COMING HOME

APPLE CREEK -- A breeze blew the sweet aroma of fried chicken and kettle-cooked beef across the church grounds Saturday afternoon as Louis Meyer explained why he comes to the St. Joseph's Picnic every year.

His father "witched" the church's well. Meyer pointed out a fence he helped build, then his great-grandfather's tombstone in one corner of the cemetery and his grandfather's halfway back.

Though Meyer has lived most of his 88 years in St. Louis, Apple Creek is home.

He and his family come from St. Louis every Labor Day weekend to take part in the picnic, a daylong affair that attracts thousands in search of good food and a homecoming.

St. Bridget and St. Augustine churches in St. Louis each chartered a bus to bring parishioners and others to the picnic. The Rev. Richard Buchheit, who grew up in Apple Creek, is the priest at St. Bridget.

Sister Mary Hanick annually organizes the pilgrimage from the inner city parish of St. Bridget. Like 74-year-old Diana Johnson, many who come aren't Catholic.

"I love the people and I can worship with any church that believes in God," said Johnson, who was on her 14th bus trip with the St. Bridget's group.

The bucolic scene is a respite from the view outside her window in St. Louis. "You feel so free you hate to go back when you come to a place like this," she said.

From Ray Sauer and Larry Kohlfeld selling dinner tickets outside in the shade to Shirley and Lawrence Buchheit supervising the nonstop food preparation in the parish hall, the picnic involves all 220 families who are members of the parish.

The Buchheits are in charge of dinner for about 1,800 in addition to the bratwurst, fish and hamburgers available at stands on the church grounds. The kettle beef started cooking at 11 a.m. and the picnic-goers started digging in at 2:30 p.m.

They planned to keep working "until they quit eating," she said.

This is the first year the food was served buffet-style instead of family style, a concession ordered by the county health department. For better or worse, they figured people would eat less than in past years.

Nobody seems to know how long the picnic has been held, although the Rev. Buchheit guessed it dates to the church's founding in 1828.

The highlight of the day is a Mass conducted by the Rev. Mark Bozada at the church's famous Lady of St. Joseph Shrine, a cool grotto with a pool of water fed by a spring. The grotto becomes a sea of people then.

There were games for the children, including a homemade miniature golf course, and the adults had a beer garden and a dance later in the evening.

Everyone who comes to the picnic seems connected in some way. Meyer is Lawrence Buchheit's cousin. His great-grandfather married a Buchheit.

Surveying the picnic, he said, "they're all my relatives."

Meyer attended school in Apple Creek and went through eighth grade at Appleton. He quit school then because there was no transportation to the nearest high school in Oak Ridge.

He moved to St. Louis in 1926 and went to work for St. Mary's Hospital. He returned to Apple Creek in 1933 and married Wilma Richter of Appleton before leaving for St. Louis again in 1942.

He will always return to Apple Creek, he said.

His wife is buried in the church cemetery, and he has his own plot. But he's not ready to use it.

"Right now I'm working on my GED," he said.