HoubyDaysBooklet 2025 digital - Flipbook - Page 2
Dedication
An Accidental Tourist in the Czech Culture
Pat Martin with sons Jim and Frank. As children, her two sons danced and
played instruments at the bandstand during festivals. Pat is now widowed, but
her family was involved always in Czech Village.
My roots are Irish, but I was fortunate to be adopted by the Czech
Village Association in 1978. I originally came to Cedar Rapids to
teach at Jefferson High, a west side school which was so populated
by Czechs that it was dubbed Czech Tech. I grew up in a community
comprised of numerous ethic groups and was always fascinated by
ethic differences and traditions. I admired the solid values of my Czech
students and gravitated to them Eventually I married and became a stayat-home mom. I joined Junior League and wrote about Czech Heritage
Foundation in a Junior League magazine. The Czech merchants read
this and asked me to be the 昀椀rst Czech Village Association Coordinator,
a part time job that became my mission.
In these politically-correct times, it is hard to imagine that in the
60s and early 70s our Czech families were often referred to as “dumb
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