On Sunday, May 26, 2013, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Stoneham, Texas held their annual homecoming bazaar to celebrate the 115th year of the founding of the historic parish. St. Joseph’s was established in 1909 by a group of Polish-speaking immigrants from the Grimes Prairie, Stoneham and Plantersville areas. This year’s bazaar started with a special Mass celebrated by Fr. Bill Kelly at 10:30 am in the beautiful old church. At 11:00 am, workers started serving a delicious barbecue pork and beef dinner with all the fixings including a wide array of homemade deserts and cold ice tea.
The grocery, cake, plant, fruit, sausage and poker booths kept the crowd busy and there was a toy booth, train rides, face painting and other activities for the kids. With the help of Randy Kreuger, Greg Goudeau did a great job auctioning off home made furniture, crafts, quilts, fresh vegetables and a bunch of sports memorabilia. After the auction, the drawing was held for the raffle prizes
The highlight of the afternoon was the wonderful live Polish and country dance music which was provided under the outside pavilion by Brian Marshall and the Texas Slavic Playboys and Bill Mock and the Hwy 105 Band with talented musicians and singers Jakub Marshall, Michal Marshall, Chuck Bolin, Ronnie Dutka, Ron Ohendalski, Karl Waitz, Bill Holt, Ronnie Vaughn, Harold Wishkoski and his grandson, Frank Motley, Jimmy Mazurkiewicz, James Mazurkiewicz, Donovan Pavlock and David Boyd joining Brian and Bill.
Below are a few photos of the fun and there is a slideshow of many more photos on page 2.
More photos of the bazaar can be found on St. Joseph’s website.
James Smock has always held an interest in his Polish ancestors and heritage. He is a native Houstonian with Polish roots in Bremond, Marlin and New Waverly, Texas.