Who Is This Beautiful Girl, This Veritable Queen?

The heavy cardboard frame with folding cover is in mint condition.  The frame is glued down solidly over the photographic print;  we cannot take a squint at the back.  There are no labels.

Indications that she is a First Holy Communicant include the white gown, hose, and shoes; white veil; Missal and Rosary.  Absence of a candle, such as we have seen in FHC portraits of EJZ and JFZ and MPZ, is not a contraindication in my mind, as candle and veil are an unwise combination, so it is best to let the boys tote those big candles.

Suggestions that this might instead be a Confirmation portrait include her mature appearance:  typical age at FHC is 8 years, while typical age at Confirmation is 13 to 14 years.  Additionally, her shoes have enough of a heel for a teenager, too much for an 8-year-old.  And look at that gold wristwatch over her elbow-length gloves!  Again, it seems unlikely for an 8-year-old.

I've never heard of veils for Confirmation.  Has anyone else?

Is she my Matynka grandmother, Clara Haremska?  Our CHM was born in 1903 or 1909, depending on to which document we give our trust.  Eight years of age would then be 1911 or 1917.  Fourteen years of age would then be 1917 or 1923.  Those all seem plausible to me from the look of the portrait details.  Also, CHM and all the Haremska women have high brows like this mystery girl.

Clara Haremska married Adam Matynka in 1925.  My Mom, our CAMZ, labeled the back of this 16" by 20" photographic print with the names and the date.  Thanks, Mom!

The print is curled and tattered with age, but remains impressive.

Adam Matynka and Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

So, again, the woman above and below is CHM, my Grandma Matynka.  Is she our Mystery Queen Girl?  What do you think?

Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

Now let us consider the Mostkowska -Zdrojewska options.  Here is the wedding photo of our JPZ and Julia Mostkowska.  The date approximately 1920; Dad, our EJZ, was born in 1923.

John Peter Zdrojewski and Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Mayhap Mystery Queen Girl is my paternal grandmother, Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska.  What do you think? Her face seems more square, though.  And here, alas, we have another covered forehead.

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska

Is Mystery Queen Girl my paternal aunt Melania Zdrojewska?  Melania was born in 1933 and died about 8 years later according to the story from Dad/EJZ.  I suppose the portrait could be from 1941, but it seems less likely.  If Melania actually lived to age 13 and this was her Confirmation photo, then the year would be 1946.  Again, just from the look of things 1946 seems too recent a date for the photo portrait.  Finally, we know that Melania died in the 1930s while Dad/EJZ was a high school student at Orchard Lake.  So, scratch the Melania/Confirmation possibility with confidence.  Melania/FHC remains a possibility, if we allow Dad/EJZ to have misremembered, and that Melania died in 1941 when he was a college student at Orchard Lake, not a high-school student.

I hope somebody actually recognizes this photo.  If so, please let me know!  If not, then I invite the spirits of my ancestors to visit me and set me straight on this.  Let's talk, OK?

Postwar Buffalo

For a couple of years after their June 1948 wedding, Gene and Clara toughed it out, with Gene staying in a cheap dorm (they had those then) in NYC, and Clara living at home with her parents, sister, and Tom. She worked the books at a nearby hardware store.

This looks like coming home from church some morning.  Who is stumping up the driveway behind her?

Why, it's Tom in short pants.  Love it.  Who is the older boy coming along next?

Apparently this was a favorite family picnic spot.  What is Adam Matynka holding in his hand?

A camera body?

Clara as Sylvan Nymph, complete with Sylvan Nymph tablecloth.

That's quite the rootin' tooter on Tom's shirt.

Is this Genevieve?

Is this Genevieve and is she holding a movie camera?

Clara Matynka, CHM, as Goddess on a Stump.  Note the goddess's chariot yon in the dappled glade.  What manner of chariot is that?

Julie

Matynka, Zdrojewski, Columbia

Adam and Clara Matynka are out in the spring sunshine with their little firecracker, Tom.

Gene and Clara are there as well.

The corsage and boutonnier could be for Easter and their engagement, which occurred at the same time one year.  Or they could be for Easter a year later.  Or they could be for a wedding anniversary.  There are no dates on these photos; can we date them by Tom's age?  Help! 

Clara's and Gertrude's shoes are back in style now; you can order ones just like either of those online right now!  Don't do that yet, though; please read Gene and Clara's.

Mom, CAMZ, graduated Kensington in June 1947.  Gene and Clara married in June, 1948.  Gene graduated Columbia in June, 1949.  So when were these photos taken?

Cute little squirt.

So here's Columbia.  Is Clara down for a visit?  Or is this graduation weekend?

Julie

Matynkas, Mostly

Mystery lady at unknown location.  Nice saddle shoes.  

Pearls?  She wore pearls to the barn?

Mystery baby.  Is it Tom?

Mystery wedding party.  Is the groom Gene Norman?

Mystery Very Nice Girl.  She is not holding a candle; that white vertical is part of the house porch in the background.  I'd like a jacket like that.  Velvet, of course.

Mystery kid.

 Is this CAMZ?  I think so.  I like those really big paper dolls.

 

We conclude with three shots at a picnic. In the first, the lady is Gertrude Matynka.  Who is the gent?

Lots of serious women here.  The two gents seem cheerful enough, nevertheless.  The grown-up gent is Eddie Nietopski.

Left to right: Mystery Lady, Mystery Boy, CHM, CAMZ, Totally Mysterious Person; Gertrude, Mystery Blonde, Eddie.

If you wake up in the middle of the night suddenly knowing the identity of one or more of these people, please don't phone me, just send email.  'K?

Julie

September 1946, St. Luke's Monthly Newsletter - "Troop 352 A-Camping"

So Clara Matynka (our grandmother, CHM) was a Girl Scout Troop Leader!  And she took the girls camping!  Never in a million years would I have guessed this; how about you, Marty?  She never went camping with us.  She never walked across the lawn with us.

What were we, museum specimens?  Dolls on a shelf?

I'll get over my mad.  But I'll never stop being puzzled by this.

The Ladies of Clara's Drapery Shop

Clara Matynka, our CHM, was an entrepreneurial sort.  Her shop for the custom manufacture of draperies and slipcovers was quite successful and ran for decades.  Her business premises were a building with one huge room with ceilings clear up to what would have been the ceilings of the second floor of a house.  Big picture windows in front let in light; a refrigerator in back held cold drinks and the ladies' lunches.  The walls were light green; the air smelled like fabric and sewing machine oil; the floor was scuffed linoleum.  But everybody's hands and dresses were completely clean at all times.

Huge heavy solid wooden tables - three or four - took up most of the space.  Each one was something like, let me guess, 20 feet by 30 feet.  Each one was fitted with a cream-colored canvas top, permanently ruled with lines 1 inch apart running across the table, and stuffed or lined with firm batting 1 or 2 inches thick.  On these tables large bolts of fabric could be unrolled and precisely cut, for draperies that were sometimes quite large and also lined.  Into these tables pins - giant stout pins with crossways handles to them -  could be stuck.

You have to pin fabric down securely in order to cut precisely.

Under these tables and against all the walls were bolts of fabric, as well as the cardboard tubes left over once the fabric was used up.  I don't know what Clara's Drapery Shop used those tubes for, but Marty and I used them to try to breathe through when hiding from bad guys under blankets (the breathing didn't work, but we did escape the notice of the bad guys.)  Famously, one of those tubes became the mast for the Santa Maria in the Marilla production of Columbus Proves the Earth is Flat, starring Sharon Stroinski as a benignly inebriated Christopher Columbus.

But I digress.

Besides the cutting tables there were of course several specimens of sewing machine scattered around the back of the big room.  Some had long tall arms to accommodate giant draperies for sewing.  There were always two or three ladies employed at these machines, and my guess is that the two ladies on the right below are two of them.

So left to right we have CAMZ as a young teen, CHM boss lady, and two of the ladies.

One lady was introduced to me as Pani Edna.  She had a brilliant smile and a warm personality.

CAMZ, likely in 1943, but where?  Are those rosebushes on the right background?

Obviously Clara and Gertrude spent time there and picked up skills.  Gertrude much later took the helm of the business.  Clara was always tailoring.  She must have been taught by those ladies, as well as her mother.  Where did her mother, CHM, learn the art?

It just occurs to me that those ladies knew CAMZ as a girl, and so that explains some of the twinkle in their eyes when they greeted her daughter as visitor to their shop.

Julie

Are there any photos of the furniture refinishing shop owned and operated by Mazurowski, Stroinski, and Stawicki?  What was the name of it?  Would someone like to write up a history of the enterprise?