"Aegis Fortissima Virtus"

"The strongest shield is virtue" was the school motto at Kensington High School in Buffalo.  Clara Matynka, our CMZ, saved a big carton of memorabilia related to the school from which she graduated in 1947.

In 1942, sister Gertrude was a freshman at Ken; Clara was still in middle school.  The yearbook cover art is startling.

 The back cover has the US flag surrounded by flags of various Latin American countries, over the Kensington arms and motto.  Remember, you can click on the image to enlarge it into Preview.

The endpapers, front and back, are of a theme as alien to snowy Buffalo as is imaginable.  The surface of the Moon is closer to the Buffalo climate than the Sonora Desert.  Furthermore, all cheerful colors are surreal in 1942.

Here is a clue: a map of German-occupied Europe in that year.

Here's a link to another one, with numbers as links to entries in a chronology of devastation. 

Below, a further clue: a map of the Japanese advance through mid-1942, from the Wikipedia article "Pacific War."

The British Commonwealth and the Americas were at bay.  Even with the Soviets battling the Wehrmacht on the second front, not only Europe but most of the Old World and most of the oceans were battlegrounds in 1942, with the attackers still having the advantage.

So the theme for the graduating class that year was solidarity with nearby allies. (For some reason, Canada was not mentioned or pictured.)

"The Compass of 1942 records Kensington's part in the struggle for victory and the furthering of Latin American friendships . . ."

The photo and name list for senior boys was half that of the photo and name list for senior girls.  It looks like half the upperclassman boys had signed up.  Their names are listed on a special page to the front of the volume.  Note the asterisk next to "Raymond Pawlowski."

Next up: the 1942 Compass continues, featuring war bonds, slide rules, and the antithetical forces of anonymous clones versus Dorothy Lamour.

Gene Zdrojewski's Birthday

Eugene John Zdrojewski was born October 7, 1923.

On his 80th birthday he received this card from his brother John Francis.  He kept it.

Pinkie

This is Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), natural genius draftsman, master of depiction of human facial expression, and gogglingly successful portrait artist of the British Regency.

This is his 1794 portrait of Sarah, age 11, born in British Jamaica.  She was Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, but all her families called her "Pinkie."

Sarah's father abandoned her and her brothers and mother, whereupon her mother returned to England with her children.  We do not know the fate of the no-good father; we can only hope he contracted some tropical disease, or angered a voodoo priestess.

Sarah's grandmother requested a likeness, because she missed her Pinkie.  Mother arranged with Lawrence for this portrait.  He completed it just before Pinkie died at age twelve, of "the British climate," which means bronchitis or tuberculosis.

This is Edward Stroinski in 1947, with his Genevieve.

 

This is Edward Stroinski's rendition of "Pinkie," which now hangs, in its original, beautifully understated frame, at the Coot Hill Family Historical Preservation Society offices.  This rendition was acquired by Gene and Clara, and hung in their living room in the house in Bowmansville, a suburb of Buffalo, from about 1950.  

When we switch back to Lawrence for a moment, we can enrich our ideas with some of Pinkie's cultural context.  Here is his portrait of Wellington, a man we can all be grateful for.  In 1794, Napoleon was just getting started on his project to conquer Europe.

This is Elizabeth Farren, who later became a Countess, but more importantly, an inspiration for future humanity trying to visualize a Jane Austen novel, either in their heads or in a film.

Mary Hamilton, another pinup girl from two hundred years before our time.

The Stroinski Pinkie moved to Marilla in 1957, and hung over the piano. (Actually, she traded places occasionally with Blue Boy over the bar cabinet; Hogwarts is nothing to't; but that's another story for another time.)

Her cheeks are pink - she is healthy - as her family was enabled by Lawrence to remember her.  Think about that next time you pick up some Pasteurized milk.

With Pinkie right there on the wall, it was so easy to sit there and look at her rather than practice the piano.  I did.  Look at this cobalt blue.  When I later saw cobalt-blue art glass, I recognized it.

This cloud-monkey is a Stroinski improvement;  look for yourself all over the Lawrence;  the monkey will not be there.

Scary shoe!  Sometimes I woke with a start, thinking that she was tapping her foot at me and indicating the piano score I was supposed to be reading.

There's a village missing, I swear. Near where the curving road touches her billowing gown, Lawrence had another bank of trees barely revealing a rectangle of shiny white, which to me indicates buildings.  Go look for yourself and see if you agree.

And the biggest mystery of all, and the reason I can't read music to this day, is this:  what's going on with her forearm there?

Artistic geniuses do things for reasons of their own, we can only conclude; and we just can be grateful.  Thank you, Uncle Eddie.

"Johnny" Update

JFZ writes clarification of the previous post.: "The two other kids are my Auburn Kotwas cousins, Dick on left and Ken on the right."

"I think the man of the couple with my mother and me was my father's cousin of sorts. We met in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They were apparently mid-20th century immigrants from Poland and had to immigrate to Canada because of post-WWI marked immigration curtailment of people from eastern (and southern) Europe. Apparently they were anxious about coming to the US to meet for reasons not self evident to me. The reason I'm aware of this is that years later, when I was older and more savvy my father and I once again met them at the same location."

So the lady is not a relative of Eleanor.  Still, nice dress.

Julie

Johnny

I really need to fill out those insurance forms.  But there's other stuff on my desk!

Hell with it.

Not gonna make it to the Dalmatian Coast this year anyway, so I may as well take a virtual tour in time and space.

John Francis Zdrojewski was born in 1947.  Don't believe me?  Check it out at Familiae Personae Zdrojewski.

Neat how at Christmas we mix the Christian and the pagan elements together.  We have Saint Nicholas, and the Manger; we have Odin or Robin Goodfellow, precursors of the Saint, as well as evergreen trees and wreaths.  As individuals we are not atomized or isolated: we are  inheritors of history.

Nice wallpaper, too.

What's that on the mantel?

Święty Mikołaj!

So, John, you figure you're one year old, or two?  Is this 1948, or 1949?  Donna, what's your judgment?

"My Daddy likes Buster Keaton, and so do I !!"

Are these rivets?  Snaps?

Wow!  Santa Claus did come!  Looks familiar, too.  Can you imagine Clara gluing those cotton strips onto Gene's eyebrows?

Who knew Santa Claus had such a handsome nose?  And check out how he's got a good hold on his little bro; not letting him go.  Johnny's tie is terrific.  John, do you still have it?  Take a look around.  It might turn up!

And their hands.  Hand to hand; brother to brother.  What is in that little box? What?  What?

Who are these two other kids?

Who are the mystery lady and gent, first and second from the left?  The lady looks like Eleanor, who is there with Johnny.

Never in my life have I fashioned an article of clothing; - even in 7th grade Home Ec, my friends did all the thinking for me - nevertheless I did imbibe some tailoring terms while growing up.  Here in this collarless dress we have:  cap sleeves, black piping, contrasting buttonholing, appliqué, and a double row of rickrack.  How'd I do, Donna?

Whoops - when I click to enlarge, I see four rows of rickrack, two dark and two light.

Happy picnic to all, and to all a good weekend.

Julie

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