This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Tribune, East Bernard, Texas, 28 July 12022.
Recently, I was asked this question by a friend, “Since you were a college teacher for many years in Wharton and then pastor of a church for many years in Wallis, why did you live in East Bernard?”
The answer to that question is a long, boring story, so won’t bore you with it. However, since we came to live here in East Bernard almost by accident, the more important question is why did we decide to stay in East Bernard?
Yes, there were the usual reasons people choose to settle in a particular community, such as meeting new friends you really liked and discovering that East Bernard had a superb school system and you had a newborn. But, more important than that, to me anyway, the town reminded me of my hometown, Dime Box.
Because of the deep love and happy memories I have of DB. East Bernard folks can take that as a great compliment!
I lived in Dime Box for the first 14 years of my life, and in East Bernard for the last 46 (almost 47) years of my life. My memories about both places are vivid in most cases, but some are a little faded.
The East Bernard I have known was never as small as the Dime Box I knew and loved, but the similarities are there, nonetheless. Immediately upon arrival in EB, I noticed that Boettcher-Hlavinka Lumberyard reminded me of the old Milburn Lumberyard in DB. If no one was around at either place, you went to the lumber stacks, found a board, maybe even sawed it off, took it and left the right amount of money by the cash register. I loved buying nails or boards at Boettcher-Hlavinka because it reminded me of the Dime Box Lumberyard.
Koym’s Feed Store reminded me of the feed store in Dime Box (I think it was called Fairmont Feeds). A visit to Koym’s involved having a cup of coffee and talking about Brahma football.
Both DB and EB had a cotton gin located on the road going out of town. In my Dime Box years, I spent quite a bit of time helping Grandpa take his wagonloads of cotton to Hannes’ Gin. Having no connection to cotton farming in EB, I would merely drive to the gin, look at the magic cotton transformation building, listen to those splendid ginning sounds, and enjoy those moments of nostalgia.
Got my first haircut after moving to East Bernard at Murille’s Barber Shop. The men’s talk I heard there was a whole lot like what I listened to in Claude Tyler’s Barber Shop in Dime Box, where I got my first haircut ever! They talked about how the cotton was looking good or the Milo was coming along real well, and there was always someone in both places who told funny stories!
When my wife and I began shopping for groceries in EB, we went to August Klecka’s Grocery Market, which struck me as being like Frank Mikulin’s Grocery Store in DB. In both stores, you could buy the most incredible things you wouldn’t expect to find, like old-fashioned head sausage, and I bought my very first kite ever at Frank Mikulin’s after saving up my meager allowance to do so. Many years later, I bought the very first kite for our little daughter Meg at Klecka’s, I don’t remember, but I’m guessing it was a Gayla.
Like Frank Mikulin, August Klecka’s forebears came from Czechoslovakia. Both in DB and in EB, many prominent citizens were Czech Catholics, and Czech-Catholic organizations, such as SPJST and KJT, were part of the history of the two towns.
Before we were teenagers, my brother and I went to dances with our parents, held at the Dime Box SPJST Hall. I don’t remember who sponsored the dances, but I remember, even as a youngster, dancing to country-western bands and Texas Czech and German polka bands. The building design of the original Dime Box SPJST Hall was very similar to Riverside Hall in East Bernard as it looked when I first came here in 1975.
Riverside Hall was purchased by the KJT (Katolicka Jednota Texaska or Catholic Union of Texas) from Union State Bank in 1939. Originally built on the edge of the San Bernard River and remodeled by the KJT, in its heyday, it featured such famous bands as the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, the Bennie Goodman Band, Paul Whiteman, and Sammy Kaye.
But I remember Riverside especially for featuring one of my most favorite polka bands, the Dujka Brothers.
As my family can tell you, I have spent a good bit of my life talking about moving back to Dime Box. But, you know, now in my old age, I’ve finally decided to spend my remaining years in East Bernard. It’s like going back to Dime Box!
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired Wharton County Junior College teacher, a retired Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.