Traveling with the Stampers: October 2013

Friday, October 25th arrived with great anticipation. We had contracted for a larger bus to take us to Schulenburg, TX to tour some of the painted churches. This had been in the works for well over a month.

We awoke early to a beautiful morning. Wayne decided not to go since he had contracted shingles on his leg and pants irritated it. Since they wouldn’t let him go sans clothing we felt it was best for him to stay home. We loaded the bus and were ready for take off at 8:30 in the morning. Our Executive Chef, JP, had fixed breakfast tacos for all of us and they were wonderful. We had an uneventful ride to the Schulenburg Chamber of Commerce where we picked up our tour guide. Our first stop was lunch at Oakridge Smokehouse.

Here is our bus. Bobbie and Janie, Peggy’s daughter, are helping Peggy off the bus.

We ate the buffet which wasn’t as good as we get at The Conservatory but the peach cobbler was wonderful. here are Joyce, Jeanne and Peggy seated and Annabelle standing.

We took up several tables for four and one for ten. Here are Betsy, Walt and Howard with JoAnn’s back. Erin is standing on the right. I ‘m not sure who all of the other people are because I can’t make out their faces.

Here are Peggy and Bobbie at the table in the foreground.

Our first stop was the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church at High Hill, Texas. It is on Fox News's list of Most Beautiful Churches in America. It also happens to be the church in which my niece, Tracy, married her husband, Chris, around twenty years ago.

It is not the outside of these churches that set them apart, although they are nice to look at.

It is the painted interiors that are so breathtaking.

When you consider that these churches were built of wood inside and than they were painted with these marvelous murals. I cannot tell you the history of this church but you can read for yourselves at http://www.klru.org/paintedchurches/highhill.html

This church has exquisite stained glass windows as well. When you consider that this is the third church (1906) this congregation built and that the stained glass windows were removed from the second church (1875) to install in this one you can imagine the care it took.

Howard and Peggy were taking pictures too.

Our wonderful tour guide, Sharon, talked to us about the history of the church.

Then we were turned loose to take more pictures.

The ceilings of these churches were built to look like Noah’s arc upside down and you might turn a row boat upside down to provide shelter from a storm the churches provide shelter from the outside world.

The ceiling is painted on cloth in sections and then applied to the ceiling with glue that has basically held all these many years.

As a result of Vatican ii, many of these lovely ambos with sounding boards have been removed from Catholic Churches. This church refused to remove theirs.

This is an example of the beautiful china baptismal that were in all the churches.

The first thing that is hard to get through your head is that the interiors of these churches were made entirely of wood and painted to look like something else. On this faux marble column you can see the wood grain bleeding through the paint as this particular board was dry. It is not noticeable on most of the faux work.

The border of flowers are the the likeness of Mary’s rose also known as Rose Campion.

Even the base boards were painted to look like marble.

Here is another beautiful stained glass window.

The next church we visited was St. Mary's Church of the Assumption in Praha.

This town had the misfortune of losing the most young men in World War II than any other city in America. This church commemorates the death of those nine young men with three identical memorial shrines on the grounds of the church.

Inside each shrine are the names of three of the young men our of the nine who died.

This church, like the others has the shape of an inverted Noah’s ark.

They are in the process of restoring this church. They will have to take down the chandelier and clean each piece. Everything is covered with a fine layer of soot from the many years of candle use prior to getting electricity.

This is the back of the church with the choir loft and the pipe organ. The organ is currently in need of repair. The organ at the first church is the only one that works.

There is decorative gold paintings everywhere.

Above the center alter is a painting of three angels with a cross.

This church has statue done in three different media. The statue on the right is made of plaster as most statues are. The statue of the man in black and white is carved in wood.

This statue was cast in metal.

Vatican ii changed the way the priests gave mass in that they were to have a second alter facing the congregation. The alter in front hides the beauty of the original alter. This alter had a carving of he last supper on it.

It is hard to believe that all of this is carved wood painted to look like marble.

These stained glass windows were not as elaborate as some of the others but beautiful just the same. In front of the alter at the left is a model of what the front of the sanctuary will look like when the restoration is completed.

Saint John’s Catholic Church in Ammannsville was the third church we visited.

This church’s roof is also supported by wooden columns that are painted to look like marble.

The ceiling is covered with silver leaf stars that a husband and wife donated and put up on the ceiling.

Like most of the other churches, the stations of the cross were imported from Rome.

This church was able to take the decorative part of the alter out of the original alter and bring it forward. The design allowed them to then fill in the hole in the original alter.

Here is Walter seated near one of the faux marble columns.

The artist who painted this church was asked to create the Garden of Eden. His interpretation of that was to use native Texas plants. You can recognize many of them around the room. However, for some reason there are no Bluebonnets or Indian Paintbrush.

The artist created stencils for the work along the bottom and the parishioners helped with the stenciling.

As we were leaving, I saw the collection of old collection baskets with handles. Those would come in handy at the Conservatory.

Our last stop was Sts Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church in Dubina

One of our residents grew up in this church. I took pictures of a headstone in the cemetery, a commemorative window, and a donation in memory of signage on the large marker for the church.

The glass edging around these windows was made using Tiffany’s formula.

This church has a different look inside as by the time it was built they had figured out how to build without needing support columns. It is very open and airy.

Although ornate, the painting in this church is more subtle and the church has a restful feel.

Each of the stained glass windows had a commemorative notation in it.

This alter is different from the others as it has a statue depicting the Infant Jesus of Prague.

I have forgotten what the writing above the alter says but it is in Chech.

This is the alter on the other side. The two small angles on this alter and the two angles on the other alter are some of the only surviving items from the 1909 hurricane.

I took a picture of Annabelle and our tour guide, Sharon, as they have a mutual friend. Unfortunately it is out of focus but it is the only picture I have of Sharon.

Here are Annabelle and Jeanne heading out of the church with the choir loft above them.

As I was leaving I saw this grasshopper sitting on this flower and couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.

We got back on the bus to head back home and were treated with home made cookies from JP and his crew in the kitchen. They were yummy. We were scooting along just fine when there came this horrible sound and thumping under the bus. The inside back tire on the driver’s side had thrown its tread. The bus driver called it in and they dispatched a tow truck with a new tire. Unfortunately we were parked on the side of the road with no place to get out. Across the street was a farm supply store and after they closed we were able to pull in to their large area before their gate. A lot of us took advantage of a place to get out and stretch our legs. Here are Bobbie and Erin talking to Peggy’s daughter, Janie, I’m not sure who is behind her but that is Judy on the end.

Here is Howard talking to Peggy and Annabelle, Jeanne, Lyn, Maggie, and Betsy with her back to the camera.

We got most of the people who came outside together for a group picture. L to R are Howard, Dorothy, who is Judy’s daughter-in-law, Peggy, Betsy, Annabelle, JoAnn, Joyce, Jeanne,Judy,Bobbie, Lyn, Maggie, and Erin.

Finally the man with the tow truck came. He had all the tools to take off the back tires, put a new tire on the rim, and put the tires back on.

Unfortunately the tire had damaged the fender and he had to bend it out before we could drive. First the used a sledge hammer, then he used a winch shown here. Finally he used the sledge hammer again and was finally able to get it where we could drive it home. As you can tell, quite a lot of time passed.

When we arrived back at the Conservatory, the pizza we had ordered was arriving. We set up in the Bistro and all those who wanted pizza came to enjoy. There were three different kinds of pizza and two boxes of each so there was plenty to feed us.