Richard Mazurowski

Richard Mazurowski (1925-2017) was son of Pearl Haremska Mazurowska, nephew of Clara Haremska Matynka, brother of Genevieve Mazurowska Stroinska, cousin of Clara Matynka Zdrojewska. He was Dad to Debbie, and he was Uncle Dick to Sharon and to Marty and me.

Below, we see him acting as groomsman in a wedding party sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Richard (Ryszard) is third from the right. Sorry, I have no idea who the couple are. But first from the left is Clara Adamina Matynka, aka Mom.  Clara and Richard and Genevieve are first cousins; their mothers were sisters.

We can zoom in a little here, to the curly locks, 3-piece morning dress, and proper cravat.

Below we see another wedding party. The print is on deckle-edge paper. I like the ordinary houses with the Italian Renaissance-style campanile in the background. It houses the belfry of the parish church.

Genevieve and Edward Stroinski are the couple this time. Richard appears as Best Man. Isn't that Florence with him? I think it is. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Cabinetry and the making of fine furniture was Uncle Dick's profession. Below is a bookcase he designed, built, and installed for Gene and Clara. This is in the G&C house in Bowmansville, the year being between 1950 and 1956. Here in the Trove are at least three prints just of this bookcase. They were happy to have it; mayhap it was their Christmas gift to themselves.  See the bits of Christmas tree at the right of the photo?

1957 was the year of G&C moving into the Marilla house. Below is a scene at one of the early parties there. Proper parties always included 40 people or thereabouts, and went on in several rooms, including the finished part of the basement. Below we see, left to right, Casimir Zdrojewski, Adam Matynka, and Richard. The item of furniture in the background is a cobbler's bench done up by him.

The house on Poplar Street was similarly a noted party venue. Below we have New Year celebrations featuring dancing, lots of dancing, here with Florence and Richard.

Fourth of July featured culinary special ops, such as BBQ at the tent site in Marilla. Dick and Gene do not mess around.  I'm guessing 1960s here.

Below we see a very patient, as well as very stylish, Uncle Dick, in the dining room at another Marilla party, c1969.

(No snake is climbing up that wall. That is the stem of a split-leaved Philodendron, the leaves of which had, um, split the scene, for some reason.)

Left to right, below,  we have Clara Matynka, Uncle Dick, some idiot blowing out candles and looking like Oscar Wilde, Aunt Florence aka Auntie 'Lossie, Clara Zdrojewska aka Mom, and Uncle Eddie Stroinski. We also appear to have a fruit-Jello mold. 

But look at the wall behind Mom and Uncle Eddie. See those red-and-black encyclopedias? They are the same Compton's Encyclopedia, shelved on the same Uncle Dick bookcase, as in the Bowmansville photo above. When G&C worked on the design of the Marilla house, they stipulated a recessed niche in that wall, to accomodate that bookcase.

Below are Mom and Uncle Dick at a family event in 1971.

Uncle Dick set up his own furniture refinishing business, using his business name of Richard Mast, and went in with Uncle Eddie Jr. and Uncle Eddie Sr. Below we see him showing the latest progress on the revitalizing of the Zdrojewski grandfather clock, in the 1980s.

Uncle Dick was always at the wheel of  the station wagon when it was loaded up with "The Poplar Street Gang" and driven to Marilla for partying. He also had a motorboat for some time. I remember seeing it in the garage. If you send me any boating photos, or any photos at all of Dick and Florence, I will be delighted to put them up. 

Niagara Falls

Remember when the Army Engineers shut off the American side of Niagara Falls? It was 1969; I was fifteen; my brother and cousins were older and way cooler; a party of us trudged around the riverside looking at the desolation and being freaked out by the silence.

Paul Zadner sent these photos recently, in one of his world-famous mass emailings. According to the text in that email, a guy named Russ Glasson was visiting his in-laws, somewhere, around 1990, and found these first six photos in the in-laws' garage.

The idea was to remove all this talus.  Ha!  Look at it all. They would need Picard and the Enterprise get rid of it, with triple shifts on the beamer machines. They settled for putting in cable reinforcements.  The business lasted six months.  Those in the local tourism trades despaired in the short run, and then in the long run because the more talus collects, the sooner the Falls flattens out.  

This last Glasson in-law photo is in the Niagara Falls Wikipedia article.  See the coffer dam way up on the right?

Postcard image from the email, with things back to crashing normal.

And here, Ta-da! Ta-da!, is the Maid of the Mist doing her thing.

We went on the Maid of the Mist in what looks like 1958.  Here are Marty, Clara, Gene, and Julie.  Who is taking the picture?  I remember Aunt Gertrude and Aunt Florence were also of the party that day. Tom, were you there?  I remember them, and everyone, wearing big thick rubber raincoats with hoods.  I remember going down into a basementlike concrete place with lots of black raincoats on hooks.  I remember the noise of the Falls, the scent of the river, and the spray in my face. Couldn't see anything.  But who could?  The other impressions were made indelibly.