This weekend sees the biggest event of the year in New Prague… The annual Dozinky Festival.
Dozinky has been around for 34 years now. I’ve been to all but a few of the early ones. I think the first one I was around for was in 1988, which would have been the fourth one. I was working in Le Sueur and I remember bringing my young family to the event. Josh would have been two years old and the thing I remember most was him stopping in front of each band that was playing and dancing to the music.

Just like this year, it was a beautiful, sunny September Tuesday morning on September 11, 2001. People were going about their business, schools were in session and life was peaceful.
Then everything changed.

Social media has become an important tool for many, but there is a disturbing trend that turns a lot of people off about it, and that is the anonymity and immediacy of the medium.
People sometimes put whatever unfiltered thoughts enter their mind immediately onto social media, without thinking. A motorcycle crash that happened Saturday evening in New Prague is a prime example.

August is nearly done and for me the month marks when I began working for The New Prague Times 19 years ago. I was 31 years old and in my first month at The Times I was part of two sections, the previews for New Prague High School’s fall sports and Dozinky, the city’s Czech harvest festival. Add to that my weekly duties of covering the city council meetings, sports, school activities and other events happening around the area and my plate was full.