Would like to eventually put together a digital scrapbook and pull out different sections of this, i.e., about their house, maybe do a page of mom's descriptions with pictures of the house, something like that to make all of these memories come to life.
Right now in the gathering of information stage. It's interesting to hear about Grandfather Louis and his service in the Army, that he was an auxiliary policeman and that when he won at playing the numbers, he bought the kids ice cream at Annie's Candy Store on Climax Street.
It's close to 90 degrees today and a double scoop ice cream sounds great to me!
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MOM'S STORY
Grandfather - John Hurbanek (born late 1870-early 1880 - died 1953) was naturalized on 2/6/1918. Certificate #901503 - PLB #22036, Volume 239. Louis was 17 years old.
He came to America sometime before Louis was 1 years old (1901). Louis was a citizen when John was naturalized.
Grandmother - Rosalia Fialla (died 1949). Her family all came to America at the same time. She had a sister Mary who married John Nedlick and a brother Michael who went to New York state (don't know if there were others). Nedlick children are in CA, FL, NY and PA.
Believe John Hurbanek's mother and father came over to America at the same time.
Have an interrment card from Calvary Cemetary dated 8/20/1907 for John Urbanek, deceased, grave #77, row #4, section #8. Paid $13.50. On back written in my mother's (Rose Hurbanek) writing is 8/31/1911 (Amelia, Aurelia, Auulia [writing looks closest to this last one]) Urbanek. Believe these are Louis' grandparents.
Father - Loius, Jr., was born 9/11/1900 in Egbell, Austria. He enlisted in the Army on 5/22/1919 for 3 years at age 18. His # 6428768. Private CoA 17 Tank Battalion. Discharged 5/22/1922. He served 26 months in the Rhine with the A.E.F. He died 3/1/1952. He was a Tally Clerk or Shipper with A.M. Myers Co. on the South Side for all the time I can remember. My mother said during the depression he was a handy man - doing all sorts of jobs (had to quit school after 8th grade to help support the family.)
Lou was working on roof of next door neighbors (Mrs. Shorn) when he lost his footing and fell two stories to the ground. This was around 1931. The fall is believed to have been the cause of the cancer in his lower backbone of which hd died in 1952. He always had a bad back and sometimes he couldn't stand straight up.
Lou 1900-1952 - age 51
Angelina 1902-1983 - age 81
Fritz 1904-1986 - age 83
Henry 1906-1987 - age 81
Kon 1907-
Sarah 1916 -
Note: Lou buried in Calvary not far from Rosalia. Rose's grandmother grave same as Lou's. Fritz and Frank are in Calvary also. Steve (Fran's husband) too. John and Antonia are in St. Michael's Cemetary in Allentown near South Side. Betty was cremated.
John Hurbanek and Rosalia Fialla Hurbanek were separated, I don't remember him at all.
Grandma said that he and Fritz lived at 238 Climax Street in Beltzhoover, in my memory.
Sarah married late in her 30's. When Fritz went to the Army, Grandma Rosalia got pneumonia which they said settled in her brain. Daddy & Uncle Kon took her to Mayview. She was allowed visitors one day a week. I remember Daddy going often.
She died after I was married as did Grandpap Hurbanek.
Sarah worked at the A&P in Allentown. She always had candy bars for us.
She and grandma bought us Christmas presents. I remember one year getting a little piano and I was "thrilled to death."
I used to take Jimmy to the movies on Saturdays and we had to stop for Sarah to give us candy and sometimes the money for the show.
The house on Climax was a big Victorian frame house. It had a wraparound porch on the front. There was a large side porch with an entry to the basement with a wooden door that lifted up. There was a second floor entry in the rear with a small porch. They had a double corner lot that had a big garden with vegetables and flowers. There was a brick patio on the side of the house wtih low walls to sit on. There was a garage in the rear wtih access from the alley.
Fritz put his car up on blocks before he went to the army.
I remember all the school children had to collect scrap metal and rubber to take to school for the war.
Fritz gave me a lot of junk from that garage. I wrote to him in the service. I have a photo of him in uniform. I was pretty young then.
I remember that Henry and Rosie lived on the second floor after they married. I think before then they rented it out. After Grandma went to Mayview, Sarah and Fritz moved to the second flor.
My Godmother Louise Mander and her three children moved into the first floor. I was about 10 or 11 years old when the house caught on fire. I was in the kitchen with Louise when someone came knocking on the kitchen door. Louise made me run home to tell my parents. I was so scared. I ran so fast that my legs were like rubber. We all ran back to the house. Fritz was on the second floor and had to be wakened. It was some old phonograph records and papers that had exploded into fire from spontaneous combustion. I had nightmares for years.
Sarah played the accordian and taught me how to play. She was very good. She played cards with me and played all kinds of games. Sometimes she took me to the movies in the evening and would walk me home in the dark. We walked everywhere! Once in awhile we took the streetcar.
Fritz was an ice skater. He was always out at Duquesne Gardens in Oakland. I remember he lost part of his finger at work, but I don't know where he worked. In his later years, he worked at Walton Automotive in Allentown. He moved to a room in Allentown as the neighborhood in Climax was becoming overrun with blacks and he was afraid of them. The blacks stripped the house of all the plumbing, doors, etc., and Fritz let it go. It was torn down and townhouses were built. How sad!
I don't recall ever hearing anything about my dad and his childhood except his having to quit school. He was exceptional with figures. His job as tally clerk required him to add long columns of figures without an adding machine or calculator.
When we lived in Beltzhoover, he was an auxillary policeman. During the war, there were "brown outs". His job was to see that people had their lights out or dark drapes drawn over the windows. He had a hard hat, arm band and a billy. I don't know if he had a gun then. He also helped the regular police when needed.
He was never a very stern man. We were all afraid of him and he only had to give us "the look" and we immediately behaved. In spite of his sternness, he was a lot of fun. We used to tease with him all the time. He loved to talk (we all inherited that trait!). He was an intelligent man. It's a shame he had to quit school.
Daddy was tall, 6 foot, handsome, with dark brown, almost black hair, brown eyes and ruddy complexion. He had a rough sounding demeanor. He loved his family and we loved him. He built us a train platform every Christmas that took almost half of our living room. He allowed me to tap dance on it before he put everything on it. I was allowed to tap dance on the hearth of the living room mantel too. I was always singing and dancing and he loved to hear and watch me."
Whenever he won at playing the numbers, he always treated us kids to ice cream cones from Annie's Candy Store on Climax Street. The cone had a wide top for two scoops of ice cream side-by-side.
We had a front porch with wicker furniture on it. Dad hung awnings every summer and every evening after dark, Mother and Dad sat out there talking long after we went to bed.
There was a small back porch which Dad closed in to make the kitchen longer. It had a door into the dining room as well. Both the kitchen and dining room had linoleum on the floor. We were allowed to roller skate round and round through both rooms. What fun!
i remember we had a telephone in the hall. It was a tall black phone with the mouthpiece at the top and the receiver hung on the side. The kids didn't use it. The number: Hemlock 8444
Mother always had birthday parties for us. One birthday when I was very small someone gave me a dress (a hand-me-down). It was red taffeta. The skirt was row after row of narrow ruffles. I loved it.
We got new clothes every Easter. I remember getting white Mary Janes one year and going to church with my Dad. We had a very long walk to church. Mostly we went to St. Canice's in Knoxville and later to St. George's in Allentown. He and I went to church together a lot. (It's strange, but I don't remember anyone else going with us.)
We always had company at our house. Relatives were always there. The coffee pot was always full. We played cards all the time. Mrs. Schubert, the next door neighbor, taught us how to play all kinds of card games.
I had a litle desk in the corner of the living room. I was always writing, drawing and putting notes on music paper. I loved drawing clothes for my paper dolls and had dreams of becoming a dress designer. I had that dream until I graduated from high school.
I always envisioned my name on the credits of the movies.
The real world required one to go to work.
Mother wanted me to go to designer school downtown, but I was eager to earn some money of my own. Little did I know that I wouldn't have any of my own or very little of it. I had to turn it all over to my mother - all $23.16 a week. She gave me $3.16 of that - so much for independence!
For all the discipline in our house, my mother was lax in many areas. We kids came and went as we pleased. She never knew where we were. As for myself, I roamed all over Beltzhoover. I knew all the streets and who lived where. I played with kids everywhere, even colored ones.
We got a bath once a week. No one prodded us to brush our teeth (we didn't). However, our clothes were clean. Mother washed every week and had tons of laundry. We always had plenty to eat and clothes (most of which were hand-me-downs).
We had a couple of dogs. I remember Skippy the best. He was given to us as a puppy from Jewish friends of my Dad's. He wouldn't eat anything with pork in it! He was Jimmy's dog more than the rest of the kids.
Fran married at age 20 in 1945. Steve Grden was 29. They lived in Kittaning for awhile and then moved in with us. They shared a bedroom with me and Al later. They bought me a book while on honeymoon. It is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I was 13. I still have it.
Lou went to the service after high school. We were all so upset. He went to Fort Meade in Maryland. He had a cushy job in the hobby shop. Every time he came home on leave, we all cried and carried on when he had to go back.
Christmas was always wonderful. Santa always came on Christmas Eve around 7:00 p.m. and he would bang on the side door and leave all the presents. One year he even came in the house. We opened our gifts then. Mother always baked nut rolls and lots of cookies and had a ham.
Our aunts and uncles used to stop by sometimes after we were in bed. I don't recall that they gave us many gifts, but I always bought them all something from my savings.
The Christmas I was 8, Mrs. Rischer, a friend of Mom's, gave me my very own book titled "John Martin's Stories for Children." What a thrill, my very own book. I read and reread it and still have it.
My Grandpap Schury lived down on Montooth Street with Betty, Pauline, Charlie and Stevie. Across the strest was the Koval family. They had 4 kids, Louie was my age. Aggie, Lois and Georgie lived in my Grandpap's house for awhile in 2 rooms on the second floor. Lois was my age. We played over at the Koval's a lot. They had all kinds of games and puzzles. Their mother, Fanny, used to play games with us. My mother never liked Fanny. She smoked and was kind of crude. We kids thought she was wonderful.
Next door to Grandpap Schury's was a family we knew as the Albertses. There was the grandfather Charles and grandmother Maude who was blind. There were Hazel and Dave, Dorothy and Chippy and another sister, Pearl, who didn't live there. They had some other relatives who used to visit them in a car. They were all friends with my mother and her brothers and sisters. Lois and I played with Hazel's kids. We always had to leave when the relatives in the car came. They said they were the rich relatives. (When I grew up and met Bob Albitz, I found out that these neighbors were his relatives and that their name was Albitz. Small world!)
I am Sarah's daughter, Roxane. We spent many summers with Uncle Fritz on Climax Street.
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