For openers, JPZ/Daddy/Dziadzi reads a letter he has received from Eleanor, who has taken the train for a Florida vacation. At 0:33 Eleanor in her letter says "Emily and I." Is Emily her sister?
At 0:57 she expresses in her writing the fond hope that JPZ will be "visiting Johnny" (presumably at the home of his Kotwas grandparents) so that Johnny will not be "missing her too much." Hilariously, JPZ breaks in in his own deep voice with a hearty "Me too!!"
At 1:03 Eleanor's letter mentions "Gwennie and Dickie." These must be Kotwas relations also. Can somebody figure this out and let us all know the specifics? It would be terrific to have names and photos to associate with these voices.
At 1:24 she tells of their getting dolled up and going to a Martha Raye show. Raye was a very popular singer and actress who did a lot of USO tours as well, during WWII and subsequently.
Correspondence now dealt with, we come to a mystery poem, or prayer in verse, at 1:50. Can anyone offer a hint as to what this is? Król is "crown." So it sounds like a reference to the King of Kings, in niebieski, heaven.
And there cannot be an event like this without a poem about an orphan. At 3:30 we hear of the sierota. I'd love to find a transcription of this poem; let me know if you find one, please?
(On a wall of the Marilla house hung a print depicting an orphan girl, weeping as she leaves the cemetery where she evidently has been visiting the grave of her parents. I cannot find that painting on an image search, which is a sad thing. There were several framed prints in the house which I suspect were purchased by Dad, our EJZ, while he was in Chicago in 1943-1944. One of them has a label on the back with the name of a Chicago art dealer. Sierota may have been one of those.)
Back to the sound file: They have Johnny back to praying again from 4:18 to 6:00. Spiritually, the partiers are covered.
What is the beautiful song at 6:25? I'd love to learn that song! Can anybody come up with a title or first line or a keyword?
From 6:44 the celebration is for Grandma Victoria Zdrojewska. "Let's all sing for Busia . . . na imieniny." This day was her name-day. She was named after a saint, and this is the feast-day of that saint. Her family sings to her Vivat! Sto lat!
One hundred years, one hundred years,
That she lives, she lives among us.
One hundred years, one hundred years,
That she lives, she lives among us.
Once again! Once again:
That she lives, she lives among us,
That she lives among us!
Following the whistling performance, at 8:34 JPZ has a little visit with his grandson Mark. This helps date the file to about 1955; does that sound reasonable? JPZ jingles some Christmas bells and asks Mark Co to jest? - What are these/is this? I wonder if he was hoping for an answer in English, "bells" or in Polish, dzwony.
Following the jingle bells is an interlude of conversation in which a lady says the word południe repeatedly. Południe means "noon," "midday." It also means "south." Think about how ancient a word must be, if the directional term, "south," is the same as the primitive astronomical observation a person can make just by standing outside at midday.
Stand there at midday, when the sun is as high as it ever is going to get that day. Raise one arm and point it directly overhead. Raise the other arm and point to the sun. If you walk in the plane determined by those two line segments your two arms, and walk on a line in the direction from the overhead-pointing arm and toward the sun-pointing arm, you are walking south.
You need noon to determine south. That's the way it is in the Northern Hemisphere of our planet. We use words invented by very distant forbears living the lives of pastoralists, farmers, and hunters.
By 9:10 in this file the partiers are starting discussions on singing Christmas carols. Johnny livens things up by bringing out his new toy six-gun. Merry Christmas, everybody!
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| Hey! Finger off the trigger and out of the trigger-guard! |
What a ride this file has been! Thanks, Marty, for your rescue operations.
Related, previous posts:
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| Grandpa Ludwig, Grandma Victoria, and Uncle Stanley |
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| Casimir, John, Eugene |
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