Ice Cream Social

Category: Farm Doings | Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:24 pm

Every August the church up the road holds a community Ice Cream Social. In the 1850's, a German baron sent a group of retainers here to populate and farm a land grant. Many of their descendants are still here, farming the "old home place." Even if you attend another church, or none at all, if you live in the vicinity of the church you belong to the community. You should meet some of the community members.
Margaret and Arthur are mainstays of the church. Arthur farms and runs some cattle, and their place is a model of neatness and efficiency. Margaret volunteers at the local hospital and at the elementary school, plays the organ at church, and bakes the best cookies in the world. Grown men faint over her tea cakes!
Eileen lives on her farm and dotes on her grandchildren. She makes the best kolache (a raised dough with a fruit filling) and cleans the church because she does it better than anyone else could.
Mary is famous for her dill pickles. When the bingo game gets going after the Social, her pickles are one of the best prizes. Fights don't exactly break out over her pickles, but that is only because the preacher is there.
Leona is tiny, beautiful, and just vague enough to be charming. When she won a basket of our hens' eggs with a note from "Rosie, Ruby Begonia, Bianca, Lucy, Eileen, and Slo-Poke" hoping the recipient would enjoy the fruit of their labors, Leona said, "I don't know these people!" Someone explained the "people" were hens--big black hens that had laid the eggs.
W.C. (in Texas a lot of men go by their initials) mows the church grounds and cemetery, sees after the building, and rings the bell at 10:30 on a Sunday morning. He and his wife Anna (who quilts and paints and cooks and is absolutely dear) are expert fisherpersons. They have won many fishing tournaments, and always supply the fish for the April Fish Fry at the church. W.C. fries a good fish!
Clark is a deacon, and does the readings. He has a beautiful speaking voice, and sings awfully well. He leads our pitiful attempts at singing (we are not the most melodious group) and if it weren't for Clark, we'd have to give up trying the hymns and just hum. He also paints beautifully, and has had several shows of his work.
So, those are a few of the members of the community who have welcomed us and made us feel part of the community. Who knew that moving out of a "community" of 16,000 people to a small farm would put us smack dab in the middle of a real community of kind people with good and giving souls?

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