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From: "Jerry Duggan" <>
Subject: [NEBRHeritage-L] Nebraska Czechs
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 01:47:01 -0600


I too married a Czech, Barb. Although she was born and raised in Omaha, her roots are deep in Butler County. In 1997 we visited three of the four villages in the Czech Republic from which her great grandparents emigrated (RECH, DVORAK and KUCERA). We missed the village from which her paternal grandfather (KUTHAN) came. It was a moving experience.

We really enjoy going to the parish dinners in the small towns west of Omaha. Our favorite is the duck and ham dinner at St Anthony's Catholic Church in Bruno, a small town a few miles east of Highway 92 in eastern Butler County. The food is great and afterwards we go down to the Bruno Lounge where a small Czech band plays all the old Czech polkas and waltzes. It's a great way to spend a fall afternoon. (The dinner is the last Sunday in October.)

Many -probably most- of those who are 50 or older, grew up in the Bruno-Brainerd-Dwight area in eastern Butler County and still live there can speak Czech. One of my wife's cousins visited the Czech Republic several years ago and found that he could converse in Czech quite well. Many Czechs were amazed to meet an American who spoke Czech the way he did. To them it was like speaking to someone out of the past, for he spoke the language the way it was spoken 100 years ago when most of the Czechs in eastern Butler County emigrated. He had a very enjoyable experience.

Jerry

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