Dear Readers,
Church picnics in the 50’s in Louisville, Kentucky were the main fund-raising event for many Catholic congregations. And St. Therese was no exception. Actually they were more like festivals than picnics, which suggest people eating a meal together outdoors.
Every June St. Therese held their “picnic” and I attended every one while growing up. But the picnic of June, 1959 was special. This picnic was an extravaganza for the entire neighborhood. Part of Schiller Avenue was closed to traffic for the event which started around 3 P.M. and lasted until well after midnight. Pony rides were given in the alley behind the school and along the side of Beargrass Creek, with a large merry-go-round in the middle of Schiller Avenue. A “tilt-a-whirl” was assembled in the yard next to the priest house and a giant ferris-wheel was erected next to the side of the church.
In addition to amusement rides, there were games of chance called “wheels”. A wheel with numbers printed around the edge was spun. Picnic-goers laid a nickel on a board on a particular number. If the wheel stopped on that number, you were a winner.
Each wheel had different prizes such as fruit-baskets wrapped in colored cellophane, pound boxes of Muth’s chocolates, hand embroidered pillowcases, dolls, stuffed toys, hams, baskets of groceries, homemade cakes and cartons of beer.
The ladies of the parish donated the pillowcases with beautifully stitched flowers or birds in pastel colors. The border of the pillowcases was crocheted with matching color threads. The cakes were “out of this world”! The ladies baked their best recipes for the picnic. The tiered shelves behind the wheel were laden with chocolate iced layer cakes, pineapple up-side-down cakes, creamy frosted coconut cakes and rich, dense pound cakes. The cake wheel only had 60 numbers on it. So if you really wanted one, you could cover every number with a nickel and you were guaranteed to win a scrumptious homemade cake for only three dollars!
A fried chicken dinner with all the fixings was served in the basement of the school. Many people ate their supper there and then spent the evening trying to win a prize on the picnic grounds outside. Bratwurst sandwiches and cold beer could be purchased on the grounds as well.
Here’s a true family story concerning the 1959 picnic. My parents were scheduled to work at the picnic while my younger sister and I wanted to try all the amusement rides. My older sister who was 21 at the time, thought the idea of going to a church picnic on Saturday night was dull and uninteresting. I can still remember my Dad saying “You never know, you might meet your future husband at St. Therese’s summer picnic”. My sister laughed heartily but she and her girlfriend decided to stop by the picnic later in the evening. Sure enough she ran into some guys that she attended grade school with and struck up a conversation with them. One of those guys who had just returned from active Army duty in Germany asked her out. They continued dating for the rest of the year. Kenny proposed to her on Christmas Eve, 1959 and on September 3, 1960 they were married at St. Therese Church.
Our family often wondered what would have happened if Martha hadn’t heeded Dad’s wise advice. I guess some things are just meant to be! I also wonder if any other romances started at St. Therese’s Summer Picnic?
Keep smilin’!
Leave a Reply