Eastern Slovakia
Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogical Research

Slovak Christmas in Pittsburgh

My mother, who is now 74 years old, was one of 12 children born into a Hungarian/Slovak immigrant family who lived on Jane Street on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I contacted you not long ago regarding the posting of her family's surnames (PAPUGA, JANITOR and HLUBB).

As a Christmas present, I printed Milan Karlo's article on the South Side for my mother. Christmas evening when we were having dessert and coffee, she went through the entire article and launched into her own stories that were evoked by names or events described in the article.

"Oh yes," she'd say ,"We knew them," or "Of course, that's where we used to..." or "Yes, I remember, they did have a mushball team."

I was really amazed when she read the name of a woman who had been her classmate in the third grade! She then proceeded to tell me how she had skipped a grade as a very young girl, going from the first to the third grade.

Her first day she cried because she didn't know any of her new classmates and they seemed so "big" to her. The woman whose name she recognized was one of her new classmates. She came over to my mother and put her arms around her and said, "I'll be your friend!" My thanks to Milan Karlo on behalf of my mother.

Christina Sobel - e-mail: CMSobel@aol.com

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