New Hamburg picnic is family affair for many

NEW HAMBURG, Mo. -- As a child growing up in New Hamburg, Chris Grojean remembers getting excited every year as the town's annual picnic approached.

The youngest of eight children, Grojean would help his dad, the late Charles Grojean Sr., who chaired the hamburger stand for many years.

"We had it forever while I was a kid, and I ran it with dad," Grojean recalled.

Grojean said his father loved to sit in a lawn chair outside the hamburger stand and visit with those who purchased a sandwich. Grojean also said his mother, Erma Grojean of New Hamburg, also worked hard in the hamburger stand.

"I always looked forward to it," Grojean said about working in the stand as a child and into his adulthood in the 1970s through the 1990s.

In 2012, Grojean and his wife, Sherri, took over the stand once again.

"We felt like it was our responsibility," Grojean said, emphasizing they also wanted to run the stand again. "The picnic means so much to us. It's the one time of the year the whole town gets together."

This year's picnic is set for 5 to 11:30 p.m. Friday and 3 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the farming community nestled in the hills of Scott County. The two-day event serves as an annual fundraiser of the town's only church, St. Lawrence.

A home-cooked dinner, which serves about 1,000 people, will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday in the church's parish center. Fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, roast beef and gravy, buttered potatoes and cabbage and cucumber slaws are included in the menu.

According to dinner organizers, to prepare the dinner, kitchen help uses 260 pounds of kettle beef, 800 pounds of chicken, 200 pounds of hens for dumpling broth, 33 dozen eggs to make dumplings, 300 pounds of potatoes, 20 gallons of corn, 24 gallons of green beans and 130 pounds of cabbage for slaw.

The cost is $8 for adults; $4 for children ages 6 to 12 and children age 5 and younger eat free.

Activities scheduled for Saturday are turtle races at 6 p.m. and a children's tractor pull at 7 p.m.

Both nights include refreshments and carnival-type games for children and adults, including a petting zoo, Plinko game, ring toss and dart game.

In other entertainment, a washer tournament is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday on the ball field, where a horseshoe tournament is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday.

The annual event is documented as occurring back to at least 1903. There were only two time periods -- 1942 to 1948 and 1969 to 1971 -- when the picnic wasn't held.

Floyd and Carol Klipfel have run the soda stand for more than 40 of those years.

"We like to do it and it's fun," Carol Klipfel said.

Klipfel said that years ago the stand used to be run by the church youth group, and when they stopped operating it, her sister kept it going for a bit. Klipfel and her husband took it over and have been running it ever since.

"For one group to have it all those years is something," Klipfel said about her family stand -- but also the majority of the picnic's stands and committees headed by families.

Pat Moore and her husband, Jewell, have worked in various capacities at the picnic over the years.

From the 1970s through recent years, the Moores operated the picnic's ice cream stand. During the last couple years, Moore has served as co-chairwoman of the dinner while her husband is general co-chairman of the picnic. Their children and grandchildren also help when they can, she said.

Nearly every stand, activity or committee for the picnic has a similar story -- generations of a family helping one another out year after year, Moore said.

"I don't think I've ever missed a picnic," Grojean said. "It's a fun time -- for me and a lot of people."

Like so many of the other families who work at the picnic, Grojean said they do it because they like to, and they want to keep it going.

"We hate to think of what it's like to be without it," Grojean said.

Moore agreed. The picnic is a long tradition for St. Lawrence church members, New Hamburg residents and those in the surrounding communities, she said.

"I want it to carry on," Moore said. "It's a family tradition. ... It's hard work -- very hard work -- but it also provides a good togetherness to keep your community alive."

Pertinent address:

New Hamburg, Mo.