100TH SEMINARY PICNIC UNDER WAY: TRADITION IS THE BACKBONE OF PERRYVILLE EVENT

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Everyone seems to find something to do at the St. Vincent de Paul Seminary Picnic. Just don't try to serve ice cream.

"The ice cream stand has belonged to the folks from Allen's Landing Road forever," said Bill Wingerter, a 34-year veteran of the picnic's organizing committee. "Nobody else gets in there."

This is the way residents around Perry County have spread around responsibilities at the picnic for a century. There was no reason to change this year for the 100th anniversary, Wingerter said.

The picnic, slated for four days, continues today and Sunday just across from St. Mary's Church at the seminary campus.

People already know who will maintain the picnic grounds, operate the hamburger stand and blow up balloons. Responsibilities for stands tend to pass from family to family or neighbor to neighbor, Ted Ballman said.

"If you lived in a neighborhood, you handled one place or another," said Ballman, who had been in charge of saving distressed cars in the parking lot until he gave the job to his son.

Ballman, 58, has pulled enough cars out of the mud with his tractor to last him for 100 years, he said.

"You kind of get your niche here as to what you do," said Skip Lottes, who is general chairman for the 100th anniversary.

The traditions have been built into the picnic since the first gathering of St. Vincent de Paul parish members just west of Perryville in Klump's Grove in 1901.

Gerry Anderson said she didn't originate the recipe for the chicken dressing she has made for the picnic for 25 years. But she has maintained the same ingredients that were a part of it 50 years ago.

About 12 others work with Anderson to boil chickens, fry onions and do whatever else is needed, she said.

"We had about 10 women chopping onions this morning," Anderson said.

Don't ask Anderson how many pounds of onions are fried for the chicken dressing. She is used to counting off about 30 large pans for frying.

About 5,000 come to the picnic's dining hall for chicken and dumplings, kettle-cooked beef, slaw, green beans, desserts and Anderson's dressing. They've never run out of dressing, she said.

"We've had extra left over when it has rained or was too hot," she said. "Usually every year we'll sell it afterwards by the gallon."

A picnic tradition that has been missing for almost 50 years has returned for the anniversary. A windmill that used to stand at the entrance to the beer garden was thought to be destroyed until workers began cleaning out a storage building for renovations and discovered its parts, Lottes said.

The only original parts remaining were the blades, centerpiece and the window, he said.

With assistance coming from 10 picnic regulars, the windmill was rebuilt using a photocopy of a black and white photograph as a guide.

"Getting the angles and degrees on the cuts just right was the hardest part," said Leroy Welker, who completed most of the carpentry work.

The details for the 100th anniversary picnic have been mulled over for a year and a half, Lottes said. The hardest part was picking committee chairmen for the anniversary year, he said, since everyone wants to play a part.

An organizational booklet listing picnic volunteer workers and their responsibilities is 12 pages.

The help is needed, Wingerter said, since he expects the regular two-day attendance of about 30,000 to grow by at least 5,000 this year.

People want to come back and relive memories this year, he said, even if they aren't around anymore. Wingerter remembers bingo for a nickel and 10-cent dances at the barn. He met his wife at the picnic almost 50 years ago, he said.

The nearly 100-year-old merry-go-round, with a few horses still being restored, is a memory that will be up and running.

Some will come to see the Clydesdales from Budweiser, others want a chance to win one of 260 handmade quilts.

"We have a woman from St. Louis who comes down every year," Wingerter said. "The first thing she does is buy about 1,000 to 1,200 raffle tickets. She usually leaves with about two to four quilts."

Money raised through the picnic assists the parish and its schools, Wingerter said.

But the picnic is not just for Catholics, Wingerter said. It is for friends and neighbors.

"We have a lot of non-Catholics who help out," he said. "For everyone, this is a homecoming."