Homesick for the Old Country...the Painted Churches of Texas

NancyGail (MyCraftyLittle Page) and I spent an amazing day touring several of the famous Texas Painted Churches...PBS has a wonderful documentary on those small country parish churches that they run now and again...The churches (the ones we visited were all Catholic built by European immigrants in what are now rural areas) are homey and grand at the same time. There were lovely faux finishes on the columns...attempting to create the look of European marble on Texas oak. And the cathedral ceilings were painted to replicate the great catherdrals of their homelands. They just made you feel "homesick for the old country" just as those Polish and Czechoslovian immigrants must have felt in the 1800's when those parishes were first founded. We loved them all, but our favorite was the Pink Church with a wonderful white altar. It was so unexpected and so non-traditional, but so calming and it really puts you in an"In the Pink" mood...except for our tour guide who must live her days with her eye on her watch and on her schedule...she was not in harmony with the Saints and certainly not a Child of the Universe as NancyGail discovered...had our tour guide been an olden days nun, Miss Nancy would have had her ear pinched!!! Go visit her blog for better color and then stop by Beverly's Pink Saturday for the complete list of posts.

Back in the day... the 50's...my family would attend church with my Oma and Opa in a little country church in Zehl, Texas...not a painted church...but memorable because services were in German and even such a plain little church had beautiful stained glass...

I don't usually change music very often, but I've chosen Nora Jones's Lone Star fot the feeling of homesickness and Old Time Religion even though it would NEVER have been played in these churches...far too tent-revival for their taste.