• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
Until just a few years ago, Rita Hubbel, who turns 100 this September, was a regular volunteer at the 90-year-old Sacred Heart of Jesus–Sagrado Corazón De Jesús Church carnival in Highlandtown. The annual parish event goes through June 23. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Highlandtown parishioner, 99, recalls life of the carnival

Emily Rosenthal Alster June 21, 2018
By Emily Rosenthal Alster
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Urban Vicariate

When Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown attempts to put a number on its parish carnival, it goes to the source.

Rita Hubbel, who will turn 100 in September, has been a parishioner her entire life. She figures that the event predates the Great Depression.

The Rodriguez-Melendez family from left, Elizabeth, Cesar and Nelson, play the “goldfish game” on the opening night of the Sacred Heart of Jesus–Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Church carnival in Highlandtown June 19. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“I figured if I was going to be 100,” Hubbel said, recalling a conversation she had with Redemptorist Father Bruce Lewandowski, pastor. “Well, then, maybe take about 10 years off. Say 90 years.”

Today’s carnival-goers, primarily immigrants from Central American nations, vie for live goldfish. Growing up in a parish that then had a heavy German influence, Hubbel recalled a different prize at the raffle booths of the late 1920s and early 1930s – live chickens.

Her mother’s uncle, she said, always seemed to win a chicken. He would give it to her family (as they had a larger yard) to run around for a few days before her mother chopped off its head and prepared it for a meal.

Living just a half-block from the parish, Hubbel’s parents allowed her and her three younger siblings to attend the carnival without adult supervision. It was a different time, she said, and adults had no reason to worry.

Her mother’s family has been in Sacred Heart Parish for five generations. Around the time of the start of World War I, her parents met at the parish’s Strawberry Festival. Her paternal grandfather, and then her father, owned Faulstich’s Bakery on South Highland Avenue. They were married soon after, and sent their children to the parish school, now Archbishop Borders School.

“Our family has not moved far from the church,” she said. “They were really church people.”

The carnival took a hiatus during World War II, then enjoyed its boom years. Hubbel recalled that in the 1950s, the Catholic War Veteran Association – of which her first husband, Henry Ernst, was a member – worked the beer stand, while its Ladies’ Auxiliary – of which she was a member – sold ride tickets.

“Everything that went on at church, we worked at,” she said.

Hubbel said that the carnival drew crowds solely for its cuisine. All of the food sold was homemade, from crab soup to barbeque and crab cakes to hamburgers. Hubbel and her sister, Matilda, worked during the day in the kitchen preparing food before manning carnival booths at night.

Rides were not as extensive as those of today, save for a Ferris wheel and rides for children. Stands offered a selection of plants, flowers and linens.

Six-year-old Brianna Cabrera plays “Hoop Shot!” at the Sacred Heart of Jesus–Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Church carnival in Highlandtown June 19. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Games and raffles were as popular then as they are now, with the Pot of Gold game sticking out in Hubbel’s memory. Players paid $1 and chose an envelope, some filled with money, as their prizes.

Even after Hubbel stopped volunteering earlier this decade, she was recruited to peel potatoes in the church kitchen. The Baltimore humidity precluded her attending the carnival this year.

“I’d still go,” she said. “When you’re so used to being with those things (events) and doing those things, it’s hard.”

Father Lewandowski called Hubbel the parish’s historian.

“She’s the living memory of our parish,” he said. “We really value her.”

Then and now, the carnival is the parish’s biggest fundraiser.

“It’s one of the times the community pulls together and works together,” Father Lewandowski said. “It’s a great show of unity.”

 

Email Emily Rosenthal at erosenthal@CatholicReview.org

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Emily Rosenthal Alster

Emily Rosenthal Alster

Emily Rosenthal Alster, a former staff writer for the Catholic Review, is a contributing writer. She is a lifelong resident of Maryland and a parishioner of St. John in Westminster.

Emily is a graduate of Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown, Pa. She holds a bachelor's degree in business communication from Stevenson University.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Father John Lesnick, known for compassionate outreach, dies at 71

Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84

Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography

Pasadena parish cites pandemic in decision to close preschool

Father Snouffer, information technology trailblazer for archdiocese, dies at 83

Latest World News

Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work

Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.

Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints

Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith

Cardinal prays on CNN program marking 500,000 COVID-19 deaths in U.S.

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Father John Lesnick, known for compassionate outreach, dies at 71
  • A Lent full of promise, steak success, cooking with children, and more (7 Quick Takes)
  • Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph
  • Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work
  • Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.
  • Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84
  • Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography
  • Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints
  • Some English Catholics object to transfer of nun’s remains to Philadelphia

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED