January 4, 2012 - Part III - Babci/Dziazdi house and grandma and grandpa
I find it very difficult to remember a lot of facts and situations because it was such a long time ago. A few things I did forget to mention - Blizzard of 1977 here in buffalo when we were out of school for a week and a half, camping with the family almost every week first with a tent, then a camper. We went in the cold, rain and heat. Our favorite campground - can am wasn't too far from home but we frequented there several times in the summertime. We always got the same trail. Us kids were the 40 loop group. Thats because we all were in campsites 42,43 and 44 (we always went with 3 families, much more fun that way). I enjoyed camping. The only issue is my father snored so loud that it woke up the whole camp sites around us. I spent a lot of time taking naps in the middle of the day so I wouldn't feel groggy. He took after my grandfather when it came to sleep apnea but got tested and got the apnea monitor and is doing much better. I think deep down inside, my father knew thats how Dziadzi died. Back in the late 70's they didn't diagnose sleep apnea and didn't treat it. He also quit smoking around 1983-84 but gained a ton of weight over the years.
where was I? Oh yeah, Babci's funeral. Afterwards, we didn't do anything to the house yet but it was up to my father and 2 aunts to figure it out. We did have xmas 1982 in the house - it felt really strange without them there (at least one of them). At least babci made it to Thanksgiving but barely. We all knew that was the last xmas in that grand house (it had 5 bedrooms in it). About 3 months later, we all got together to get the basement cleaned out - there was all these tools and stuff in the basement and it was packed. We did ok, 13 people cleaned this basement out. They had this medium sized safe that somehow were gonna get it out of the house (it must have been there some 70 years). We found lots of old things, paperwork from my great grandfather michalcyk (babci's father) when he had his funeral home. It was quite interesting. Apparently the house was a funeral home back in the 1920's. Aunt Sophie, Babci's sister (Uncle Matt's wife) married very rich and proper and Babci married middle class so it was natural that she enharited the house. No one really wanted it because my parents, aunts and uncles all owned their own homes and we were still teens. So, until they decided to do something with the house it was only natural that they would rent it out for alittle bit. My mother still worked at my first job and one of the salesmen who they recently hired was coming from out of state and needed a home for his family. All 8 kids, whew!! Once we got the house straightened out (there wasn't much because babci left it immaculate). They moved in. They stayed for about 2 years then we went in after they moved out. They had a carosine heater which left the walls yellow. I mean like someone smoked in there yellow. Gross. We scrubbed and scrubbed. We did the best we can. Then we got another family in there. This time it was my brothers friends family, The klenzars. They lived there for about 4 years and took excellent care of it. I don't recall going over there to clean because it didn't need an army to do it. Lerzaks, the family who bought property many years ago from Dzaidzi (Dziadzi owned acres and acres of land almost to the village! some 200 acres at one point) wanted to buy it for the daughter. We really didn't have any other buyers and my father and 2 aunts wanted to unload it pretty quickly. Once they sold the house, she renovated it (tore the old time red barn down and bruter house) and it looked gaudy. The father bought the rest of the property - some 20 acres - and wanted to put a road in from the village and sell land for homes but it didn't get approval by the town of evans and village of Angola. He died shortly after it was disapproved. Apparently, she had spent too much on the house and it went into forclosure so it was owned by a few people owned it. Finally, the owners bought it in an auction and still live there today. I think he's the dog catcher. I liked what he has done with the house but my father is rather disgusted and won't look at it while he drives past (he has to drive past it to get home its on route 5). In the village of Angola, there is a "bartus Lane" road with about 3 houses built. Not sure of the story behind that.
Moms family. I haven't really talked about them too much. Grandma and Grandpa were alittle bit younger than Babci and Dziadzi, probably by 10 years. They were very young grandparents when I was born in 1966, I think Grandma was about 45 and grandpa was about 51. They really didn't want to be grandparents at a young age. I was an oops baby. My mother was 4 months pregnant when they got married with me. She was the oldest of 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. Mom, Uncle Mick, Uncle Jim (godfather), Uncle Paul, Aunt Joni and Aunt Suzie. There is only 7 years difference between Aunt Suzie and I and only 10 years difference to Aunt Joni and I. Over the years, my 3 uncles lived at home when I was a baby but they soon left the nest when I was bout 6-7 years old so I don't remember too much of them as a youngster. I do recall when my godfather bought tickets to the ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus when I was 6. He picked me up from college (he went to UB), took me to the circus in Niagara falls. That was a magical time that I would never forget. Aunt Joni and Aunt suzie, they were living at home until my early teens then they went off to college. I remember for years, my sister and I would run upstairs to Aunt Joni's bedroom when she was playing her guitar. Then I remember when Aunt Suzie when she was in high school had this time capsule when she was in HS, she taped our voices and put the cassette in the school timecapsle. We loved them growing up. Aunt Joni married when I was 13 to this air force leutenant and traveled around (they finally reside in Witchita KS, where my cousin Matt got married over the summer, Uncle Brad is a 1 star General now). We loved going to grandma and grandpas, grandma was a true grandmother - always doting on us, mostly because the 3 of us were the only ones for about 7 years until my uncle mick had Tara, then uncle Jim had Mark, Kaylea, Then Uncle paul had Dan, Uncle Mick then had nedra and laura, Uncle Paul had the twins Andy and Greg, Then finally my Aunt Joni had Lindsay and Matt, The youngest is Alex, Aunt Suzies son (he is 18 now). There is a 27 year age gap between myself (45) an Alex (18). Hes a good kid, super smart - I think he skipped a few grades and is in his 2nd or 3rd year in college. Grandpa worked at Trico (remember the wipers from long ago, we had 3 plants right here in the city of Buffalo). He worked there for some 45 years. He always brought home those rubber things for my brother when he was very young. He loved getting them. He would bring 30 home for him. Grandpa worked all the time when I was young so he wasn't around often. When he retired in 1979, and all the other kids were very young - he became a hands on grandfather. In some ways, I was very envious of them but at least he was there for me, brother and sister (the older ones). Grandma sure made up for all that by taking us to see disney movies (charlie and chocolate factory, 1000 leagues under the sea - those mid 70's disney movies), shopping in the city (we took a bus out there and went to the shops in downtown Buffalo(now its a ghost town)). She made it fun and exciting for us. Grandma worked part time at a mobile home park as a secretary and we frequently visited her there. She worked there good many years but in 1980, they decided to sell their home and move into an apartment so they can spend 6 months in florida and 6 months at home (I think that was when she quit her job). They rented a place where Uncle Micks mother law had an apartment with a swimming pool. we were always there swimming. She loved us as much as they did. Rita was a good person to rent with and my grandparents spent about 5 years living there. They had a good arrangement while they were in florida 6 months out of the year. Finally in 1986, they decided to move to Ft Myers full time. They lived in Florida about 22 years. I have to say it was a great vacation spot, park model home, walking distance to the pool and the people who lived there were fabulous. Evenings were spent playing kanasta out on the deck (I swear Grandpa cheated and he was quite the card shark). Anyways, I don't want to get too far into my mothers side of the family. I will intermix it when I write about 1983-1986, ok.
Sorry that I didn't get to 1983-1986. I really wanted to introduce you to my mothers side of the family and discuss alittle bit of them. Mostly because I will be referring to them quite often in the future journal installments. I've talked too much about my fathers side of the story. I promise I will get more to you tomorrow. These journals are starting to get more and more. 5 installments - Bah! This is 3 and I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet..LOL!! I really enjoy reliving all of this. Especially reliving my grandparents (both sides).
where was I? Oh yeah, Babci's funeral. Afterwards, we didn't do anything to the house yet but it was up to my father and 2 aunts to figure it out. We did have xmas 1982 in the house - it felt really strange without them there (at least one of them). At least babci made it to Thanksgiving but barely. We all knew that was the last xmas in that grand house (it had 5 bedrooms in it). About 3 months later, we all got together to get the basement cleaned out - there was all these tools and stuff in the basement and it was packed. We did ok, 13 people cleaned this basement out. They had this medium sized safe that somehow were gonna get it out of the house (it must have been there some 70 years). We found lots of old things, paperwork from my great grandfather michalcyk (babci's father) when he had his funeral home. It was quite interesting. Apparently the house was a funeral home back in the 1920's. Aunt Sophie, Babci's sister (Uncle Matt's wife) married very rich and proper and Babci married middle class so it was natural that she enharited the house. No one really wanted it because my parents, aunts and uncles all owned their own homes and we were still teens. So, until they decided to do something with the house it was only natural that they would rent it out for alittle bit. My mother still worked at my first job and one of the salesmen who they recently hired was coming from out of state and needed a home for his family. All 8 kids, whew!! Once we got the house straightened out (there wasn't much because babci left it immaculate). They moved in. They stayed for about 2 years then we went in after they moved out. They had a carosine heater which left the walls yellow. I mean like someone smoked in there yellow. Gross. We scrubbed and scrubbed. We did the best we can. Then we got another family in there. This time it was my brothers friends family, The klenzars. They lived there for about 4 years and took excellent care of it. I don't recall going over there to clean because it didn't need an army to do it. Lerzaks, the family who bought property many years ago from Dzaidzi (Dziadzi owned acres and acres of land almost to the village! some 200 acres at one point) wanted to buy it for the daughter. We really didn't have any other buyers and my father and 2 aunts wanted to unload it pretty quickly. Once they sold the house, she renovated it (tore the old time red barn down and bruter house) and it looked gaudy. The father bought the rest of the property - some 20 acres - and wanted to put a road in from the village and sell land for homes but it didn't get approval by the town of evans and village of Angola. He died shortly after it was disapproved. Apparently, she had spent too much on the house and it went into forclosure so it was owned by a few people owned it. Finally, the owners bought it in an auction and still live there today. I think he's the dog catcher. I liked what he has done with the house but my father is rather disgusted and won't look at it while he drives past (he has to drive past it to get home its on route 5). In the village of Angola, there is a "bartus Lane" road with about 3 houses built. Not sure of the story behind that.
Moms family. I haven't really talked about them too much. Grandma and Grandpa were alittle bit younger than Babci and Dziadzi, probably by 10 years. They were very young grandparents when I was born in 1966, I think Grandma was about 45 and grandpa was about 51. They really didn't want to be grandparents at a young age. I was an oops baby. My mother was 4 months pregnant when they got married with me. She was the oldest of 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls. Mom, Uncle Mick, Uncle Jim (godfather), Uncle Paul, Aunt Joni and Aunt Suzie. There is only 7 years difference between Aunt Suzie and I and only 10 years difference to Aunt Joni and I. Over the years, my 3 uncles lived at home when I was a baby but they soon left the nest when I was bout 6-7 years old so I don't remember too much of them as a youngster. I do recall when my godfather bought tickets to the ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus when I was 6. He picked me up from college (he went to UB), took me to the circus in Niagara falls. That was a magical time that I would never forget. Aunt Joni and Aunt suzie, they were living at home until my early teens then they went off to college. I remember for years, my sister and I would run upstairs to Aunt Joni's bedroom when she was playing her guitar. Then I remember when Aunt Suzie when she was in high school had this time capsule when she was in HS, she taped our voices and put the cassette in the school timecapsle. We loved them growing up. Aunt Joni married when I was 13 to this air force leutenant and traveled around (they finally reside in Witchita KS, where my cousin Matt got married over the summer, Uncle Brad is a 1 star General now). We loved going to grandma and grandpas, grandma was a true grandmother - always doting on us, mostly because the 3 of us were the only ones for about 7 years until my uncle mick had Tara, then uncle Jim had Mark, Kaylea, Then Uncle paul had Dan, Uncle Mick then had nedra and laura, Uncle Paul had the twins Andy and Greg, Then finally my Aunt Joni had Lindsay and Matt, The youngest is Alex, Aunt Suzies son (he is 18 now). There is a 27 year age gap between myself (45) an Alex (18). Hes a good kid, super smart - I think he skipped a few grades and is in his 2nd or 3rd year in college. Grandpa worked at Trico (remember the wipers from long ago, we had 3 plants right here in the city of Buffalo). He worked there for some 45 years. He always brought home those rubber things for my brother when he was very young. He loved getting them. He would bring 30 home for him. Grandpa worked all the time when I was young so he wasn't around often. When he retired in 1979, and all the other kids were very young - he became a hands on grandfather. In some ways, I was very envious of them but at least he was there for me, brother and sister (the older ones). Grandma sure made up for all that by taking us to see disney movies (charlie and chocolate factory, 1000 leagues under the sea - those mid 70's disney movies), shopping in the city (we took a bus out there and went to the shops in downtown Buffalo(now its a ghost town)). She made it fun and exciting for us. Grandma worked part time at a mobile home park as a secretary and we frequently visited her there. She worked there good many years but in 1980, they decided to sell their home and move into an apartment so they can spend 6 months in florida and 6 months at home (I think that was when she quit her job). They rented a place where Uncle Micks mother law had an apartment with a swimming pool. we were always there swimming. She loved us as much as they did. Rita was a good person to rent with and my grandparents spent about 5 years living there. They had a good arrangement while they were in florida 6 months out of the year. Finally in 1986, they decided to move to Ft Myers full time. They lived in Florida about 22 years. I have to say it was a great vacation spot, park model home, walking distance to the pool and the people who lived there were fabulous. Evenings were spent playing kanasta out on the deck (I swear Grandpa cheated and he was quite the card shark). Anyways, I don't want to get too far into my mothers side of the family. I will intermix it when I write about 1983-1986, ok.
Sorry that I didn't get to 1983-1986. I really wanted to introduce you to my mothers side of the family and discuss alittle bit of them. Mostly because I will be referring to them quite often in the future journal installments. I've talked too much about my fathers side of the story. I promise I will get more to you tomorrow. These journals are starting to get more and more. 5 installments - Bah! This is 3 and I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet..LOL!! I really enjoy reliving all of this. Especially reliving my grandparents (both sides).
Replies
I read your journals you have a great memory You are very detailed. I see there is alot in your heart. Micky