CYO Sweater

Gene came home in 1946.  His assets: cultural inheritance, family, a good education, the support of civic and religious institutions, photography skills, warfighting experience.  Missing from that list: cash savings, an actual bed to sleep in (Casimir had the bed now, so he bedded on the floor,) employment, connections in "high places," a plan, and a wife and family of his own.

He pressed trousers at a dry cleaner's until his Uncle Stanley wangled him a job at Lackawanna Plant of Bethlehem Steel.  The GI Bill was in the future.

His family's parish was St. Luke's, where an excellent mentor and friend greeted his return.  Father Tomiak encouraged Gene to active participation in the youth group, the St. Luke's chapter of the Catholic Youth Organization.

John, our JPZ, of course was photographic consultant to the CYO and documented everything on film. No doubt the group shot below was used in the club's publications.  Left to right are Casimir, John, Eugene, and Eleanor Zdrojewski.

Boy, they're snappy dressers!  Check out Casey's sweater and the JPZ necktie!  What is that confusing white blob between Gene and Eleanor?

It is a paper he is holding under his left arm.  That paper mostly obscures, but allows us to be sure of, a big white Club Officer patch that had been sewn onto the left front of the sweater.  The patch is gone, without leaving a trace: maybe he passed it on to his successor in the CYO Presidency.  Yeah, CYO Prez!  Total chick magnet!

Meanwhile, here are Clara and Clara, Jr. Matynka peeling potatoes on a Girl Scout camping trip.

Girl Scouts was okay, but St. Luke's CYO looked interesting too.  Gene was wearing that CYO sweater when he met Clara, on a bus heading out for a CYO trip.

Mom and Dad gave me the sweater when I was in my late teens.  Most of the time I took pretty good care of it, even unto sewing in a metal chain for hanging it on a hook.  One time, though, the moths got to it.  In fact, on two separate occasions, one grandmother after the other picked it up, muttered sad imprecations in Polish, and took it away to take crochet hooks and knitting needles to it.  The results of their professional ministrations are all over the garment, including interior patches to repair exterior appearance, in two slightly different shades of blue yarn.  I would not have those changed for anything.

Psychoanalyze this, if you like:  I've not worn it much over the last 30 years.  Now that the CYO sweater is all photographed and blogged about, I'll wear it often, starting today.  No worries!  I have a cedar chest.

For related posts, you can browse the long list of "Labels," or keywords, that I have been attaching to posts all along.  If you click "St. Luke's," for example, you get a page with all the posts bearing the "St. Luke's" label.

Try also clicking on "Uncle Stanley" and "Tomiak."

For a Christmas-themed St. Luke's field trip story, go to the Search box and and type in "Story Arcs Intersect."

Stay warm, everybody!   Love, Julie

PYC Monthly, April 6, 1947 - Lots Going On

This beautifully preserved eight-page glossy Parish Youth Council Monthly is the last of the collection of St. Luke's youth publications saved by Clara Zdrojewski and now in the Argyle Family Historical Society Collections.  A couple more posts, and it will go into a carton to be called "full" and also "dealth with."

Then you are going to have to come visit me if you want it opened up again.

This style of photomontage
was evidently quite popular.
Pages are 9" x 12".

Isn't that a Monsignor-hat that Father Tomiak is wearing?
He is acting as quiz-show interlocutor at top.
Moot court appears in session below; Gene's in the dock.

Click to enlarge.
Several in-jokes here surely originating in
Norman and  Zdrojewski.

Here we go again with combination electronics
in cabinetry - this time for a raffle.

Gene Norman, at top left, speaks into the microphone.
They're doing a dramatization of the Garden of Gethsemane scene.
Passion Play, upgraded from medieval town square or hillside
to a Sunday-School public-address system!
See the speaker set into the classroom wall?

Bottom Center:
Appreciation:  Many thanks to Father Tomiak for showing
the pictures of scouting, camping, St. Anne de Beaupre
and other scenes.  Also appreciation to Mr. Eugene
Zdrojewski for allowing the children to see the pictures
taken in India and China.  Naturally, we extend same to
Sister Tarsilia for running the films for us.

 These "pictures taken in India and China" may refer, in part,to the 16mm color film that Gene brought back, and certainly refer to the scrapbook full of prints:

U Chicago, OSS training school.

Into southwest China.

The pages measure 10" x 14".  I can without damaging the book undo the binding, take the pages out, scan top and bottom halves in my own scanner, and rebind the book. Such scanned images would be a little larger than the photos.  Then I would put up those scanned images plus the whole page photos, like the two above.

Now tell me, is that going to be good enough?

Or do I take the book to Ithaca sometime and use a University scanner with a bigger flatbed?  That would take longer. There are about 40 pages.

Julie

Winter Crystal Ball, 2 of 2

The Youth Council Monthly had a full-page review of the event, which included these remarks:

        Tossing a decisive knockout blow at the time-honored phrase that "you can't please everybody,"  The Parish Youth Council set a new high in entertainment standards last February first with their sponsorship of the Second Annual Winter Crystal Ball.

          Not one of the persons quizzed by the social committee after this gala affair failed to remark enthusiastically that he or she enjoyed themselves at the Ball beyond any doubt.

          The first sight of the St. Luke Ballroom filled its patrons with pleasant amazement.  The brightly glittering "Winter Crystal Ball" sign at the head of the stage, the adorned fans and columns, and gardenias, clean-white cloths covering the tables, and the soft blending of the spotlights lending an atmosphere of splendor and comfort; as our beloved pastor put it - "exquisite" is definitely the word to describe it . . . 

Above:  Father Tomiak and the Mice;
Below: Rev. Walter Tomiak, Rev. Stephen Kucharski,
Mr. and Mrs. Al Mazikowski,
Mr. and Mrs. Al Mazgajewski.

The program is on heavy stock
with a sort of opalescent paper
for the cover,
for a bloom rising from crystal.

How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams
With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!
(Longfellow: Morituri Salutamus)

I will  go unto the Altar of God,
To God, who giveth joy to my youth. . . .
(Prayer of the Mass)

Youth may stray afar yet return at last.
(French proverb)

On another page, thanks are given to "Mr. Raymond Norman for his sketching of the orchid appearing on the program and tickets."

And at the bottom appears another quotation:  To ride, shoot straight and speak the truth-
This was the ancient Law of Youth."  (C.T. Pavis)

The next:  In the lexicon of youth. . . there is no such word as 'fail.'  (Bulliver, Lytton)

The temper of our youth has become more restless,
more critical, more challenging.
(F. D. Roosevelt)

The subsequent page describes the purpose of the event:  "It is difficult to describe in a few words the friendship and love that exists among the young, their parents, their relatives, their sponsors and friends, all gay on an evening of a grand gala affair. . ."

As the Days of Thy Youth, So Also Shall The Old Age Be (Deut. 33-25)

The much-sought prize of eternal youth is just arrested growth.
(Edgar Lee Masters)

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined!
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet!
(Byron: Ch. Harold)

"Youth is idealistic, not cynical. . .youth is also tough-minded." (Most Rev. J. H. Ryan)

"Keep true to the ideals of thy youth." (Schiller)

"Youth comes but once a lifetime."  (Longfellow)

"The education of youth makes on the soul the first, most powerful and lasting impression for life."  (Pope Pius XI)

"My salad days:  When I was green in judgment."  (Shakespeare: Ant. and Cleo.)

"We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so."
(Pope: E. on Criticism)

"There is nothing can equal the tender hours
When life is first in bloom"
(Bohn: Ms.)

Commentary on "Winter Crystal Ball, 1 of 2"

John Zdrojewski, our JFZ, wrote to point out some possible romantic kerfuffle, which he construed from the photographic evidence.

Julie,

It does not look as if Gene was with Clara at this event. The first panel top shows that they were not sitting next to each other. The first panel middle left seems to show him dancing with someone else. No wonder he looks so contemplative: "I'm with the wrong girl!". And, "worst of all, she's with another guy!"

Hi John, how's sunny California today?

True enough, Clara is sitting on Gene Norman's right!  Maybe she went to the ball with Gene Norman.  But then, the seating is not in a strict lady-gent formation, is it? Maybe some of the attendees came stag or as a group; maybe things blurred a bit when they combined those two long tables.  And whose idea was that, anyway?

I love your ideas for what Gene is thinking.  Luckily, our veteran guerilla fighter never did sit around and say "Oh, well."  He's sitting across the table from her; lots of opportunity there.

(Mom told me, just a few months before she died, about her Senior Prom.  She and Gene arranged to meet inside, on the dance floor at the school.  Why?  - because nonstudents were not allowed at the Kensington Prom; the front doors were locked and people were checked.  So like I said, they met inside.)

Look at the expression on her face in the photo at table.  She does not look unhappy.  I would say her mind is pretty busy!

Now I shall reveal the existence of A Letter.  Some girl sent Clara a two-page, handwritten screed, in the style of your worst nightmare of high-school romantic politics.  The gist was "Gene's taking me to the Winter Crystal Ball ha ha ha don't show this to anyone."  Was this harridan's claim true, or a bluff, a vain, hopeful boast?  Was this harridan the same person as Gene's Tango partner in the set piece?  Why did Clara bother to keep the letter?  

Well, all that high-school stuff was soon dropped like a sloughed shell.  Gene and Clara went on the same retreat one weekend and walked around the garden of the retreat house, talking a little.  Deal done.

Gene Norman was our baby-doc.

Did you know that Father Tomiak had been a Rhodes Scholar? And that he baptized me? He died about two years ago. Such a mind and he never made Monsignor!  I bet he was a threat to the chancery. I wonder if he deplored, as your father and I did, the loss of reverence in the Novus Ordo mass. And perhaps dared to express his views publicly or face to face to a bishop who, on a political basis, owed his crozier and mitre to a participant at Vatican II ?

John

To see the aforementioned baptism post, go to Gene and Clara's and look down along the right sidebar.  A section called "Labels" is an alphabetic list of all the labels I have ever slapped on any post.  Click on "Tomiak."  All posts bearing that label show up in your browser.

The post titled "Father Tomiak" has the photo we are looking for:

Thank you for that reminder that he was a Rhodes Scholar.  His official bio does not mention it.  

It seems very probable that Fr. Tomiak deplored the "loss of reverence in the Novus Ordo."  The traditional Latin liturgy, centered on the Tridentine Mass, was not only reverent; it was beautiful.  A person of faith who also has education in history sufficient to understand the significance of the Church's historical, linguistic, artistic, and musical heritage, and who has also any sort of aesthetic perception, or understanding of politics and culture-war, is going to be appalled at the desecrations of something like "Vatican II."  And a man of courage is going to speak up, when he sees inherited treasures being swept into trash cans.

And in a war, such a man must be stopped.

He will be stopped, either by a man who is full-on a soldier for the Left; or by some Daniel Berrigan wannabe looking to get his picture in the paper like his hero did;  or by some second-rater whose only means of getting ahead is over the backs of his competitors, once he has kicked the legs out from under them.

Such is human nature, and such is the nature of politics and of war, cultural or otherwise.  We lost that man.  We can look around other pasts, and the present, and see similar travesties play out.  Can't we?

Julie

Winter Crystal Ball, 1 of 2

          The St. Luke's R. C. Church Youth Council Monthly, Vol. V, No. 1, was a 4-page, 12" x 9" glossy that came out some time after February 1st, 1947.

          On the evening of that date was held the Winter Crystal Ball, to which the Monthly devoted 2 pages.

          The top image in the photomontage below is placed like a banner headline.  Winter Crystal Ball in giant sparkly shiny letters was mounted all across the top of the stage curtains in the church hall.  Clara did those.

The second image shows the revelers at table.  Here is the front cover of the printed menu.  It is done on heavy, textured stock, with an orchid-and-crystal-white color scheme.  The skirts of the tablecloths sway elegantly, as though the were dancing just like the people on the dance floor.  Clara did the menus.  Her mother, Clara Haremska Matynka, did the napery and the other decorations.

          Click to enlarge.  "2nd annual Winter Crystal Ball (Cover design by Miss Clara Matynka, Jr."

          Whiskies are thirty-five or fifty cents.  Cocktails are fifty cents; chasers one dollar.  What is "Lime of Lithia?"  

          "To Avoid Mistakes Please Pay When Served."

          All is as it should be, with reasonable enjoyment, officially sanctioned and partaken on the basis of individual responsibility.  There is no falsely-free booze paid for by others, nor is alcohol banned and consequently drunk in excess in some back alley.

          The motto at the very bottom is from Shakespeare: "Great men should drink with harness on their throats."

The motto at the bottom of the second page of the menu is also from the Bard:  "A good digestion to you all: and, once more, We shower a welcome on you; Welcome all."

Champagne crystals shower like snow.

From the Monthly:  "Before half the night was over,
the Committee and their guests combined their two long tables."

Gene's looking serious.  What is he thinking?
Mom certainly made that dress.  I bet it is satin
and I bet it rustles when she walks.  MmmMmmm.

         
          There were serious camera buffs in this organization, including, at least, Father Tomiak, Mr. John Zdrojewski, and Mr. Eugene Zdrojewski.  The captions given for the action shots contain admiring detail.

"Four couples, in the featured attraction of the night
dance ballroom style to the strains of 'Jalousie.'
The 'Velos' and 'Yolanda' are shown twice
during the Tango."
Gene is the second gent from the left.

In the photo on the right, "Caught on the sidelines
by the rapid flash of the camera,
Mr. Alfred Kaczmarek and Miss Alice Gregory
step lively to the quick melody
of a Polish folk dance."

"Surveying the feature of the night
through the lens of his movie camera,
Father Tomiak is seen taking pictures of the Tango."

Story Arcs Intersect

          Clara Matynka, our CAMZ, was a senior at Kensington High during academic year 1946-47.  Gene Zdrojewski was back from the war, sleeping on the floor in Casey's room, getting to know his new Mom, pressing pants at a drycleaning establishment, and looking forward to work at the Buffalo Steel plant, thanks to the good offices of his Uncle Stanley.

          They were both active in St. Luke's parish youth groups, as were their parents.  Singing Polish Carols at the old folks' home was a favorite activity and a big deal.  Just now I've edited an earlier post of a photo of a group on such an outing, from one of Marty's two new cartons.  I had guessed 1947.  In fact it was Christmas 1946, according to the church bulletin from late winter 1947, saved by Clara with her high-school yearbooks.  

Photomontage from the St. Luke's
"Youth Council Monthly,"
reporting on the Christmas trip
to the Wende Home.

Gene on the left, Clara in the back row, their friends,
including their friend Father Tomiak.

          "The Churchmice, dressed in the colorful costumes of the 'Górale,' presented their  'jaselka'  in song, at Homes for the Aged in both Hamburg and Alden, N.Y.  Sodalists of St. Luke school traveled on both occasions, and also presented their dramatic version of the Nativity scene.  The 'Górale' carolled from home to home during an entire week of the Christmas season, spreading Christmas spirit and cheer.  Those who were privileged to hear them will always remember the traditional Polish carols."

         I bet those were really, really good times.

Gene and Clara's Christmas, 1946

Marty just shipped me two cartons of things from the Marilla attic.  Some of the items date from 90 years ago; I have never seen any of them before this half-hour.

This is the St. Luke's CYO caroling group, in traditional Polish costume, out on a mission to sing kolędy at an Old Folks' Home way out in the country, a goodly drive from Buffalo through the Western New York snows.  Eugene Zdrojewski (CYO President at that time) is third from the left.  Eugene Norman (good friend, eventual Best Man, and family doctor) is fifth from the left.  Clara Matynka is second from the right. 

Our mother always called these costumes their "Krakowianki" costumes.  But these are in particular the style of the Polish highlanders, the gorale.

They would have sung the old carols, including the two that we have seen and heard here:

Kolędy (Polish Christmas Carols) - "Gdy się Chrystus rodzi"

Kolędy (Polish Christmas Carols) - "Dzisiaj w Betlejem".

Marty, a thousand thanks for sending these things to me.  All the gems will be published in time. Right tonight, though, we can remember the parents in their youth.

Love, 

Julie

Witaj Królowo Nieba

"Hail, Queen of Heaven" is an old Polish hymn, traditionally sung at the graveside.  The singers ask Mary, Queen of Heaven, to intercede with her Son on behalf of the deceased, to hasten his admission to Heaven.  The simple melody sounds exactly like the voice and the tones of a child, a well-behaved and serious, loving and beloved child, asking his mother for favor and blessing for an important and worthy purpose.  The lyric conveys that request in simple, reverent, serious, yet confident phrases.

John Zdrojewski, our JFZ, gave a moving eulogy at the funeral of his brother Eugene, our EJZ, and one thing he mentioned was "Witaj Królowo Nieba."  This hymn the Zdrojewski sons, each in his turn, sang at funerals when they were altar boys at St. Luke's, wearing their robes, swinging the censer, accompanying the priest, and moving those present to tears.

This is Eugene's Polish hymnal, which is all new to me.  John has one, too, he tells me; everybody at St. Luke's had one.

"śpiewać" is "to sing;"   (similar to "spiel" and calling to mind our phrase "Don't give me that song and dance!")

"śpiewnik" is "songbook;"

"śpiewnik koscielny" is "songbook for church," hence "hymnal;"

"wielbij duszo moja pana śpiewnik koscielny"  can be rendered as a title and subtitle: 

"My Soul Glorifies my Lord - Sacred Songbook."

The volume format seems more intended for an organist than a chorister, and not too many lyrics are given.  So choristers would perhaps use this to learn a hymn for performance from memory.

 "Nihil obstat" proclaims the censor liborum: "Nothing stands in the way."  No doctrinal error stands in the way of use of this work by the faithful.

"Imprimatur," third-person singular present passive subjunctive of imprimo, print.

Hence, "It may be printed."

"Pieśni za Dusze Zmarłych" -  "Songs for the Souls of the Dead."

You see it just gives four bars, for which I do not know the proper names.  But they are an introductory phrase, the melody line with little lyric-phrasing marks, a long "Amen" phrase, and a final chord.

 Click to enlarge.

The Polish-American Liturgical Center at Orchard Lake Seminary (yes, our Orchard Lake) maintains a collection of these hymns.  Here are their lyrics for "Witaj Królowo Nieba."

Witaj Królowo nieba i Matko litości,
Witaj nadziejo nasza, w smutku i żałości!

K'Tobie wygnańcy Ewy wołamy, synowie,
K'Tobie wzdychamy płacząc z padołu, więźniowie.

Orędowniczko nasza, racz swe litościwe,
Oczy spuścić na nasze serca żałośliwe.

I owoc błogosławion żywota Twojego
Racz pokazać po zejściu z świata mizernego.

O łaskawa, pobożna, o święta Maryja,
Niechaj będą zbawieni wszyscy grzesznicy i ja.

O Jezu, niech po śmierci Ciebie oglądamy,
O Maryjo, uproś nam, czego pożądamy.

Uproś nam żywot wieczny, grzechów odpuszczenie,
A przy śmierci skon lekki i duszy zbawienie.

O Jezu, Jezu, Jezu, Jezu mój kochany,
Jezu wielkiej dobroci nigdy nie przebrany.

Źródło: Śpiewnik Stulecia Orchard Lake

This translation is offered here, where you can listen to a priest singing this hymn on an All Soul's Day at St. Casimir's Oratory in Buffalo.

Hail our Queen of Heaven and Mother of Mercy,
Hail our hope in sorrow and all adversity.
We, the banished sons of Eve, are calling out to Thee,
Sighing and weeping in this prison valley.
O our Mediatrix, direct Thy gaze so merciful
Upon our hearts unworthy, ever so pitiful.
Deign to show us Thy womb’s fruit
Glorious and most blessed,
When it’s time we leave this world
Miserable and wretched.
Hail Mary full of grace, piety and devotion
Let all sinners, me amongst them, obtain our salvation.

Julie