This Is How It Works With Me: I Begin To Search & Next Thing I Am On A Trail. Amazing, Going To Share About My Time In A Folk Group In Grade & High School Years. Are You Curious?

 I looked up who would be the worship this weekend. I was not familiar with either one so I searched for their music. I was viewing one video and it reminded me how my 91 year old mother watches Molly B.'s Polka Show.  She has polka bands playing (before covid 19) at different venues throughout the USA and the people get on the dance floor and dance polkas. My mother sees on occasion an old time friend of her brother's dancing on the dance floor. She enjoys this show because she loves to dance. When she was younger she was offered a scholarship to Duquesne University to study and also perform throughout the year with the Tammies (nick name for tamburitzans.) Her father, my grandfather, would not allow her to go to Pittsburgh on this scholarship because he was of the old school mindset that good girls do not go away to college.

She would have been a great teacher if that would have been her area of study. So, there was a local Croatian folk group and she was their dance instructor. She taught the group the Croatian kolo dancing. This then reminded me of the days when my sister and I were in the Zagreb Jr. Tamburitza Group. We belonged to the Croatian Fraternal Union. Each year I beleive in July all the groups gathered from around the USA & Canada at the convention. Each group was assigned a time slot to perform and you had to have your presentation within so many minutes you were allotted to perform on the main stage. This was a big thing each year and you practiced throughout the year because you wanted to shine the most amongst the groups. Let me tell you we had a few instructors that taught us perfection and accurate timing in choreography. So many from this time era would try out for the Duquesne Tamburitzans to be selected  as a scholarship recipient. I had no interest in going this route in life because I was not passionate about this. We knew a few people that were accepted throughout the years. I knew I was to go to college and for some reason I was compelled to major in Communications. Who would have ever thought I would be communicating via this blog years later? Isn't that funny how God plants the seed many years way before. You just know I want to major in this. My dad was pushing me to go to the school of business and I had no interest. Maybe he wanted that direction for me since he had a few businesses he owned and started?

So, today you will see a little bit of music from the 2 worship guests this next weekend, Jackson Michelson & Josh Turner. It was the catalyst to draw me in the direction of me sharing my younger years with you. I will share a little bit of Molly B.'s polka; Johnny Pecon polka tribute. He was a cousin and his boys continued to play polka music. I loved his wife, cousin Mary. I remember even as a child at family gatherings what a delight she was to be around. Isn't that funny how you remember things like that? Then onto a video clip of the Croatian band that played at our wedding. That was a big deal having the Trubaduri come from Pittsburgh to play at our wedding. Then onto the American Zagreb Junior Tamburitzans performing (they changed the name from Zagreb Jr. Tamburitzans to American Zagreb  Jr. Tamburitzans.) I may even pull up a video of the American Zagreb Jr. Tamburitzans performing at the annual convention.

Some of the same songs and dances you will see we actually performed way back when. If you look at some of the videos and see a smaller in size string instrument, it is a "prim" and that is the instrument I played. I learned how to read sheet music while being a member in this folk group. Listen to the singing for there is a special way we had to train to sing in this manner. It was not like singing in your God given singing voice. Sometimes in a dance choreographed it will tell a story. Enjoy a part of my childhood ok.

Jackson Michelson - One Day (Official Music Video)

Josh Turner - I Can Tell By The Way You Dance (Official Music Video) this video caused me to search for Molly B.'s Polka show

Josh Turner - Three Wooden Crosses (Forever Country Cover Series)

JOHNNY PECON TRIBUTE JEFF PECON ORCHESTRA WITH JOEY MISKULIN AND FRED KUHAR

Trubaduri-- Friday night concert Ganza 2014 Lola

Croatian dance and music - American Zagreb Jr. Tamburitzans

2019 CFU Junior Tamburitza Festival: American Zagreb Junior Tamburitzans. The director is a long time family friend that was in the tamburitzans when I was a member.

One more because I found this and it is from Dubrovnik one of my favorite places where we performed. Did you know that in 1976 our convention was in Zagreb? Do you know who stayed at the same Intercontinental Hotel in Zagreb the same time we did? The Rolling Stones, I met Billy Preston in the lobby/lounge area I really did not know who he was because I was not a big rock n roll fan. We gathered for the convention then our group went to other regions to tour/perform while we were there. It was a fun and memorable trip. That was the first time my grandfathers relatives met us and we have stayed in touch since then. It was so uncanny when we would meet one and we would say oh my gosh that looks like so and so from our family in the USA. Family resemblance knows no distance across the sea right?

Dubrovnik, Croatia: Lindjo

The Rheingold Band from Louisville, KY, USA in the "Mollie B- Polka Party" on TV 2014 - 4

This was the former Croatian Home where we would practice and had concerts there also.