Remembrance of Flush Picnic

By Paula Ebert

Ask any woman with experience with what has changed about the St. Joseph Parish picnic, known at the Flush picnic – and she will mention many things. The main thing is that about nine years ago, the women began getting together to fry the chickens, for which the picnic is famous. Before that, each woman fried the chickens at home, and then brought the chickens in, where it was a difficult task to sort out all the chickens by the type of meat. In the early days, the women would also have had to skin, and prepare the chickens at home. Later on, people would purchase chickens already prepared, and just fry them a home. In addition to frying the chickens at home, each woman was expected to bring pies and items for the country store. One of the biggest changes is that the potatoes are produced on site now, as before that each woman was expected to bring potatoes from home, cut and ready to cook.

This year, the women of the parish cooked 2,500 pieces of chicken. This is in a parish with only around 130 registered families.

A look at parish records reveals many changes, over the years, but at the same time many things have stayed the same. Jerry Winter came to the picnic on Wednesday, one of the first times since leaving the parish in 1962. At the same time, he remembered the hat stand, the basketball toss, and many other things still around. The barrel train is new, he pointed out. He said that he remembered when there was a dance, and that his relative, Bill Heptig and his band played many of the dances. The dances were going at least in 1944, as the records from the notes of the time that the dance brought in $261. The dinner brought in $534 dollars, and they listed an expense of $10. That brought the net proceeds to $1,980. Not bad for 1944 dollars. Other years weren’t as good, with expenses of $40, and net proceeds of $1,144, in 1945. But overall, the 1940s were good years for the picnic.

Records from the 1938 picnic indicate that the parish brought in $1,273. However, there were $170 in expenses, picnic and entertainment. However, the total cash on hand for the parish was $1.54 in the total budget. The next year, the parish cash on hand was $2.64. It did get better; cash on hand in 1946 was $35 in the total budget.

Bingo has pretty much been a feature of the picnic all along. Over the years, some things have changed – the buggy rides were replaced by the Barrel Train, for example. Sometime in the early 1950s, they stopped selling beer. By the 1970s, the dance was gone. Early on one of the activities was a duck pond, where you could throw rings over the head of a duck swimming in a pool. But by the mid-1970’s the ducks were gone.

By the 1956 picnic, the doll stand was being listed separately, and it brought in $158. The doll stand remains today. By 1985, a hat stand was begun as well, bringing in $462, and while the doll stand brought in $231. The hat stand remains as well. The country store begun in begin in the 1940s has always been a favorite. The country store is where parishioners donate everything from home-made bread, to home preserved foods, to items from the garden. Members also donate items for sale, now in the basement of the parish hall.

A change in the last two years has been an effort to honor the previous people of the parish. Last year, quilts were on display; and this year “fancy work” such as tatting and embroidery were on display.

Each year, the women of the parish get together, and using a donated quilt, hand quilt a quilt for sale. This year, there were two quilts, one donated by a parishioner, as in previous years, and another that the women quilted. The quilt the women quilted was called Garden Glory, and 17 people donated 152 hours over the course of 24 days.

Attendance at the picnic over the years has remained steady, with numbers of dinners varying from 1,039 in 1960; recently with 1,124 and this year with 1,050.