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.”