Chapter 38 Version 2
1946 & Beyond
By the middle of 1946, everyone was back from the war and
demobilized - everyone that is except cousin
Edwin who was still down with the sunken USS Reid in the Philippines. No one in
the Zywar or the Borsuk families had decided to stay in the military on active
duty as a career. A few stayed in as reservists. Henry, as a staff sergeant in
the Marine Corps Reserve, signed up for three years. Eddy, as a 1st
Lieutenant in the Army Reserves, served until 1953. Nancy's future husband Chuck Vella also served in the occupation force in Japan. One more Zywar, youngest
brother Al, would serve as an Army MP in Korea and North Carolina.
Returning veterans found few employment opportunities as
America made the painful transition from a war time to a peacetime economy. Joe
could not find employment as a machinist as Pratt & Whitney Aircraft scaled
back aircraft engine production. Kazmer was lucky to get his job back with
Package Machinery Company.
Many vets took advantage of the GI Bill’s educational and
training opportunities and went back to school. Eddy went down to Tacoma Park
Maryland to attend and graduate from the Bliss Electrical School in 1947. Henry
attended Westfield Vocational High School studying electricity for a year and a
half while working for a local contractor wiring houses.
It may have been the “can do” attitude of the veteran who
was turned into a risk taker from combat experience or the fact that there were
limited job opportunities or both of those factors together that thrust many
veterans into the position of being entrepreneurs. Upon leaving the service,
Joe joined the “52/20” club. For 52 weeks, the veteran was given $20.00 per
week to ease the transition back into peace time. Finding his skills as a
machinist not in demand, Joe and his two sisters, Mary and Amelia (Mickey) pooled
their resources and bought Lang’s Restaurant on Main Street in Easthampton. The
price was $10,000 and Mary contributed $5,000 while Joe and Mickey each added
$2,500. Lang’s was directly above where Louie Borsuk had his cobbler shop until
he died in 1941. The restaurant was open for breakfast and lunch. Joe’s jobs
included being short order cook, floor washer and soda jerk. Mickey had worked
in a defense plant in Tarrytown NY during the war and she now cooked, cleaned
and waited tables. Mary handled the finances. Joe worked ninety hours per week
alternating between 18 and 12 hour days and was paid for 80 hours per week.
Mickey met her future husband Ray McMackin who came into the restaurant for a
cup of coffee. He was in town on business from his home in New York.
After working nearly non-stop in the restaurant business for
three years, Joe, along with brothers Michael and Al, decided to join Stanley in forming a general
contracting business they called “Zywar Brothers”. They did general contracting
like hauling snow for the town and built custom single family houses. Stanley
organized and lead the business. Stanley designed all of the houses and no two
houses had the same floor plan. They built houses from Longmeadow to
Northampton. A lumber yard, hardware and paint store was built on Northampton
Street where Jeanette was employed keeping the company books. Each of the
brothers brought their own skills to the business with Joe doing carpentry and
masonry work. He also excavated cellar holes using the company’s two diesel
bulldozers.
The Zywar Brothers company resulted in a major rift in
family relations in the 1950’s. The business was set up legally as a
partnership among the brothers but Stanley ran it as his own business. Mike and
Al left over a dispute over finances. Joe was making $25 per week working six
days per week but was living rent free in the old farmhouse apartment on East
Street. Joe continued to work for Stanley until 1969 when he took a job as a
maintenance craftsman for the Easthampton School Department where he had
benefits like health insurance and a pension plan.
Henry also became a successful entrepreneur, starting his
own electrical services business after marrying Aurelia. When Henry came back
from the war, his letter to Aurelia led to a date. After the first date,
Aurelia fell head over heels in love with Henry. The Ouija Board was proven to
be correct.
The Ouija Board was also correct when it predicted Jane
would marry a Zywar. She ended up marrying Joe. Jane had a very good relationship with her employer
Lorita. That relationship extended beyond 1949 when Jane left to take care of
her new daughter Susan and son John came along few years later. Jane also became an
entrepreneur when Joe built a house at 10 Sutton Place that included a beauty
salon. Jane worked out of her home adding children Joseph and Jayne about 10
years later. Jane worked out of her house until she sold it to her daughter
Jayne. After retirement, Jane and Joe became snowbirds dividing their time for
10 years between a summer cottage at Laurel Park in Northampton and a house in
Dade City Florida during the winter.
Both the Zywar and Borsuk extended families maintained their
family ties even though some relocated far away. Mickey and Ray relocated to
Long Island New York. On the Borsuk side, Faye moved to Florida after marrying
Miami professional saxophonist Warren Knowles. Sophie sold her interest in the
house on West Lake Street and moved to the west coast for health reasons. She
married missile inspector Lewis Diefenderfer after passing FBI security to make
sure Sophie was not a national security risk. Sophie and family lived in
Alamogordo New Mexico before moving back to Sunnyvale in California’s silicon
valley. Eddy located closer to home in Pittsfield Massachusetts working for
General Electric.
When families returned for a vacation in Massachusetts it
was always an excuse for a party. For the Borsuk’s, the family party location
varied from the Polito’s on Hendrick Street where Agata had taken up residence
with daughter Mary to a number of other sibling’s houses. The parties were a
movable pot luck feast sometimes at Rose’s at the end of Brooks Street,
sometimes at Jane’s house, sometimes in Enfield Connecticut where Helen and
Nancy owned houses side by side, or at the homestead on West Lake Street where
John Borsuk now lived. There was always a good time for the cousins and good
food from the varied ethnicities that had been married into. There was usually
a card game or two that broke out and a few beers were downed by the grown ups.
“Jeanette makes the best rice pudding. She will make that
for our pot luck dish” offered Stanley for a Zywar pot luck gathering without
consulting Jeanette.
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