Day 335: My father’s family
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
335 — My father’s family
02-Jul-1972
(Sun.)
TRANSCRIPT
Uncle Nick’s house in Loczno
POLAND
Warsaw
Arrived around 6 a.m. Small station with nothing
around it. Went to airport. Very tired and no sleep.
Met Mary Ann and Teta Nancy at the airport. Then, for
the first time, I met uncle Nick and Teta Anna (dad’s
sister and her husband).
Long drive to Loczno near Morag.
Loczno
Met the whole family.
Daddy’s mother—grandma—was such a great lady.
Friendly and with a great sense of humor. She’s such
an “alive” person. And at 76, she still does a lot of
work. Really full of pep.
The first thing she told me at dinner was (she knows
good English) —“Johnny, don’t drink. You don’t want
to be like your father.” She understands, and I feel
sorry that such a nice family ended up with dad.
Aunt Anna. Dad’s sister is really nice. A warm person
with a real friendly smile. Really good looking.
Needless to say, Uncle
Nick and the children—Mirek, Woladek, and Danusha—are
also great kids.
The house is beautiful. Big. Plenty of room and
extremely nice. Best one I’ve seen in Poland. The
husband has done quite a bit in fixing it up.
REFLECTIONS
Train
from Krakow to Warsawa. I take the
train from Krakow to Warsawa (Polish). Must have been
an overnighter.
Warsaw
airport. Why am I
at the Warsaw airport? To leave? No, to meet my
cousin Mary Ann and my teta Nancy (Mary Ann’s mom),
arriving from the U.S. (The Warsaw airport in 1972
was seemingly slow, unlike today.) This is my
father’s side of the family. Cousin Mary Ann was a
wonderful Lemko/Ukrainian folk dancer when she was
young. At the airport, I meet teta Anna and her
husband, uncle Nick, for the first time. As
mentioned, Anna is my father’s sister. They live in
Loczno.
Loczno,
my father’s family. We drive
to Loczno and I meet some of the family from my
father’s side. My grandmother (father’s mom) knows
English very well. Surprise. Her advice to me was
quite good—and gave me advice not to be like my
father—he was an alcoholic. My other younger cousins
(Mirek, Woladek, and Danusha) were also there to meet
me.
Today, much of our family is in the U.S., having been
there for a number of generations now. I see cousin
Mirek now and then.
Large
families. I like
large families and am happy to belong to one. My
mother had six sisters, if I remember correctly. When
you are younger, in your teens and as young adults,
you don’t tend to gravitate towards extended family
as much. Certainly, we went to a lot of family
functions and enjoyed all of them. As you get older,
and now, I wish that I knew more about each limb on
the family tree. Families and their subsequent
generations of children tend to move, drift apart,
and lose touch.
Here are a few photos:
Uncle Nick’s family (L-R):
taxi, Danusha, Mirek, Woladek, uncle Nick, aunt
Anna
My
father’s mother (grandma) in
Loczno
My
father’s father grave site
(grandfather)
Lazy
Warsaw airport in 1972
John
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