|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Introduction of Bernard S. Sadowski - AutobiographyTHE GREATEST GENERATION-PLUS ONE Introduction: Sigmund Freud said all childhood's are unhappy times. Bernard Stanley Sadowski’s childhood was to have challenged that thesis. His family was just poor, middle-class -- not unlike the social makeup of his entire neighborhood. Being the oldest of two children one might suspect that Bernard was showered with wondrous gifts, toys, and money. Nope. He may have had some toys of course and one or two “more-well-off” relatives did donate money-envelopes on special occasions but that’s about it. Flint, MI in the 1940s and 1950s consisted of low-wage factory workers with basic needs for day-to-day survival. Little wiggle room existed for what contemporaries call leisure activities. No such genre then. Almost every adult worked for General Motors in some fashion or another. GM aka “the shop” hired every high school graduate in the 1940s and 1950s who wished employment. In terms of labor statistics Flint was fully employed. The car business was in full bloom and GM was the biggest company in the world. One US Secretary of Defense in 1945 was quoted “As GM goes , so goes the world.” A career with GM, the factory or the shop was not to be for Bernard. Nope, Sadowski was headed for a life jammed packed with books, slide rules, math, science and higher education. No person from Leith the Sadowskis or the Urbaniks had ever gone to college. This autobiography about Bernard S. Sadowski was written by Sadowski and covers his life as known from 2002 back. Many people, friends, relatives will be mentioned, not to embarrass anyone but rather to add dimension and to give emotion to the pages. Factual events, names, places, dates, etc. shall be recorded with actual names. Most of the key characters are deceased - the living persons may have to be shadowed to protect whatever should be protected. Bernard felt the need to write the book so generations of family could have something solid to grab and hold onto 50-100 years from now. He felt too many memories of events may have changed drastically or worst yet, disappeared forever. Autobiographical literary works possibly could appear ostentatious for a lower-middle class white kid from a factory town. It could even strike friends and relatives as odd or perhaps uppity. Why would northend Flint, Michigan kid want to write about his life? Two major reasons: First, was to satisfy and complete the writing project he started at age nineteen. Bernard completed the first chapter of a novel about his youth by writing during slow hours when he was the desk/elevator helper for Marian Hall - a senior living place. The second reason is related and fully developed fifty years later. Senior citizen Sadowski grabbed a tar baby called genealogy. He was unable to let it go. His desire to locate family ancestors was extraordinarily powerful following the historic trip to Poland in the year 2001. Bernard’s four grandparents were born in Poland. They are deceased as are ninety percent of their children. The few who are alive as of this writing are either in nursing homes or just plain tired and elderly with little or no desire to work on the genealogy of family. That is where Bernie comes in - to write the stories as he recollects his years of history. Louis Francis Sadowski, Bernard’s father, was exempt from the WWII
draft due to the fact he was married with a child; however, he played an
active home front role by building machine guns at the reconverted AC
Spark Plug factory. Louis F. Sadowski worked around the clock at times
when it was required - sleeping on cots right inside the plant. Men and
women alike exuded a patriotic fervor unmatched in history up to that
time in he USA. Families saved the lard from cooking and took it to the
markets where it was recycled. Ration books were ever-present containing
tokens allowing for monthly gasoline and food allowances. Extras were
nonexistent. Only the bare necessities for life were used. Beer gardens
had to be the exception to the rule. Beer gardens served as
socialization places. Children were welcome - baby buggys were not
uncommon sights inside the building. Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik’s
brother, Louis Urbanik, lived next to Bochanski’s Tavern on Industrial
Ave. Directly across the street was Ambrose’s Tavern. One half block
south of Ambrose’s was White Eagle Tavern. In three minutes a person
could easily walk into three beer gardens. Each had it’s unique
flavor, jukebox and food. Dewey Street -- Flint, MI Bernard was born on Dewey Street, Flint, MI only four months
prior to the start of WWII in Europe when Germany invaded Poland 1939 -
The Sadowski family ancestral homeland. Bernard’s parents, Louis and
Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik were married the prior year, 1938, in All
Saints Church, Flint. Within a few months they moved into their first
real home. Myrtle Street - Flint, MI The young family of three moved into a simple one-bedroom home on Myrtle Street. Louis, Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik and son lived the entire World War II years at that location. The home had what was called a “Michigan basement - a dirt hole with three walls. Access into the basement was down steps via a trap door located in the in the kitchen. At age two toddler Bernard slammed the heavy trap door on his mother’s head while she was carrying up a basket load of washing. It nearly killed her - so said Bernie’s mother many years latter when she told her son the story. Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik’s possessions from her youth were lost to mold from being stored five years in that dirt basement. Her yearbooks, pictures and violin - lost. Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik played the instrument in school but never after she married Louis Sadowski. Louis F. Sadowski Sadowski confirmed years later when asked, that he
paid $900.00 for that starter Myrtle St. bungalow in 1940. As the
reader, you will put all data noted into proportion of course. All
comparisons of costs must be converted to percentages in order to make
reasonable assessments. This cost of the home for example - $900 for a
home makes you smile doesn’t? But divide 900/3000 = 30% of his annual
wage. In year 2002 Bernard’s home on Magnolia was valued at $325,000.
Divide his current income of $60,000/325,000 = 18% of income. Housing
was *more* costly in 1940 than 2002!!!Twice as much in fact of income
went to pay for a home. Sample Earnings of Bernard’s father before taxes: 1944.......$3,499.51 (Next-last-year of WWII- Bernard starts K) 1947.......$2,849.19 ( Bernard in 3rd grade) 1952.......$4,471.80 (Louis F. Sadowski’s 20th year with GM) 1953.......$5,744.82 (End of Korean War, Bernard is 14) 1955.......$6,208.36 ( Michael Sadowski, Bern’s gpa died) 1957.......$5,479.20 (Bernard graduated from High School) Myrtle Street Friends Bernard Blazkowski lived two doors west of the Sadowski’s -he was called “Benny” by his friends and family. Even though Benny was four years older than Bernie they were chums all during the WWII years. In fact they had great fun playing war games in the empty field which was located in between their homes. The play games was joined by other kids from the area, e.g., Joey Bozo liked to come over and play with Bernie and Benny. Joey was a classmate with Bernie in grades K-5 at All Saints School. Bernard used to visit Benny even after the Sadowskis moved to Carton
St. Bernie would peddle his bike up North Street and then have a great
fast ride down Myrtle Street to Ben’s house. One school activity that
they did together was to draw ancient history scenes on large rolls of
wall paper. Bernie received extra credit from his All Saints nuns for
producing the tabloids. Benny’s family was a kind , generous and
caring clan - two of his sisters, Bernice and Frances, were in
attendance at Bernard’s father’s funeral service in 1992. Thus, the
friendship lasted for over fifty years. Benny grew up, went to college,
moved to California and married. Starting All Saints School -1944 Bernie’s Catholic education began in the fall of 1944 - only three months after D-Day WWII. The world was globally at was since Japan was fighting the USA in the Pacific Theater also. The Sadowski clan lived on Myrtle Street at that time, thus, Bernie’s trek to school was : Out the front door, cut across the back of the church to Industrial Ave. and thence across Industrial Ave. at Edmund St. and on across Hoffman’s Field - a ball field - to Main St. Then a couple more blocks south to the school. On the way he passed Maniak’s Shoe shop and a gas station run by Mr. Joswiak, both owners whose sons he grew to know as the years passed. Why , you may ask, didn’t the parents drive the kid to school like
modern day tennis-shoe moms and dads? The plain answer, and this
is difficult for some to swallow, the folks never owned a car for 15
years after they got married. Indeed, Louis F. Sadowski took a bus to
work every day. Emily Sadowski nee Urbanik walked to her hairdresser - a
mile each way - and all walked to Mass every Sunday. For years it seemed
like normal behavior because few neighbors had a car. In fact car
manufacturing ceased during the War years. Walk, take a bus or ride a
bike. The Typical Daily Grade School Schedule at All Saints School 1944-1952 Daily a big milk truck would pull up to the front door of the school and dozens of wire milk crates were hauled into the building and placed on the basement floor. The older boys were always assigned to sort and distribute the milk to the individual class rooms. For a nickel you could buy a pint of white or chocolate milk. Every school kid in grade K-8 brought a small daily lunch to go with the pint of milk. Bernie’s favorite was a Twinkie or cream-filled Snowball. If a kid lived close to the school they were allowed to eat lunch at home. The older kids could run over to Ralph’s Drugs and buy candy bars or soda. No school cafeterias existed in Bernard’s days at All Saints. Interestingly, even though 35 kids would eat bag lunches in their classrooms, the rooms were never dirty or messy. The nuns had wonderful discipline over the students. No student ever, ever dared to “sass back” a nun or priest. Had he done so, the parents at home would have disciplined the child to the point of slapping. Parents supported the schools and the teachers 100%. 6:00 am - Awake, dress and walk to the church. Serve Mass. All the
nuns attended this mass every day. Return home. Eat breakfast and pack
lunch . Noon Lunch and outdoor play time on Maine Street Lunchtime games were creative. A popular, albeit potentially dangerous game, was called “Red Rover.” Two teams were chosen by common agreement - eight to ten kids on a side. Each team locks arms and stands in a straight line separated from the other team by about ten feet. One person starts by yelling to to the opposite team, “Red Rover, Red Rover, let Johnnie or Mike or Shirley etc., come over.” That person must then run at the opposite line of kids and try to break though by causing the locked arms to collapse 1:00 pm Classes resume Bernard was appointed by the All Saints School principal to be Captain, of All Patrol Boys during his eighth grade year. That meant he could supervise all the boys and assign them to different corners. A large shinny badge was won on the white canvas belt as the sign of authority. Then, Deliver his paper route newspapers. After all school duties and his job of paper route deliveries were completed Bern would walk home and listen to his favorite radio shows. This was the Pre-TV era - only “The Green Arrow “and others on the radio were available to kids then. “Mystery Hour” with Howard Duff was popular as were the Detroit Tiger’s baseball games announced by Harry Heilmann. The radio would burn out a tube every so often which required some talent to remove the correct tube from the back of the set and run up the street to the radio shop and buy a replacement. Bernard’s mother told the story decades later that one day Bernard pulled the console radio down on himself and scared the heck out of her. Bernie proved he was resilient..no broken bones, just some broken parts of the radio. Related Genealogy Resources: Search results for Sadowski on World Vital Records - Free and Subscription Data Records Images Online Free and Subscription Search OneGreat Family for Sadowski Surname New England Early Genealogy for Sadowski Surname Family Tree Connection for Sadowski
|
|
|
