Waelder
South Congress
Guadelupe Street
Pleasant Valley
Magnolia Café
East 5th Street
Mopac
The Crossing
Lakeline Mall
TRN 08
Fifth Switzerland
The Swiss Club’s August 1st National holiday celebration at the “Inn of the Hills” in Kerrville
The Swiss American family is predominantly middle class. According to the 1990 census the median income of Swiss American families was over $ 42,000 and only 3.8 percent had an income below the poverty line. Over 40.3 percent of Swiss American housing units were mortgage-free.
Family life is well-regulated and conservative. Few women hold careers outside the family and young people tend to be cooperative and well-behaved.
Depending on their local origin speaking, Swiss greet each other in many forms. Widespread among German speaking Swiss is “Grüezi” (groitsee) or “Grüeziwohl” – I greet you. Also the French-derived “Salut” and “Tschau” from the Italian “Ciao” are used both when first meeting and at its conclusion. In Raetorumantsch people say “Bien Di” (biandee) for Good day. On parting the French speaking Swiss will use the form “à revere” for the standard French “au revoir” and the German speaking Swiss “Uf Wiederluäge” (oof weederlooaga) meaning See you. In German-speaking rural Switzerland the standard form for goodbye is still widespread: “Bhüet di Gott” – May God protect you.
Swiss children learn a new, yet related, language such as High German, standard French or standard Italian. The children of the Rumantsch region learn German or French. To enter a different linguistic world, for most Swiss Emigrants, is not a new experience and they master multiculturalism with relative ease.
In the 1900s, those leaving were attracted by the newly conquered lands taken from indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, and in the Western Hemisphere by expanding neo-European nations such as Argentina, Brazil, or the United States. The emigrants seem to have been attracted by faraway lands or the desire to escape parental control, intolerable marriages, or oppressive village traditions.
Swiss Americans recreate organizations they have known at home for mutual support as well as for enjoyment and social contact. They celebrate August 1 as the Swiss national holiday and commemorate important battles of the fifteenth century when Switzerland was struggling for independence with parades, speeches and conviviality. At such events there is yodeling, singing, flag throwing and sometimes a reading of the Bundesbrief of 1291.
I believe that this nation has set the world-wide all-time record for a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and dignity.
Quotes by Leo Schelbert in the Swiss American Internet Forum
TRN 09
Small Change
He has no ambitions. No burning ambitions, in any case, no clear idea of what building a plausible future might entail for him. He is content to remain in the present and not look ahead. If he has accomplished anything, it is this ability to live in the present, to confine himself to the here and now, and although it might not be the most laudable accomplishment one can think of, it has required considerable discipline and self-control for him to achieve it. To have no plans, which is to say, to have no longings or hopes, to be satisfied with your lot, to accept what the world doles out to you from one sunrise to the next – in order to live like that you must want very little, as little as humanly possible. Paul Auster, Sunset Park
December 2009
July 2011
April 2009
July 2011
April 2009
July 2011
December 2009
April 2010
April 2009
July 2011
April 2009
July 2011
April 2010
July 2011
TRN 10
Summer Break
On Break (on a trip abroad – we will be sending the News from Texas again next week)
TRN 11
The South
TRN 12
Community
“Community” defined in biology is an interacting group of various species in a common location. For example, a forest of trees and undergrowth plants, inhabited by animals and rooted in soil containing bacteria and fungi, constitutes a biological community. The Science Dictionary would describe “community” as a group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. Studies show substantial evidence that young adults who feel a sense of belonging in a community develop fewer psychiatric and depressive disorders than those who do not have the feeling of love and belonging. The sociologists have yet to reach an agreement on a definition of the term.
Elm Creek, Manor
Community close to Manor
Colorado River RV Park, Basdrop
Community close to Basdrop
The Lofts at The Triangle, Austin
Chestnut Commons, Austin
Midtown RV Park, Austin
The Village, Manor
Community at Lakeline
TRN 13
Brothers in Arms
