St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Stoneham, Texas which was established in 1909 by Grimes County Polish immigrants, held their annual homecoming bazaar on Sunday, May 26, 2013. Bazaar day started with a special Mass celebrated by Fr. Ben Zientek at 10:30 am in the beautiful old church. Fr. Ben, a Washington County native, recently celebrated his 55th anniversary of ordination. At 11:00 am, workers started serving a delicious barbecue pork and beef dinner with all the fixings including a wide array of homemade deserts and cold ice tea.
The grocery, cake, plant, fruit, sausage and poker booths kept the crowd busy and there was a toy booth, train rides, face painting and other activities for the kids. Live dance music was provided under the outside pavilion by Bill Mock and his Hwy 105 Band with talented musicians and singers Harlan Kubos, Ronnie Vaughn, Harold Wishkoski, and Kevin Carter joining Bill.
It was a little sad seeing auctioneer Tommy Szymczak without his long time side-kick Bobby Fuchs. Bobby worked the auction with Tommy for many years before passing away last January. With the help of Randy Kreuger, Tommy did a great job selling home made furniture, crafts, quilts, fresh vegetables and a bunch of Houston Texans memorabilia, including a hand made Texans quilt at the live auction. Texans head coach Gary Kubiak was present at the auction and autographed a lot of the Texan memorabilia.
After the auction, the drawing was held for the raffle prizes and the band played outside for another hour or so.
Below are a few photos of the fun and there is a slideshow of many more photos on page 2.
More photos of the bazaar can be found on St. Joseph’s website.
James Smock has always held an interest in his Polish ancestors and heritage. He is a native Houstonian with Polish roots in Bremond, Marlin and New Waverly, Texas.