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Caldwell's Kolache Festival 2006 had Something for Everyone!Brazos Valley Reporter 9/10/2006 |
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What began 22 years ago as a small event held in the Seniors Center in Caldwell has grown to a major cultural event drawing 20,000 to 30,000 people. As the name implies, the event is in celebration of the Czech pastry the Kolache (the e¯ is silent). LifeintheBrazos.com Virtual Tours are available for the:
Kolache Festival Please be patient with load time as the tours are large for your viewing pleasure. It's worth the wait to load! Enjoy the Tours! |
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| What makes this festival so successful and fun for everyone? In my opinion, the people of Caldwell and Burleson County who are so very friendly and gracious. For example, here are Henry and Carolyn Baseda. Henry is one of the festival officials. He sang the Czech National Anthem for years and is the reverend of many years at the Cy-Fair Community Church and Vsetin CMB church. Carolyn used to play clarinet in the Kovandas Czech band. They live in Caldwell. One thing I found in talking to people is those who live in Caldwell love their town. Many have moved back there from areas they liked far less to return to those fond memories of the past. If you like the small town feel with a closeness of community, this is it. |  Henry and Carolyn Baseda |
 Kovanda Czech Band |
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| Ranking immediately next to the friendliness of the community was of course the fantastic food offered. Forget your troublesome girth on a trip to the festival....just enjoy!! There were also singers, Czech bands, dancers, and more! Arts, crafts, furniture, toys, and of course great smelling food were abundant. |  |
 Kettle Corn |
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 Dance Group from Temple, Texas |
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 Taylor Czech Chorus |
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| Resisting the food for now, a hard thing for me, I asked Henry where I could find the Mayor. While he didn't know at the moment, he said if I could find the Mayor's brother, a tall man dressed in a red Hawaiian shirt he would be able to locate the Mayor. So, as I continued through the festival, on the lookout for that tall man in a red Hawaiian shirt, I found him out of a crowd of 20,000 plus people within 10 minutes! Amazed that I had done this, I knew he would either BE the Mayor's brother.....or he would think I was crazy! The Hawaiian shirt owner turned out to be Joe Rychlik and his wife Donna, two wonderful people who would later show me around town a bit and even gave me Kolaches from their car which Donna had made. She makes goooood Kolaches! Thank you Donna! Well Donna put in a call to her brother-in-law, Mayor Bernard Rychlik, who appeared before I knew it, likely curious about this reporter who looked for people in a red Hawaiian shirt! And what a nice gentleman he turned out to be. I was made to feel so welcome in this town that I will always remember my visit to Caldwell and the Kolache Festival. And that's the way they treat their visitors and guests in Caldwell. You just have to go to experience what I did. |  Mayor Bernard Rychlik and his brother Joe Rychlik |
| Joe and I ran into Lillie Chafin, another local, whose shirt told the story of the Kolache, which Joe made use of to educate¯ me about the Kolache. Lillie was charming and graciously allowed me to learn¯ from the graphics on her shirt. |  Lillie Chafin with her Kolache Shirt |
 Lillie Chafin with friend Joe Rychlik |
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| Even when the festival is not running, there are many places to go. I stopped in at the Mad Hatters Tea Room, a very quaint shop with all kinds of interesting things and cozy tables at which to sit and enjoy Kolaches, tea, drinks, and other specialty foods. |  Mad Hatters Tea Room |
| There I met the owner Jeanie Price (right), who is pictured here with her friend Donna Rychlik. And what a wonderfully nice person she was too. You will certainly enjoy a visit to her place. Mad Hatters has been in business for 8 years and has many local regulars as well as those who come to visit. Jeanie is also a nurse at Scott and White in College Station. With a personality like hers, she must be a wonderful nurse! |  Jeanie Price (right) with friend Donna Rychlik |
| Her husband Johnny is the City Street Superintendent, and has been for 26 years. Johnny jokingly said the city may put him on full time someday!¯ Jeanie and Johnny are both very dedicated to Caldwell. They started Mad Hatters in another building, renovating that building and then doing the same for their current location. Their renovation efforts have inspired more renovations in downtown. The downtown is far larger than one might think and has many quaint and interesting buildings. Don't make the mistake that I had up until now and think that Caldwell is just what you see from the two intersecting highways. If you do, then like me you have missed the best part! Johnny and the city workers spend about four days putting the festival together, then make it all disappear by magic by about 2:00 Sunday....until next year. It's a labor of love for them. The people of Caldwell are very proud of how their festival has grown from its humble beginnings in the Senior Center to all you see today. And Jeanie and Johnny are dedicated supporters of their beloved town. They welcome your visit to Mad Hatters, open Wednesday through Saturday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It will remind you of the times when people gathered at local restaurants or the country store each day to socialize with their neighbors and chart the course for the day, reminisce about days past, or speculate about those yet to come. The ambiance of Mad Hatters and the wonderful people and food are sure to make your day...and your stay....in Caldwell. |  Jeanie's husband Johnny Price, Caldwell City |
| And while you're living out today¯, walk on down to Yesteryears!¯ Yes....walk folks...don't drive! You would miss all the fun!! Places like downtown Caldwell are best experienced on foot, like a fine wine that is to be savored slowly...not down the hatch!¯ We all spend so much time these days hurrying from one point to another in our cars and trucks. The Brazos Valley Reporter can tell you from experience that the fun begins when you step out of that car! That is....unless you have one of the awesome cars I also saw at the Street Rod and Classic Car Show at the festival! (More on that later). |  Kids enjoying the train ride |
| Meanwhile, let's go to Yesteryears! This was a really interesting find as well. Owned by two very nice ladies, Nellie Mills and Bobbie Meyers, Yesteryears is an Antique and Gift Emporium with multiple shops in the same building. They are open Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Sunday. They are located at 104 North Echols. Shown here are pictures of their unique building, the old Smith-Siebert Produce building where I saw a stamp in the concrete step dated 1947. That year is kind of special to the Brazos Valley Reporter....I'll let you guess why 'cause I try not to talk about it. As you might guess, a rambler¯ like me still thinks he is twenty something and refuses to believe otherwise! According to Nellie Mills, the building itself dates back to the early 1930's. |  Yesteryears Antique and Gift Emporium |
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And speaking of antiques, those of you who enjoy machinery would surely have liked the antique farm machinery display, a HUGE assortment of everything from John Deere and Massey Ferguson tractors to Arizona Flywheelers¯, used to pump water and other things. I read an original advertisement for one of these old engines that said the Gilson gasoline engine used for pumping cream separators, churns, and washing machines: Runs like 60 Sells like 60 Sells for 60¯ ......as in $60. Imagine! It takes more than that to fill up my truck! |
 Antique Farm Equipment Show |
 Arizona Flywheelers |
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| I had been told by Mayor Rychlik, Joe, and Donna that I shouldn't miss the Quilt Show down at the Caldwell Civic Center. Yes folks...we can still walk there.....the car is not needed! I figured that would take a guy like me about 10 minutes to see and maybe shoot a couple of pictures. Not the case. The sheer size of the show, the artistry, and the passion of these quilters was amazing. The ladies with the Creative Memories Quilt Guild were so very hospitable, like the rest of this town. One of the ladies told me about the Memory Quilt Blocks in memory of the members of their guild, now 20 years old, who have passed away. Mary Wolz, President of the Guild told me something that even as an artist I did not know. Did you know...that quilting is the only original art form by American women? Apparently there is a huge amount of interest in quilting. In this show alone, there were 80 - 90 quilts! Each year a quilt is raffled off. In 1986 the winner was L. B. Kubiac and it hung in his office in the state capitol in Austin until 2005 when he donated it back to the museum in Caldwell where it now hangs. LifeintheBrazos.com is extending an invitation for someone from the Creative Memories Quilting Guild to join us and write a column about quilting. Our readers are sure to enjoy that! |  Quilt Show at the Civic Center in Caldwel |
| Next I visited the kids play area where I found rock climbing and huge inflatables with kids doing things I could only admire, but certainly not participate in! There were also games and pony rides. |  Inflatables for the Kids |
 Pony Rides for the Kids |
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Down the street I founds the P.A.A.W.S. Booth. That's Pet Adoption and Animal Welfare Society. Anyone interested is also invited to attend the monthly meetings and to join P.A.A.W.S. We will soon feature animals up for adoption in our Animals of the Brazos feature section. |
 P.A.A.W.S. Members with the Puppies |
| Now this little guy I have to tell you about. I ran into him (literally) on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse. His name was Christian. He was up here from Spring, Texas and was likely having the best time of anyone at the show. He was quite a little character and he and I had quite a good time trying to decide on which side of the sidewalk I would pass! I asked him if he wanted his picture taken so he could be on the web and become famous, an offer which he readily accepted! So, after giving me five¯....about 25 times, and several more discussions about my route of departure on the sidewalk, we finally parted ways. You know.....I still don't know if I took the side of the sidewalk in leaving that Christian wanted me to. How'd I do Christian? Take care little buddy....it was fun meeting you! |  My new buddy Christian |
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Not to be missed was the Kolache Festival awards ceremony. Shown here is the Grand Prize Winner. More winners can be seen in the our Kolache Festival Virtual Tour. |
 Grand Winner in the Kolache Baking Contest |
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In conclusion, if you don't know this already, you will soon realize that the Brazos Valley Reporter is, and always has been....a car freak! Cars are just one of my many passions! To my complete joy, the Kolache Festival had over 150 classics, customs, and street rods in their show. I mean some REALLY NICE cars! Wishing you had come? Well just click here and take a virtual tour of the car show to see what you missed. Or, if you did come or were an entrant in the car show, I hope you enjoy reminiscing with the virtual tour. I love a good story. My Grandfather told me many when I was a kid, How true they all were...who knows. But he could sure make it sound good! I'm really enjoying telling you the story of this fascinating trip, but much else awaits my attention as LifeintheBrazos.com is growing by the minute. I thank you all for your support and for visiting our site. I want to thank the entire city of Caldwell and Burleson County for their hospitality which the Brazos Valley Reporter will not forget. You will be high on my list of places for a repeat visit! And for those of you who missed the festival or have not attended the Kolache Festival or Caldwell, I highly recommend either as a great getaway! I hope you all enjoyed the story and the virtual tours. Please EMAIL me with your comments and suggestions. The Brazos Valley Reporter |
 1938 Chevy Coupe in the Custom and Street Rods Car Show The BVR likes this CAR! |
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