Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this July 30th, 2024.
Have your host James here and we're welcoming into the studio.
A couple of our friends from St. Phillips, we have with us Rick Larson.
Rick, good to see you.
Yeah.
No, it's not.
Rich.
Did I say Rick?
I'm sorry.
I meant Rich.
I'm so sorry.
Rich, I apologize.
Okay.
That's where I got it from.
No, I apologize.
Rich, I apologize.
I'm just going to see you again, sir.
Thank you very much for being here.
I always appreciate the time from you, Rich.
And Craig Smith is with us too.
You bet.
Hey Craig, good to see you again.
Thanks a lot for being here.
Good to see you too.
I wanted to get right to the, what we're here to talk about today, the hundred and third
church picnic that is taking place at the world famous Grotto Shrine and Wonder Cave.
We'll talk about the details of this in a moment.
But one of the things that I like is getting into the history of these events.
And you see a hundred and three and that catches your eye.
And that's a lot of these.
It got me thinking about our longest going church picnics in the country around the
whole United States and everything.
And I tried to find some data on that and I couldn't find much.
But I did find the longest picnic, like literally longest, like distance wise picnic.
7,420 feet.
They had a picnic.
That big once.
It took place.
It's a Guinness World Record took place in Canada.
Just thought it was kind of interesting and a good note to kind of kick things off here.
When it comes to the actual history of this particular picnic, I want to touch on this
a little bit.
And if you either of you know the origins of this and where this got going and how it
got started, I really don't know exactly how it got started.
It started as a chicken stew dinner, I think they made chicken stew and had the big kettles
and they were boiling it and people from all over came over to have the chicken stew.
And then it came in kind of a group of chicken, chicken dinner and everything.
And great.
You may know more about it tonight.
Well, yeah, I don't know if I know the history as much, but I remember Browning the chicken
overnight on Saturday night.
There'd be kettles that we always browned in Greece and seasoned it and packed it away
and kept it warm for the picnic.
It was good, healthy, Greece though.
It was.
It was.
It was very good.
Food off.
Yeah.
So it really was nice.
Really good stuff.
Yeah, nice, nice.
So yeah, so we always, I shouldn't say always, but we used to brown the chicken overnight
the night before packet season it, had big ovens, big kettles or pots or whatever.
We put it in and then we just pulled off out of that oven all day when we were serving
the meal.
I knew going into this interview was going to make me hungry.
I knew it.
I knew it.
I thought Stephen earlier was talking about the pancake, a potato pancakes and everything
was going to do it.
Now we're getting, now we're really getting into it.
But it's 103 years and my wife and I have been married 52, so I've been part of half
of it.
Wow.
That's awesome.
My wife and I, yeah.
That's really cool, Rich.
First congratulations to you and your wife.
That's awesome to hear, but also that you've been able to be a part of it this long.
And a little bit, I'll ask you how the event has kind of grown, but let's get to the event
first and talk about some of the details.
When is the event?
Where is it taking place, guys?
It's taking place at the Rudolph Grotto.
It's this Sunday and it starts at, there's a mass at 10 o'clock and then the picnic itself
actually starts at 11.
The hamburgers are fried by, by, by, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're,
you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're
nice.
Nice.
Nice.
And they start serving hamburgers and the kids games start at 11 o'clock and, of course,
the refreshment stand opens at 11 o'clock.
And the music starts at 11 o'clock.
Yeah.
We have the old time brass band this year and they play from 11 till 2.
30.
Yeah.
11 to 2 30.
Yeah.
The time brass band.
Yeah.
They'll be performing great band.
Yeah.
A really fun music and good music to get the event really going to really good music for
that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what church picnics are all about as the polka man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, that was a great surprise.
That was a great surprise for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was a great surprise to that.
Yeah.
And I wonder how you can make this much of a ministerial work for that.
And I know she's working with John.
And, yeah.
She's working with John.
He's going to be performing from three to six.
And if, you know, anybody has Never seen him very entertaining, very good show that he
puts on.
And it should be, should be a lot of fun.
He not only nails Elvis but he's really good with the MC work.
Yeah.
I looked him up a little bit before the interview and does a really nice job of interacting with the audience,
but he also does a bit of Johnny Cash.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And as you know, it's a big Johnny Cash fan.
So I noticed that right away.
I saw that right away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
More to follow after that from six to eight.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We have, you know, kind of says an after-glow jam.
And that's what the, some of the remnants of the Roy Fuller band.
So Kurt and Buck and Nathan Fuller, you know, they're going to get their guitars out.
And so we're going to do a little singing.
I might be involved in that a little bit too.
Excellent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So our church guitar choir.
The Fullers are all involved in.
And so there might be some of the church guitar choir that participates from that six to eight p.m.
So that should be a lot of fun too.
Want to make sure that dance floor is used.
Want to make sure that dance floor is used.
Well, Richard will be out there.
Excellent.
He's got to be out there cutting rock like you wouldn't believe.
Right.
See it on that.
Yeah.
That's really good to hear.
That is all fun.
You've got that covered entertainment-wise.
You got things covered over there for this.
Also going to have, as you mentioned, rich children's games beginning at 11.
That's fantastic.
There's also Bingo beginning at 11.
I see.
Bingo begins at 11.
Yeah.
And they have cash.
Or they, it's not cash prizes.
It's prizes.
You can go up when you win Bingo.
You can go up and there's three different shelves.
You can, you can pick out.
If you're fortunate to be a single Bingo.
Single Bingo.
Sometimes a double Bingo.
Yeah.
You can pick out anything from pots and pans to drills and just hold up and kind of stands.
The ladies work very hard all year long getting prizes for this.
And some of the prizes are pretty cool.
Yeah.
Also, as I mentioned to anybody that has an event going on, you need a raffle.
Every event in this area has to have a raffle.
People love these.
We're love raffles.
You've got to have a raffle.
So you guys have that covered too.
We have a raffle.
We have the top prize is Craig.
Can you hold on?
I don't have the prizes.
I know we're giving away $3,600.
Yeah.
You can get some prizes.
I think the top prize is like $500.
I want to say $500.
Yeah.
It might be more.
Stop out and see.
Exactly.
You'll find out on Sunday.
Yeah.
The raffle is always a big hit.
That will be at, they'll draw the winning names at $5.30 Sunday night.
And then they'll announce them at 6 o'clock.
Excellent.
Yeah.
So keep that in mind, everybody.
If you're going to be taking part in those,
you're going to want to be around there for that to find out and hear the announcements.
We'll come back to the details of the event before we wrap up.
Make sure everybody's got that down.
I did want to touch on a couple of other things.
One, the location.
Seems like a fun location to be having this, to be hosting this event.
Yeah.
It really is for people that haven't been to the grotto.
And I don't know if there's a whole lot of people that haven't been to the grotto.
It's been there.
That was started in 1927.
They started construction on the grotto, Father Wagner.
But it is a really neat place.
It's beautiful.
A lot of flowers, you know, a lot of religious statues, the rock formations are unbelievable.
It's a cave.
It's a fifth of a mile long.
All above ground.
You never go below ground.
Chris Wilford is the caretaker for the grotto.
She does a marvelous job planting flowers.
And if you want to come out, please come out and just look at the grotto.
It doesn't get any prettier than it is right now, as far as color, you know.
It's just unbelievable.
It's a perfect time of year for it.
Oh, absolutely.
I was having this event to be going out there.
I was talking to my parents about this event a little bit and everything.
And my dad actually mentioned my not and my grandmother had gone to the grotto before
and to check that out and how moved she was out there.
And this was a woman who I miss and love every day.
But I was not necessarily moved very easily.
So for her being out there, being a part of things, I think being in nature,
had a lot to do with that.
And it was a meaningful time for her.
Just even going to the location.
All these things that you have going on with the event are awesome and fun.
But just even being there is going to, I think, be a moment for you.
You're going to feel something from.
Let alone enjoying yourself and having a good time and possibly winning some stuff here.
I worked there for eight years and it was one of the hardest things for me to do
was quit that job and go on to another one.
And it was just a beautiful place just to sit on and think.
Yeah.
I don't just think and not worry about what the campaign is doing.
Sure.
Yeah.
It's a good note, I think, to the audience.
Certainly taking this picnic and this event and everything.
But it's something to keep in mind even after the event or before the event.
It's a great place to go to visit, to be.
And I think a lot of people are looking for more opportunities and more places to do that at.
So just want to send a shout out to the Grotto Shrine and Wonder Cave and a great location
and great place for this event.
I'm curious, Rich, of how much the event has grown over the years.
You mentioned you've been a part of this for a long time.
I have a decade, you've been a part of this event.
How have you seen the event grow and how much have you enjoyed seeing that?
Oh, I've always enjoyed getting on with other people and having a good time.
And over the years, the picnic has had its decline because of different things.
Different events.
Different events coming, I always say drunk driving and stuff like that.
People are afraid to come out and try that.
But please come out and drink sensibly.
You can eat as much as you want.
There's no harm in that.
There's no harm in that.
Keep the burgers coming.
Oh, keep the burgers coming.
Yeah.
Give you a good base.
You know, I mean, yeah.
But yeah, no, we still have a nice crowd every year.
It's our major fundraiser for our church.
And you just get to come out and see a lot of people and see people who haven't seen it for a while.
People from all over the world come to the grotto to see the grotto.
My wife is, she does a lot of work up there with scheduling in the gift shop and stuff.
And so when she hasn't got a spot filled, I'll go up and work in the gift shop for.
And it's just nice to come, you know, talk to the people that come there.
People, like I said, from all over the world, almost every state in the United States.
But yet there's people in Siemens Point and Rudolph that don't even know the grotto is there.
Yeah.
Five miles from their home, you know.
But it was part of why I wanted to note that.
Oh, yeah.
My daughter lives in Point and I was talking to her and she was saying, oh, that sounds familiar.
I'm not sure I've heard of him.
I'm like, Briya, you've got to have heard this, you know.
You got to talk to her about it and everything.
I think that's a really good point, Rich.
Oh, I wish I had every time someone would come up there and walk around with their mouth open.
And their jaw dropped going, I can't believe this is here.
You know, it's just, so just please come out and have a, have a nice, have a nice time.
Have some hamburgers.
We have slices of pie.
You can just get pie in ice cream.
The chicken dinner, we had to back off on that.
Like I said, we had a decline and stuff.
We had to decline and help.
And when COVID hit, we, we, we discontinued the chicken dinner.
And there was talk about it, bringing it back, but we'll have to just see on that.
Well, we'll talk a little bit more about that maybe a little bit later.
And if not this year, maybe in the future, we'll be able to help with that.
And we want to talk about volunteering with the event and everything.
Oh, absolutely.
I did also want to mention that the event itself is this open to the public.
Is this for anybody that is in the area?
What's the attend?
Everyone?
Yeah, absolutely.
Everybody's welcome.
There's a lot, you know, there's a lot of things going on.
I think a lot of different things that people would enjoy.
You know, we've got basket raffles.
You know, a number of really nice baskets with a lot of neat things in them.
I don't want to say prizes, but they're going to draw for the baskets at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
I believe we have a big six wheel.
So you'll be able to draw your chance at that.
Yeah.
You'd mentioned that this is your main primary fundraiser for the year.
And one of the things that I've been spoiled about being in this chair is
have a lot of different churches come in and a lot of different events that they're promoting or doing.
But one thing I hear from the community all the time is, well, I go to this church,
but I'd like to support that one.
I'd like to be a part of their fundraiser.
I'd like to help.
Could I attend that event?
So it's always a noteworthy thing to mention to the audience that
and I don't have any events that aren't open to the public.
It's a pretty easy question for me to ask, but it always like to remind everybody,
because we got such a giving community that not only likes to have a good time,
but while they're having a good time knowing they are investing in their community,
they're helping their community.
And here's an opportunity for you to do that.
You go there, have a good time, maybe win stuff, maybe not who knows,
but you're going to dance, you're going to have good food, you're going to leave full,
and you can know that you are putting into our community.
You are investing in our community in a great church that does great things in this community.
So it's a win-win kind of situation that our area just loves.
And one encourage you to attend the event.
I did mention not only that this is your primary fundraiser,
so we certainly want to get as many people as we can do the event
and help you guys continue to do the things you do in this community and a lot of that.
I would be remiss if we, I can't believe I got this far into the interview.
I'm going to get yelled at by Stephen.
I haven't brought up the potato pancakes.
I have not been to the event, but I have had so many people tell me
these things are the greatest potato pancakes you will ever have.
They're incredible.
We have to mention that.
Even if we don't talk much more about it, I had to mention the potato pancakes
because those are a seller.
Those are big.
Yeah, the picnic doesn't necessarily have potato pancakes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they're, you know, twice a year, always in the spring and fall.
We'll have that pancake breakfast.
Yeah, I did want to admit.
I'm sorry.
I wanted to mention that.
I didn't mean to tie them together there.
I apologize.
But I would be remiss if I didn't mention those.
And those are other fundraiser opportunities for you to be a part of things
over at St. Philips.
And not only enjoy in the atmosphere and the good people over there,
but helping them continue to do good work.
And the root of every people from all over come to our pancake breakfast
because of the potato pancakes.
Yeah.
And Craig and I fry those, by the way, in case anybody's wondering.
Yes.
Yes, we do.
Yeah, we're the head flippers.
Nice.
Nice.
Appreciate that.
And I did before we do get to the notes of the event itself again and the times
and everything.
I did want to mention as well that volunteers are always welcome and needed
for these kind of events.
We always appreciate the good people in this community reaching out and helping out.
I have your website here.
Is that a good place to direct people to if they'd like to volunteer or anything?
Yeah.
St. Philips would work.
Yeah, definitely.
St. Philips.org is the website.
St. Hyphen. Philips.org.
You can find that.
So you can find it just throwing it into your search bar.
St. Philips Rudolph Church will pop up right away.
Right.
Another great way to not only keep up the date and the good work they're doing over there,
but adding to the work that they're doing over there.
And their email is STPhilipChurch at gmail.com.
STPhilipChurch at gmail.com.
Guys, one more time.
Let's go over the details of the event.
When it is, where it is, all the who, what, when, where, why?
One thing I want to throw into this is the kids games.
Excuse me.
We have a lot of kids games and they're cheap.
I want to say $0.56.
You know, you can't get that.
There's the old fish pond and the rolling the dice and the ducks.
And pick a duck and you'll kind of ask the games that are quite easy for the children that they really, really like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And again, you know, there's a lot of, a lot of purchasing of prizes throughout the year that I think the kids really get treated well, put it that way.
They put it with their, with the prizes.
They don't get a little ticket for winning something they get an actual prize.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, man, they love stuff.
Some of that stuff is worth gold.
You know, that's absolutely.
Yeah.
At that age.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
The StPhilip's Rudolph 103rd Church Pickney, taking place at the world's famous grotto shrine in Wonder Cave will be this Sunday, August 4th.
Mass will be get 10 a.m., owl activities will be on the ground so you can go ahead and park and get comfortable.
Because you're going to be there for a long time, going to be there all day, having fun.
Things kick off at 11, 11 to 230, the old time brass band will be performing.
Three to six, Elvis tribute artist Dakota Pomegranz.
Is it going to be there?
Yeah.
Pomegranz.
Pomegranz.
Pomegranz.
Thank you.
I'm going to have trouble with less names today, apparently.
And first names.
Six to eight, after glow jam with the fullers cover.
And this is going to be going on.
We're going to make sure the dance floor is full.
It's going to have fun.
Children's games.
As you mentioned earlier, Rich is going to be in at 11.
Bingo over prizes begins at 11 as well.
And the back seat raffle drawing will be at five later in the night.
The cash raffle drawings will be at 5.30.
Announcement.
It will be at six.
And keep in mind there's going to be refreshments down there.
Going to be some good food down there.
And all they're missing is you.
This is just going to be a great event.
You just need you down there.
That's exactly right.
Did we cover everything guys?
Did we get it all covered?
I think so.
Did we mention Christian mothers?
No, I don't think so.
Oh, yeah.
Christian mother has a stand with kind of a rummage sale theme.
Cool.
And books, I think.
Books, yeah.
Just a lot of.
Yeah.
A lot of different.
They have bakery too, I believe.
Yes.
I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Boy, great event.
A lot to go.
A lot to look forward to.
Make sure to mark your calendars and be there at St.
Phillips Rudolph for the 103rd Church picnic.
Again, taking place over the world.
Famous Grotto Shrine and Wonder Cave.
This Sunday, August 4th.
Things kick off at 10 with Mass.
All other activities beginning at about 11.
Thank you both again, not only for the time,
but hanging out with us and what you do in our communities.
We appreciate you both.
Thanks for having you.
Thanks for having Rick and myself.
Yeah.
That's great.
You're coming back.
You guys got to come back.
We're all.
Appreciate you.
You can find out more again at St.
Phillips dot org.
St. Phillips dot org.
Email them at St.
Phillips Church at gmail.com.
Or give them a call at 715-435-3286.
That's 435-3286.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here at 97-5 FM.
13-20 AM.
WFHR.
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