Grandpa and Grandma plus Fanny & George
My dad’s … mom and dad … both from Poland … both died prior to
my birth, yet I am rich in stories about them from my father and his siblings …
Grandpa first came to the USA and settled in Denver Colorado
during the “gold rush”… apparently had a little of gold himself for he
purchased a “saloon” even had dancing girls in this saloon in Denver … a lively
place … men purchased beers with their “gold nuggets” and played poker with their
45 handguns on the table…
Grandpa made out really good with that saloon... Decided to sell
it and went back to Poland to share his loot with the family there … but soon
Grandpa had the call to return to the USA… This time to Pennsylvania... Scranton,
the city had a large Polish community … he was able to purchase a farm in Hawley,
Pa with his brother … a huge piece of property... This is where my father was born and grew up
… children kept being born into the family and soon money became an issue and my
grandfather in addition to being a farmer, started to work in the coal mines …
Enter in grandma … she saw the family was struggling to be
fed, so being the entrepreneur … she decided to bootleg whiskey to help make ends
meet … hey it was prohibition and there
was a “need in the market for booze” … a
“capitalist concept” … find a need in the market place and fill it … so grandma
filled bottles with white lightening … I was told grandma always prayed the rosary
as she was tending to her still and filling bottles with white lightening … (so
as a kid after hearing this story I had mental image of the Virgin Mary tending
a still and filling bottles with boot legged whiskey )
My father always impressed on me that his mother and father
were a team… they worked together and stayed together... And dad compared their
marriage to “George and Fanny”… the horses pictured with grandpa and grandma in
the photo… dad said … George and Fanny pulled the wagon together in the same
direction and this way they got the job done … that is a nice thought about marriage …
My grandpa would use that wagon all the time to tend to his
chores and family needs … but grandpa would also use that wagon to visit people
who were sick or families that lost a loved one and he would pray the rosary,
with them. I was told grandpa would chant the litany of the saints as he did
his daily chores and sing songs in Polish to the Virgin Mary… my father at the end
of his life started to sing songs to the Virgin Mary as well (of course in Polish)
and he had a favorite Polish Christmas
song he would sing ... this song ...
Lulajże Jezuniu
my father had a beautiful voice ... as a child he would sing to the cows in the pasture ...
And my dad would sing to me growing up and to my children when they were small...
In English the title to the above song is
Sleep little Jesus
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| Grandpa and Grandma with Fanny and George |
