The St. Luke's Parish Youth Council assembled for a photo portrait in the living room of the Rectory. Clara, our CAMZ, kept a print of this photo. Father Walter L. Tomiak is seated, center, with Clara to his left and Eddie to his right. Who's Eddie? Well, I never heard of him, but during these years he shows up now and then on the trail of broken hearts she left behind.
Clara is 16 years old in this photo. The poise of these young people is remarkable.
Looks like there was a birthday party in the church basement.
This is the PYC Monthly from May, 1945. Think what was going on in Europe in May of 1945. Also Asia. How many of these kids understood at all how lucky they were to have been born on their side of the planet? How many of them came to understand it later in life?
Also, how did all the pastors deal with the returning veterans? How could they possibly help them? How could they, and the veterans themselves, deal with those two opposing mental forces: the terrible memories and terrible knowledge of war, careening around the same brain as the fierce, overwhelming desire to return to normality, broadly defined as getting employment, a spouse, and children as fast as possible? Did Bishops hold meetings for pastors to prep for this? Did they trot out experienced pastors from 1918? If not, why not?
At any rate, the front page features two items: the baseball lineup and a report from a serviceman in Italy of attending Sunday Mass officiated by a priest who claimed to have the Stigmata of Christ on his hands. See the mitts he's wearing?
In the fourth item in this issue's "Over There," Walter Drzewiecki explains his feelings about the performance of the Buffalo minor league baseball team. In so doing, he is quoted in a way that exaggerates, in order to laugh at, his own Polish-accented English. Everybody did this. All the Poles told Polish jokes.
(To hear Polish-accented American English from 1943, see "Eugene Zdrojewski at the U Chicago Language School.")
Father Tomiak in this "Thought for the Day" advances the cause of pre-teen girls. He sees too many of them bored, ignored, lonely, lacking ambition, and ultimately, choosing to marry unwisely just for something to do. Here he urges parishioners to pay attention to them, to fashion parish social programs that will include them more in the fun parts parish life and also encourage them to study harder, think more widely, think better of themselves, and aim higher.
Ted and Dick Fabiniak, the "Twin Sluggers" featured on the photo page, grew up to own and operate Fabiniak Supermarket. Clara would phone them from the Marilla house with a grocery order, Ted and Dick would bag it up, and EJZ would pick it up at the end of the office day and tote it out to Marilla. They did this pretty often through the 1950s and into the 1960s. How's that for service?
I went to the grocery few times. It had wood floors - very pleasant and easy on the feet.
Did JPZ take part in the production of this monthly newsletter? Did he help the kids with the photography?
Julie
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