sTORIES FROM THE fAMILY TREE: lETTERS FROM MY GRANDFATHER

      The last decade of the 19th century, the winter of 1894-95 finds Wlandyshlaw Mzrepskie born somewhere close to the Port City of Gdansk in Poland. German name Danzig on the Baltic Sea in Northern Poland. Traveling to Eastern Pennsylvania to secure his papers. A certificate that will enable him to seek his fortune in the anthracite coal region.

      A certificate of competency was issued to Walter MzrepSkie on DEC 21st 1895. After a time the Americanization of Wladyslaw Mzrepskie was Walter Majewski and finally to Walter Majesky.

      While working in this area, Walter probably lived in a boarding house perhaps with a, in a small town called Shenandoah in Schuylkill County Pennsylvania. A beautiful young lady working there caught Walter’s eye and they became very friendly. She told him of her situation. She wanted to come to America from a place called Lithuania, but was very poor. She had relatives in America who owned the boarding house paid for her passage to America in return she would work a number of years receiving room and board until the debt was paid. Walter was overwhelmed with love for the young lady Zofie Walukanis. They became girlfriend and boyfriend after some time together Walter paid off Zofie’s debt.

      October 14th 1899 Wlayslaw Majewsky and Zofie Walkanis were married in Shenandoah in Schuylkill County Pennsylvania.

      Walter and Zofie came to Western Pennsylvania to begin their family and married life.  The children arrived in rapid succession. The year is 1912 Walter Majewski and his wife Sophia became Naturalized American Citizens. July 5th, 1912 the ceremony took place in common pleas court, Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

      Walter through hard work and study becomes very good at his work. A specialist dealing with steam power which is the power used to operate.  The coal mines, so good in fact he becomes a foreman. The family moves from one mining town to another. Towns or patches with names like Buffington, Lambert, Bridgeport, and Alecia. There were and still are many coal mining towns throughout the Bituminous Coal Fields.

English is the language of choice in the Majesky Household.  Especially between parents and children in this way Walter masters the English Language. Of course Sohpia and Walter converse in Lithuanian and Polish with their friends from Europe. 

Time passes, the Majesky clan increases, John, Alex, Florence, Aggie and around 1925 Helen who is the last. Along with these children several stillborn including a twin for Helen. Some of these offspring were buried in unmarked graves at St, THomas Cemetery in Footdale. A church Walter helped build. He served the church in various positions for many years.

      While all this was going on, Old Walter got to fooling around with his neighbor’s wife. Her husband got wind of it and came after Walter. Ole Walter ran off, left town. After a time, through a mutual friend things were patched up. Sophia hands Walter an ultimatum. Before I’ll take you back, I want all new furniture. Walter, ever so grateful for a second chance, agrees.

      A train arrives in Republic, workers are busy carrying all this magnificent furniture into the Majewsky house. Neighbors, people from far and wide gather to watch the proceedings. The event takes on a festive atmosphere, old women in Babushka's sigh and point. A large RCA Victor Victrola, big round oak dining room table, many chairs with leather padded seats and carved feet, kitchen cabinets, a treadle sewing machine, bookcase with glass doors, large religious pictures for the walls with beautiful frames and many many other pieces too numerous to mention. Walter, Sophia and the kids are once again one big happy family.

      At one time Walter Majewsky along with his coal mining obligations operated a store in Briar Hill.  With his large family he had ample help to run the business. Everything was humming along pretty good when as luck would have it, The store caught fire and burned to the ground at a total loss.

      Walter would walk into the local saloon, sporting a handlebar mustache. Soon some of the guys would come forward to buy drinks and make a toast. In those days Walter was the mine foreman and as was the custom the workers were bound by a silent code to show respect and they did. All Walter needed to do was raise his glass and smile.

Sophia and Walter’s oldest son, William prepares to leave the nest. The year around 1917 or 1918 William, perhaps 16 years old, approaches his dad, a reluctant father embraces his son, hands him maybe 20 bucks. A few tears from Sophia and Bill are off the big city Detroit, Michigan.

      Eventually Bill adapts to city life, night school and perseverance and becomes successful. A partner in an auto parts business. After a few years Bill owns the business, BIll Majesky becomes BIll Myers. Brother Charlie joins him and later so does Johnny. Soon Johnny becomes Johnny Myers, Charlie remains Charles Majewski. Flo comes to Detroit and finally Helen. Bill marries Mildred Johanson; they have one daughter. Charlie wed Bessie Livingston and they had many children. Flo remains single and Helen joins Aggie in Philadelphia where she marries Ed Petterson. Aggie is married to Frank Lacy both Helen and Aggie have several offspring.

      The year 1927 or somewhere close. Peter Benjamin Majesky is discharged from the Army. He had his name changed while he was in the service to Miske. Peter B. Miske marries Mary Harrison, they have one fighter Betty Ann. Adolph Majesky Pete’s younger brother spends a good deal of time with his older brother who is employed by the West Penn Power CO. A job opening becomes available, Pete is able to get the job for Adolph. During this process Adolph Majesky becomes Edward Miske.

      Edward Miske goes on to marry Sophia Dzurik and they have two children. Sophia becomes affiliated with a form of Rheumatoid Arthritis which causes her to be handi-capped, not being able to walk for more than half of her marriage of approximately 46 years. An extremely dreadful disease.

      Julie Majewsky marries Earl Smith. The marriage lasts several years, but ends in divorce. They have a daughter Janet. Julie then Marries Bob Armstrong, They spend their quite happy lives together down at the lower end of West Brownsville. Along the Monongahela River. Bob is famous for his gardens, classes from the local school have been known to visit on occasion. Julie enjoyed a number of hobbies including making homemade root beer throughout all this Julie remained a devout Roman Catholic. Bob was a Protestant.

Sometime during this whole period power to operate the mines changes to electricity from steam, not a good time for Walter Majesky. He becomes a regular coal miner, a timber man and roof boulter. They set the timber posts to secure or hold up the roof of the mine, sometimes a risky process.

      Walter Majewsky has many close calls working the mines. He retired sometime in the early 1940’s. I believe his total Social Security Check amounted to 26 maybe 28 dollars a month. Subsistances wages even then. The United States is engulfed in World War I. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941. The United States is at war with Germany and Japan. Walter, although in failing health, decides to return to work in the mines after a few months he becomes very ill. Black lung plus many other respiratory ailments. Sometime in 1942 Walter passed away. His wife Sophia followed him one year later in 1943. All the nice old furniture is either sold or given away. The house at 1313 Sheridan Ave is sold for $2,500.00, a good buy even then.

      In my opinion my grandfather was truly an amazon man. Think about it: born in a foreign country, poor, manages to make his way to America. Techs taught himself the English Language, raised a large family, owned a nice home, owned and drove several automobiles. A model T Ford and then a couple models from the 1930’s. He loved to read books (as I do). I can picture him in his rocking chairs, reading, smoking his pipe, listening to the news, on his Grunow Console Radio occasionally spitting into his green ceramic cuspidor and then clearing his throat.

      Peter B. Miske became ill sometime in 1928. Something related to an extremely painful back injury after several months Peter dies.

      The Majewsky family at this time consists of Walter and Sophia, children Bill, Chrtalie, Edward(Adolph) Johnny and Alexa Julia, Flo, Aggie, Helen and Pete have died.

1929 Ed. Miske marries Sophia Dzurik(my mother and father) a son Edward is born OCT 10TH 1936 about 5 years later a daughter Shirley is born March 12, 1936. A full scale depression was gripping the United States. It started in October 1929 and for people lasted up until World War II. As mention in a previous chapter Sohpia becomes afflicted with Rheumatoid Arthritis, sometime in the 1940’s I remember going to see a movie with my mother The Philadelphia Story I would guess maybe 1943 at the Plaza Theater in Browunsville Jimmy Stewart, Gray Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

      From this point on I’’ write about the most interesting things that I can Remember about my early years. Not necessarily in chronological order. My dad used to cut my hair with a pair of hand clippers(I still have them) . If I flinched or moved he belted me one alongside the head. If I sniffed he would scream or yell, I sure was happy when he finished.

      One day I was over at my grandmother’s house and Alex showed his father an old Morgan Silver Dollar. My grandfather seemed fascinated by the coin, Alex gave it to him. He let me hold it, wow I have this coin in my collection.

      Christmas Eve at the Majewsky House was indeed something special, always fish, perigee, mashed potatoes, nut rolls, and all kinds of goodies. Before beginning the meal a blessing of prayer of some sort and passing of oplatki to one another. A christmas wafer I would often mine to you would break off a piece in turn i would snap off a piece of yours so on and so forth. The cHRISTMAS wafer was blessed and was supposed to bring good fortune. After supper mid-night mass, me and Shirley slept over at Grandma’s on Christmas Eve. My mother, father and aunts went to our house to trim the tree and wrap the presents. Christmas day low and behold me and Shirley wide eyed and full of wonder nobody could tell us there wasn’t a Santa Claus, what a time we had.

      Sunday afternoons the Polish hour was on the radio Aggie, Flow, and Helen three of my aunts would push the big round dining room table off the one side and polka up a storm to me sitting in a corner clapping. My hands up and yelling, my grandmother sitting across the room tapping her foot to the polka beat. Picture an old lady with a white towel wrapped around her hair like a turban. One tooth in front smiling, what a time this was everybody was dirt poor but we didn’t know it.

      Sometimes Aggie would play the Mandolin and flow would sing the one song I remember is “I’m dreaming tonight of blue eyes, who is sailing far over the other times we would crank up the old RCA Victrola no speakers a megaphone, electricity spring driven what a machine the one record I remember “Springtime in the rockies”. 

      The members of the family when it came time to take a bath they heated the water on a coal stove and carried it upstairs dumping it into the bathtub. No refrigerator so perishable foods had to be used with a couple days they had what they called an icebox. Delivery people used to drive through the community selling big blocks of ice. As kids we would chase the ice truck often the ice man would give us a piece to chew on. 

      My house was only a block away from Grandma Majewsky’s House so naturally I spent a lot of time over there. “Grandma can I have a piece of Jelly Bread” Sure go get it she would say. I’d go to the icebox take out a huge leaf of bread, a big round loaf, I would slice a big slice perhaps the size of a diner plate more that an inch thick and smother the thing with homemade jelly. Then I would come and sit near my grandmother and we would talk. I would tell her about all the things I was doing like swimming in the river or cutting somebody’s grass or school activities. She would sit there twirling her thumbs, something she did almost all the time, holding her hands together rolling one thumb over the other and under the other one. “Eddie, don't eat like a dog, eat purty, take small bites, chew your food slowly all in broken English.  I would say okay grandma and for a little while I was doing it right but before long I was gulping the delicious bread down as before she would just shake her head. I can relive this scene over and over in my mind. The picture is as vivid as when I lived it. I can mentally smell the bread and jelly as well as taste it. My grandmother’s smile is as beautiful as ever. One big long tooth left right in the middle of her mouth on top!

      Growing up in this part of Brownsville us kids usually swam in three different places “the mud Hole” The water was shallow and you could mud crawl, pretend like your swimming practice dog fashion, very muddy there but when we were real young this is where we learned to swim. The mudhole is located under a railroad bridge near the yard office not far from where I live now. After learning to stay afloat we went to the pier several hundred yards west of the mud hole. Boats used to tie up there waiting to enter the locks that were located in Brownsville then. Difficult to get to you had to scale down a rocky bank(big boulders) piled on top of one another, a type of wall I guess. We would swim out the pier, climb up the ladder and lay in the sun. jump and dive off, while hollering at the cook”throw us an apple and sometimes they did). In those days the river was like a huge sewer. Someone said that because we swam in it many times this river water gave us immunity to most diseases. The other place we swam was called the steps. It was in the other direction down from my house now. These three places we mostly swam but there were others. The lock wall, newtown patch and Alecia, Pike Mine and West Brownsville once in a while.

      The steps, a set of steps built into the sloping finished wall, stone and mortar. The wall was like an incline out into the river. The boats and barges came very close to shore so the river channel had to be deep enough for them to navigate. This was actually the entrance to the locks. A dangerous place when a boat and tow was entering the locks a huge steamboat named the Sailor a huge paddle wheel located at the stern drove this boat. The tow had to be split, three loaded coal barges and remaining barges went through the other chamber if I remember correctly a full tow was nine barges carrying about 1,000 tons each. The boat would be maneuvering the tow to line it up with the locks. When reverse or back up resulting in what we called slack current or slack water. This current was very dangerous for swimmers anywhere near the stern and you will be pulled under. I was once caught in this slack water, I swam down as deep as I could and swam away from the area. In those days I could literally swim 50 to 100 feet underwater. You reach out over your head as far as you can and bring your arms like paddles down to your sides and move your legs and feet to propel yourself forward. 

      I loved to see how far I could swim underwater, now that I think about it if everything went right(stayed in a straight line) I believe I swam much further than 50 feet another thing we used to do is pick up bottom, 15-20 maybe 25 feet deep of water, go down grab a handful of mud, surface and throw the mud up in the air. You had to prove to the other kids that you indeed had gone all the way down. When you think about it, even though we were all very poor, we had the biggest swimming pool intown. 

      Sometimes me and Billy Timms(If I was Tom Sawyer then he was Huck Finn) would go up on the hill(The one behind my house now) we would go from yard to yard. Some had apple trees or pear trees or even grape vines. We would tuck our T-shirts in our pants and fill the front of our shirts with whatever we could steal. Then we would go back down to the river bank and chew away all afternoon.

      We would throw old bottles into the river and pretend they were Japanese ships, throw stones at them pretending that we were American Fighters Planes. Early in the spring, we challenged one another to see who would be the first to jump into the river. I remember early March the water was so cold it took your breath away.

      Sometime back in the early 1940’s Flo, Helen, and Aggie, my dad was the driver, grandpa Majewsky’s old black sedan with the yellow wheels. They took me along, I was somewhere between 5 and 7 years old, maybe younger. We went to Charleroi to visit Mary Miske. The apartment was above some sort of business. A pink haired lady with a gold tooth or a missing tooth a little on the heavy side, A big smile we sat around the table she took out the tarot cards and told fortunes. I remember talking to the beautiful little girl with long Shirley Temple curls guess who this was Betty Ann. This is about all I remember! Flo was always fascinated by fortune telling, maybe this is where it all started.

      An old wooden building located where the South Brownsville Fire Co. Now stands. Three or four stories high. Me, Billy and Dickie Giles pry a loose plank off the back wall just anova the stone foundation. We climbed an old rickety ladder inside the old elevator shaft to the third floor. Dusty and full of cob-webs the building has been abandoned for many years. Not a safe place, many rotted boards in the floors three old trunks way back in the corner. We busted these trunks open wow! Two big ceremonial swords “Knights of Pythia” engraved on them, one sword gold colored the other black and white or silver dozens and dozens of cakes of octagon soap. All kinds of old clothes and many other things long forgotten. I was reaching down deep in one of these trunks. I felt something round with a chain. I slowly and masterfully pulled the thing out and slipped it into my pocket. I took the gold sword, they came to my house at night and told me that the police had found out about us and were looking for the swords. I gave them the gold sword and told them to throw it into the river. I found out later they had sold the sword to an older guy who was a collector. Win some and lose some.

      An old lady Mrs. Cole lived down on the middle alley near the Sons of Italy. I showed her several cakes of octagon soap. During World War II many things were rationed including soap. She bought all the soap we could find or steal depending on how you define it. I was very enterprising even then. The thing that I secretly removed from the trunk turned out to be an old waltham railroad watch and chain. It takes a key to wind it up. I had one made for it, I still have the watch and it runs. A date 1984 scratch inside the case indicates that's when it was once repaired. A number of years went by and one this old building caught fire and burned to the ground.

      Billy Timm’s brother Johnny had a job at the Farmer Dairy down on Water Street. Billy had the task of taking Johnny’s lunch down to him everyday throughout the summer vacation. Why Johnny didn’t take his lunch in the morning, I have no idea. If curly Rankin the manager was not at the dairy when we were there, we would drink half the chocolate milk in a quart bottle, go over to the separator(An apparatus resembling a beehive that separated the cream from the milk) filled the bottle with thick rich cream. Once again over to the river bank and indulging results unbelievable diarrhea!

      Almost every Saturday morning me and Billy as well as others usually had to report to a Railroad cop’s office which was located in the Union Station building in downtown Brownsville. His name was Price. It was a type of probation we never paid for, but when we reported they often made us perform chores like cleaning up his office, going to the store, delivering something to the post office, always something even when he didn’t catch us trespassing he accused us. The fact of the matter was you had to trespass on the railroad to get to the river and the river for us was a way of life.

      The last car, whether it was a passenger or a freight train was called a caboose. They don’t use them anymore. I think cell phones or the walkie talkie helped eliminate the caboose. In the old days we would sneak into a caboose, underneath a leather type cushion or mattress a storage area inside had dozens of dynamite caps we would take some of these, go up on the hill(behind the house where I live now) the old stone quarry, we called it “The Old Indian Cliffs”. Lay several on an old rock, go to the top and throw some large stones down and wow! The explosions rocked the hillsides and we scampered into the woods screaming and laughing hysterically.

      We finally got rid of our charter cable. We got some satellite system your mom has. I really enjoy it. The difference between night and day. I figured I could get good reception because of the valley between the hill behind my house and that is exactly the case. No excuse for being at sea for no writing. If you can dock at a Canadian port you can mail some correspondence. So ole buddy this is it until I hear from you. 

      I showed your commendation to friends down at the Eagles. They were very impressed. Until I hear from you then, keep up the good work. Always Grandpap!