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Thank you Dupla Kave for the wonderful night!

Added by Admin on Sun, Apr 19, 2009, 10:33 AM

Last night I attended a social function

sponsored by the Hungarian Reformed Church of Phoenix and the Hungarian American Social Club. What an occasion to describe. We can begin by presenting the Church Hall decor of beautiful lanterns hanging from the ceiling along with those pink and blue lights that offer a faint glow to color the room once the brighter lights are turned off. The traditional hand painted plates and hand made weaving remain on the walls that add a touch of Hungary. There are 10 tables each seating 10 guests awaiting to be filled and each table sports a white tablecloth with 3 red roses in white vases for center pieces. Bowls of fruit cocktail await at each place setting for some lucky guest while the fragrances of food cooking fills the Hall. Master Chef Iren Berki is busy with all those pots and pans cooking up tonight's meal. An event is staged!

First to enter the Hall were the Dupla Kave the entertainment from Hungary. While they were setting up their instruments on the stage I managed to corner the lead singer, Istvan Koteles, and asked a few questions.

  “How many performing trips to the USA has your group made?”

“Eight times so far”

“What is your favorite city?”

“I like variety...a variety of cities. We have played in a variety of places. Toronto in Canada and other places such as New York City, New York and New Brunswick, New Jersey in the USA. All of these places had large crowds because there are sizable Hungarian communities there.”

“What do you do after your performances?”

“I like to mingle with the people and see the city.”

“Are you finding all Hungarians alike as you travel to different places?”

“I am finding that Hungarians in our audience reflect the culture of the overall communities where they live. I travel to countries at the Carpathian Basin and all over Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. Hungarians in our audience who live in places where Anglo Saxons live tend to be more traditional while in other places they are more 'big city'. In Australia they are the most laid back. Different home languages of the host culture seem to make a difference. European Hungarians are different from American Hungarians no matter where they are born. Hungarians and their personalities are different and affected by the host country's culture. My mission is to try to unify all Hungarians through our music.”

What a thoughtful man to take on such insight into people.

Then the guests started to arrive. On comes the ladies in their beautiful outfits to highlight the night.

Possibly the most dazzling outfit of the night was worn by the Church President of the Womens' Guild, Elizabeth Miskolczy.

She showed up in a floor length lavender design of an A form fitting wet look with scaled shiny material and a scalloped bodice. It was down right exciting. Add a matching filmy gauze looking material to top off the dress and you have the idea. Definitely eye catching.

Next I spotted Olga Romvari running around checking tables and setting out additional food items. She too had on a full length dress that had no shoulders. The dress was a soft cotton that was a blaze of colors. Oranges, yellows, browns, and possibly some black. It was totally full from the waist down and every time Olga moved the dress seemed to appear as though a flash of color moved through the air.

Other noticeable items were Carolyn B. Pongratz's beautiful necklace with a Carribean stone. I got this while we were on a cruise down in the Carribean and it looks just like the color of the sea water,” she said. Seen with that matching black pant suit definitely showed it off.

While making my rounds trying to interview various guests I met the Ambassador of the Los Angles Consulate General Of The Republic of Hungary. His name is Balazs Bokor and he is Ambassador to over 400 thousand Hungarians in 19 states.

He was here tonight on his return trip home from giving a lecture in Tuscon and he stopped by to enjoy a good dinner and talkwith guests at this affair. He has held the position of Ambassador for the past two years and he has worked tireslyto preserve Hungarian culture. He has activly supported Hungarian festivals show casing visual, performing, and literary arts. The Ambassador said he comes to Arizona on an average of 4 times a year. Personally I found him to be a personable man with dramatic energy that seemed to flow from him as he talked about his cultural preservation wishes and efforts. I do not doubt that he would be a good lecturer or that he is called upon to talk often. Mentally I made a note to catch him lecture if I am in the right city. Such an event should be a real treat as well as a great learning experience. For those of you who may have questions to ask of him he is now on our mailing list so the opportunity is now here to ask him.

So the Euro Techno music of Dupla Kave played on while the dancers moved all over the floor to the rythms. A nice chat with Kathy Veres let me know that this interesting woman actually came from a small town in Transylvania. She came to the USA in 1986 to make a better life for her 3 children and met Attila and married him in1989. Now she is the wife of a successful business owner that she works along side of besides being the mother of 3 successful kids. Kati's hobby is that she loves to sing. She began singing in her father's chior in Transylvania and is now willing to try teaching young children how to sing. With a background history like this, where do you go from here Kati?

And finally, a retired Chicago cop caught my interest. Steven Ratz is another local business owner. His auto “In & Out Lube" is the place to go for those oil jobs. Ratz is a 56er who loves the hot Phoenix summers. He also enjoys his Hungarian heritage which is why he was here last night. He is a very sweet easy going laid back guy with a unique sense of humor that makes him very likable and friendly. A person could spend hours with him listeing to his tales of days gone by and perhaps one day I shall. I just looked at the length of this article and it is 3 pages long. Time to quit folks so until next time...

Elayne Landau

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