Mission Party Ice
SALUTES
Texas Folklife
Festival
!!!!!!
Jack Newman, Chairman
Promotions Director
San Antonio Light
Leo C. Hearn, Co-Chairman
President
Universal Bookbindery, Inc.
Francis E. Abernethy
Secretary -Editor
Texas Folklore Society
Nacogdoches
Bradford R. Breuer
Vice-President
Alamo National Bank
General Allen M. Burdett, Jr.
Fifth Army Commander
Ft. Sam Houston
Martin Casey
If this is your first time at the Texas Folklife Festival,
you won't forget it. If you've been here in other
years, I know why you're back. Once you have
experienced the Festival, you'll always come again.
A lot of us have worked hard to make your visit
memorable. Staging the Festival requires the
expertise of 100 members of the Institute staff,
hundreds of volunteers and the participation of 6,000
representatives of 30 different ethnic groups.
And you! Without you, there wouldn't be a Texas
Folklife Festival. Perhaps there wouldn't be The
University of Texas at San Antonio and its great
Institute of Texan Cultures. Because you do make it
all possible, we're grateful.
If the Festival helps you to know Texas a little
better and, perhaps, love it a little more, we have
done our job well. The latchstring is out, so come on
in and set a spell, won't you?
Cordially,
c\~a::~a::~ Executive Director
TEXAS FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL STEERING COMMITTEE
John C. Holmgreen William Ochse Mrs. Marshall T. Steves
Executive Vice-President President President Civic Leader
Forest Oil Corporation Alamo Iron Works Ochse and Associates
Ms. Beverly Stoeltje
Ed Cheviott Steven Q. Lee General John W. Roberts Texas Folklore Center
Vice-President Vice-President Commander University of Texas
KMOL-TV Quincy Lee Companies Headquarters Air Austin
Training Command
Mrs. Katherine Folbre Sam Maclin Randolph Air Force Base David J. Straus
Vice-President President President
Texas Pharmacal Co. Russ Securities Corp. Bob A. Roth STRAFCO
Bob A. Roth Enterprises
James W. Gorman, Jr. Wm. M. McCormick Mrs. Louis H. Stumberg
Vice-President President and Floyd Schneider Civic Leader
Hornblower and Weeks Managing Director Civic Leader
joskes of Texas
Henry A. Guerra, Jr. J. Burleson Smith
WOAIRadio Henry Nussbaum Cox, Smith, Smith
Director Hale and Guenther
San Antonio Convention
and Visitors Bureau
The Texas Folklife Festival has been made possible in part by a grant from Houston Endowment.
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
STATE CAPITOL
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711
DOLPH BRISCOE
GOVERNOR
As Governor of Texas, I am delighted to welcome
you to one of this state's most unique and exciting
events, the Folklife Festival of the Institute of Texan
Cultures.
Texas itself is unique. People from 26 different
ethnic and cultural groups settled and developed it.
Today their descendants, joined in more recent years
by those from a half dozen other ethnic backgrounds,
still contribute to the special quality of life that is
the Texas trademark.
You'll meet them at the Folklife Festival-Blacks
and Anglos, Mexicans and Germans, Norwegians
and Indians, Frenchmen and Czechs are here in their
common bond: they are Texans. And so are the
Danish, English, Scottish, Greek, Jewish, Lebanese,
Polish, Chinese, Swiss, Wendish, Yugoslav, Belgian,
Dutch, Irish, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Swedish.
The Institute, an educational institution that is a
part of The University of Texas at San Antonio, has
researched the contributions these people have made
to our history. Their stories are told in 50,000 square
feet of exhibits. At the Folklife Festival, these stories
are brought to life in the foods and dances, the arts
and handicrafts, the music and dress that is Texas'
heritage from those who came here from afar.
Enjoy it. And come again.
Sincerely,
Dolph Briscoe
HOW
IIJ'ALL
BEGAN
This sixth annual Texas Folklife
Festival is a part of the ongoing pro­gram
of The Institute of Texan Cul­tures
of The University of Texas at
San Antonio. It is at the Folklife
Festival that many of the traditions,
evidences of which appear on The
Institute's main exhibit floor, come
to life.
To understand the Festival one
must know something of the back­ground
of The Institute of Texan
Cultures itself. It began with Gover­nor
John Connally's 1965 promise of
a major Texas exhibit for San An­tonio's
HemisFair in 1968.
The Institute was established by
law as a permanent State Educa­tional
Institute in 1967. R. Hender­son
Shuffler, then director of the
Texana Program at The University
of Texas at Austin, was appointed
director. He and his staff gathered
material based on the theme of the
many peoples who have made
Texas what it is today. In the proc­ess
Shuffler's staff stripped the
Texas stereotype of his chaps and
revealed leggings of 26 major eth­nic,
cultural and racial groups. The
original exhibit was designed and
executed by Gordon Ashby, Osher­Follis,
Inc., of California.
The Institute continues to tell the
stories of Texas's people but is a
changing panorama because the
artifacts which are on display are on
loan, rather than the property of the
Institute. More than 650 Texans
have lent treasured momentos to il­lustrate
the stories that are told
through exhibits or on the history
walls. The displays change as items
are returned to their owners and
new ones are acquired or as new in­formation
about a particular group
is uncovered by the research staff.
The Institute is more than a
showcase of historical objects. It is
an educational experience. In addi­tion
to the multimedia show under
the center dome, visitors can hear
an Indian describing native Ameri­can
life, watch a Norwegian-cos­tumed
lecturer demonstrate the
pioneer arts of weaving and spin­ning,
listen to a "tow-sack talk"
about the early settlers of the state,
enjoy songs that tell the story of the
development of southern folk music
or learn Mexican tortilla-making.
Obviously, The Institute of Texan
Cultures is a favorite field trip selec­tion
for school classes, but it is
equally appealing to the many tour­ists
who visit San Antonio either
from other parts of Texas, from
other states or from other countries.
The legislative act which created
The Institute charged it not only
with the maintenance of exhibits,
but also with carrying the findings
of its continuing research to the
people of Texas. This is accom­plished
through film strips, books,
pamphlets, tapes, slides, special
events and traveling exhibits and
cultural programs for schools and
civic groups across the state. The
Institute has published booklets on
15 of the ethnic groups, andre­search
for ten more will soon be
ready for publication. Two books
are in print: Texas and the American
Revolution and The Texas Rangers:
Their First 150 Years.
The Institute's latest book, The
Melting Pot-Ethnic Cuisine in Texas,
is a compilation of recipes from
Texas's most interesting cooks. It is
for sale at the Texas Folklife Festi­val
this year, and appropriately so,
as many of the recipes are borrowed
from Festival cooks and are dishes
that have actually been prepared
during past Festivals.
The Folklife Festival idea came as
the result of a trip to Washington,
D.C., when the Smithsonian Insti­tution
featured Texas in the second
Festival of American Folklife. With a
grant from the Sid Richardson
Foundation, the Institute staff took
125 Texans to Washington to tell the
story of Texas. They returned ready
to do it again for the folks back
home.
The Exhibits Manager of the Insti­tute,
0. T. Baker, who had been
one of the coordinators of the
Washington show, was named
manager of the Texas Festival and
the next three years were spent in
planning and preparation.
The Institute received monetary
assistance from three Texas founda­tions:
Moody Foundation of Gal­veston,
Houston Endowment,
Ewing-Halsell of San Antonio. Four
special consultants, Bill C. Malone
of Tulane University; Jimmy Drift­wood
of Timbo, Arkansas; Don
Yoder of the University of Pennsyl­vania;
and Francis E. Abernethy,
secretary-editor of the Texas Folk­lore
Society, added their expertise
to the Festival plans.
Nine member hotels of the San
Antonio Hotel Association-the
Hilton's Palacio del Rio, The Men­ger,
the St. Anthony, the Gunter,
La Mansion, Travelodge-Court­house
Square, El Tropicano,
Crockett and La Quinta-Conven­tion
Center-provided free lodging
for the first participants. The H. B.
Zachary Company provided a team
of skilled workers to assist in con-struction
of the physical facilities.
And literally dozens of Texas organ­izations
and individuals donated
their time and skills to stage the
Festival.
The Festival opened September 7,
1972, with 2,163 participants repre­senting
21 different ethnic groups
and 100 Texas communities. By the
end of the Festival, four days later,
63,565 visitors made the occasion a
success.
Festivities grew in 1973, attracting
nearly 3,000 participants from 126
Texas towns and four new ethnic
groups. But the planned four-day
Festival was cut to two by hurricane
Delia. The 1974 Festival was also
greeted by rain, but a visit from
eight Russian Cosmonauts and six
American Astronauts added flavor
to a damp celebration.
The wet welcome in 1973 and
1974 prompted a change in dates.
The first weekend in August was
selected as a hedge against the hur­ricane
season. The new dates
proved to be a wise choice. More
vacationers were in town, and the
skies were clear. The 1975 Festival
added Yugoslav and Filipino Tex­ans
to established favorites such as
Cajun crawfish races and Lebanese
belly dancers.
In 1976 Claudia Ball, who from
the beginning had helped coordi­nate
the Festival, was named direc­tor
of special programs at the In­stitute,
and operating the Festival
became her primary responsibility.
0. T. Baker continued as a consul­tant,
checking over the plans to
make the transition smooth.
Opened by Governor Dolph Bris­coe,
the four sunny days of festivi­ties
proved to be the biggest and
best to date. "Schools" were a fea­tured
attraction and visitors learned
how to do everything from herb
gardening and glass blowing to
milking cows and making lye soap
and adobe bricks.
As always, some visitors were
surprised to see batik, stained glass
and progressive-country music
bands set up beside horsehair rope
spinners, hominy makers and water
witchers. But the Festival attempts
to present both the old and the new
as valid examples of Texas and Tex­ans.
While saluting the folkcrafts
of the early settlers, the Festival also
recognizes the contributions being
made by artists and craftsmen to­day.
Rather than drawing a line be­tween
the old and the new, the pro­gram
includes both-the traditional
and popular culture, sometimes
called in statu nascendi-in process
of becoming folklore.
The 1976 Festival also felt the eye
and the influence of a new execu­tive
director for the Institute of
Texan Cultures. Jack Maguire, a
widely syndicated Texas columnist
and author, assumed the title in
January of that year. In his words,
"The Festival must continue to be
the State of Texas's major occasion
of its kind, allowing an outdoor
showcase for the exciting stories
told in the publications and on the
exhibit floor of the Institute. My
emphasis will be toward enriching
the program which has been so well
established. We want to make sure
that every Folklife Festival partici­pant
is representative of the very
best in the field that can be secured,
(HOW IT ALL BEGAN coni' d.)
whether the traditionalist or the
person representing popular cul­ture.
It is for this reason that I have
appointed a steering committe in­cluding
folklorists, prominent
businessmen and civic leaders, to
assist in decision making and in
staging the Festival."
The 1977 Festival welcomes many
old and new faces. There will be
Swedish food prepared by the Lin­neas
Society of Houston, a Leba­nese
tent street market with a fruit
vendor and a fortune teller to read
Here's the
coffee grounds in your cup, a
demonstration of Korean martial
arts and a poultry exhibit featuring
chickens brought to Texas from the
Old World by early settlers. There
are many more kinds of food to
sample, singers and dancers to
watch and craftsmen and artists who
will show how their work is done.
Please refer to the center fold of
this program for a complete listing
of all that is available for visitors to
the 1977 Texas Folklife Festiva~
Festival Manager: ;.
Claudia Ball
It takes more than brains to manage
the Texas Folklife Festival. It's a job
that takes patience, devotion, stam­ina
and experience. And Claudia
Ball has all of them. Her tenacity
and determination have earned her
the title of "Dragon Lady."
A native of San Antonio, a Vassar
graduate with a Phi Beta Kappa
key, she worked her way up
through a maze of Institute of Texan
Cultures responsibilities before lay­ing
claim to the Festival. Joining the
staff as a volunteer seamstress in
1968, she sewed buttons, ripped
hems and fitted uniforms for the
guides who served during Hemis­Fair
and thereafter. In fact, her next
assignment was to tell Texans that
there was a thereafter for the Insti­tute
and that it didn't end with the
closing of the Fair. Her letters went
out all over the state to invite and
encourage people to continue to
come visit the exhibit floor.
About the time that job ended,
0. T. Baker, then head of the fabri­cation
department, enlisted her
help in typesetting, then wet and
dry exhibit mounting, graphics, ex­hibit
scheduling and finally plan­ning
the Folklife Festival. It was for
the first Festival that Baker turned
over assigning hotel rooms for par­ticipants
to Claudia. That really
meant being the person who com­municated
with all the folks who
planned to come, finding out what
they needed and trying to fill the
bill.
\
It meant planning the map for the
grounds, scheduling each partici­pating
group in the right place with
the exact number of electrical out­lets,
the correct counter space, or
the performing stage that was re­quired
and taking every possible
precaution to keep one group's
musical efforts from drowning out
another's.
" Scheduling the hotel rooms has
kept me awake nights," Claudia
groans. "I can't remember which
person it was who refused to be in
a motel or hotel if he had to be
above the first floor, but I remember
that he threatened to sleep out in
the parking lot rather than be above
ground.
"And then there was the fellow
who insisted on having his hunting
dogs smuggled into his room ...
and the wake that the Cajuns had in
their room for the crawfish that died
... and the time I frightened the
Indians by putting a rattlesnake
booth next to theirs ...
"But I love the Festival. It is
wonderful the way all the people
who come to participate become
one family-friends."
FES71
FL The cuisine of Texas is as varied as
its people. At the Festival, the eth­nic
groups of Texas give visitors the
opportunity to taste their specialties
and favorites. There's more than
anyone can possibly eat, so pick
your favorites, or sample some in­teresting
Old World fare. Tie a nap­kin
around your neck and dig in.
The food booths have been a
major part of the Festival since its
beginning. When the Institute
began to look for the things that
made festivals enjoyable, the first
on the list was food. Everyone likes
to eat.
Bread is the staple food of many
cultures, the staff of life. At the
Festival, you'll find leavened bread,
unleavened bread, bread dipped in
or used to hold other foods, wheat
bread, cornbread, tortillas, khibbez
(Lebanese bread) and fresh, hot
homemade sourdough biscuits.
For the first native Texans, corn
was a necessary ingredient in
bread, as it is in Mexican, Afro­American
and early Anglo breads.
Mexican cornbread is in the form
of the tortilla, an integral part of all
Mexican meals. Many Mexican
dishes are available at the Festival.
Try the tacos, chalupas, tamales,
pan dulce and tacos de barbacoa
served by several Mexican-Ameri­can
groups from San Antonio.
ORB Italians use a crusty bread as the
basis for their famous pizza and
top it with a rich spicy sauce. At
the Ladies Auxiliary of the Christo­pher
Columbus Society booth, you
can buy several kinds of pizza
cooked as you watch.
The delegation from Gilmer's
East Texas Yamboree uses a sweet
crust for their yam pie. The Yam­boree
booth will offer slices of this
sweet potato pie; and "Spot"
Baird, the "Professor of Possumol­ogy,"
will lecture on how to cook
possum. He'll bring several charts
to punctuate his talk on possum
cooking. Many people make this
booth a last stop so they can take
home several frozen yam pies.
The Czech cooks from Halletsville
also make a delicious pastry. They
call theirs a kolac or kolache. The
slightly sweet roll has an indenta­tion
in its center which is filled with
fruit or cottage cheese. You'll be
tempted to try one of each kind. Or
you can try a koblasnicke, a meat
turnover, and wash it down with
pivo (beer).
The Danes have their smorrebrod,
which literally means "bread and
butter." These open-faced sand­wiches,
made with shrimp, ham
and chicken, are traditionally eaten
with a knife and fork. For dessert,
try their apfelskewer, an apple dump­ling.
The Alsatian French from Castro­ville,
representing the St. Louis Day
Celebration, serve their special
spicy sausage on miniature loaves
of bread and also offer perissa, a
meat spread on crackers. The Scot­tish
are noted for their shortbread,
oven scones and chips. They'll
show you how to make scones,
then send you off with a recipe.
The Belgian American Club of Texas
has its broodje met hesp, a bread,
ham and butter sandwich. The
famous Jewish bagel is served at the
Festival along with lox. The Ger­man
Wurstfest Association from
New Braunfels offers its sausage
on a stick accompanied by a plump
crusty roll.
Want to learn how bread is made?
You can see the whole process at
the Festival. First go to the Grist
Mill in full operation. Visitors can
see how corn was ground into meal
during Texas's pioneer days. The
visitor can go to any one of several
booths: to Dr. Hale's bread-baking
school, to the sourdough biscuit
maker at the Cowboy Chuckwagon
or to the Scottish booth for scone
making.
But man does not live by bread
alone. Visitors can eat shishka­bobs
Greek style, cabbage rolls at
the Russian booth, egg rolls from
the Chinese, inihaw and lumpia
from the Filipinos, sausage rolls
from the English and fried catfish at
the Black Texans' table.
There's also Swiss quiche Lorraine
and fondue demonstrations, Polish
chlodnik (a cold soup), Irish stew,
Italian meatball sandwiches, paella
from Spain, Yugoslavian frank­furters,
taboolee (health salad)
from the Lebanese, German potato
salad, Swedish meatballs, or Kore­an
bulkogui (broiled beef).
Desserts can be obtained from the
Dutch booth, where there's a wide
assortment of cookies; struedel
from the Germans; bunuelos in the
Mexican Market, fortune cookies
from the Chinese booth or ice cream
at the Brush Arbor.
And to wash it all down, try some
of the refreshing herb tea at Rocco
and Barbara A very's Black Sun
Herb Farm. They'll have a variety
of other herbs as well that will ~
tempt you to cook for yourself. ~
After you've tried to taste all the Festi­val
has to offer, you can take it home
with you in the form of The Melting
Pot, the newly-published Institute
cookbook featuring ethnic recipes from
across the state.
You will find it for sale at the Infor­mation
kiosks on the Festival grounds
and inside the Institute at the store.
The Melting Pot: $7.95 each
FESIJ'IVAL
MENUS
ALSA TIANS-Alsatian Sausage
and Perissa (a raw meat spread),
Pretzel Cookies
BELGIANS-Hespe Broodje
(ham sandwich), Fruit sherbet
BRITISH-English Sausage
Rolls, Cornish Pasties (meat pie)
BRUSH ARBOR-Ice Cream
CHILI-Chili
CHUCK WAGON-Barbecue and
Beans, Sourdough Biscuits
CHINESE-Shrimp Chips, Egg
Rolls, Fortune Cookies
CZECHS-Koblasnicky (sausage
roll), Kolache (sweet roll with fruit
or cheese filling)
DANISH-Rolls and Cheese, Ap­felskewer
(apple fritters) , Open­Faced
Sandwiches
DUTCH-Dutch Cookies
FILIPINO-Inihaw (shishkabob),
Lumpia (egg rolls)
GERMAN-German Sausage,
Apple Streudel
GREEK-Souflaki (shishkabob),
Baklava (pastry)
IRISH-Irish Stew and Potato
Pancakes
ITALIAN-Pizza, Meatball Sand­wiches
JAPANESE-Teriyaki (marinated
chicken), Yakitori (marinated chick­en
and beef on a stick), Fried Rice,
Fried Wanton (small meat-filled egg
roll skin)
JEWISH-Bagels, Lox and Cream
Cheese; Cheese Cake; Honey Cake;
Potato Knish
KOREAN-Bulkogui (Korean
broiled beef), Mandu (wanton)
LEBANESE-Lahem Mishwee
(shishkabob), Taboolie (garden
wheat salad), Lahem b' Ajeen (meat
pies), Mihshee Malfoof (cabbage
rolls), Khibbez (bread), Sambooski
(pastries), Fresh Fruit
MEXICAN-Tortas (bolillo con
sausage, brisket or avocado), Tacos
(picadillo, carne guisada, frijoles,
etc.), Aguas Frescas, Tacos de
Barbacoa, Pan Dulce, Menudo, Faji­tas,
Sodas, Chalupas, Tamales
NORWEGIAN-Varm Korv with
Lefse (Scandinavian hot dogs)
POLISH-Pierogi (dough pockets
stuffed with cheese), Placki (potato
pancakes), Chlodnik (cold soup),
Kielbasa (Polish sausage with horse
radish), Ciasta (pastries), Nalesniki
(strawberry crepe with sour cream),
Golbki (cabbage rolls)
SCOTTISH-Chips (fried pota­toes),
Oven Scones (biscuits), Forfer
Bridies (sausage rolls with onions)
SOUL FOOD-Fried Catfish,
Greens, Beans, Potato Salad, Corn­bread,
Peach Cobbler, Barbecue
SPANISH-Paella (meat, rice and
fish dish), Corn, Spanish Meat
Tacos
SWEDISH-Swedish Meat Balls,
Rye Bread, Open-Faced Sand­wiches,
Cookies, Sugar Cakes,
Pecan Tarts
SWISS-Quiche Lorraine (cheese
pie), Bratwurst, Wurstwette
(sausage), Swiss Chocolate Cake,
Apple Streussel Kuchen
WENDISH-Koch Kaese on Kim­melbrot
(black bread and cheese),
Noodles
YAMBOREE-Yam Pie
YUGOSLAV-Sausage
Where feasible, food servers will
serve "tastes" for 25¢ or 50¢.
THERE'S MORE
HAM THAN
YAMIN
GILMER'S
"SPOT" BAIRD
Yams and opposums may not ap­pear
to have a lot in common but
the combination makes a world of
sense when Gilmer's East Texas
Yamboree visits the Texas Folklife
Festival.
The yams are in the form of the
highly popular sweet potato pie,
courtesy of Bettye Smith and her
pie baking delegation from Gilmer.
The possums are brought by Jack
F. "Spot" Baird, the "Texas Pos­sum
King." This gourmet and Pro­fessor
of Possumology brings one
baked critter and one boiled one
for display, then tells visitors every­thing
they ever wanted to know
about possums-but were afraid to
find out.
Declaring 1977 to be the "Year of
the Possum," Baird says he will
astound the public with new pos­sum
information and products.
The public will get to see Baird's
new "hybrid breed" possums which
he claims will be able to perform cir­cus
acts. This new breed also is
musical, Baird added. They spe­cialize
in symphonies and their
most popular theme to date is
"O'Poss #2."
In the new foods area, Baird says
he has a group of possums in the
feed lot now whose special diet is
100 percent peanuts. ~
IJ'heSounds
and Activities
of Festival Life
Students of music as well as Fes­tival-
goers enjoying the sights and
sounds of the celebration can
sample a collage of music as varied
as the state's people. Seven stages
offer styles that range from folk and
gospel to country bluegrass to
Yugoslavian !'lnd Polish folk songs~
Keeping the constant flow of enter­tainment
smooth are hard working
Festival announcers and coordina­tors,
volunteers all, who keep the
extravaganza on schedule.
Dance, as well as music, mirrors
the lives of people. The Festival
offers plenty of foot movement to
help tell the people's story of their
life in Texas. Join the informal
square dancing school in Cotton
Eye Joe or Put Your Little Foot per­formed
by Gene and the Western­ers
or the Hoboes.
Not only a form of recreation,
music and dance recount history.
For example the Alabama-Cou­shatta
Indians from East Texas en­tertain
with tribal dances and drum
beats, all of which describe Indian
life. The Alamo City Highlanders
fill the air with the skirling of bag­pipes
playing the martial music of
Scotland. They can be seen at set
times marching on top of the Insti­tute
berm and through the grounds.
At the Irish booth, listen to a
tenor's traditional rendering of
Danny Boy and other old favorites
while you drink green beer.
bne of the more unusual sounds
comes from a handful of bones.
John "Bones" Nobels from Beau­mont
has been playing his unique
instrument since 1911. He makes
music, he says, "like nothing you
ever heard" with the ribs of a cow
clinked together in his right hand.
Visitors can sit on the grassy
slopes of the berm and enjoy folk
dances brought with the settlers to
Texas from all corners of the world.
Russian Cossack dancers pound the
stage with their high-stepping
Ukranian folk dances. The Festival
Russians come from St. Seraphin's
Church in Dallas. Filipino tinikling
dancers delicately and deftly step
between rhythmically moving bam­boo
sticks. These beautiful dancers
are with the Bayanihan troupe from
Laredo. San Antonio's Filipino
group, the Mabuhay dancers, offers
a tinikling school. Italian folk danc­ers
from the Christopher Columbus
Society of San Antonio and the Kali
Parea, Greek for the "Good
Crowd," capture the feeling of the
warm Mediterranean sunshine
when they perform their folk dances.
The Italian dancers present a
graceful Tarantella, while on the
other side of the grounds, the in­fectious
bluegrass sounds of the
East Texas String Ensemble bring
listeners to their feet for an im­promptu
country dance. The En­semble
is composed of four profes­sors
from Stephen F. Austin State
University in Nacogdoches.
Not far away, under the Brush
Arbor, visitors add their voices to
the gospels sung by the Woodrome
Family from Nederland and Free­port.
Others, unable to resist the
oompah sounds of the Boerne
Village Band, join the Hallettsville
bunch in a polka.
The music and dance aren't all
on the stage . A Middle Eastern belly
dancer from San Antonio's Ameleb
Club may recruit a spectator from
the crowd for a hip-shaking lesson,
or a Spanish flamenco dancer may
teach a few gypsy steps to a willing
novice.
Music and dancing don't provide
the only entertainment. Texans
have fun in many ways.
For those visitors interested in a
bit of friendly competition, the Fes­tival
offers contests and games. You
can go to the Hondo Corn Shuck­ing
Contest and try your hand at an
old frontier chore, often shared by
neighbors at a shucking or husking
bee. According to an old custom, if
you find a red ear of corn during the
bee, you may kiss the person of
your choice.
Those who want something dif­ferent
can try the Luling Water­melon
Seed Spitting Contest or
enter a prized bird in the Chicken
Flying Contest. Or you can climb a
greased pole in the Belgian game of
mast and try to be the first to grab
the carrot dangling on top. Belgians
also have a rice pudding contest
which requires blindfolded couples
to feed each other a bowl of pud­ding
faster than other contestants.
The Scots will sponsor a sheaf toss;
you can test your endurance by
throwing a sheaf of hay over a tall
crossbar or take part in a tug of war.
Belgian and Italian Festivql
groups offer games similar to Amer­ican
bowling. The Belgians call theirs
bolls; the Italians, bocce. Bolls is
played by rolling a wooden disk
down a plank to hit a post. The
Italians play their game with eight
wooden bocce balls and a small bail­ing
ball. The object is to roll the
bocce balls closest to the bailing ball
which is positioned some distance
away.
The Chili Booth is another popu­Jar
area with a myriad of entertain­ing
characters. While sampling
some of the hot, spicy chili, visitors
can enter the onion bobbing con­test,
the bubble gum blowing con­test
or a number of spur-of-the­moment
contests dreamed up by
the zany chili crew.
Exotic Mid-Eastern notes waft
from the stage where the Lebanese
dancers perform. One of the most
popular acts at the Festival, the
Middle Eastern dances are accom­panied
by the oud (an Arabic flute),
the derbeke (an Arabian drum), the
karoon (an oriental zither), the tam­bourine,
the nat (a one- to six-reed
flute) and zills (finger cymbals).
The coin-covered costumes tradi­tionally
worn by many dancers had
their beginnings in the practice of
sewing on coins as a dowry. There
is controversy over the origins of
the dance itself. Some believe that
it originated in Persia at the same
time as the development of the
oud. The dance flourished in the
12th century in Bagdad harem
courts where dancers used panto­mime
to illustrate stories and
poetry.
At the Festival, the audience can
get in on the act and learn the
debke, a Middle Eastern line dance
similar to familiar Greek dances.
Lebanese dancers are from the
Ameleb Club of San Antonio.
Tanya Zwan, a fifteen-year-old
beauty from Tyler who has been
dancing since she was three, is a
featured dancer.
One of the favorite Festival areas is
the "Back Forty" of The Institute's
grounds. This frontier arena is a
showcase for crafts and skills of
Texas's early days. It centers
around a small but growing com­plex
of buildings, all of which are
careful reconstructions of typical
pioneer structures. When com­pleted,
the "Back Forty/' with its
dog-trot cabin, schoot church, barn
and small farm buildings, will add
yet another dimension to the Insti­tute's
story of Texas.
Story tellers and musicians sit on
the cabin's front porch or perch on
stumps around its grounds and
entertain for hours. The nearby
Brush Arbor is a shady retreat for
listening to fine gospel music by
groups such as the Voices of the
Mainland from Texas City, or at­tending
an old-fashioned shaped­note
singing school conducted by
Opal Harris of Lufkin. Everywhere
you turn, people are doing things
the way they used to when our state
began: butter churners, bakers,
spinners and weavers, blacksmiths
and quilters, adobe makers and
whittlers.
Over at the close-by Indian Vil­lage,
Rocky Stallings, The Institute's
resident medicine man, explains
customs and natural medicines and
demonstrates the crafts of Native
Americans.
For the children, the place to be is
Frontier Playland, an area set aside
specifically for the younger Festival
visitor. Here a child of the Space­Age
can blow soap bubbles or ride
around in a replica of the early
covered wagon with Hazel Bowen,
the crusty wagon mistress who
drove the prairie schooner 3,000
miles from Houston to Valley Forge
as part of the Pennsylvania bicen­tennial
celebration. Or children can
see-saw on a split rail fence, learn
about the tools that Grandpa used
or jump off a huge log into the hay.
Close by is the whittlin' bench
where skilled woodcarvers, such as
Truett and Jeff Latimer of Austin,
are ready to teach visitors how to
whittle, a craft that takes more prac­tice
and patience than one might
think.
In the course of walking around
in this area, visitors may cross the
path of a person following a stick.
If this should occur, the surprised
observer is advised to follow and
listen to the explanation of water
witching: an art that is at least five
centuries old.
Some modern diviners believe
that Moses was the first dowser and
refer the curious to Numbers 20:
7-11. " ... And Moses lifted up his
hand, and with his rod he smote the
rock twice: and water came out
abundantly."
Early German miners believed
that the rod would work only if cut
on St. John's Day and properly bap­tized,
but most modern witchers at­tribute
less power to the rod and
more to themselves as the receiver
of the message.
One of the earliest building mate­rials
used in Texas was earth. Visi­tors
at the Festival can learn how
adobe bricks were made. These
unburnt bricks of clay, horse
manure and straw were fired in the
sun and had to be plastered over to
protect them from the weather,
making walls sometimes as much
as two feet thick.
Visitors interested in using their
muscles can try driving a railroad
spike, a job that occupied many of
Texas's early Chinese and Irish
settlers, or can arm wrestle with the
Bexar County Cowards.
Trapper Max brings fur pelts for
inspection and will recount the ins
and outs of trapping, while next
door his wife bakes cookies with the
'coon oil from his catch.
The cowboys from the Texas
Cowboy Reunion at Stamford set
up their barbeque-laden chuck
wagon and corral while demon­strating
the cowhand art of making
sourdough biscuits over an open
fire . You may taste the result.
If these aren't diversions enough,
you can spend time learning to milk
a cow from Knowlton's farm, mak­ing
a rawhide quirt or brewing wine
with the Kendall County Com­munity.
Talk to cow-and-hog-dog
man Cowboy Williams about his
dogs and the hunts they have gone
on, or discover a variety of uses for
Texas plants from Carroll Abbott.
Don't be fooled into thinking that
what you see is all you get. Visitors
are invited to stop and talk with all
Festival participants. Many of them,
besides being craftsmen, can tell
folk tales about Texas not only the
way it was but also the way it never
could have been.
For example, there's East Texan
Bill Brett, postmaster of Hult Texas.
A spinner of both horsehair ropes
and Texas tales, Brett has been a
rancher, bronc buster, roughneck
and logger. His stories are about the
people and the country he knows
best. Brett spins horsehair into
ropes for bridle reins and girths.
He learned his craft from his
Grandpa Key whom he describes as
not "stingy, just pore." Tail hair is
too coarse for his work, Brett says,
so he uses hair from the horses'
mane. His only tool is the simple
wooden instrument Brett calls a
"tarrabee." He thinks it may be
man's oldest tool. He hooks loose
hair into the tarrabee and twirls it
for a long strand of twisted hair.
Fifty-six to fifty-seven feet of this
strand is doubled back and spun
again to make a horsehair girth.
~
GENERAL INFORMATION
PROGRAM INFORMATION about the Festival is
listed on large posters at ticket booths and kiosks.
General information may be obtained at any of the four
kiosks located on the grounds.
HOURS of the Festival are 5 p.m. untilll p.m. Thursday
and Friday; 12 noon untilll p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
FOOD DEMONSTRATIONS, LEARNING CENTERS
AND CRAFTS DEMONSTRATIONS are held con­stantly
throughout the Festival. A look at the map and
entertainment schedule will give you the specific time
of each demonstration.
THE EXHIBIT FLOOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF
TEXAN CULTURES will be open during Festival hours.
Visitors can tour the floor at any time and a multi-media
show in the Dome, featuring the faces and places of
Texas is shown on the hour.
SOUVENIR BOOTHS are located in the kiosks. There
visitors can purchase The Melting Pot, The Institute's
newest publication-a cookbook that features the best
recipes from each of the ethnic and cultural groups that
settled the State. Sun and straw hats, festival buttons,
fans, tee shirts and souvenir programs also may be pur­chased
along with film and cigarettes.
FIRST AID is provided by the Red Cross and doctors
from the UT Health Science Center who donate their
services. First aid stations are located on the exhibit floor
and in the Frontier area. The San Antonio Emergency
Medical Service will be on call in case a major accident
occurs.
REST ROOMS are in the basement of The Institute, and
numerous portable rest rooms are located throughout
the Festival site. If you need help in finding one, go to
an information kiosk.
LOST AND FOUND articles may be claimed or re­ported
at the security desk located in the basement of
The Institute. Found articles may be turned in at any
of the kiosks or at the security desk.
LOST CHILDREN or parents will be taken to the em­ployee's
lunch room located in the basement. Officers at
the security desk can direct you. If you have a lost child,
you can call the communications center and they'll let
you know the lost child situation at the lunch room.
FREE SHUTTLE BUSES run from all downtown parking
lots to the Festival grounds. For a small round-trip
charge, visitors may park at Windsor Park or Wonderland
shopping malls and ride the bus to the Festival site.
NO PARKING is available on Festival grounds.
PARTICIPANT REGISTRATION AND PRESS ROOM
are located in the VIP room at the Convention Center.
The room is underneath the Theatre for the Performing
Arts on the lagoon.
, I
FOLK MUSIC
AT THE
FESTIVAL
Generations ago Texans brought
their music with them from over the
water, songs that were so old even
then that nobody knew who first
sang them, or where, or when. This
was their culture's folk music, and it
was changing and growing then as
it is now, tunes changing to fit new
moods and words changing to fit
new experiences in a new land.
Most of the traditional music
brought from the old countries had
a hundred years or more of milling
around in Texas before it showed
up at the Texas Folklife Festival,
and during that time it did a lot of
swapping with its neighbors. The
Anglo-Scottish-Irish settlers, who
spent a hundred years westering in
the wilderness and singing their
songs before they got to Texas,
came with Blacks who had been
singing their own songs for cen­turies,
all the way from Africa
through the islands of the Carib­bean
to the southern cotton states.
Both of them met and mixed with
the French Cajuns of southeast
Texas, the Germans and Czechs
and Poles of central Texas, and the
Mexicans who held the southwest
along the Rio Grande and who had
been singing and playing a Span­ish-
Indian mixture of music for over
three hundred years. They crossed
trails along the way with Danes and
Swedes, Greeks and Italians, Jews
and Syrians, and each group shared
its music and borrowed some.
But even though these cultures
took and gave and even though the
music changed through these years
of Texas pioneering and settlement,
cultural identity and loyalty caused
Germans and French and Anglos
and Blacks and Mexicans to hold to
and cultivate and preserve the
sounds that were-most traditional
and satisfying to their ears. And
that is what the Institute of Texan
Cultures and the Texas Folklife Fes­tival
celebrate, a state culture that
is rich in the variety of its people
by Francis E. Abernethy
Secretary- Editor
Texas Folklore Society
and rich in the many sounds of its
music.
The many varieties of folk music
that the Festival spotlights are not
curiosities that chambers of com­merce
trot out annually for local
festivals and parades. This music is
still very much alive in homes and
honky tonks and barrel houses and
on radio stations beaming out of
Port Arthur and Schulenburg and
in The Valley or the Brazos Bot­toms.
And it's still borrowing and
growing-Cajun and Black race
music blending into zydeco, white
gospel picking up the beat from
Black church, German and Czech
bands playing with a country-west­ern
sound. The folk music of the
Festival is not an exercise in quaint­ness
. It is as modern as it is tradi­tional.
The sound of the Festival is the
sound of music: Scots, Anglos,
Blacks, and Indians if you come in
one gate, a German oompah band
at another, Lebanese belly dancers
behind the main building taking
time about with Mexican mariachis
just up the steps from them. Black
church, white gospel, Irish tenors,
bagpipes, jewsharps, and fiddles:
Texas folk music in an infinite vari­ety
comes from all over the state to
represent the many different cul­tures
whose fitness permitted them
to survive the settling of a ne~
land. ~
Cou~Music with a PhD
Those country crooners calling
themselves the East Texas String
Ensemble aren't hillbillies.
They're PhD's at Stephen F.
Austin State University in Nacog­doches,
teaching subjects like
British and American literature,
geography and history.
But don't walk away from their
unlikely credentials-their sound is
as good as if it were backwoods
inspired. The four musicians,
Charles Gardner, Ab Abernethy,
Stan Alexander and Tom Nail, play
music that ranges from the South­ern
hillbilly tradition to Willie Nel­son
songs.
Do, Re, Mi-Not
One, Two, Three
was Learned in
Texas's First
Schools
If you've ever wondered what the
first school in America was like, you
can find out at the Festival. But be
prepared to sing the gospel, not
work sums or read from a primer.
Lufkin's Opal Harris and the
Singing Harris Family will recreate
the early singing schools at the Fes­tival
and teach sight singing under
the Brush Arbor. Each note is as­signed
an unusual shape. "When
y~m see a note, your subconscious
automatically tunes your vocal
·. chords to produce the pitch the note
represents," Mrs. Harris explained.
Singing schools, which use this
shaped note method to teach sight
singing, began in the East in the
nation's early days but rapidly
spread to Texas.
Fine, Frolicking
Fiddlers at
Festival
,~/
' '" ,I
Bruce Roark from
Devine, Texas has
gained fame at
earlier Festivals for
his 2 X 4 fiddle
and last year re­ceived
a special
citation as the top
craftsman at the
1976 Texas Folklife
Festival from the
Glass Container
Manufacturers In­stitute
of New
York.
Bruce is shown
here with his pop­ular
double neck
guitar.
The toe-tapping, finger-snapping
sounds from Hallettsville's annual
Fiddler's Frolic will get transported
by string, bow and fiddle to the
Texas Folklife Festival.
Fast-fingered Parvin Hoffman, a
Frolic state champion, will perform
along with fellow Hallettsville
musicians Ingersol Manning,
Raymond Franklin, James Mature,
Carl Hopkins, Clifford Fryer, and
E. J. Hopkins.
Joining them is one of the state's
most unusual musicians, Bootsie
Ehlers, master of the novel bass
box. The instrument itself is un­usual;
a wooden box covered with
salt is played by rubbing a broom
stick across the top. The result-a
bass violin sound.
Scandinavian
Doce-Do
What the square dance is to folk
America and the hula is to Hawaii,
the polska is to Scandinavia.
The Scandinavian Folkdancers
from Dickinson will perform this
distinctive Swedish-born dance at
the Festival.
l
The baroque-sounding polska,
popular in Scandinavia since just
after the Middle Ages, was a fav­orite
of nobility and peasants alike,
group leader Inga Lisa Calissendorff
explained, and it reigned as the na­tional
dance even as late as the 19th
century.
Dances scheduled during the Fes­tival
include a medley of ancient
dances from Denmark, Norway and
Sweden; the Ostogota Polska; the
Fryksdals Polska; the Weaving
Dance; the Ox Dance and the Dol­dance.
il.
II
NEW FACES
Whoever said there is nothing
new under the sun wasn't thinking
of the Texas Folklife Festival.
New skills and faces will appear
in every Festival feature from foods
to the informal folk craft schools.
The Linneas Society, a new
Swedish group, is bringing native
foods, such as meatballs, and a
wide assortment of handcrafts. An­other
new ethnic group is the Nor­wegian
Society of Dallas who will
feature traditional dances and a
Rosemaling demonstration. The
Koreans will make their first ap­pearance
at the Festival and will
have demonstrations of the martial
arts along with kite making and
typical Korean foods.
Other ethnic groups are expand­ing
on their past presentations. The
Alabama-Coushatta Indians will
add demonstrations of bead work
and pine needle basket making
to their usual dance fare. The Czech
area will grow to include a gym
team, Sokol Zizka from Dallas, The
West Beseda Dancers, and the
Czech Singers of Victoria. The Leb­anese
area will add a tent street
market including a fruit vendor, a
coffee grounds reader and a Leb­anese
cooking school. The Polish
Arts and Culture Foundation will be
teaching the royalty dance, the
Polonaise. The Ukranian Folk Danc­ers
of Houston will present tradi­tional
folk dances from the Ukrain
region of Russia, and the Japanese
demonstrations will broaden to in­clude
an informal school on Ikebana,
the art of flower arranging.
Guests can also visit the many
new craftsmen at the Festival.
Among the new attractions are bon­net
maker Linda Johnson from Gary
High School in Gary, Texas. Well­known
Texas wildlife artist Charles
Beckendorf of Fredericksburg and
pastel artist John Woodruff of New
Braunfels will demonstrate their on­canvas
skills, while Carroll Abbott
puts on his show on Texas wild­flowers.
Charlie Loving of Round
Rock and Bill Livingood of Austin
will have silk-screen demonstra­tions.
Alvi Rohde of San Antonio
will bring nostalgic photography­as
well as include you in some
"instant nostalgia." Frenchman
Alain Teissier will present his silver
crafting skill. Three members of the
Texas Cowboy Artists, Jim Thomas
and Justin Wells of Amarillo and Bill
Leftwich of Lubbock, will demon-strate
their respective skills as
sculptor, pen and ink artist and
leather worker. Wurstfest Associa­tion
members of New Braunfels will
demonstrate candlemaking and
chair caning. Dickinson's Earl
Adairn and Mike Harrigan will
demonstrate scrimshaw, the art of
carving on bone and horn; and Zed
Wooten of Timpson will show how
he rebuilds old wagons and bug­gies.
Roof thatcher Juan E. Martinez
of Laredo and John Bullock, a steel
sculptor from Terlingua, will also be
on hand.
There will be many new enter­tainers.
New gospel groups will be
under the Brush Arbor-the Voices
of the Mainland from Texas City
and the Duckens Family of Temple.
And new bluegrass sounds will be
coming from the Gatlinberg Militia,
a trio of musicians from Belton, and
Kent Finley and the High Cotton
Express from San Marcos. New
mariachi music will be played by
the Julio Casas Mariachis.
A former Folklife Festival man­ager
is now on the other side of the
fence. 0. T. Baker, who helped
organize the Texas show at the
Washington, D.C., Festival of
American Folklife in 1968 and is
known as the founding manager of
the Texas Folklife Festival, joined
the ranks of participants this year.
The smokehouse features a vari­ety
of Baker specialties, such as
smoked venison sausage, which he
swears is the best you'll ever eat.
Of course, these aren't all the
new folks at the Festival. You'll find
many more new groups on the
grounds along with old favorites.
I
I
Learning Old Crafts is
Fun at Festival Schools
Everywhere on the Festival grounds
people are making things. Having
learned their skills and crafts either
from patient teachers or from
fathers and grandfathers, they are
ready to share their knowledge and
experience with Festival visitors.
Some demonstrate, explaining
what they are doing and answering
questions; many others will let you
try your hand at their crafts. The
emphasis is on learning, and ob­server
becomes participant. Festival
schools give everyone a chance to
learn something new-even though
that something might just be as old
as the hills.
If you want to learn to throw a
pot, make one at the Festival's pot­tery
school, operated by Marie
Blazek; you'll find it's more difficult
than it appears. And if your Grand­mother
didn't crochet, learn how to
make a granny square from the
ladies of the Wendish Culture Club.
If you're not ready to do-it-your­self,
you can watch blacksmiths
Norma and Basil Garcia demon­strate
the trade, one of the essential
skills in early Texas. While always
in demand, the blacksmith did not
always enjoy public popularity.
Smiths in medieval France and
Spain were thought to have connec­tions
with Satan and were ostra­cized.
They banded together in iso­lated
villages to continue their work
opening their shops once a year to
sell their wares. In Roman mythol­ogy,
Vulcan, son of Jupiter and
father of blacksmithing, was ugly
and misshapen. But both he and
Loki of Norse myth produced
powerful objects for the gods, and
their smithing skills were honored.
In Scandinavian countries during
the Middle Ages, the blacksmith
was so esteemed that he was seated
next to the king at the banquet
table. There were no kings in Texas,
but the blacksmith was worth his
weight in iron or gold during the
settlement period.
A less strenuous craft to try is
batik. A Japanese word meaning
"wax painting," batik has gained
popularity during the last several
years. The process of batik involves
waxing portions of the material to
prevent it from absorbing the dye
and repeating the dipping until the
design is complete. Winnie Lay will
teach you how. A similar process is
used in pysanki, the Russian art of
egg dying demonstrated by Dennis
Oliver from Dallas.
Early Texas women found mak­ing
quilts a good way to use
fabric scraps. At the Festival you
can learn how to make a quilt from
the ladies with the Kendall County
Community. If the material scrap is
large enough, you can dress an
apple doll, whose head is made
from a dried apple carved by Imo­gene
Young. These dolls are made
from freshly peeled apples which,
when dry, wrinkle and form unique
faces. Pioneer men and women
made toys from whatever was avail­able.
Cloth is easy to buy today. But
in pioneer days, there were many
time-consuming steps between raw
cotton or wool and that final fabric.
All the work was done at home. At
the Festival you can see and learn
the steps from carding and dyeing
through spinning and weaving. Ruf­fin
Hill of Austin coordinates carders,
spinners and weavers; and Kathy
Laury of San Antonio demonstrates
natural dyeing and drop spinning.
Shiney Schandua, a tinsmith
from Fredericksburg, works his
metal into useful and handsome
utensils such as lamps, candlehold­ers,
cookie cutters and kettles.
Other Festival schools give visi­tors
a chance to practice the culinary
arts as well as please their taste
buds. A wagonload of cabbage sup­plies
the sauerkraut making school.
The Kendall County Community
supervises the novice at shredding
cabbage, then takes him through
the process of pickling it. After
you've tried your hand at shucking
corn, the Festival has a school that
can show you what to do with it­make
hominy. The cornis cooked in
a solution of lye and water until the
grain begins to crack open and
swell, usually about eight to nine
hours. It is then washed thoroughly
to get rid of the lye before another
eight to nine hours of cooking.
There are demonstrations of vari­ous
types of rope making-horse­hair,
rawhide or hemp-along with
calligraphy, and stained glass craft­ing.
Two fine members of the Cow­boy
Artists from Amarillo, Justin
Wells and Jim Thomas, will inter­pret
Western life with pen and ink
and bronze. Bill Leftwich of Lub­bock,
another member of the Cow­boy
Artists, engraves on leather.
French silversmith, Alain Teissier,
will demonstrate his art along with
pine needle basket weavers from the
Alabama- Coushattas. A lesson in
feathers can be learned from Frances
Wright of the Alamo City, and the
ancient lace-making skill of tatting
will be taught by a lady from Kendall
County. In addition, the Japanese
will show the flower arranging~
skills known as Ikebana. ~
COME TO THE
BARN-RAISIN'
The twang of old-time music, the
drawl of tall tales and the clatter
of the broad axe and carpenter work
will resound at the site of the barn
raising on the "Back Forty" of the
Institute of Texan Cultures, known
also as the frontier area.
Heading up the barn building is
Devine's Arnold Griffin, a five-year
veteran of the Festival, the builder
of the pioneer log house which
bears his name, an important aide
in the construction of the school­house
and a member of the Devine
Music Makers.
The barn will be made of logs
from East Texas pines that have
been furnished by University of
Texas Regent and former ambassa­dor
Ed Clark, John Henderson of
Lufkin and Arthur Temple of Lufkin.
THERE'S
FRONTIER
PLAYLAND FOR
CHILDREN
Children and the Festival go to­gether
like natural companions.
Realizing this, the managers of the
Festival set aside a special area for
the children called Frontier Play­land.
Here the home-fashioned toys
and games of frontier children re­appear
under the direction of
Shirlee Keith of Kerrville.
Interested in how children enter­tained
themselves in early Texas?
Frontier Playland will provide vivid
examples. Using simple materials­wood,
hay, corn cobs-and a lot of
imagination, pioneer children cre­ated
a great variety of toys and
games. Space Age children quickly
adapt to this recreation of an earlier
time and prove imaginations aren't
impaired by television.
City youngsters can follow in
the barefoot steps of yesterday's
children when they ride oxen, Tom
and Jerry, at the Festival. The two
giant bovines belong to Woodville's
Jethro Holmes.
Or children used to dolls that per­form
without human help or electric
cars that do everything but run out
of gas will view Austin's Phil Baer­reis
with astonishment and delight.
Baerreis's area isn't hard to find.
Surrounding his table is a large tree
filled with Russian climbing bears,
wooden toys that crawl up a string
to the top then whirl back down.
All his toys are the same: they re­quire
imagination, not batteries. "I
like to demonstrate the old folk toys
that people made themselves," the
craftsman explained. "They're
imaginative and flexible and they
increase creativity and thinking."
Baerreis even makes many toys at
the Festival. He will craft them with
pioneer tools including a foot lathe
attached to a bicycle wheel so
young visitors can help him by
furnishing the leg power for the
lathe.
Although Frontier Playland is ex­clusively
for children, it's not the
only place they can have fun. One
of the most popular features at the
Festival is also a tribute to the in­genuity
of children-the berm slide.
From the day the first Festival
opened in 1972, children immedi­ately
saw the potential of the tall
sloping earthen berms that sur­round
the Institute and promptly
took slides on all available pieces
of cardboard.
Taking a cue from the children,
Festival Manager Claudia Ball will
hold a Berm Sliding Contest. With
local coaches as the referees, chil­dren-
and anyone else interested­can
compete in contests determin­ing
the fastest and best slider. The
winners will receive a special "Offi­cial
Berm Sliding Tee Shirt" . The
shirt, which can also be bought at
the kiosks on the Festival grounds,
features Berm Dog, the Institute's
official mascot.
The Belgian area also offers a
wealth of amusement for children.
Mast, or the climbing of a greased
pole, sponsored by the Belgian
American Club of Texas, can win
the sturdiest and fastest climber a
prize. Eating rice pudding is an­other
contest. Children can race the
clock, and each other, by shoving
spoons of pudding into a partner's
mouth but both must be blind­folded.
They can clean up at the
shower game where the loser gets a
good drenching.
Other children, more interested
in crafts than contests, will enjoy
seeing the apple dolls made by Imo­gene
Young and corn cob dolls
crafted by Charlene Berryman.
They can even learn to make them.
Others may enter the cow milk­ing
contest. The biggest puzzle,
how to get milk out of a cow, is
frequently approached in ingenious
ways. Bystanders are quick to sug­gest
the proper method, and expert
milkers are on hand to help.
The Bunny Brass Band from Fred­ericksburg,
representing the Easter
Fires Pageant held there, provides
a treat for the younger set. The
brightly costumed bunny-people
hop around the Festival grounds
playinl? march~s and polka~
on the1r brass mstruments. ~
Crain
Distributing
II
403 Dawson
225·3044
Party Kegs Available
Monday thru Saturday
7:0D-7:00
APACE
FOR
EVERYTHING.
AND
EVERYTHING
NITS PACE.
With chicken.
The Great Pace Taste is a delightful blend of garden-fresh
vegetables and tangy spices. And it's just as great for main
dishes as it is for hors d' oeuvres and snacks. Here's one way
to use it.
CHILI CON QUESO
(a delicious, hot cheese dip serves 20)
® ®
1 2-lb. package Kraft Velveeta Cheese
3/4 cup (6-oz.) Pace®Picante Sauce
Melt Velveet1 in the top of a double boiler, then stir in the Pace®
Picante Sauce. Keep warm in heated dish.
To make a party something special serve con queso with
Morton's® Chips and plenty of ice cold Coca-Col/. This always
makes a hit!
To prepare all the dishes
shown and many others,
write for our free, full
color folder of recipes
for
The Great
Pace Taste.
Pace Food Company
P.O. Box 12636
San Antonio, Texas 78213
THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
The University of Texas at San Antonio
ADVISORY COUNCIL 1977
Mrs. Raye Virginia Allen Frank Connally
Temple Waco
Joe Belden Bob R. Dorsey
Dallas Austin
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Brinkerhoff Leone! Garza, Sr.
Houston Brownsville
Mrs. Janey Briscoe Mrs. Carolyn Henderson
Austin and Uvalde Lufkin
Edward Clark
Austin
Mrs. Jean Kaspar
Shiner
John T. King
Austin
Tom Lea
El Paso
Max Mandell
Laredo
Mrs. Nancy Negley
San Antonio
Vernon L. Neuhaus, Sr.
Mission
John Connally
Houston
Mr. and Mrs. Harris L. Kempner Herbert Petry
Galveston Carrizo Springs
San Antonio
at night.
SAN ANTONIO. Towering
twenty-one stories into the
San Antonio sky is the
National Bank of Commerce
building, the flagship of the
NBC Center which extends
over three downtown blocks.
The hub of business and
banking activities, blended
with beauty. Exterior
landscaping. Greenery.
Fountains. Interior
landscaping throughout the
underground walkways are .
compatible with the natural
beauty of downtown
San Antonio. The NBC Center
is a focal point of business in
San Antonio and throughout
South Texas. San Antonio is
an investment with great
returns and greater promise.
We are involved. That's
confidence.
National Bank of Confidence.
National Bank of Commerce.
P.O. Box121 Cl Sin Antonio, Teus 78291 D Phone (512) 225-2511 CJ FDIC
Soledad, Martin & Pecan
San Antonio, Texas 78205
Member National Bancshares
Corporation of Texas
John Ben Shepperd
Odessa
Mrs. Josephine Sparks
Corpus Christi
Walter Sterling
Houston
H. B. (Pat) Zachry
San Antonio