Chapter 16 - 1941 Ludwig Borsuk Dies Before Pearl Harbor is Attacked

Chapter 16 Version 2

1941

There are events in a person’s life that have a particular significance. A weather event like a hurricane, tornado or flash flood can be one. A graduation can be one. A stock market crash or a war starting or ending can be one. Military service can be one. A science triumph or disaster can be one. A birth or death can be one.

Ludwig rose up from his hospital bed and gestured toward the corner of the room to his right.

“Look Matka, John is here. He came for me” said Ludwig who always called his wife matka which is Polish for mother.

The blood transfusion treatments were not helping. Ludwig Borsuk was lying in his hospital room in Holyoke when Agata and Jane arrived. Ludwig had been sick with aplastic anemia for months and there seemed to be nothing that could be done to cure his condition. Ludwig had an uncommon blood type. Fortunately, his apprentice in the cobbling business had the same blood type and was willing to donate his blood for Ludwig as often as he could. When Ludwig would get the transfusions, he would bleed from his eyes, nose and mouth. Agata had told him not to put nails in his mouth when he was repairing shoes but Ludwig had a mind of his own. For a cobbler, it was the easiest way to keep the nails close at hand. Unfortunately, the metal in the nails caused the sickness.

John was a close friend of Ludwig. Sometimes Agata felt like Ludwig needed a mother to oversee him. Ludwig liked to wrestle with his friends. Agata, to her dismay, would sometimes find Ludwig wrestling with a friend on the kitchen floor. After one of the combatants emerged victorious, both would head on down to the Pulaski Club for a shot of vodka. Ludwig never drank beer. Vodka was a social occasion shared with a number of friends. Mr. Postalewicz would stop by the house on Maple Street with his small son Joe every Sunday after church for a vodka shot on the walk home. But Ludwig would not be doing any vodka shots or wrestling in the hospital. John was not in the corner of the room for those purposes. Agata did not need to look over in the corner to find John that day in September.  John had died six months before.

It was a pleasant evening in September 1941 by the time Agata and Jane returned to their house in Easthampton. Two hours later the phone rang. Ludwig had left with John.

Later in autumn there was chill in the air. Agata had ordered coal and it was promptly delivered down the coal chute and into the basement. There was a crisp knock on the front door. A middle-aged woman in a winter coat stared sternly into the front door.

“When will you be moving out?” the woman asked but it was more like a demand.

Agata stared back at the woman.

“I have just been to the bank to sign the papers to buy this house and I need to know when I can move in” the woman explained.

Apparently Ludwig had a mortgage on the house that no one else knew about. With Ludwig no longer making payments, the bank quickly foreclosed and sold the house. Not only was Agata a new widow, she and her brood were also homeless. While Ludwig had a life insurance policy on his mother-in-law who died four years earlier, there were no insurance policies on Agata or Ludwig.

Oldest daughter Sophie rescued the family. Sophie had worked as a secretary in the clerk’s office in the town hall. She graduated from Northampton Commercial College and was now working in Springfield at the Springfield Armory. Sophie was thrifty as well as smart and had saved enough to afford a down payment on a house. She quickly found a house to buy at 4 West Lake Street and the Borsuk clan moved to their new quarters. Money would be scarce so they brought the newly delivered coal too. Agata would need to make a decision in the future as to whether to remarry or go to work in a factory.

There was another hot topic by the early winter of 1941. Jane was a sophomore in high school and was taking a history class. Soon after the December 7^th Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Jane’s history teacher asked her:

“Jane Borsuk, can you tell us how the war started in Europe?”

The history teacher knew Jane’s family was Polish and that the war had started two years earlier in 1939 when Germany and Russia had coordinated an attack on Poland. But Jane had just been through the death of her father and her eviction from the house on Maple Street. The war in Europe and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii were too distant to be seared into her brain as a momentous happening at the end of 1941. However, the war would soon be affecting young men of draft and enlistment age from both the Borsuk and the Zywar families.

Jane’s significant event for 1941 was her father’s death. The funeral was very well attended as Louie, as he was known locally, was well liked by many in the community. He was laid out for three days before his burial in the front room at his home 27 Maple Street. A black wreath was put on the front door to indicate that people could stop by and pay their respects. Many did.

A few years before Ludwig died, he was walking with Jane and Ludwig had a friendly exchange of pleasantries with a person on the street reputed to be the town drunk.  Jane asked why her father talked to that person. He explained his actions to Jane with the comment:

“I talk to everybody because nobody is beneath me.”

Chapter 15 - 1966 Early Vietnam Perspective

Chapter 15 Version 2

1966

“John, answer the phone.” Jane said as she worked on a customer in her beauty shop at 10 Sutton Place in Easthampton. John hated to answer the phone. He put down the “Life” magazine he was reading. Would he take the message correctly? Would he ask the right questions?

“Hello?... mom, can I go with my CCD class to hear a speech by someone at UMass?”

When John graduated from Sacred Heart School, he had a choice to make in where he would go to high school. He could go to St. Michael’s in Northampton, an all boys Catholic School. A second choice could be Williston Academy in Easthampton, an all boys private college prep school where there may be scholarships available. The default choice was coed Easthampton High School. EHS was John’s choice. John had heard that lower income students going to Williston ended up at UMass because they spent their educational savings on high school. John wanted the option to go to a college of his choice either public or private. Going to St. Michael’s would probably track to a Catholic university or UMass. By choosing EHS, John continued his religious study on Monday night for one hour every week in Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, CCD.

The woody station wagon pulled up and John went into the back seat with two other high school freshmen. There were six CCD students going along with the lay teacher.  UMass at Amherst, pronounced with a silent “h” by the locals, was about twenty minutes away. This was the second time John had gone to the campus. The first time was to a regional photography exhibition in the prior summer with his 4H camera club.

“The speaker is going to talk about the Vietnam War. Do you think the speaker will be for or against the war?” asked the CCD teacher as the woody drove past the construction of I-91 at the Oxbow north onto US Route 5 heading for Massachusetts Route 9.

Without hesitation, John piped up, “I think he will be for the war. The Domino Theory says that if we don’t stop the communists in South Vietnam, then Laos and Cambodia will fall to the communists first. Then like a falling line of dominos Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India will follow. We will end up fighting the communists in Hawaii so we might as well do the fighting in South Vietnam.” This was an argument from politicians that could be found in news magazines like “Time” or “Newsweek” or on the half hour NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report on television. No other students offered any thoughts and the driver made no additional comments.

The US had been bombing North Vietnam since the Tonkin Gulf Incident in 1964.  The US advisors in South Vietnam who were on the ground before the Kennedy assassination in November of 1963 had been increased to over 184,000 combat troops along with a large 7^th Fleet naval presence off the coast. To supply the troops for the combat buildup, the draft was increased.

The speech at UMass was held in the Student Union cafeteria. The tables were off to the sides and the chairs were lined up in front of a podium. It was a scene of very high emotion as if this was going to be a very important message that was going to be delivered. The seats were full of university students and the CCD class stood in the back of the room by the large glass windows taking in the scene.

There was an introduction by what appeared to be a student for former Kennedy Presidential special assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. as the speaker. Schlesinger had returned to academia as the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at the City University of New York. His first Pulitzer prize was for history in 1946 for the “The Age of Jackson” and his second Pulitzer was for biography in 1966 for “A Thousand Days: JFK in the White House.”  In his 1966 historical retrospective “The Cycles of American History”, Schlesinger explored the cyclical nature in America of multiple aspects of the American experiment including the politics of public purpose versus private interests, the warfare between realism and messianism, and the pendulum swings between ideology and national interest.

In short order, John realized that this was not going to be a pro-war speech to stir on the students to support the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Without a doubt, this was an anti-war speech. Schesinger believed that if Kennedy lived, the President was planning to disengage from the conflict before American combat troops were dragged into the fighting. Politics prevented the pullout as the 1964 elections were complicating the situation. It was not a long speech and it was clear that the university students and others in attendance shared Schlesinger’s viewpoint.

The CCD class trooped back to the station wagon and headed home. If there was any discussion in the automobile, John was unaware of it. He was just trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed. There was one question in his mind.

How could any American be against a war with communists?

Chapter 14 -1906 Growing Up Zywar - Timing Is Important

Chapter 14 Version 2

1906

Timing is important in life. A few years in either direction makes a huge difference in the choices that will need to be made and the circumstances around the choices that are available. One major choice revolves around international politics. Is there a war? Is there a draft? Is this a just war? Are you grounded in patriotism?

A second choice revolves around the business cycle. Is there a recession when you get out of school? Is there a depression? Are businesses hiring? Can you get a job in the field that you are studying? Do you have to wait for a job in your field for a year and a new group of graduates are also competing for those same jobs? Do you need to broaden your search into new fields or new geographical areas? Do you need to live with your parents?

When Boleslaw Zywar was born in 1906, the timing was interesting. Boleslaw would be eight years old when the Great War, The War To End All Wars, was begun in 1914. The timing would be that he was too young to go to war but just right to grow up immersed in the swirl of war.  At age thirteen in 1919, young Boleslaw would have participated psychologically but not physically in World War I. A person could feel cheated out of his chance to be an active participant in the victory. But he could feel that he did participate in the war through his upbringing. A chance for physical participation like that usually comes only once in a lifetime.

On the economic side, by the time Boleslaw was eighteen, the roaring twenties were in full swing. The horse was being replaced by the car, truck and tractor. Electricity was starting to transform both industry and home life. The pace of change was staggering as bi-planes barnstormed the country. Wojciech made good money as a skilled weaver weaving fabric used to cover airplane wings. Still there were many micro-farms supplying a single family with milk from one cow, vegetables from the garden outside the back door and free range chickens for eggs and fresh meat.

The timing was different for each of the four Zywar brothers to come. Michael in 1915 was only four when WWI ended – too young to be immersed in the war mentality of the time but was fifteen years old when the stock market crashed in 1929. Mike was directly affected by the great depression of the 1930’s. He was employed by the ERA President Franklin Roosevelt’s Economic Recovery Act which provided government jobs for people who had no job opportunities in the private economy. While the immigrant populations of the early 1900’s generally married within their own ethnic and religious circles, their children did not feel constrained to continue that practice. However, there was no prohibition on marrying within the Polish Catholic community. Michael married Doris Adams of old yankee heritage and was one of the first to have children. When World War II broke out on Dec 7, 1941, he was twenty-six.

Stanley was born in 1918 and would be eleven when the stock market crashed in 1929. He was 18 in 1936 so he was shaped by the Great Depression years of the early 1930’s. In the 1920’s father Wojciech moved from Lewandowski Avenue in the Polish part of town to 112 Ferry St. Not far as distance is measured but across the great divide into the French part of town. Wojciech did not care if he was not welcome. The wife of the French neighbor named Shepard across the street was particularly unwelcoming. The children however were more tolerant and in the early 1940’s, Stanley married Jeanette Shepard as the American melting pot continued to simmer. Their mothers continued to be arch-rivals. In 1941 Stanley was twenty-three and of prime draft age.

Joseph was born on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19,1923. Six years old at the start of the Great Depression, Joe’s formative years were during the 1930’s. During Prohibition, Wojciech decided to cash in on the bootlegging trade and procured two gallons of illegal hooch. He hid the alcohol beneath the floor of the cow shed. He evidently did not make any protection payments and the police arrested him in short order knowing exactly where he had hidden the contraband. Joseph acquired an attitude of distance from arbitrary rules. Joe went to Easthampton High School for a year and then transferred to trade school to be a machinist.  He used his aunt’s address in Chicopee to enroll at Chicopee Trade School as he needed to show he was a Chicopee resident. Joe was 18 years old in 1941 on the low end of the draftable age range.

The last of the Zywar boys was Albert Jr. who was born in 1929. At age 12 in 1941, he shared his oldest brother’s timing. He grew up in the war years but was too young to physically participate in WWII. However, the Korean conflict was available to him before he became too old to be wanted by the military.

The five Zywar sisters were born between 1908 and 1925 - Frances (Frank/Laly) as the oldest followed by Adeline in 1910, Mary in 1913, Emelia (Mickey) in 1920 and Elizabeth Aurelia being the youngest in 1925. The four older girls headed down to New York City to seek their fortunes. Frances and Mary found husbands outside of the Polish community with Frances marrying Leonard Gruber, a Jewish hairstylist/salon owner and Mary marrying English James Warner who she met in a soda shop. Adeline married Tim Fortin, a French Canadian professional bear wrestler who eventually opened a barber shop on Cottage Street in Easthampton. Mickey worked in a defense plant in Terrytown NY during WWII and would meet her Irish husband Ray McMakin after the war. Aurelia spent the war years at Easthampton High School with best friend Jane Borsuk. Aurelia and Jane had a very different set of friends with Aurelia being more athletic and a socialite while Jane was more studious. Books were found throughout the Borsuk house while none were visible in the Zywar house.

Soon after the attach on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, Boleslaw Zywar, now known as William or Bill, made his way down to the recruiting office in Springfield to enlist. The 35 year old wanted a chance at physical participation in the new war – a participation that was denied by timing in WWI.

“ Thank you for your interest in enlisting Mr. Zywar. We value your patriotism but we are not taking older men at this time.”

Chapter 13 - 1912 Ludwik Borsuk Comes to America & Establishes His Family

Chapter 13 Version 4

1912

“Pawel!” shouted the excited twenty year old.

The train had just come to a stop after travelling through New Haven up beside the Connecticut River to Hartford. It had been four months since Pawel Mazurek had left for America to come to Hartford where a friend was living. His wife Agnieszka waited patiently while Pawel established himself in America before he sent for his wife.

Because it was safer for a young woman travelling to America to be accompanied by a companion, twenty six year old Pawel asked his neighbor Ludwik Borsuk to accompany his wife to America. Ludwik was twenty three and had international travel experience as his family had emigrated to Brazil to try their hand at farming in South America. After spending a few years in Brazil, including the death of a young child, the Borsuk family decided to move back to Poland.

“Agnieszka! Ludwik!” Pawel waved and his wife Agnieszka ran and jumped into his arms.

“I am so happy to see you! Agneszka I missed you so much!” said Pawel hugging Agneszka with a grip that was not going to let her go for the forseeable future.

Ludwik stayed back with the travel bags knowing that it would be a few minutes before Pawel would turn his gaze from Agneszka.  He was correct and turned to view Hartford’s teeming railroad terminal. There was an array of people some who looked like they blended in with the surroundings and others who were newly arrived from other parts of the world. Ludwik took note of what clothes he needed to buy to blend in with the local inhabitants. With his personable manner, Ludwik could have easily struck up a conversation with anyone in sight. He was already fluent in English which gave him an advantage over most new immigrants.

Ludwik pulled out his cigarette holder and attached a Chesterfield cigarette. He never used a metal holder as that would impart its metallic taste to the smoke. The Chesterfield’s were his first purchase in America at a cost of ten cents for the pack of twenty cigarettes. In a few years he would switch over to “toasted” Lucky Strikes in the green pack with the red circle but for now the Chesterfield’s were his first exposure to American tobacco. The idea of having a lucky strike resonated with Ludwik as he realized that he himself was lucky when he gambled. Deep in thought, he was not sure how long he was observing the scene in the train station but it was well after his Chesterfield had burned to a nub wasting none of the tobacco.

“Ludwik! ” said Pawel with Agneszka still attached to his neck. “Thank you for my package delivery, my friend”.

“I am at your service, sir” said Ludwik with a smile and a low bow.

“Then let’s get these bags and go back to my apartment” said Pawel “and you can tell me of the voyage and your plans”.

“Some day I will travel first class instead of steerage. The Finland was comfortable enough and you also made the trip through Antwerp so there is little more to tell there. Your friends from Huta Wisiawecka and Chlem send their best wishes. As far as my plans, they do not include any farm work. I am thinking of working in a factory to start and then apprentice in a trade. I think there is more of a future in a trade.” said Ludwik waiting for a positive or negative response from his friend. Pawel nodded his approval.

“Then New England is where you want to be right now. Factories are hiring and there are mills up and down the Connecticut River into Vermont and New Hampshire.” said Pawel. “You can stay with us at #29 Prospect Street until you find a suitable job.”

“Now there are more cute Polish girls here in America than in Poland.” said Pawel and quickly added “and many new Polish churches are being built to keep those good Polish girls under the watchful eyes of the Virgin Mary.” Ludwik smiled.

It was not long until Ludwig made his way up to Brattleboro Vermont to work in a chair factory. He met Leokadia Glinka who asked him to help her write a letter back to her younger sister Agata. Leokadia showed him a picture of Agata, who arrived in America in May of 1914. The courtship began. Over the course of the next year, Ludwig was able to win over the heart of Agata. Simultaneously, Agata was able to win over the heart of Ludwik. On July 3, 1915 they were married in St. Michael’s Church in Brattleboro. The 25 year old Ludwig and his petite 19 year old bride Agata were an improbable couple in Russia Poland as Ludwig would have been considered outside of his social class. In America they were just two young immigrant lovers setting up housekeeping.

Two can live as cheaply as one – providing one does not eat or need new clothes. However, three gets to be more expensive. The family’s first child of many future  additions arrived just over a year later on July 31, 1916 with the birth of Ignatius. By this time the Borsuks had moved to Bristol Connecticut and baby Ignatius was born at home with a mid-wife assisting at 29 Chestnut Street. He was originally named after the Polish patriot and pianist Ignatius Paderewski but this was later revised to Edward Ignatius as names were the first signs of Americanization. Music was in Edward Ingantius’ blood as well as his name and dancing and singing were ingrained in his soul and that could not be changed.

World War I was raging in Europe having been declared in August of 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in June. Ludwig kept out of harms way in WWI but Edward would be of prime military age for the next world war in the 1940’s.

Once the baby pattern was established it was difficult to stop with Sophie in 1917, Mary in 1919, the twins Helen and Rose in 1921 and Frances in 1923. Frances proved to be a particularly difficult baby as she was born with eczema from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. She (baby Faye but that might also include her mother) cried incessantly for her first six months and father Louis was “ready to throw her out the window”.

“Agata, you need some help.” Leokadia counseled her sister with a plan in mind. “We have not seen our mother in about 10 years. My husband has agreed to pay her passage if you want her to come and help you.”

In a situation reminiscent of Mary Poppins, Agata’s widowed mother Teofila arrived to help in February of 1924. Teofila’s husband Joseph had died when he fell off a staging at a church that was being built. With quotas on the number of immigrants in place in the 1920’s, Teofila bought another person’s entry visa. She was stopped at Ellis Island and questioned about this before being allowed to enter America.

Always the proper matriarch she never left the house without a suitable dress,  wearing her grey gloves and sporting her simple grey wooden cane.

“Agata, you need to stop having children. Six is enough.” Teofila concluded. “Had you married suitably you would not be in this position” she said knowing that Louis was within hearing distance. Louis smiled and was always gracious to his mother-in-law. But the children kept arriving on schedule – Jane in 1926, John in 1929 and Nancy in 1932 – until there were nine.

During this time Louis’s plans for becoming a tradesman were being fulfilled. He apprenticed to become a cobbler and moved to Easthampton Massachusetts. During the depression there was a great demand for shoe repairs and his shop beneath Lang’s Restaurant on Main Street was a profitable business. The family moved from 2B Franklin Street to a larger residence at 27 Maple Street. There was a cherry tree in the back yard that in addition to providing cherries, was Jane’s favorite reading place high in the branches until the Hurricane of 1938 took the tree to the ground. The house lot was large and included a barn where Louis raised pigeons and rabbits along with a vegetable garden that provided most of the family’s food. Pigeon was on the menu – three pigeons could feed the entire family in the form of soup. Kluski noodles provided most of the pigeon soup substance and this was perfectly acceptable to the soup consumers.

Relations sometimes were strained between Teofila and Agata. After a heated argument overheard by pre-school age Jane, Teofila was leaving for a Sunday afternoon church meeting at Sacred Heart Church. Fearing that Teofila would leave and not come back, Jane blocked the front door preventing her grandmother from leaving.

“Can I take Jane with me to church?” Teofila asked Agata. Teofila clutched her copy of Piesni Koscielne Z Melodyami , her 1901 Polish hymnal which was one of the few items she retained from Russia Poland.

“No. Just go yourself” replied Agata.

With the brood still expanding, Teofila stayed in America to help. After a time, her relatives in Poland took steps to obtain title to her property. When Louis found out what was happening, he wrote to Poland to see if Teofila could get compensated for her property. But it was too late and Teofila was stranded in America.