Gold Street Snippets

THE KITCHEN & GARDEN While browsing through an antique shop in Coventry, CT years ago, Ralf and I came upon a kitchen table with an enamel surface and ornate carved oak base. Deco in the design stamped on its top, it had a small silverware drawer and two leaves that pulled out to extend the table’s size. As we turned to walk away from it, a wave of memories from the kitchen at 40 Gold Street washed over me and tears came to my eyes. Embarrassed, I rushed out of the shop and we went home. Later that day, Ralf disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with the table because, “I couldn’t walk away from something that made you so happy!”



My kitchen table was manufactured by Tepco in the 50s and is signed by "Montanari." It became our computer desk and has been spread with a feast of family photographs waiting to be served up on the family site. I’m sure you also have wonderful memories of Gold Street and am hoping these pictures and emails between Aunt Joan, Cookie, Cynthia and me bring them back for you. If you have any "snippets" of your own that you'd like to share, send them to me at heit@pamlico.net:

JUDI: You told me once that you have Bobchi's rocking chair. Can you take a picture of it for the Gold Street Snippets page?

CYNTHIA: The rocking chair is buried in the garage. It’s an item my husband has wanted to toss for years and is in two pieces. You'd be surprised how small it is. It has a bowed back with straight spindles … maple maybe … simple. It had been repaired at one time with a giant screw to hold it together. I remember it by the stove, adorned by so many homemade pads of different patterned materials that you couldn’t see the spindles. The sewing machine? Hmmmmmm … was it a paddle, rod iron peddle with oak cabinet, pop-up sewing machine tucked inside? If it is, I know where to find it … if it’s still there. My mother or sister had it … it could be in my mom’s attic IF my dad hasn’t thrown it away by now! (This pillow was on the rocking chair when Cynthia took it home. Judi has it now.)

JUDI: Could you also remind me where you found that painting you sent me by Aunt Hedy? It’s really quite nice. I didn’t realize she could paint so beautifully!

CYNTHIA: That painting was in a closet with photos left in the apartment when the house was sold. There were also some mail tags to send packages overseas, an 8x10 picture of Jesus, miscellaneous foreign tags … just a big envelope of that stuff. I kept it all. One other thing my brother has … and everyone should remember this … is the framed picture of JFK! Do you remember that on the wall? Another memory that comes to mind is a picture that hung in the hallway of a girl with ribbons in her hair. It was one of those weather indicators, meaning the ribbons changed colors with the weather. I don’t recall seeing Hedy’s painting on the wall. I wonder if Joey remembers it?

COOKIE: I remember Bobchi and Dziadziu’s kitchen … and the brown enamel top table … and two brown-tone chairs with the imprinted decals and seat cushions. I see those tables occasionally in antique stores (antiquing is one of our hobbies) and it always brings to mind that kitchen. I don’t remember the sewing machine, but I remember a whole bunch of straight back chairs cluttered everywhere because we were there for holidays when everyone would stop by to visit. They always gave us a dollar for Christmas when we came Christmas Eve. I remember Joey and a lot of other children (you guys I guess), but not any one in particular. I remember all the kids playing in that cold living room when the very hot kitchen overflowed with adults.

I do remember going to Naugatuck, playing in Ciocia Hedy’s garden and coming eye-to-eye with one of those great big tomato worms. Ugh! I will never forget that.

After my father died, when my kids were small, I was visiting Gold Street (I always tried to keep the kids in touch with Bobchi and Dziadziu … they still remember some) and Bobchi gave me the cookie jar from the top of her refrigerator. I was astounded to get such a precious gift from her. I was devastated to realize that when I got home to Colchester, in trying to get two toddlers out of the back of the car, I broke the top of the cookie jar. I just burst into tears … it had been such a wonderful gesture … I treasure the memory and wish I still had it now.

I also remember a grapevine and arbor in the back yard … something I have been nagging at my husband for years to build me. I always thought that sitting and playing underneath was so great. But it couldn’t have been … because the seats were just old green wooden planks. They couldn’t have been that comfortable.

STANLEY (GRALA): I used to play with my Matchbox cars on that table! Bobchi kept some of those cars at her house for me to play with when we visited her. That pattern on top made a great road!

AUNT JOAN: Just to let you know, Pam has the table and chairs in her kitchen and uses it daily (that's Marissa sitting underneath it). When you all were kids, did any of you sit under the table when the elders would talk? Genia and I would be under there laughing and sometime eating something we shouldn't have. Like at Easter time we ate a lot of the egg whites but not the yellow centers. We did get sort of sick, but not as bad as when Babci and Dziadzi used the leather strap on our butts!

Or the time Judi put a tiny button from Babci's million-button tin in her nose and had to be brought to the hospital to have it taken out. You made it Judi, but not without crying (you cutie you). We did worry a lot and prayed, of course.

Cookie you don't remember the sewing machine because Babci had so much stuff on there you couldn't see it. I'm glad it's somewhere with the family. Oh yes, Cookie, the cold living room: When we had the family there on Sundays, we would lay on the floor to listen to the Inner Sanctum with the squeaking door that scared us. (Remember that old radio? Lorraine has it.) Another must on Sunday was the Polish music and news program.

I could tell you something else that was funny. Somewhere in the kitchen, probably on part of the sewing machine, there was an old Victrola with a crank handle. Genia and I had to operate it while Gene and Stanley learned how to dance. They had a "how to" dance book and we had to keep turning that handle! We could not stop laughing and turn at the same time. We did get a lot of dirty looks from them. Then Uncle Benny would pop in, like he did often, and gave them some dancing pointers.

JUDI: I remember that old dance book! My Dad used to have it.

AUNT JOAN: Auntie Hedy did have a nice garden and was always proud of it. She too was a wonderful, loving and caring person. You could just love her over and over again. She enjoyed family no matter what. I guess you had quite a scary experience, Cookie, with the tomato worms. “Ugh” is a good word for them.

I had part of Babci and Dziadzi's grapevine in Williamsburg, because it meant so much to me. Because the kids were still in school when I moved to the condo in Easthampton, there was no place for it and no one to take it. It must still be growing there. Hopefully it's out in the open in the back of our old house and that Bobchi is not sad we don't have it. It does bother me though (gosh)!

Yes, Cookie, the grape arbor was a lot of fun. It was long and at the end had a little shed. Genia and I would stand on the long benches and, while the grapes were NOT ripe, we would throw them at one another. When they were ripe we would squeeze the grape with our thumb and pointer finger to put the fruit in our mouth and throw the outer skin at one another. We were troublesome for Babci and Auntie Broncia. Genia and I were 6 months apart in age. Of course I was the "older one."

JUDI: Here's a picture of the grape arbor ... sort of!

AUNT JOAN: And how about the tall Sunflowers? Babci wouldn't let us pick them and, of course, they were too high so we couldn't. But when they were ripe she would take them down, get the seeds out and put them in a bowl for us to munch. Need you ask what we did with the shells? Only one guess for each of you. Yep, you are all right!!!! Genia and I did learn how to run fast. That strap hurt. But it was a love spanking. SURE!!!!

CYNTHIA: This is too much fun! Do you see me smiling? I am so glad that Pam has that table …I can see it clearly. I was also a visitor to the bottom table shelf! I remember the feeling of being there, almost, or maybe I was invisible. No one seemed to give it a thought! Maybe Diane and I chuckled under there, played a game or were just silly.

Now that you mention the sewing machine, with heaps of stuff on top of it, I think I can see it in the kitchen ... near the pantry by the window. I am also glad that the radio still exists. I don't ever remember us using it. I think it either didn't work or we weren't allowed to touch it. I remember always looking at it!

These are precious moments that we have preserved in our minds and hearts. They make me laugh out loud, whether they are your memories or mine! I love to think of my dad learning to dance in the kitchen. He IS a good dancer!!!

COOKIE: Joan, I'm glad that you're kids have that stuff, just like my kids have my stuff. Yes, I do remember being under that kitchen table … it had that flat part where you could almost sit. I do remember the shed at the end of the grape vine and listening to Inner Sanctum.

It must be in the blood: You saved a piece of the grapevine and I tried saving some small apple trees. Because we moved five times, I ended up losing them or the deer would pull them out of the ground. But I still have one mountain laurel bush that had been growing at the edge of the woods by the side of the orchard. People tell me that Mountain Laurel is difficult to move, but I have moved it to its fourth home and it has survived every move since 1978. Of course it’s a little stunted and now I have to protect that from the deer too. But I have it and hope to have it for many, many years.

JUDI: I remember a small garden area and grapevine arbor in the back yard. There may also have been some fruit trees in there. Standing on the back porch, it was to the right, located between the house and small shed and bordered by a short picket fence. (At the back of the paved lot was a multiple-car garage.) Also in the backyard, along the left property line, was a lovely shrub with cascading white flowers ... I remember it as the Bridal Veil Bush (or something like that) and have one similar to it in my turnaround. Lovely to look at come Spring. I think there was also a walnut tree or something back there that bore a nut encased in a round, prickly outer coating.

Their house was heated by coal and we used pieces of it to play hopscotch ... our hands would get filthy! I remember so vividly Bobchi standing me on a chair in front of the sink and washing my hands with what may have been homemade lye soap. Before bedtime she'd get me cleaned up in a nice warm bath, wrap me up in her old chenille robe and settle me into the rocking chair by the stove. So warm and cozy ... it wasn't long before I'd drift off to sleep.

One of my childhood playmates was Veronica Parciak who lived next door to the right and whose parents owned the little grocery store at the corner. There were two multiple family houses on the lot to the left. I remember there was a family living in the one at the back but don’t think we were allowed to play with them for some reason. We certainly were not allowed to go past Aunt Helen's house ... I think there was a gang's hangout down there (perhaps The Lords or something like that) on the corner!

In the summer Bobchi would bring us up to Washington Park to swim. We'd stop along the way to visit some people, but I don't remember if they were family ... perhaps Gorecki's? And who could forget the carnival every year across the street in the church parking lot or the man with the horse-drawn fruit cart? He'd shout out what he had on his cart that day and people would stream out of their houses to buy fresh produce!

COOKIE: I remember all but the shrub. My cousin Greg (from my mother’s side) worked at that grocery store for his first job. It WAS the Lords … and later the Earls. And there was also a “regs-pa-dek” man … the rag man who would holler from his truck. I don’t remember him from “your end” of Gold Street, but I can remember him when visiting at the other end.

CYNTHIA: Do you see this great big smile on my face? Yes, I remember the table and was definitely a visitor to the shelf under it! Christmas Eve and the dollar … I think Dziadzi used to even give us a kiss! And then that cold, cold living room … how many people were in that house on a Sunday afternoon? I remember the grapevine, and garden and planks. It was a good place! We always had a grape arbor, even at our home on Erwin Place. To this day, I've had a grapevine! Not as impressive as the one on Gold Street, but it brings back memories! I love all these special memories, they are unique and yet the same.

DINNER IS SERVED Aunt Joan, do you have Bobchi’s recipes for golumbki and kapusta?

AUNT JOAN: Here are Bobchi’s recipes. You know how the old-timers did it … nothing timed and/or measured. When Bobchi showed me the measurements, it was in her cupped hand:

GOLUMBKI (from Babci May 1971)
Cooked cabbage, drained & cooled (don't overcook)
1 lb. each of pork, veal & beef mixed together
3 eggs
1 stick butter
2 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
Salt pork (about 3 strips cut in pinky-finger tips)
Salt & pepper
1-1/2 to 2 cups cooked rice (don’t overcook)
Tomato soup and water (2 cans soup to 1 can water)
1 chicken cube
½ stick butter

Melt butter in large frying pan. Saute onions & celery. Brown the salt pork & add to frying pan. Sautee all together until pork is light brown. Set aside to cool.

Put 3 eggs in the meat mixture. Add salt, pepper, rice & sautéed mixture. Blend all ingredients with your hands.

Taking one cabbage leaf at a time, Bobchi sliced the thick core end of each leaf at an angle to make it thinner. Then she took some meat mixture in her hand to fit into the leaf. From the core end she would fold it over about ¼ of the meat mixture, then right side to center (or wherever it would come to), then left side to center, then take the core end of the golombki and turn or roll the whole meat section to the unused end of the cabbage. Place the golumbki in the pot from the outside edge to the center. The loose end of the cabbage should be placed down so it will not unravel while cooking. Doing the second row, do not put the golumbki on top of the first row but in between … from outside edge of the pot to the center.

When all the golumbki were placed in the pot, Bobchi would take the remaining leaves and cover the golumbki. On top of the leaves add tomato soup mixed with water and chicken cube. Dot with ½ stick butter. Cover the pot and bring it to an easy boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.

KAPUSTA (given to me January 14, 1973)
1 large can sauerkraut, drained & rinsed
2T barley
2 chicken cubes
1 stick butter
1 large head cabbage
Cooked pork pieces
Pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

Drain and rinse sauerkraut. Squeeze out excess liquid and put in a large pot with the barley, chicken cubes & butter.( Bobchi would shred the cabbage by cutting it at an angle … not too thin. Salt it lightly and add to the pot. Then she would add some pork pieces - partially or fully cooked or browned.) Pepper to taste and add bay leaf. Cover and simmer 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

CYNTHIA: Yum!!!! I’m going to try this. I love stuffed cabbage and have a variation of this recipe. My husband (Dave) always loved Bobchi’s Golombki and cabbage soup. When we first met (this would have been around 1970ish), I would bring him to Bobchi and Dziadzi’s … just the two of us … around Christmas. Bobchi loved giving Dave food. I’m hungry right now for it!!

AUNT JOAN: For the Kapusta, add some water to make soup. As you know, Bobchi’s soup was thick. She also made Kapusta that we had with kielbasa or hot dogs. She usually made this in a big pot, so we could have it over and over again with everything she prepared and probably to Uncle Benny’s when we had our picnics there. He liked it when the family was around him. I remember the picnic table with roof and homemade fire pit for the baked potatoes. They usually came out black and we’d put them in bushel bags to shake them clean. But our mouths were always black. Somewhere is a picture of Genia, me and either Stanley or Carol Cisz pretending to play guitar. Uncle Benny would show us the rocks where he said snakes would lay to sun themselves. We all ate, sang and walked around. We had so much fun … weren’t we the lucky ones?

CYNTHIA: I’m mixed up! Where was the picnic spot? I thought it was in Newington. I remember Uncle Benny telling us about the snakes … wasn’t there also a pond with fish? Unlike Kathee, I don’t think I was fond of the critters. But it was a beautiful spot … the warm sun on my skin … the easy feeling of just being with everyone. I was always with Diane or Irene. It sees I have so many memories. I don’t ever want to forget. Oh, kielbasa! It’s one of my dishes that comes out really good. Especially if you use Martin Rosol’s kielbasa.

AUNT JOAN: Cynthia, you just have a way about yourself … don’t ever change, OK? I’m sure Cookie will tell you Newington was the spot. And you do have a good memory.

COOKIE: We used to buy gold fish to put in the pond. Occasionally they would last through the winter and we would be amazed at how large they grew. We were always concerned that there was no one to feed them, but my father convinced us they would be fine … and they were! And, yes, the picnic spot was in Newington and was enjoyed even before the orchard was planted. Cynthia, I don’t buy anything else but Martin Rosol’s. You’re right … it’s the best!

SMUDGY Here's another blast from the past courtesy of Cousin Cynthia. (And here I thought pudgy little Smudgy was a figment of my childhood imagination!)

EASTER 2007 Cookie and her daughter, Heather, have been busy baking Babka (something they do twice a year) for their Easter celebration at Broni's house. They make 6 loaves at a time ... 2-3 are blessed when they bring their Swieconka to church for Holy Saturday morning. On Good Friday, she'll cook her Martin Rosol kielbasa ("Absolutely the best!"), will put boiled eggs inside the ring and decorate it with parsley. Then she'll carve her Paschal Lamb (pictured) and will add a dish of salt. (In case you've forgotten what the Swieconka is, go to http://www.polishamericancenter.org/Swieconka.htm for a refresher!)

COOKIE: To carve the lamb, I start with four sticks of regular butter (put one in the freezer until you're ready for it). Place two sticks on the bottom and one on top, with about a third hanging over the edge. If the butter gets too soft, you need to refrigerate it again. For the "curls", put some chunks of the frozen butter into a nut grinder (the type that you turn by hand) and grind them right onto your lamb. Be careful that the butter stays frozen ... once it softens you won't get any curls. If you need to be more precise about placing the curls, use a toothpick. Decorate with cloves or peppercorns for eyes and parsley for the grass.

AUNT JOAN: The Paschal Lamb (Baranek) symbolizes the Risen Christ who is the Lamb of God; kielbasa ... the circle of life; eggs ... life and rebirth; bread ... the bread of life; and salt for substenance ... a reminder of what life here on Earth can be ("... or perhaps how we enhance it.").

Bobchi's loved preparing for this blessed holiday. Then the Catholic priest and his assistant would come to the house and bless the food ... there was always money put under the dish for the priest. To color the eggs, she boiled them with cut red onions which colored them purple. The kielbasa was served with red horse radish, of course, and her Sweiconka decorated the table.

"She baked tons of bread which you could smell baking as you came up the stairs. One of the beds had towels on it and breads turned upside down to cool."

JUDI: I wish we had her recipe for Makowiec (poppy seed bread). Found a recipe on line that called for 1 lb. of poppy seeds! That's a big bag of seeds, isn't it? I wonder if Bobchi simply bought it pre-made at that Polish bakery on the corner of Broad and Washington Streets!

SACRED HEART SCHOOL was built in 1910 and was a state of the art educational facility for its time. But for Irene Boguslawski and me, it was home to "Leo" .... a nutty kid who had us convinced that he was a vampire living in the school basement. I remember a day he was chasing us down Gold Street when suddenly a downpour of water erupted from Bobchi's front porch on the 2nd floor. While I don't recall what she yelled down at the stunned little monster, I do know that Irene and I were thankful to have escaped the clutches of evil once again.

CHURCH BAZAAR & THE CHICKEN MAN Do any of you remember the old Sacred Heart School and the inside activities they had there?" asked Cookie. They had booths and a game of chance where you paid money, poked holes into a cardboard square and punched out a crumpled little paper that told you what prize you won.

They also had the school Christmas pageants there every year ... up on the third floor. My cousins from my mother's side were in it and I still remember the girls all dressed in white singing Gloria in Excelsius (sp?) and raising their arms higher and higher as they sang louder and louder! One year, my cousin Greg (a classmate of Stan Cisz and Sacred Heart School graduate) was a shepherd and his chicken got loose on the stage! Remember the chicken stores on lower Broad and Lafayette ... where all the chickens were in cages.

JUDI: I used to look forward to that bazaar. I remember the "wheel of fortune" cost a dime. I put mine down on a number and Bobchi persuaded me to move it. I WON and think my prize was a layer cake! I still joke that the only prize I've "won" since is Ralf! There was an old, white-haired man that hung around there ... perhaps a bit worn around the edges. Of course, Bobchi forbid us from going anywhere near him. But I recall that, for some reason, Irene and I were intrigued by him.

COOKIE: Just had lunch with my cousin Greg. I asked him if he recalled a gray-haired man that used to hang around the school and neighborhood. He remembers him as "Crazy Al" ... they used to call him "Olesh" ... and thinks his last name was Bogucki or something like that. Al was very strange ... almost autistic. He could name all the capitols of all the states and list things that you would never think to be important. The kids would tease him and he'd get really mad. Greg recalls Al saying, "You think you're so smart? Let's see you do this!" And he would throw a stone really high in the air.

AUNT JOAN: You're right ... his name was Al. But for short we called him "Flaha" ... an awful Polish name (I'm not sure what it means)

I was also a Sacred Heart student and participated in the pageant as an angel ... I loved to sing in Polish. We stood on tiered benches set up in the back (I was on the top bench), the curtains were closed and the nuns were trying to keep us all quiet. I could hardly wait for those curtains to open so I could waive to Dziadzi. (He was quite involved in the church as an usher.) It was dark, but somehow I could make him out standing back there. When we were done with the hustle and bustle, I couldn't wait for someone to take my wings off so I could run to Dziadzi, take his hand and go home together!

JUDI: I do recall that Dziadzi was a church collector at the church and that he’d go there on Saturday afternoons, taking me along. We’d walk hand-in-hand up Gold Street, around the corner to Broad and climb the step, marble stairs leading to the church. To me, that walk took forever and I (also) loved holding his hand. Once inside, he’d lift me up so I could reach the Holy Water. We’d walk down to the altar where he’d reach into his pocket and draw out coins to pay for the candles we lit together, “This is in memory of our dearly departed.” Occasionally, he would simply give me the coins, leaving me at the candles while he went off to take care of church business. Upon his return, he’d find that I had lit ALL the candles, “Judita! How many dead souls can a little girl know!?!” Bobchi would laugh as if it was the first time she heard Dziadzi tell her about it. But, OH, you guys cannot imagine how beautiful it was to see all those candles glowing bright red at the feet of the Virgin Mary!

CYNTHIA: Cookie, I remember the chicken stores and live chickens in the store front window … I’m thinking High Street on top of Broad. I’ll have to let you in on an incident about the chickens: Once, I don’t know what time of year, our dog Lady (a black collie-type dog) got loose. We were worried about her until here she comes, prancing up Erwin Place with a live chicken in her mouth! My mom said she got it on Broad Street. We were petrified that the dog officer would take her away! It’s a laugh now, but it wasn’t funny when it happened. Except for the scare, I don’t think anything happened to us about the dead chicken … or maybe my parents paid for it!

COOKIE: Cynthia, the chicken store was probably the only place your dog could hunt in the city. Good story!

AUNT JOAN: Judi, what beautiful memories we all have! That is so nice to hear again about Dziadzi and Bobchi. Dziadzi loved the church. When he came home after church, he would sit in his rocking chair and sing the whole mass in Latin. What a wonderful honor he had for his God and church and family. He had such a good voice!

PACKAGES TO POLAND And who could forget all the clothing Bobchi would collect for shipment to our relatives in Poland? Pouring over some mystery photos we've been trying to identify from the Old Country, Aunt Joan remarked, "I can't identify them, but I'm sure they have some of our clothes on!"

AUNT JOAN: We really were not familiar with all of our relatives in Poland. Mama received most of the pictures, but they were not always marked on the back with who the people were. Some of these mystery photos could be her nieces and nephews. They all lived in the same area and Bobchi would try to make them all happy. She made package after package of clothing until her hands were sore ... sewing the cloth bundles with her large needle and thick thread. She sewed money into the hems or wherever she thought the border patrol would not rip the bundles apart and take the money for themselves. The boxes were heavy. Thank goodness the Polish postal place was on Broad Street because we had to carry the packages over there!