WEST, TEXAS NEWS 8/25/10

Can't have a post on West, Texas without a sports update. The Sykora Family Ford girls won the Texas Teen-Age Softball State Tournament for freshman girls. We fecking rock.
Tomorrow the West Trojans will open their 2010 football season against Lorena. The Trojans returning this year consists of 11 seniors, 11 juniors and 9 sophomores. Inky's son Devin is a starter. I'd go but not driving across Waco..I'll ride, but not driving..Panic attacks...eek.
The West High School Lady Trojans won 5 of the 6 matches they played in their division of the Big Red Classic to capture second place last Saturday.
(volleyball) They are 11-4 as they go into the Robinson tourney beginning on Thursday. The West Cernosek Insurance T-Ball team captured second place in the state girl's tourney.
Last Thursday they had a meeting at the Czech Inn to show maps and plans of the I-35 widening project. Which will start in the fall of 2011 and finish 2014. Will widen I-35 from 4 lanes to 6 with enough expansion to also go up to 8 lanes.
The West Hertitage Cookbook is going to be going on sale again. I want one of them It's approximately 500 pages long. This will be the 3rd printing since 1986. It has a bunch of authentic Czech recipes. There will be 6 kolache recipes, one for Kraple, (butter tarts)
one for Vanocka(Christmas braided bread ) and several sausage recipes. Now all I need to do is find out how much it cost. Think they are around $14-15..?? Anyone want one..let me know.
Bold Spring Baptist Church is having a fish and shrimp dinner for Friday and for Sept.3. Plus hamburger dinners for Aug.30th. hot dang...
Abbott church is having a spagheti dinner. Will include salad, bread, tea and desserts for $7, childs plate $5. West Kiwanis Club is having a blood drive on Sept. 2. They have them every year at Westfest time. Think Babs did it a couple of years. If you donate you get a free ticket to Westfest and a free t-shirt.
The West VFW has a special for Cowboys games..$1.50 for long necks, $1 for set-ups, and serving nachos, hot dogs and frito pie. Good news for the VFW, the bar buys around for every touchdown the cowboys make...3 touchdowns in what? 4 games...??
Leann Michelle Laubert is engaged to Nathan Eric Kaluza. They will be married In Oct. at Saint Mary's. Meredith Diane Groce is engaged to Britt Neal Craig and will be married at St. Martins in Tours.
Lucas White turns 2 on August 29th. Walter Soukup celebrated his 89th birthday on August 24th. Kaleb is 8, Parker is also going to be 2, and Kole will be 14 and his sister Kyndall will be 17.
Fronie Watson, 80 passed away along with Larry J. Kallus, 58. Another teenage death. Brandon Ashley 18 was killed in Waco in a motor cycle accident. Sad, sad, sad.
As you all know..West is celebrating the 35th anniversay of Westfest. Josh Abbott Band will headline the Westfest Preview Party on Sept. 3. Reigning Miss Westfest will crown the new Miss Westfest at the end of the night. The great thing about Friday is they have a special deal for the kid rides..All kids will be able to ride all mechanical midway rides for $20. This doesn't include the price of admission. There will be over 20 rides. You can buy advance 3-day tickets This includes one Friday night at 2 Saturday or Sunday for $24. This is a $4 saving. This will be the first time we've had a Westfest Bowl, which will feature the West Trojans and the Troy Trojans. The Westfest Bowl...hmm, I call it the Dick Bowl. Saturday the parade starts at the city hall at 10 a.m. The West High School Trojan varsity football team will be the Parade Marshals. Westfest will open at 11 a.m. and continue till 12:30 a.m.Regular price is $8 but they have a senior discount of $4 for us old farts of 65 and older. Also all military personnel with their IDs will be admitted for $4 on Saturday and Sunday. There will be over 65 arts and craft exhibitors.There will be Taroky Tournament, washer pitching, horse shoe pitching, and of course the Kolache 5000. Last year there were 328 runners. There will be a Polka Mass at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday. Will also have the Kolache Baking contest. A complete schedule of all the events can be found on line at westfest.com
50 years ago they had the grand opening of Wernet's West Drug. They're still there..along with my ole buddy Kirk at Old Corner Drug.
The Food Mart Grocery has Dr Pepper 12 packs on sale for 3/$9...Bab's is in hog heaven. Community Grocery has peaches on sale for .89 cents a pound..Might get me some of those.
Marak realty has a new listing. 3-bd./2 bath brick home with WBFP, new wood laminate floors, 2-car garage, workshop and fenced yard. And it has a pool with slide, diving board, pool house and relaxing hot tub. reduced to..............$149,000.dang!
Welp....that's all the news from West. I'm busy baking birthday presents. Just finished a cake and fixing to ice it for Judy M. I've know her for 30+ years. She works part time at West Food Mart. Then Friday I will make a cherry pie for Inky ..who will be...............holy shit...47 years old. He looks like he's 17...little punk. I think I'll put up a happy birthday for Inky on my blog Saturday and then everyone can drop by and wish him a happy birthday.
Ok...I'm out of here..our cold front came in and our high was about 90..been in the high 70's and low 80's all day..nice...

WEST NEWS 3/24

Well, hell..the team from Houston took top honors at the 17th Annual West Volunteer Fire Department Barbecue Cookoff ...Some local groups won too..but not the top one..Craig Sharry and his Texas Pepper Jelly cooking team had 40 points with a second place finish in the Chicken, a first place in pork spare ribs and a fifth in brisket. Waldo Strein and his Lost Gonzo cooking team of Fort Worth won the Reserve Championship with 27 points.
There were 98 teams which was 8 teams more than we had last year. The 2003 Cookoff was the largest with 138 teams. Considering it was cold/damp and dreary we still had a great turnout.
The proceeds from the cookoff will go toward purchasing the fire department's new grass fire truck and other needed fire-fighting equipment. The new truck which was finished last week, was on display at the cookoff Friday and Saturday. I saw it..it was big red and shiny. The thing I thought was the most interesting was Brad Wines mobile barbecue pit. It's mounted on a go-cart chassis and can be driven on pavement.It's powered by a five horsepower tiller motor. Cracked me up..Only in Texas would someone fix up a BBQ ride'em rig.
West is having the Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday from 1-2 P.M. at the West Assisted Living Center..Whee...Kids hunting eggs where the old farts live. There is a cycle here in West. Your original home..then the West Retirement Apartments (where I live), then the Assisted Living Center, then The West Rest Haven, then the hospital and then the cemetery. Holy shit.
Bold Springs Baptist Church is making fish and shrimp dinners to raise money for the Multipurpose Center they had built. Anyone that would like to make a donation to them can make it through the paypal for Annie up at the top of the blog. KJXT is having a bake sale at St. Mary's School Cafeteria this Saturday. Hm! I might make a pumpkin cheesecake for them. If I remember. Which reminds me..The girls mom Kathy called and wanted to know if I wanted to have another cooking show for the old farts (my choice of words) and I do. So will got the 28th of April at 10:30 A.M...now I have to think of something to make. Ideas are welcome..Will be for about 30 people(old people)..
St.Mary's is having their Drive-Through Stations of the Cross again. It's put on by St. Mary's CCE Students. I know they take this very serious and it's very appreciated by the people of West, but it makes me laugh...Some day one of them will read this and smack me for being disrespectful to their rituals..So be it.
We had two marriages, no births, 2 engagements and 4 deaths. Life goes on in West.
West Trojans took second place in the District 7-AAA baseball tourney at Richardson, Texas.The Lady Trojans won their opener with a 15-0 victory over Glen Rose. Hot dang..we're rocking now folks.
Oh, man..it's raining really hard out..and I know my seeds are going to either be washed away or flooded and will rot. Knew I should have brought them back on the porch. But I was getting back pains from hauling those 8-9 pots back and forth. Too old for this shit.
There is a great repeat of an old ad from the West News about the Circle Burger here in West. I'm guessing it's 50 years ago. It had already been torn down by the time I got here in the late 70's.
Both grocery stores have great sales this week. West Food Mart has lean ground beef on sale for $1.59 per pound. 5 pound bag of flour for .99cents.5 pound bag of russet potatoes for .99cents.
Babs and I went to Community Grocery today as she had to get cigarettes and Dr Pepper. I had to go because baaaaaaaaaaaaaacon is on sale and Slovacek's sausage is on sale. I only got the hot links but the kid behind the counter who knows of my weakness for Wright's Baaaaacon kept enticing me with 'but it's so sweet, and juicy and sliced so thick.'... I got sausage and made cabbage and sausage for dinner..damn that stuff is good. I'll probably go back tomorrow and get at least a pound of bacon. sigh* I'm so weak..
I had tried the Actos diabetic prescription and it didn't work for me at all. I had heart palpitations, made me hungry and sleepy and my blood sugar was all over the place. So went back to my old and now my blood sugar is fecking right on the money. 95-98 in the AM...and have been eating more carbs so my sugar won't drop. But for some reason it did today after lunch. Was 66..I fucking hate that. I'm going to make an appointment with a real Diabetic Dr in Waco...I keep saying that but so far I can't get myself to get on I-35 and face those assholes in the traffic. sigh*
Dexter the serial killer made his first kill. Got himself a grackle..which is ok with me..them fuckers chase all the little birds away and eat up all my bird seed.
Well...............that's all for the Wednesday West News Report. Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods...

just added this ps..remember when I said during the BBQ cook off I ran over to Mike's and gave Marissa a bag of books with the 2 Japanese dictionary's in them..? Well I saw her Monday and she started reading them Sunday and has already learned how to say good morning, good after noon and good evening..and hello and good bye..in one day..fluent too...not halting or slow..she just rattled it off..Nancy said not to give her any more books that she had so much information her head was going to explode..

-------WEST, TEXAS NEWS-------

Hot dang..they are having Fourth of July fireworks display here in the big city of West. The last one we had was in 2006. I think they had planned on having one every year, but the weather had been so dry and the burn ban was in effect and couldn't shoot them off. Wait till you hear what it's going to be called...........you ready? ...THE CZECH-SPOLOSION. Hey, I can't make this shit up. It's going to be over by KD's Smokehouse and will start at 9:45 p.m. It will kick off at 8:45 p.m. and recorded music will play until the fireworks and patriotic music will be played during the fireworks. Also Strickly Country will be having their annual Fourth of July Birthday party and I'm thinking about going. It's T.J.'s birthday and also Jim "Chief" F.'s birthday too. But if I go and don't take stuffed peppers they might not let me in. Not sure I'm up to stuffing 100 jalapenos with cheese and frying them suckers up. I'll think about it.

The VFW had planned on a Fourth of July Steak cookout, but it's so hot they decided to have an SOS breakfast instead. The post will be open all day with snacks and beverages available. Penelope will be sponsoring a 4th of July Barbecue Cook off this Friday and Saturday. Penelope is pronounced Pen...al o pe..I always pronounce it penn a lope..I've done it so much now that Babs pronounces it wrong and everyone keeps correcting her. heehee.

Blood drive on the 9th of July. Babs usually donates and I would if I could. But have bad blood.ha

Library will be closed on the 4th of July but then they usually are.

The West Volunteer Fire Department named Bill Polk(owns Czech Stop) an Honary Member of the department. The fire department said that Czech Stop has served as the Grand Champion sponsor at the WVFD barbecue cook off since it started in 1993. In addition, this was the second straight year for Czech Stop to donate $5,000 in prize money for the cook off.

Now...for some really ugly news..Some low down, scum sucking sonofabitch broke into Saint Mary's Catholic Church and stole money from the candle intention stands at the front of the church...The were pried open and the money was stolen. Nothing else was taken. You have to be pretty fucking evil to steal money from a church. If you needed money that bad, all you had to do was ask Father Ed, and I'm sure he would have given it to you. I'm just sick over this. I know it had to be some punk kid..but doesn't excuse it at all. Evil has come to West. If I find out who did it I swear I'm going to rip out his spleen and tie it in a square knot. Bastid.

Babs and I are kicking our self in the asses 'cause we forgot about the Bold Springs Baptist Church Cheeseburgers..damnit..But I just noticed that they will be making them on July 6th. No way am I forgetting it this time. They are making Chicken Fried Steaks this Friday, but to tell you the truth...I make such great CFS's that I don't enjoy buying anyone elses...

Sarah Polasek and Luke Boyea were married On April 25th and Vivian Weathers and Darrell Whatley were married on June 6th. Mary Tolliver and Craig Hromadka were united in marriage on May 24th. Kylie Pechacek had her 1 year birthday party with a lady bug cake and lady bug decorations. I had to post her picture, she is just so sweet looking and so pretty.

The Laubert's, Hrabal and Kaska's are all having family reunions this month. Czech's Czech's Czech's...every where you go there are Czech's..

Christopher Berger and Cory Sinkule won 2nd and 3rd place in the 2009 International Sport and Cultural Festival's American Sokol Slet Gymnastics Championships. They'r coaches were Dale Berger and Mary Beth Dulock.

Brooke Keel a West High School junior, was selected to the Super Centex first team at second base. She was also District 7-AAA's Co-Offensive Player of the Year. Breanna Pavlas, a WHS junior, was selected to the Super Centex honorable mention squad. She was also named District 7-AAA's first team at catcher position. Ashley Anz, a WHS junior, was selected to the Super Centex first team as a pitcher. She was also named District 7-AAA's Most Valuable Player.

The Kucera Insurance team from West won the 2009 Brazos Valley National League Championship in sophomore baseball action. They completed the season with a 13-0 record.

A friend of mine and of my son Thom passed away last week. Tom was a pallbearer. He was 52 years old. Cancer. He was a good person..I'm sad for his family.

50 years ago there is a very interesting article about Mr and Mrs. Hugo Freund. He was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, of Jewish parents. He said he wasn't sure of the date he was born on but thinks it was 1873 or 1875. After going to the University in Prague he got a degree from University in Chicago. Worked in various cities doing various jobs. Including a dining car conductor and a lumberjack. he came to West in 1926 as manager of Globe Dry Goods in Penelope. Then in 1927 he opened Hugo's Dry Goods in West where the Ben Franklin store was at the time the article was written and which is now part of Wolf's bar, Caritas and the Czech Shop Antique Store. He also ran a beer distributorship in West also. They talk about his kindness to everyone and the city repaid him by giving him football blankets, gold football, fishing rod and reel, and a Stetson hat.

His tireless efforts to make everyone happy have won him some loyal friends. 25 years ago (written in 1959) he started having a wiener roast to the West High School football and basketball boys and girls pep squads.

Anyhow I just found it very interesting...West being a predominately Czech Catholic city, to have welcomed some one born of 'Jewish Parents'...strikes me as pretty terrific,especially in 1925.

West Food Mart has chicken breasts on sale again for .99cents a pound. I crawled out of the house today and dropped by and got a package of 4 huge breasts for $5.05...Had one for dinner(made sweet/sour chicken with sesame seeds) and didn't use all of the breast ..it's huge..can make 2 meals out of each breasts. Community Grocery has brisket on sale for $1.75 a pound. and beef spare ribs for $1.39 a pound. Both stores have bing cherries on sale for $1.99 a pound..I love bing cherries..they are my favorite fruit. Well that's all the West news for the week...Hope to find out to broke into St. Mary's by next week and be telling you about his demise or at least a severe asskicking.