I grew up going to wedding receptions, baptismal parties, and a host of other family events at the "old" Czech Hall on Czech Hall Road.
The "new" Czech Hall (where it now stands) was right across the street from my Granny Stewart's house, and I remember its construction well.
Many a night I saw drunken Czech dancers leaving the "new" Czech Hall in drunken stupors, and my granny (not Czech herself) helped serve many a meal of klobásy, noodles, sauerkraut, and kolaches in the building.
Bessie always led the polka band back in the day, and that old lady could lead the party 'til the cows came home.
(I hear that Milton Shedeck Jr. now leads The Bohemian Knights Band there. Milton's father was the chief banker in Yukon when I was a boy, and his mother, Jane Shedeck, taught my father AND both my brothers in third grade. She was also MY third grade teacher!)
I remember the old framed chromolithographs of Jan Hus, Antonín Dvořák, and other Czech heroes that lined the hall, and both my father and grandfather told me many stories about Sokol classes and other events that were once part of Czech-American daily life and integral to the "old" Czech Hall.
Many, many happy memories! read more
