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

Bog i Hrvati - God and the Croatians

Dear Reader, if you've followed along from the beginning of this little collection notes, you may have begun to notice that music we are talking about and the topics we are addressing are not entirely some scholarly matter for me.  The music is real flesh and blood, real heart, and real soul.  The music is part of of who I am, who I have always been.  The videos, such as they are, are the product of  my hands as I have learned make them.  You may be able to witness the progress I made in learning how to make these videos too.

In each video, I try to  communicate something from the song and something from me, my life with the song.  In each video, even with the saddest song, I try to show some element of joy and hope because this is how I see life. Even in the midst of the worst of things, there is joy, there is hope. We have a history.  Actually every person has a history and every family has a history. Their stories need to be told and need to be heard.  I'm going to recommend to you a blog which tells some stories which are delightful to read -  Crandall Notes. Those stories are not about Croatians but they are delightful stories to read and they are real stories about real people.


The Hrvati people are also real people who have a history, and some of that history has taken place far far away from the mass of other Hrvati.  There are stories to tell.  The  music and the musicians tell some of those stories.  These are stories of hope, stories of joy, sometimes the joy is simply the joy of having survived what might seem hopeless to someone else. In those cases the  joy is hidden somewhere in the fact we lived  to tell the story, but its there nonetheless and the message is always a message of hope for better times.  Hope. Joy. Thanksgiving.

The Lord above tells us to give thanks and praise in all things, always. He also tells that He has plans for us, not for our harm, but for our  good, so that we may give Him thanks and praise in all things.  The Psalms tell us to come each day before the Lord with a new song.  And there you  have it.


This is the heart and soul of the Christian Croat in Texas. In the darkest hour, when all else is gone, when all else disappoints, when all else fails, when Home seems too far away to ever see again, when we feel forgotten and alone, we have the music.  In the music there is truth. In the music there is memory of who we were.  In the music there is the memory of our fathers and mothers and their fathers and mothers and the glory of times long past. In the music is memory of who we are - that we are God's children after all and He never forgets us. In the music there is hope for what we may become.  In the music there is beauty.  In the music there is joy.  In the music there is hope. Always.

This is the true meaning of Bog i Hrvati - God and the Croatians.

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

U RAJ NIJE PIVO - In heaven there is no beer

"When German immigrants of the 19th century, settled in the Rio Grande Valley they found ground that was fertile for both crops and culture. Their beautiful button accordions would seed a new Conjunto, (combination) music along Mexico’s northern border." That's what Flaco Jimenez' promoters want you to hear. According to them.  Flaco's father was the father of "conjunto."

Others want to tell you that conjunto was the product of German settlers in the mid 1800s in central Texas and their Mexican neighbors. Ok, there is a bit of truth to both stories, but neither is the whole story.

Let's take a look Princ Carskog od Hrvatska in 1863.


Who?


Car.


Yes. That's what I said: Car.


The Car.

Nooooooooooooooooo not a car, The Car. Not something with 4 wheels. Not with a K sound but a C sound, like ts on english, ok? Sigh. How do I tell you who this man is? Croatia has become a country like America where the car has become the Car. Ohhhhhhh, and people say Teksikanski talk funny? Ha! Car, like the Russian царь, only on croatian. Princ carskog od Hrvatska. The Prince Imperial of Croatia. Ferdinand Maksimilijan Josip. His brother Franjo Josip was the actual Car. Later on, their nephew Franjo Ferdinand met with some mischief in Sarajevo which created a bit of a stir in Europe.

Princ Carskog od Hrvatska Maksimilijan

On English then and his full title "By the grace of God, etc. etc. His Imperial and Royal Highness Ferdinand Maksimilijan Josip, Prince Imperial and Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Croatia, and Bohemia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Cracow, and ... "

And its in those three dots following that last "and" that Maksimilijan the Princ Carskog od Hrvatska plays a role in the history of music. In 1854, at age twenty-two. Maksimilijan became commander in chief of the Austrian navy. And so now you are looking at the map and you are trying to tell me that Austria doesn't have any sea ports so how could it have a navy? Austria doesn't, that's right, but Croatia does, and remember his title - Princ Carskog od Hrvatska? He built the naval port at Pula in Istria, Croatia. Under his administration, in 1859 the SMS Novara became the first Austrian warship to circumnavigate the globe, with him aboard.

In 1857 he added Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia to his list of titles. In July that year he married the beautiful Princess Marie Charlotte Amélie Augustine Victoire Clémentine Léopoldine of Belgium, a first cousin to both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Great Britain. Maximilijan was too progressive for his older brother's taste and so he was dismissed as Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia where upon the Lombards and the Venetians pretty much told the Empire to take a flying leap. Maksimilijan and Charlotte retired for a while to Grad Miramar near Trst in modern day Slovenia.

Grad Miramar

The Mexican aristocracy approached Maksimilijan with an offer to become Emperor of Mexico. Mmm hmmm, that's the three dots up there. Mexico. No one told Maksimilian however that he had given up all his rights in Europe to accept this offer until he was under way on the SMS Novara escorted by the Austrian SMS Bellona and the French Themis. Away from land Maksimilijan was informed that he had a one way ticket to America. From the time he landed in Vera Cruz until the Mexican Empire came to a violent close Maksimilijan was in deep difficulty.

The histories want to tell you that Napoleon withdrew his troops from Mexico. Apparently its inconceivable to historians that a statesman would ever just abandon his forces. The forces Napoleon brought to Mexico were mostly Austrian, and yes, Napoleon abandoned them here. The fact that Felix Salm-Salm led a charge of Hussars to shield Maksmilijan in the last moments of the Empire attest to my story.  The fact that there were Hussars there for him to lead attests to my story.

These Hussars weren't Mexican - yet. Juarez was not inclined to be overly vindictive. As Juarez put it, he had smashed the head of the snake, he was not interested in the men who had come with him. These men were Austrians, yes? So everyone nowadays knows that means people of some kind of German background, yes? No! These were soldiers of the Princ Carskog od Hrvatska who got his soldiers where the Austrian Empire always got its soldiers - from among the Croatians.

These soldiers, like Maksimilijan had come to America with a one way ticket.  Prince Salm-Salm had money and influence and he could return to Europe.  He did return in  time to die in the war of 1870.  The average soldier had no way home. None.  All they had was their lives, and their harmonika, and their tubas, and their trumpets and their music. Their music, which they played, and which became popular among the Mexicans. Their music which was copied and adapted and re adapted. Their music became Ranchero. Their music became Conjunto. Their music became Tejano and which lives side by side with Teksikanski music to this day.  Their music testifies to the existence of these men though no monument or nor a single line in a college history book anywhere admits they ever lived. The music of the Balkans in America testifies to them.

Or at least, some of the rest of  the story - oh yes, there's more!  Zivio Princ Carskog od Hrvatska i Meksiko!!!

Lets listen to Flaco Jimenez, he does a really good job with "U RAJ NIJE PIVO."  Did I mention that Maximilijan's wife Charlotte  was from Belgium?  The Ex-Empress Carlota of Mexico, the Ex-Archduchess of Austria, retired to her estates in Belgium where she enjoyed a reputation for eccentricity.  During World War One the forces of the German Empire surrounded her estate but she was so well loved throughout the world that not a single soldier dared set foot on her property or disturb her in any way.  

U RAJ NIJE PIVO was  a popular song in Croatia about five hundred years ago or so.  Flaco Jimenez sings it in Spanish and in English.  Let's listen in as Flaco sings part of this song in Flemish in honor of the beloved Empress Carlotta. 

The Tekst:
En el cielo no hay cerveza que beber
por eso ando tomando noche y dia
porque ya cuando se me llegue el dia
en el mundo sequiera la ferrusquilla

In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All my friends will be drinking all the beer

In de hemel daar is geen bier
Daarom drinken wij het hier
Als wij zijn heengegaan
Drinken al onze verienden al het bier

En el cielo no hay cerveza que beber
por eso ando tomando noche y dia
porque ya cuando se me llegue el dia
en el mundo sequiera la ferrusquilla

In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're gone from here
All my friends will be drinking all the beer

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

LET', KONICKU LET - Fly, Horse Fly

Let', Konicku Let is a polka written by Karel Hasler. Recorded by the tenor Vaclav Albrecht accompanied by the Brouskova Vojenska kapela (Brouskova Military Band) and released on the Odean label by General Phonograph Corporation of New York. This has been digitalized and enhanced from Odean's Od 17222 matrix 8525-A.

Karel Hasler, "The Immortal Balladeer of Prague," born October 31, 1879 in Zlíchov, a suburb of Prague, was a prolific song writer as well as popular cabaret actor and singer. For a little while  in 1902 he was a member of the Slovenian theatre in Ljubljana. He moved back to Prague where he joined the National Theatre Ensemble. By 1908 he was writing his own songs.   Some three hundred songs are credited to him. He was a pioneer in the motion picture industry as well. As early as 1914 he made a comedy film České hrady a zámky (Czech Castles), based on his own script.  The advent of sound with motion pictures allowed his musical talent to come to the forefront.

One of his songs is almost unanimously considered to be one of the ten greatest hits of twentieth century Czech music.  His song earned him a death sentence in September 1941 at 62 years of age. He was arrested during the production of the film film Městečko na dlani, based on the script by Jan Drda and taken to the Mauthausen Gestapo camp where they tortured him to death. It seems the Nazis did not much appreciate Hasler's music. Here is some rare footage from a 1932 film with Hasler him self singing his immortal  "Ta nase pisnicka ceska" "That Czech Song of ours".

If by now the question has surfaced in your mind "What does a Czech have to do with Croatian music," please note, that at the beginning of the story, Prague, Ljubljana, and Zagreb were all under the Austro Hungarian Empire.  During the course of most of the history of Texas and therefore the development of Teksikanski slavic culture this was a fact of life, and much  of Hasler's music was heard and enjoyed all over eastern Europe, Texas and beyond.  In fact his songs about Svoboda, liberty, absolutely frightened the Nazis.

Karel Hasler's son Thomas lives in the United States.  Here is what Thomas has to say about his father.


and now we have that versitile tenor Vaclav Albrecht singing Hasler's Let', Konicku Let for us:

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

NA NAŠI PUDE STRAŠI - Our Attic is Haunted

For a change of pace, lets talk about Teksikanski for a little while. We will hear a lot more about Teksikanski language and culture as we go. This part of the Hrvati experience is not in Europe.  It's part of the North American Experience which begins as far as we know with Alonso Pineda in 1519 just inside the Bay of our Mother, protected by the huge sandbars which he called the "Arms of St James," named after his selo,

his village,  just outside Dubrovnik.

Croats and other Slavs have been in Texas from that time forward. In most places, most of the time, we've been outnumbered, but hej, its a big land, with lots of room for everyone.  Even though we were here first and perhaps by rights this is our land, we are a hospitable people.  It wouldn't be polite not to be.  As each wave of immigrants has arrived we've welcomed them and helped them settle in.   

In the town where I graduated from High School, there was a man who represented a fraternal insurance organization for Slavic peoples. His surname was Mahalik, his daughter's surname was Cream, and yes, he was her daddy.  First, the immigration folks couldn't spell Mlijekic, much less pronounce it, so they stuck the family with Mahalik.  Secondly, no one else in or out of the Slavic community could make heads or tails of Mahalik.  What language is that?  Immigrationese?  So her mother and dad changed the girl's surname when she was born so she would fit in better with the Anglo community.

I remember once back in '64 as Mahalik described a meeting of the fraternity somewhere up in east Texas.  He said there were more than 80 different kinds of "Bohemians" represented at the meeting.  After more than four hundred the Anglos wanted to call all of  us "Bohemians" whether we were Bohemian, Croat, Czech, Polish, Slovak, Serb, or whatever.  It had not helped either that in some communities at least up to the eighth grade,  most Slavic children went to segregated Slavic schools taught by Roman Catholic nuns, rather than attending public schools.  In places like Wharton, Texas, that practice didn't end until about 1959.  The language of these schools was Czech for the longest time,so many of my friends had had to learn a smattering of Czech.

So, at least in the eyes of the Anglo community, we all became "Bohemian".

Along the way, we developed our own language, which was a mixture of everything Slavic plus a bit of english and spanish thrown in for good measure.  

Aside from a few phonograph records here and there, the only Hrvati we heard in those days was what we spoke, mostly at home.  You didn't dare use it in school or you would be punished.  There weren't any newspapers available to us either, but there were some in Czech.  One of the Radio Stations in our area had a program on early each morning which began with "Dobre Den!" followed by the "Peanut Polka." The Monday after Bloody Easter the program began "Dobro Jutro!"  After that, we gradually came crawling back out of the woodwork into the light of day.

A lot of the music we will begin to look at under the heading "Teksikanski" will not be in Hrvati, it may be in Czech or whatever we could get our hands on.  At least it was from somewhere in central or southern Europe and that felt more comfortable than nothing at all.  There will be several items which are in spanish and are completely homegrown Teksikanski in their musical style.   There are still some stories about all this we haven't touched on, but those will remain for another day.

Today we will hear "Na naši půdē straši," (Our Attic is Haunted) as performed by Václav Albrecht.  This was part of the culture as some of us experienced it.  "Na naši půdē straši" has been lovingly digitalized from a ten inch Victor Talking Machine Company record made back in 1926.  It is Matrix BVE-37250, the label says its a Valčik or a waltz.  Besides Albrecht there is a Violin, three clarinets, three French horns, two cornets, a baritone horn, and a tuba. Albrecht is also listed as the composer, and Karel Sindelar as the director. According to Victor records this was recorded 16 December 1926 at the Webster Hotel in Chicago, Illinios.  Its Victor 79116, take 1.  There were two other takes made that day but it seems they liked the first one the best.  The US Library of Congress seems to lack a copy of this recording. Victor designated this record to be marketed to the "Bohemian community."  The flip side of this record has "Andulicka" (Little Annie), a polka written by K. Hasler and also recorded by Vaclav Albrecht. Na Naší Půdě Straší  is still alive today here is a group playing it in Clarkson, Nebraska in 2010.  

tekst:

 Na Naší Půdě Straší 

/: Na naší půdě straší,

   až z toho vstávají vlasy. :/

/: Honza na žebříku, nadělá cavyků,

   když na tu půdu leze, udělá bum na dveře. :/ 

english:

Haunted Garret Waltz  

/: In our attic there is somebody haunting,

   that even the hair on the head is standing up. :/

/: Jack on the ladder is making a fuss,

   when he is climbing to the attic, he bangs on the door. :/ 

Na naši půdē straši

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac