo", "the Spook."  Like a lot of the other "strašidlo" songs in Slavic culture, Svatek's Strašidlo is a bit humorous so I tried to pick up a little of that in the video.

I just now heard from Dennis about where he got the lyrics to the songs his group sings. "As to you wondering about lyrics, everything I have came from John Ondrusek. Where he got them I don't know, they are all handwritten by him, he may have gotten them from old songbooks, I know some songs he just wrote down the words straight from the recording ..."   However Ondrusek came up with the lyrics, this I know from hours and hours of research - those are the oldest and best lyrics anywhere for these traditional songs the Dance Hall Boys and then the Czech Melody Masters sing.  They preserve the flavor and the smell of the folk origins of these songs.

So now we've introduced a new character into the plot.  Who is John Ondrusek?  A post on  Slovak World in Yahoo Groups says "Dennis Svatek writes about his friend John...It is with a heavy heart that I pass along the following info. John Ondrusek, founder of the Dancehall Boys and a good friend, passed away this past Sunday from complications from cancer."  According to his obituary, John Charles Ondrusek was born in Sinton, Texas 23 August 1951 and he died at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Houston on 27 June 2004.  The obituary says "Lots of folks have danced to the polkas of the Dancehall Boys & John 's accordion."  Dennis goes on to say "Whatever else went on in his life, when it came to Czech music, he gave

it his all, and he always strove to present it the best way he could. He was a great singer (I still am amazed at how well he could sing and enunciate those Czech words, something I strive to do from his example); a hell of an accordion player, and a fantastic music arranger. He helped instill in me (and the other guys in our band) the importance of trying to get the songs right, trying to put down the full arrangement of a song if we possibly could (you would be surprised how many Czech songs you hear bands play actually have additional sections  or parts that don't get played...), trying to put down on tape or perform in public songs that other bands wouldn't or couldn't touch.  In his time, John Ondrusek was undoubtedly one of the best harmonika players around. A listing from the Austin Chronicle from way back says "The Dancehall Boys  - John Ondrusek or Dennis Svatek" along with a phone number. From Dennis Svatek's YouTube Channel here are the Dance Hall Boys  singing Wild Goose Waltz  back in 1995.  That's John on the harmonika and with the vocals.  Majko moja sometimes told me that if I had just kept up my clarinet I could be successful like that young man.  I think she kind of liked his voice.  Mom and Dad both played harmonika at least until I was seven or eight and they had a special appreciation for those things.

The river of time flushes forward.  Here are the Dance Hall Boys with Strašidlo.  Remember mom and her class while you watch the video - that's what I had in mind when I put it together.  Actually, looking back, that's not all I may have had in mind.  There was a freindship that had begun with an individual who likes castles.  So, there is a castle in the video.  Castles are spooky anyway aren't they?

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

U STUDANKY - In the Spring

For most young people in Texas in my youth, the age at which you began to drive a motor vehicle was 16, it still is.   In our town, you got a Texas Driver's Licence shortly after your fourteenth birthday. There was an exception in the law for people engaged in agriculture. We were a farming community so we all qualified for the exception in the law.  It mattered not whether you were a boy or a girl, sooner or later, most likely sooner, you were going to be driving a tractor on the highway and you had best know the rules of the road and have a licence in your pocket.  That's how it was.  

The school system provided Driver's Education free of charge for everyone.  At the end of the course we all took our Texas Driving Examination and  everyone was legal to drive that tractor or pickup truck on the road.   A few of my buddies actually had their own automobiles soon after they were licenced to drive.  

One of my buddies who had gotten a car right away sometimes came by to say for hello.  One day he needed three dollars for gas money and he had a small  bed-side type radio he was willing to trade for that three dollars.  I didn't think twice, I dug out the three dollars.  Our family had had a radio once.  It had been a grand radio in a polished wood cabinet that stood about one meter high. When you turned it on there was a yellow light in the front that flickered somehow with the  sound. Sometimes father would turn it on and the whole family would sit around and watch the radio.  

I remember one particular day sitting in the living room watching the radio with my father.  We were listening to the live broadcast of some rich dude's wedding. I broke out laughing. The guy on the radio was very seriously intoning "Hail Mary full of grapes."  Well, that's what the six year old me heard anyway.  Father patiently explained that the priest had said "Hail Mary,  full of grace," and that this was a prayer, but he never let me live that moment down. But alas, somewhere along the line, that radio had stopped working and it moved out to the shop where it never managed to  repair itself.  I still have it in my little building at the "farm." In all the years since it still has not repaired itself and the once beautiful cabinet has become faded, dusty, and sad.  

My "new" radio had an indelible cigarette burn on the top of its blue-green plastic case but that didn't matter.  It opened a whole new world to this 14 year old boy. I was no longer confined to a handful of scratchy old 78 LP records. No sir!! I could listen to all the latest music now!  Mother and Dad were frightened.  They didn't want to say I couldn't have the radio but what kind of music was I going to listen to?   "Something dreadful on english like Elvis Presley, probably", I'm sure they thought.  "Keep it soft and keep your door closed when you have the radio on," mother cautioned.   It was only a day or two when mother was knocking on the door saying "son, please turn your radio up so we can all listen too."

In those days, if you got up just before sunrise, Radio Stanice KFRD from Richmond-Rosenburg came on the air "Dobre den, jak se mas, gutten morgen" and the  "Peanut Polka" came on followed by an hour or so of good old down  home country music ,,, uh by country music I mean from Czechoslovakia, from Croatia, from Poland, from Texas ,,, you know - those countries. As soon as KFRD resumed English language programing, KULP from over in El Campo, owned by the then State Senator John Kulp came on the air with the same kind of music. Later on, on a Saturday, if the weather was good, there was a broadcast from the Baycity area, and if the weather was really just right, after  that, there was another broadcast from somewhere near Austin I think it was.

We got to listen to Lee Ilse, Adolf Hofner, Joe Patek, the Bill Mraz Orchestra, and oodles more I can't think of right off hand.  There were always plenty  of songs like "A ja sam (All by myself)", "Louka Zelena (Green meadow)" and "Na Bilej Hore (On white mountain)" which you could pretty well make out whether you spoke Czech or Slovak or Polish or some kind of Croatian.

Through the woods, past a creek or two, step over a few copperhead snakes,  there was another small town.  Boling, Texas.  Home of the Boling Bulldogs.  Home of the Boling oil dome. It was a boom town when I was a kid. I can't tell you how many times I walked over to Boling through the woods, past a creek or two, stepped over a few copperheads to see a friend and then walked back home the same way.  It got to where the copperheads pretty well hid out when they heard me coming.  It was  only eleven miles away on the path.  A bit longer if you drove.  Any able bodied man who wanted to work could go to Boling and get a job  at least as a roughneck in the oil fields.  Over in Boling there was a  little kid who would grow up to be my favorite, bar none, Texas Czech singer/performer.

After playing with the Bobby Jones Czech Band from Wharton for a spell, in 1994 Dennis Svatek formed the Dance Hall Boys with some other excellent musicians.  In 1999 the Dance Hall Boys morphed into the Czech Melody Masters.  Here is a quote from their  website:  "Since their formation, the band has always strived to emulate the classic brass band sound of such beloved Texas bands as the Bacova Ceska Kapela, Adolph Pavlas, and the Joe Patek and Lee Roy Matocha Orchestras.  In addition, the Czech Melody Masters strive to push their music back in time as well.  Rather than use the standard repertoire of most bands, the band tries to present songs in their original, full format, often using old faded music scores or scratchy 78 records as a guide.  The result is a book full of songs the way they used to be played, yet performed with today's energy."  That about says it. I listened to Dennis and the fellows on the radio and was at a few of his performances here and there.  Then came the internet which opened up a whole new world for all of us.

Dennis Svatek opened the first Czech Polka Band website on the internet back in 1997.  He's on YouTube now and on Facebook too.  It funny now to see how all the Klapa groups and bands from Croatia and Central Europe hopped on the band wagon after he was on the internet.  I remember when Dennis came on youtube.   Svatek searched on YouTube for Dance Hall Boys  and came up with "U Studanky" for which I had made a little video without telling him. I think he was surprised to find his material on a Youtube channel whose audience is primarily in deep eastern and southern Europe.  He might have been even more surprised to see that I had borrowed his "preservation project" theme and turned it into "Stari Teksikanski Očuvanje Projekta" (Old Teksikanski preservation project). Dennis was gracious indeed  to tell me that I could use any of his material which he has posted on the internet and have fun making videos.

Svatek has the most complete lyrics I've seen or heard anywhere for the ever popular U Studanky.  I can't find exactly what his lyrics are anywhere. I think he has a source that's not available widely.  This I also  know, U Studanky has become a folk song. Folk songs tend to have a life of  their own depending on who is singing and where they are singing.  The words change from place to place, from time to time.  In almost any place in europe where there are a group of Czech singers though, when the singers begin U Studanky, the audience will sing along for a little while. 

On English, here is about what they are singing about

At the spring she was sitting ,
into the water she was looking .
She spotted a little fish,
and how it was swallowing water.

Little fish, you are a silent face,
I heard that you know magic tricks.
You know what is bothering my heart,
you know where my darling is.

U Studánky - In the Spring, like you will likely not hear it anywhere else:

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac