The Future

I wonder what the world will be like when my great-niece EV, age 3, is my age, 66?

Will little girls still enjoy eating muffins? Skipping and spinning?

We had another visit with EV and her dad this morning before embarking on our four-hour drive back to Austin. The only blue skies we saw were during a brief stop in Panna Maria (Blessed Virgin), the oldest permanent Polish settlement in the United States.

A statue of Pope John Paul II greets visitors, and the simple church, a Texas historical landmark, is lovely. Panna Maria was a welcome respite from the gray skies and unusually high winds that we experienced throughout the rest of our journey back to Austin.

[Additional information, paraphrased from [url=http://www.pannamariatexas.com/OurPolishSettlement.htm]the official website:[/url]: Panna Maria was founded by Father Leopold Moczygemba and about 100 Silesian families from Pluznica and surrounding villages of Silesia, Poland.

They left Poland and after a nine-week voyage at sea, reached the Port of Galveston [and] hired carts to carry their belongings. The families walked to the junction of the San Antonio River and the Cibolo Creek, where they celebrated their first Mass on December 24, 1854 under an oak tree.

In 1855 they built their first church next to the oak tree and dedicated it to the Virgin Mother. The first church was destroyed by lightning in 1875. The present church was completed in 1877 and was enlarged in 1937.]