Category Archives: Person
2015-12-23: Two Cousins
2015-12-05: Rysiu’s 40th Birthday Wine Tasting Party
December 3, 2015 — My Mom’s story as the told it on her 96th Birthday
Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Yesterday I told you about the celebration of my Mom’s 96th Birthday; and that my Mom told us the story of one of her training missions while she was in the AK. Well, my sister Olenka recorded my Mother telling that story, and she sent the recording to me, for you to hear it:
Here is an English translation of that recording:
[Time stamp: 00:00]
When I joined the AK, after half a year, in the summer, they organized a trip to a field somewhere, so we would learn how to survive; there was a burned-out house, it was totally empty, all the windows were broken; and we had to learn how to secretly enter the upstairs; how to get back down; how to hide if the Germans were hunting us.
[00:36]
And to get there, each one of us traveled to a different train station. There was about five or six of us; six, I think. And, so we would not be in a group, and each of us with …, how do you say it … [compass] … yes, according to a compass had to get to that place, to find the place where we were all to meet; because each of us arrived from a different train station; and then at that place we all met.
[01:14]
After those exercises, in the afternoon, we again had training exercises — lying down on the ground; standing up — and I got a terrible migraine; and I could not do these exercises; they had to excuse me from these exercises; I then … she was the director — I told her that I have from time to time these migraine headaches and I cannot move then; and they are ordering me to lay down, and to get up, and to crawl, and again and to get up, and to lay down, and this was the wort thing to do all these movements; so they excused me.
[01:50]
But at night there was a different exercise still — we were walking at night, and we had to walk, quietly, and cross a small river, that was not deep; the water reached up to the knees; so we had to cross this river, which was pretty wide, and then through the forest, we went, and to the train station, where we all scattered, so each one of us was in a different place, and returned home in the morning.
[02:30]
But, in the forest; no; the worst was when we reached the small river; you know, the water was rather swift, so when we were crossing it, there was such a noise from the water rushing; gurgling; so the water was scrambled and was high; and the neighborhood dogs started barking, because they could here this, and could sense that something was happening; but, thank goodness, no one came out, no one checked. We finally got out of the river, and we went into the woods.
[03:10]
When we were in the forest; as we were waling, and walking; and suddenly we heard some German conversations and singing — so we all scattered in the woods. Fortunately, there was a lot of ferns; and we all laid down flat; and we were laying under the ferns; and they — there was only one road over there, and they were driving; six of them, on jeeps; two jeeps; with lights that brightened everything around.
[03:45]
My hart was pounding; oh boy; hoping that they would not catch anyone; but they passed; and then, after a long time, we started to come out; and we finally got to the train station at dawn, and we took the train home; but my dress, at the bottom, was damp, and dirty … because, first we got wet, and then we lay on the ground; and it got muddy; but somehow, people did not notice.
[04:20]
I went straight to my school class; at the hospital — this was also all in secret; for the lecture, the professor would sit, knitting, and lecturing on medical subjects; and we would sit on chairs, or small end tables; we would all be sitting; just in case the Germans would come unexpectedly, and surprised us — we were just meeting and talking; only a private meeting.
[05:00]
With everything, we always had to conceal ourselves, and to hide. But this was a very big experience; when the Germans were driving in those jeeps; we were lucky that those ferns were there; so we could hide and lay under them, so they could cover us.
[05:42]
Love,
Dziadziuś Paweł.
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December 2, 2015 — My Mom’s 96th Birthday
Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
My Mom, Irene Kostro (nee Dzikowska) was born in Leszno, Poland, with her fraternal twin brother, Wieslaw Dzikowski, on Monday, December 1, 1919.
That same day, December 1, 1919: (1) American-born Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, become the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; and (2) XWA (now CINW), in Montreal, become the first public radio station in North America to go on the air.
Yesterday evening, my brother Tom, and my sisters Olenka and Hanka gathered with our Mom to celebrate her 96th birthday (my sister Elzunia did not join us).
During that gathering, I distributed a printed copy of my November 11, 2015 letter to you — I thought that everyone would appreciate receiving a copy of the stories we heard over time, and that Tom’s kids (Zak, Katrina and Cody) would also like receiving a copy of their grandmother’s story.
I think that everyone was appreciative for receiving this printed copy of my Mom’s story. My Mom was particularly please with the photos included in the story. She focused on the photo of her twin brother, Wiesiek, and commented that it was taken just shortly before he was shot — that incident is described in my Book, starting on the bottom half of page 11.
Then, my Mom started telling us the story of one of her “adventures” while she was a member of the AK.
After she joined the AK, she was sent on a training mission. She, and approximately five other individuals were given directions to take a train, and each of them was to get off at different specified train stations. Once off the train, she had to follow a compass heading, cross country, to a location where they would all meet with their trainers.
Once she arrived at the designated destination, she and her fellow participants were trained in tactics on how to approach as structure, involving lying flat on the ground, then elevating and quickly advancing, and that cycle repeated until they reached their objective. In the course of those exercises, she developed a tremendous migraine headache.
When the training ended in the middle of the night, she had to return to the train station using her compass. As she was approaching a road, she heard German voices, so she laid down — fortunately, she was in the midst of a small field of ferns. She was very scared, as the German soldiers were shining very bright lanterns across the terrain; but, she was not spotted. By the morning she managed to get back to the train station — her clothes were wet, dirty and muddy, but no one made any notice of her. She returned home without any further incident.
By the end of her story, my Mom was getting tired, and it was getting late; so I left. Once I got home, I spoke with your Babcia Krysia, and told her about the evening. Babcia Krysia was (and still is) in Rochester, where she is attending some work-related business meetings.
Love,
Dziadziuś Paweł.
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Next: December 3, 2015 — My Mom’s story as the told it on her 96th Birthday
2015-11-28: Pierniki Day (2015)
November 22, 2015 — Assassination of President Kennedy
Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Today is November 22, the anniversary of one of the three of the darkest and most somber days in recent American history — Pearl Harbor, the Assassination of President Kennedy, and 9-11.
I already spoke to you about Pearl Harbor and about 9-11; today, let me tell you about the Assassination of President Kennedy.
In the afternoon, on Friday, November 22, 1963, I was in Bookkeeping class, waiting for class to start — I was a 14-year-old Freshman in Mater Christi Diocesan High School, in Astoria, Queens, New York — you can see my Yearbook picture HERE [bottom left corner of page 84] (I was in the 1967 graduating class; Babcia Krysia was in the 1970 graduation class — you can see Babcia Krysia’s Yearbook picture HERE [middle of the page on page 111]).
Anyway — I was sitting at my desk in Bookkeeping class, waiting for our teacher to come in (although most of my teachers were De La Salle Christian Brothers, my Bookkeeping teacher was a lay male teacher). Class was already scheduled to start, and our teacher was not there yet — a few minutes later, he came in, very serious, and told us to sit in our places, and wait — and he left the room. When he returned a few minutes later, he told us that the President had been shot. A few minutes later, the whole school was summoned to the Auditorium, where we were officially told that there had been an assassination attempt on President Kennedy; and that the school would close early — we were told to go to our lockers, take our things, and go home.
From school, in Astoria, I would walk (green) a few blocks to the Ditmars Boulevard train station; take the elevated train (red) to Queensboro Plaza; switch to elevated express train (green) going to Flushing, change to the local train at Woodside, and get off in Jackson Heights; walk to the underground local train (red) to Forest Hills, and get off at my station, 67th Avenue; then walk (green) a few blocks to my apartment.
To go home required me to take the subway, from Astoria to Forrest Hills — this would involve several different trains, and the journey, normally lasted about an hour and a half each way. I remember the train was crowded, and I overheard people talking — the President had been killed.
My Dad purchased a 21 inch Zenith black & white television set when my Mom and my brother and sisters moved to America in June 1959
I think that I got home about 4 pm. My Mom was there, and I think that my brother and sisters were home also; my Dad joined us when he got home from work, later in the evening. We watched the news on television all weekend. Shortly after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was captured and arrested for the murder; however, two days later, Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated himself, on live television. These assassinations were followed by President Kennedy’s funeral, all of which we all watched on television.
I was ten years old when I came to America on June 2, 1959. At that time, Dwight Eisenhower was President. Democracy and free elections were new concepts for me — in January 1960, Senator John Kennedy initiated his campaign to be elected president.
In September and October, Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon, then vice president, in the first televised U.S. presidential debates in U.S. history. Although I did not watch the debate, I remember my Dad watching; and in the days that followed, there was much discussion about the debate on radio, television, and the newspapers.
On Saturday, November 5, 1960, I went to see Senator Kennedy, who was going to give a speech in the vicinity of 62nd Drive and Queens Boulevard (in Rego Park, Queens, NYC). This was my first political rally — I saw him, and I heard him speak; I was impressed, and it was very exciting.
Senator Kennedy was very controversial; because, at age 43, he was considered by many to be too young to be President; AND, he was a Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, on November 8, Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. Because I was only eleven years old, I did not vote for him; and my parents did not vote for him either, because they were not U.S. Citizens yet (we were Resident Aliens).
John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the “common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself”.
At the time that President Kennedy took office, in 1961, the US and the USSR were in a “Space Race.” At that time, the USSR was winning — on October 4, 1957 they achieved the orbiting of Sputnik 1; and later, they beat the US to the first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. Eventually, the US won this Space Race, by landing the first man on the moon.
In addition to the Space Race, at the time that President Kennedy took office in 1961, there was much political tension between the US and Cuba — in 1958, Fidel Castro overthrew the US aligned government in Cuba, and let the country towards a Marxist-Leninist form of government.
As a consequence of this change in government, many people fled Cuba. Some of these people became my friends; and classmates at Our Lady of the Angelus grammar school. [You may want to read my letter to you about West Side Story; and also the bottom of Page 78 and top of Page 79 from my Book.]
In April 1961, some Cuban refugees attacked the Castro government in what became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Those refugees had been led to believe by their CIA contacts that if they attacked Cuba, the US would support them militarily. In the midst of the Invasion, President Kennedy, however, decided NOT to provide military support — this betrayal made me very skeptical of US government “promises.”
In August 1961, tensions between the US and the USSR escalated when the Berlin Wall was built, completely cutting off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. This Wall generated a steady stream of news reports, on television and in the newspapers, about people trying to escape to freedom, and sometimes dying in the process. [Some day I will have to tell you the story of my cousin Lilka, and how she and her husband escaped from Poland.]
The tensions between the US and the USSR reached a fever-pitch during a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba — this became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In anticipation of a nuclear war, in school and in society in general, we practiced going to Fallout Shelters, and otherwise hiding from nuclear blasts.
So, this was the political and social climate [all part of the Cold War] during President Kennedy’s tenure as President of the United States, from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
Politically, those were not fun times; and yet, I survived, and I did have fun — I grew up; I finished high school, and went to college; I was involved with Polish Scouting — through which I got to know your Babcia Krysia, which eventually made all of YOU possible.
Love,
Dziadziuś Paweł.
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2015-10-29: Daniel’s 3rd Birthday
2015-10-24 to 26: Visiting Kasia, Stephanie & Rysiu
October 13, 2015 — The Day I Officially Became Too Old
Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Today was a sad day for me — it all started when I received an email Notice from the N.J. State Bar Association about a problem the Court was trying to solve:
9/23/2015 Notice
After reading this Notice, I decided to respond by writing a letter to the Chief Justice of the N.J. Supreme Court:
When I wrote this letter, I was a bit anxious about it, as I usually get nervous when I reveal myself to a stranger (my family and friends already know me pretty well); however, I decided to write, since being a judge was something I thought about in the past (but I never acted on it because I was not particularly politically active, but I understood that becoming a judge was something that required political connections), and here was an opportunity to fill a need; perhaps the need was greater than my lack of political connections. [By the way, if you want to see my Resume, you can see it HERE.]
There was no immediate response to my letter; however, about a week later, two N.J. Tax Investigators (badge and all) showed up at my office, allegedly investigating some corporate entity that was claiming to have an office in the building where my law office is located. It all seamed weird, but I answered the Investigators’ questions (again, strangely, more questions about me than about this mysterious corporate entity they were supposed to be investigating). That “interview” lasted less than ten minutes; and I never heard anything more about it.
Then, today, I received a private response to my letter, from the Chief Justice:
10/12/2015 Note from the Chief Justice
So, now I am officially “too old” to become a judge in N.J.
This news (although not unexpected) was sad because I do not think of myself as “old” [all my physical failings I blame on my weight, not on my age]. Not only do I not feel “old”, I do not feel “too old” either. But, what others perceive is reality — THEIR reality; and to the extent that this perception limits my opportunities, it became MY reality.
I am sure (at least I hope so), tomorrow I will feel better; although, today was a sad day for me.
Love,
Dziadziuś Paweł.
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