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| Stan's Country Dutchmen play the Polka Mass |
This weekend the Watkins Catholic Church, Church of St. Anthony, had their annual Festival. All the Catholic churches around here have an annual festival and that is where the similarity ends. In Watkins, they have a Polka Mass directly followed by a Picnic in the Park.
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| A visiting Priest joins the retired and active Priest for the Polka Mass |
The day started with a couple quick thunderstorms that rolled through between 7 AM and 9 AM. The day started hot and humid. But as the Polka Band played the praise and worship music (Polka Style) the Lord whispered his approval with soft breezes to break up the heat. I didn't see anyone fanning themselves despite the heat. God was doing that for us. - Thank you Lord for the wonderful blessing. (PS. I'm not Catholic. But I am a child of God and Father Jack preaches a good homily (sermon.) Today's was a little short but he preaches the same one every year at the Polka Mass. "Be Good!")
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| Train rolls by as Mass begins |
McCarthy Park in Watkins is a park that is on Railroad property, has a small band-shell on one end and covered picnic areas. They add a few temporary structures and it works perfect. The temporary structures are the same ones that were used by the Firemen for the City Festival. This is one of the perks of small town living. Most of the businesses support and a involved in one way or another with the church festival. The owners may not be Catholic but they support the local church.
Yes, we have one church and four bars. No we are not in Stearns County, You need to go about ten feet out of town to be in Stearns County. (Close enough?) Stearns County was known for it's hidden stills during "the prohibition". I am off the subject again; back to the Festival
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| Corn Dogs & Onion Rings |
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| Cheese Burger & Fries |
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| Fried Bread with Cinnamon Sugar |
There is a Food Stand with burgers, turkey sandwiches, corn dogs, fries, onion rings, tacos in a bag, corn on the cob, fried bread, pie & ice cream, popcorn and a beer garden. They had a 5K run before Mass and a Lil' Angels Fun Run shortly after Mass. Stan's Country Dutchmen played the mass and through lunchtime.
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| Wild Country 99 - Minute to Win It |
Wild Country 99 came down at 2 PM and sponsored some minute to win it games and played music for 3 hours. The Festival was also the "We are live at...." promotions or public service announcements on the radio for the afternoon.
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| Bingo |
There was a traditional Bingo booth. Normally all the seats are full. But even in the shade it was too hot for many people to play.
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| Kids Play area |
(It was so humid out that when I went in the house for awhile and came back out my lens fogged up.)
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| Kids Games |
There was an area loaded with games for the kids. There was a bouncy tent but I'm not sure that it got used. I never saw any kids in it and I wondered if it was too hot to allow the kids to play in it. I wasn't out there the whole time so maybe I just missed seeing the kids jumping.
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| Bake Walk |
What would a church festival be without an old church traditional "cake walk" but now they call it a "bake walk". A traditional cake walk is more like musical chairs. Here they sell paddles with four numbers on them. Two paddles for $1.00 (eight chances to win.) Yes, you can buy only one paddle with four chances. When all the paddles are sold, they spin a wheel and the winner gets to choose a cake or baked good. We played couple of times and won once. Dale asked what he should choose so I told him an angel food cake. I looked up and he was holding a three chocolate cake. He does not care for chocolate. So I had to remind him "Angel food cake: that is not an angel food cake." There was actually a chocolate angel food cake there so that was the next thing he picked up. I finally had to pick up a regular angel food and put in his hands. Ah, my sweetie pie he can be thoughtful in his own way.
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