PICNIC `LIKE A FAMILY REUNION'

APPLE CREEK -- The smell of kettle beef, fried chicken and homemade breads and pies attracted about 1,800 people to the annual Apple Creek Picnic Saturday.

Crowds were expected to line the hillside waiting for a meal and an empty seat inside the bursting parish hall. Only 200 people at a time could be seated inside for the buffet-style meal complete with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, kettle beef and coleslaw.

Although Apple Creek isn't really an incorporated town, the crowds gathered at the historic St. Joseph Catholic Church to visit old friends, family and their hometown.

"As long as I can remember there's been a picnic," said Tonya Buchheit, an event organizer. "Relatives that used to live here come back to talk to cousins. It's like a family reunion."

More members of the Meyer family attended the picnic than their family reunion earlier this month, church members speculated.

Some visitors from St. Louis come to the picnic to see Buchheit's uncle, Richard, who was a priest there for many years. People come back and work the stands even after they've left town, she said.

There's really not much left of the quaint Perry County community except its church and school. Fifty-nine students attend the parish-supported school.

"There's not a general store, so you're standing in downtown Apple Creek," said Patrick Hotop, another event organizer.

The church grounds bustled with activity from the children's games and the country store. Church cookbooks with the famous kettle beef recipes were sold at the general store. Other items included fresh produce, crafts and a quilt raffle.

But the children weren't the only ones who played games. The bingo tent was filled with enthusiastic players while other adults played cards at picnic tables on the grounds.

Like most church events around Southeast Missouri, people come for the good food and entertainment.

"We're known for our dinners," said Dorothy Meyer, who has been cooking fried chicken at the picnic for 30 years. People come from all over to the church reunion. "We just keep growing."

When Meyer began cooking for the picnic, only 700 pounds of chicken were fried. Now the total is 1,400 pounds of chicken. Another 700 pounds of kettle beef were cooked during the afternoon. Kitchen helpers began work around 7 a.m. Saturday and the last chickens usually come out of the fryers around 7:20 p.m.

Ellie Zebrowski and her husband traveled from Festus to see the church, shrine, and enjoy the food. "We saw it in the Catholic paper and wanted to come down. We have never been down before," she said.

Before heading to the church hall, Zebrowski relaxed in the shade at the Lady of St. Joseph Shrine.

Stone terraces filled with ivy and yellow marigolds surround the spring that flows underneath the shrine altar on the church grounds.

Construction on the shrine began in 1951 and was completed about 10 years later.

St. Joseph Catholic Church was founded in 1828. It is one of the oldest churches in the St. Louis Diocese.