Don Haderle
On the first Sunday of every month we attend the Polka
Boosters’ dance in Sacramento at the Eagles’ Hall where Polka Power plays. We
usually have 60-100 folk attend, but lately there’s been a splattering of new
folk which is comforting. The music is always fantastic and the afternoon
(2-6pm) great fun with Danny Fitterer on accordion, Donna Seibert Clay on sax
and button box, Mark Seibert on drums, and Stefan Kochishan on sax and clarinet
providing vocals. In the last year the crew has added a lively rock & roll
number - we all assemble in front of the stage and boogie in unison en masse
with an occasional solo dancer strutting out. My break dance solo of the worm,
which resembles a chunky piece of bacon convulsing, took top honors one
afternoon, rendering the band speechless, disrupting the flow of music.
We had a cataclysmic event – Little Switzerland in Sonoma
closed its doors in December. The history of Little Switzerland is nicely
encapsulated in an article in the Sonoma Press Democrat. For decades they have
provided a Sunday polka dance, which was THE spot for polka folks in the North
Bay (i.e., those folks north of San Francisco). Little Switzerland was a
restaurant bar with a great dance floor. When I was a kid in the 1950s there
was a park across the street which served the Swiss clubs in the Bay Area where
we would compete against other clubs in gymnastics and then retire to the
restaurant where my dad would relax with a beer or two before we headed home to
San Francisco (this was in the era where a couple of beers wouldn’t earn you a
DUI). So the place has long enduring memories for me. The present owner, Alina
Garcia, was doing a great job of sustaining the regular dance program, but fell
victim to a divorce which sapped her funds. Consequently, the bank foreclosed
and took possession of the property. No one has stepped forward to continue the
tradition, so its survival doesn’t look very good.
In February the venue moved to the Sonoma Moose Club, which now
hosts a Sunday evening dance with the same bands that played at Little
Switzerland. The first dance was jam packed, but thereafter attendance has
fallen off. The long-time Little Switzerland regulars miss the ambiance of the old
place and their reserved tables which carried decades of memories of friends
who once were. We took in Polka Power in May at the Sonoma Moose, which had
about 80 people including Alina who we hadn’t seen in 6 months. The dance is
held in a hall with a slightly raised wooden dance floor surrounded by tables
with an adjoining dining room and barroom. The music is just as good as ever,
so come on out!
Swiss Park in Newark, 40 miles south of San Francisco, is a
wonderful old wooden dance hall with adjoin barroom. For decades there were
regular weekend dances and Swiss events. Alas, the audience for this has been
dying out. Nonetheless they still have dances a couple of Sundays each month,
but you need to consult their calendar to figure out when they’ll be. The
Internationals play there a couple of times each year, Karl Lebherz plays there
once or twice a month, and Swiss Park has just begun experimenting with other
bands, including Steve Balich who played in May to a good crowd that loved the
music. Tom Casazza, who drums and vocalizes with Steve, replaced the
Internationals’ long-time drummer – but, luckily Tom still performs with
Steve. Steve always said, “I’m not a
polka band.” He’s right. He’s more than a polka band. He plays sweet Italian
and American music, peppered with an occasional polka. We hope to catch Steve
at the Croatian Hall in Milpitas in June and will definitely see Steve and
Jenny in Cotati at the Accordion Festival in August.
Gail & I belong to the San Jose German Club (SJGC),
which also has 4-6 dances each year. The San Jose German club is in downtown
San Jose. Their clubhouse is an historic building dating into the 1800s. I have photos of my father with the San
Francisco Deutsche Turn Verein (DTV) participating in gymnastic meets with the
San Jose Club in the early 1930s. Gymnastics is no longer part of the agenda
for any of these German clubs, though you can see the anchors in the floors
that held up the apparatus. The clubhouse endured a devastating fire about 10
years ago and has since been renovated. It has an active, but aging membership
(this is a problem for all of our clubs). The club has strong membership in many of its
interest groups (abteilung) – Karnival, Schützen, Choir, and more. Sacramento,
likewise, hosts a German Club in the Turn Verein Hall. And they have 4-6 dances
each year with a multi-day Oktoberfest where the Gruber Family Band has been a
mainstay for years. Karnival is quite extensive – I’ll give you an earful in a
subsequent article. To list all of the German clubs out west would take an
entire article – Anaheim (Phoenix Club), Beaumont, Las Vegas, Phoenix (AZ), and,
and.
There are two chapters of the Nature Friends (NF) in the Bay
Area, a German club with a penchant for hiking (Berg Frei!). We belong to the
chapter in Oakland which sits on a couple of acres with an outdoor dance floor
used when the weather is good and an indoor clubhouse and dance floor when the
weather is not so good. Oakland NF had its Maifest outdoor with Joe Smiell, Jr.
playing to a good crowd of a couple of hundred. Many thanks to the Schmidts,
Uhers, and the other dedicated individuals who organize and work these events. Erik
Rosin, a delightful young man with lots of dance friends, used Facebook to
entice his friends to come to the event – as such there were lots of young folk
who were blown away. I’m sure that Erik, who performs with the schuhplattler
group, wowed his buddies with his dance prowess. We hope to see them again.
Knowing Erik, we will.
The San Francisco NF chapter has its clubhouse in Mill
Valley. They too held a Maifest which attracted lots of people. For some reason
the young people are quite attracted to that lodge – I suspect that its
location in the beautiful Muir Woods has something to do with it. Joe Smiell,
Jr. played that event as well. He certainly carries on the tradition of his
father, Joe Smiell, Sr., who passed away earlier this year.
So where else have we been? In December we headed to Phoenix
where Tony Blazonczyk and New Phaze performed at the Pulaski Club. These guys
are great! Tony and crew did a great tribute to Eddie B with a performance that
brought tears to our eyes. We had a great crowd on Saturday night and slightly
less on Sunday. The snowbirds don’t flock to Arizona until after Christmas – so
we expected a light audience. But the crowd that was there was lively. Marla
Carney and Joe Lengyel joined us for the weekend and a couple of days in Palm
Desert. Marla lives in Homer, Alaska now and broke away from the halibut and
ice for a little polka and fun. As usual, we were delighted to see Ron and
Grace Bachara - Ron was smugly decked out in vintage Eddie B wear. Ed and
Carolyn Dulude had a lame excuse for their absence. Tony and the boys are
really great musicians and great guys. Tony works the room between sets and
shares stories with everyone. We’re definitely going to try to get these guys
back. Dave Bonczkiewicz and the entire crew did a great job putting on this
event.
On the weekend of December 17 we enjoyed the Gruber Family
Band at Teske’s German Restaurant in San Jose. During the winter they play
indoors at Teske’s. There’s a small dance floor, but ample for the dancing
crowd. As you may recall, Al Gruber and his wife Christina owned and ran Little
Switzerland for decades. Al has retired, but his kids, Toni and Peter, together
with Toni’s kids (Michael and Martin), continue to bring us wonderful music. The
Gruber Family Band plays at Teske’s, Sonoma Moose, Sacramento Turn Verein, and
many other places. The band played a two day event at the Fontana Slovene Hall
in May (Memorial Day weekend). We heard
secondhand that the event was well attended and the Southern California crew
loved the band from up north (what’s not to love?). They were joined by Stan
Blout, Frank Rote, Bill Swetkar, and Fred Sonoff for a few sets. We hope that
Erik Woods repeats the event next year.
In January Polka Power played at the Pulaski club in Phoenix
and the Greenfield resort in Mesa thanks to Sue Flores who promoted the event.
Sue does a terrific job each year of arranging for great music in the Mesa, Az
area. We are grateful for her passion and look forward to her agenda each year.
She already has most of the 2013 season arranged with Squeezebox, Music
Connection, Polka Power and many more. The band was well received at both
venues with packed dance floors. At Greenfield we get to see many of the
musicians and their spouses who attended the once-annual Stodola polka weekend
at Skyranch in Temecula, Ca. We were delighted to see the dancing duo Potsy
Jenovic and Nancy Glass in our area again. The band and friends joined us for a
couple of days before the weekend at our house in Palm Desert, where the girls
and Joe Lengyel hit the spa while Danny Fitterer and I golfed. Donna whipped up
some margaritas and I burnt the hamburgers and hot dogs, but nobody cared.
In early February Bobby Kravos and Mark Habat visited Joe
Bajuk in Daly City. Bobby and Mark were between gigs on Walter Ostanek’s winter
tour, which was heading to Arizona. We caught up with them at Joe’s house along
with Mary Saber and Donna Seibert Clay and headed to San Francisco’s Fisherman
Wharf for lunch and a glimpse of the harbor sea lions and seals that hold
hostage a few floating docks off of Pier 39 – Bob can’t seem to get enough of
these critters. Along the way we carved our way through the fog to Twin Peaks,
where on a clear day you have a beautiful view of the city, but that day you
had a beautiful view of the fog. This is the real San Francisco.
The next evening we trundled to the San Francisco Slovene
Hall where the Joe Bajuk Trio (this band renames itself for every event),
starring Joe, Anthony Krische, and Stefan Kochishan, performed for PUST. The
barroom was rocking with jammers – Fred Mlakar, Kay Newburg, Michael Kramer,
Mark Habat, and another ½ dozen musicians. We dined (yum, blood sausage!) and
danced. The dance hall was filled. Mark and Bobby joined Joe and crew on stage
for a set and tore the house down.
We missed the Halvorson’s Southwest Polka Party in Las Vegas
held every year in February. They sold out and had to turn people away – mind
you, they have seating for 1200! I chatted with Ed and he advises you to call
Lois NOW (480-218-7009) and reserve your chair for 2013 – you don’t need to
send any money until November or December.
In late February we joined Stephanie and her Honky Polka
Band which performed at the Phoenix Pulaski. Stephanie was accompanied by Wayne
Sienkowski, Eddie Madura, Wally Pacura, and our own Dave Bonczkiewicz. The
music was great – I mean GREAT! Stephanie continues her winsome ways to the
delight of the crowd who appreciated honky style – you don’t get better than
Stephanie and Wayne whose honky rhythm was perfect.
In March, we gathered at the Fontana Slovene Hall where
Polka Power played for the weekend. It was great to see old friends, including
the Stodolas, Stan Blout, Carol Hixson, the Swetkars, the Pages, the Fuhrmans,
the Olsons, Joann Leppsaar, and so many more. We took special delight in seeing
Harold and Fern Scheel. Harold suffered a mishap last year, which almost took
him out. He has recovered and was dancing (a little slower than before). It was
wonderful seeing them both. And it was great seeing Ralph and Anne Barnard, who
have been absent due to Anne’s reckless activities (Anne races cars and other
silly things). And, of course, the music was great. Thanks again to Erik Woods
for arranging this.
At the end of March we headed to Laughlin, Nevada to catch the
Veritones and Sylvia’s Band performing at a 3 day event at the Tropicana Casino
Hotel. The hotel has an outside entertaining area which was used on day 1
(April 29), where the bands played for free for 6 hours. On days 2 and 3, the bands played inside in a
nice room with a stage and an inlaid dance floor. The bands alternated hours
for 4-6 hours. A buffet was served in the first hour inside the hall. The room
holds 200ish comfortably – slightly over 100 attended this inaugural event. Joyce,
the organizer at the Tropicana, is going to try to repeat the format a couple
of times in 2013. I’ll keep you posted. Both bands were terrific. The Veritones
is familiar to folk in Arizona, where they play at the Pulaski in Phoenix,
Greenfield, and many other venues. They are a wonderful Polish band that I
wrote about awhile back, led by David Bonczkiewicz. Sylvia’s Arizona Dance Band
plays regularly in Arizona – they played great Slovenian and American melodies
and we danced and danced.
To fill in the gaps between polka events, we headed to the
Sierras a dozen times for skiing (and Gail casinos), went to umpteen track
meets where the grandkids ran, golfed, hiked, skied, and cavorted. I’ll bore
you with two quick stories.
Story 1: on January 3
rd, I hiked to the top of
Castle Peak, which climbs to 9,000 feet overlooking Donner Pass and the distant
Tahoe Basin. The temperature was a balmy 63 degrees. No need for snowshoes or
skis – all weather hiking boots fit the bill. The little snow that had fallen
in early December had either dissipated or turned to ice. On my ascent I
encountered Tom Stienstra, who is the outdoors writer for the San Francisco
Chronicle newspaper. We made the final ascent together on the north face, which
is fairly steep and covered in packed snow crusted with ice. We needed Yaxtrax
and poles to negotiate the ice. Atop the mountain one has a spectacular view of
the Sierras and beyond. The absurdity of this is that there we were in the dead
of winter and no snow in the high Sierras. The snows finally arrived in fits
February through April. To amplify the absurdity, it snowed the first week in
June in the Sierras.
Story 2: at the end of April I dropped Gail off at the
Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas where she hooked up with Mary Saber for 4 days
while I tootled off to Zion National Park in Utah to enjoy the outdoors. Gail
& Mary have kept quiet about their activities except for the night that
they went to the Donny and Marie Osmond show (Gail & Mary are quite wild!).
And I missed all of this while I climbed the steep rises in Zion and enjoyed
the nighttime stars.
Summer is approaching and polka slows down out west. To help
you plan there a few extraordinary events. “Polka Power” plays at the Fontana
Slovene Hall on the weekend of September 15. "The Great American
Polkafest" will be staged again this year at Circus Reno October 29-30,
where Polka Power California, The Gruber Family Band, and the Steve Balich
Polka Band will perform.