The young man saw a guy get fresh with a pretty girl and distress her. So he clocked him.
This being early 1920s Buffalo, the young man spent the night in jail. But it was worth it because he soon married the pretty girl.
Adam Matynka and Clara Haremska Matynka celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary at a family gathering recorded in part by Martin Zdrojewski, the Impresario grandson with the cutting edge, state-of-the-art, reel-to-reel audiotape recorder. The party ran past midnight.
0:00 - 3:00. Adam Matynka leads the crew in multiple verses of a Polish song well known to everybody except the grandchildren. Now I have no idea what it is and am having a hard time figuring out any clues.
Marty announces midnight at the 40th Wedding Anniversary Party.
3:30 - 4:15. Sonny Boy. Mom, our CAMZ, told us that when she was little, her father would sit her on his knee and sing to her: Climb upon my knee, Sonny Girl. (Joke!) Well, I was very impressed with this sweet story, and remained so until discovering decades later that the maudlin 1928 song, as well as the maudlin Al Jolson movie, ends with little Sonny dying. The angels took you because they were lonely . . . for crying out loud!
4:15 - 5:04. I Will Always Call You Sweetheart. Better: people get old and grey but you don't suddenly find out that they are dead.
5:17. Roll Out the Barrel. Good idea.
5:47. Sto lat!
6:17. The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be . . . okay.
7:20. Uncle Walter reminds everyone of the lyric in this different version of Sto lat. This is the first clear recording of his voice, as far as I can tell. He never did say much. But when he did, what he said was often just what was necessary.
8:50. Gertrude asks her father to speak to [his] children. Somebody says Cicho!! "Quiet!!" Adam proceeds with T'anks for coming here and showing us all a good time . . . The recording concludes with individual spoken testimonials, which are pretty nice and fairly formal, considering the hour and circumstances.
Marty and I have happy memories of times like this. But our elders did not teach us the songs, so we do not know them. Our elders did not sing with us, so we don't sing the songs ourselves or teach our own children.
Often we were told that Children should be seen and not heard. Our elders achieved success. We cannot be heard.
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| Clara and Adam Matynka at 554 Walden Avenue, a Buffalo long gone |
The climactic scene from Jeeves and Wooster, Season 1, Episode 2:
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