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An orange
for a Christmas gift was an unbelievable treat
My
Brother, Rev. Robert Logan, has many more memories of Lopez
than I. As a youngster, younger than Bob, I can recall our
visits to Lopez to visit Fr. and Mrs. Dubroski. She was a
cousin of my mother, Ann Shymansky Logan. Many times we sat
in their kitchen while Mrs. D. urged us to eat, eat, eat! At
Easter time, she sent us home with beautifully decorated
Easter eggs done in Russian/Ukrainian style. (Recently I
tried to learn to decorate eggs in the same way but I failed
miserably.) After Father D's funeral, she circulated among
the mourners smiling and asking if we were having a good
time. I think she knew better than we that her husband was
indeed having a good time, having gone home to be with the
Lord.
Bob's
recollection of the bucket's falling in the well is still
vivid in my mind. My Dad came to the rescue, as he always did
when a difficulty arose. The water in the well had a very
strange taste, but to this day I cannot identify it. Perhaps
the taste came from the moss we could see growing in the well.
I
understand that winter temperatures there fell to -40 or -50.
The coldest I have experienced in the Adirondack Mountains
just north of us was -43, but I foolishly skied in a -55 chill
factor and was rewarded with frostbite of my face. In a few
days the redness disappeared and the skin began peeling. My
generation is not as hardy as the children of my mother's
time, I think.
Mother
told us of the 3 hour long Easter Masses. Only the very old
or ill were allowed to sit while the rest of the worshippers
stood for the entire Mass. She and her siblings frequently
were without adequate food, and they would go to the back of
the McGee Hotel where the cook, taking pity on them, gave them
leftovers. The food they received may have been the scrapings
from other diners’ plates, but they didn't mind. And yes, I
heard stories of picking up pieces of coal along the railroad
tracks where they had fallen from the coal cars. Those pieces
were brought home by the children to put in the stove for
heat. A really memorable Christmas gift was an orange, and
that was the ONLY gift the children got. I often think about
our lifestyle these days, how many possessions we feel are
necessary these days, and yet in those days children went
hungry, as my Mother and her siblings did. Miners and
their families had very hard lives. I think about some people
today who break the law and blame their actions on their
terrible childhoods. If that were the case, our mother should
have been a criminal!
I often
wish I could relive those sweet days when our family visited
Lopez. Whenever we are in Pennsylvania we always drive to
this lovely town and visit Grandfather Theodore's grave in the
old cemetery on the hill behind the town. Acid rain has taken
its toll and the inscription on the stone is barely readable.
My husband helped me make a rubbing of the gravestone which is
now laminated for safe-keeping. There are plans to restore
the foundation and to affix to the stone a brass plate with
the information for easier reading. I wonder how many folks
now living in Lopez are able to read the Russian inscription.
Brother
Bob has enjoyed sharing time and memories with you and your
wife. He has delved into both our Mother's and Dad's history.
Both families were hard-working ordinary folks, so I believe
they were not so ordinary after all. They gave us a loving
Christian home. We have been very blessed and carry on those
beliefs in our own families.
I shall
return to the website again and again to keep in touch with
the news of Lopez. Be certain that I'll be in town as often
as possible. How good it is to know one's roots!
Donna
Logan Blackburn
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