'HEE HAW SHOW APPLE CREEK STYLE!' OPENS SATURDAY NIGHT

APPLE CREEK -- The sandwiches served the first night of this year's "Hee Haw Show Apple Creek Style!" probably will be chicken salad, director Ray Sauer says, because last weekend's parish chicken and dumpling dinner was snowed out.

That's the way the annual "Hee Haw Show" is, homemade and resourceful. That's what audiences like about it.

Five bus loads of people are coming in from St. Louis and locations in Illinois to see different shows this year at the St. Joseph Catholic Church Parish Hall.

The annual "Hee Haw Show Apple Creek Style!" will be presented at 7 p.m. Saturday, at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and at 7:30 p.m. March 26 and 27. All tickets are sold at the door.

Sandwiches, pie and other refreshments will be available before each two-hour show and during the intermission.

To reach the Apple Creek Parish Hall, take the Biehle Exit off Interstate 55, go south on Highway B 1 mile, turn left on Highway F and proceed for 4 miles.

Sauer and his wife, Evelyn, have produced the corniest show this side of Nashville for the past 18 years. He writes the skits, emcees and plays Archie, she organizes the whole shebang.

Members of the parish play The Old Folks, Cousin Minnie, Dolly, the Rumor Girls, Elrod, Junior, Menard, Grandpa, Oly and Lena, and Mr. Gordie appear in the nonstop barrage of skits and songs.

This year, the Apple Creek Hee Haw Band will accompany the singers. The band is composed of Glen Brown, Bobby Klaus, Rick Matthews, Kevin Grimsley and Kevin Angert.

New to the mix this year will be the Apple Creek Chicks, who will perform a rock 'n' roll song at Lulu's Lounge.

The show originated as a fund raiser when the parish was building the school. Now it helps maintain the school, which has about 50 students in kindergarten through eighth grade

The Sauers, along with Lawrence and Shirley Buchheit, James and Rose Welker, Richard Baer, Donald Welker and Larry Kohlfeld, have been associated with show since its inception.

Now 70, Ray wanted to retire from directing the show years ago but no replacement has come forward. Sauer said he and Evelyn have given notice that next year, the show's 20th anniversary, will definitely be their swan song.