President’s Message
Greetings from Serbin!
It has been said that looking back helps one to understand where one is going. In the museum and heritage preservation business, we spend a lot of time looking back. “Looking back” is something I’ve certainly spent many hours doing over the past few years as work has continued on digitally archiving all the books, records and artifacts in the museum collection. Much of the work involves matching each item to its accession records before the information on each item can then be entered into our archival database. One day last December, as I was working my way through a stack of items to digitally archive, I came across a very old, fragile piece of paper bearing a hand-written inscription in Wendish with a hand-drawn and colored floral-and-vine border. Trying with little success at translating the Wendish words using the various Wendish-English dictionaries in our library, I sent a copy of the document to Weldon Mersiovsky, asking if he could share the copy with someone who could translate the words to English. In the meantime, as I waited for a translation, I continued digging through our records to see if I could correctly determine who had donated the piece of paper and what its story might be. As luck would have it, the person to whom Weldon sent the copy for translation was Gertrud Mahling. She immediately recognized the significance of the piece of paper; what she still needed to know was the origin of the document. Her questions about its origin led to further digging in records, which resulted in finding an obscure notation that one of my predecessors made when recording the donation back in 1984. The information I was able to share with Gertrud provided her with enough to write an article about the document and the story behind it, and in turn we learned about a Wendish tradition that has since been lost here in Texas. Be sure to read her article.
David Zersen provides us with a fascinating look back at one Wendish man’s memories of internment in a Texas prison camp during World War II, in an article entitled, “A Wendish POW Celebrates Birthdays in Texas”.
Cooks preparing meals for our scholarship fundraiser in January
Cooking wienerschnitzel, potatoes and cabbage for our membership day
Looking back at activities around the museum since my last message, I am inspired by the energy and infectious enthusiasm of many of our volunteers. We held a successful to-go-only pork steak meal fundraiser for our Scholarship fund on January 28, raising $2535 for the fund. Heartfelt thanks to Chris and Connie Becker and members of St. Paul Serbin’s Lutheran Adult Fellowship for all their help with cooking, serving, and dishwashing. Chris’ pot of Wendish Wedding Soup was the best he’s ever made. On March 11, we held the first Olde Tyme Wendish Sunday and membership meeting for 2018, hosting 80 people who enjoyed really good food, fellowship, bingo, and a presentation about Wendish Easter traditions. My sincere thanks to Chris, Michelle, Nicole and Thomas Birnbaum, along with Chris, Connie and Carson Becker, Michael Krause, Lisa Schumann, and Red Arldt, who prepared wienerschnitzel, red cabbage, hot German potatoes, and noodles, then washed all the dirty dishes after everyone had eaten. The effort all these volunteers give to help make our activities successful is impressive. Watching them work, oftentimes it feels more like a family reunion than a work effort in preparation for an event. Clearly these people have fun at what they do, enjoy each other’s company, and have mastered the art of having fun while raising funds.
While “looking back” is an ongoing state of affairs around the museum, we also look forward. Numerous tour groups are scheduled to visit the museum and have lunch with us during the next couple of months. Planning for the 2018-19 Texas Wendish Heritage Scholarship program is underway, so be sure to read that announcement. Other upcoming events include the Serbin Picnic on May 27 and the 47th annual Folklife Festival during June 8-10.
In addition, we are in the throes of preparing for our 30th Annual Wendish Fest on September 23. We’ve scheduled the entertainment and are making plans for some of the exhibits and demonstrations. In addition, Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, has agreed to be with us that day as guest speaker. Dr. Harrison, who currently serves as the president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), is only the 13th man to serve as in that position since its founding in 1847. The 30th Annual Wendish Fest is shaping up to be a special day. We hope you will be able to join us that day – as a guest, a volunteer, or both – so that you don’t find yourself next October looking back with regret at having missed the fun! Boźemje!