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Boy did I get a huge wake up call last week! For about 24 hours I lost access to all my Blogger content: published and draft posts, comments, statistics, etc.  I nearly had a heart attack when I got this email: I thought it was a scam but at least I had the presence of mind to not click anything in the email itself. Instead, I went to the Blogger dashboard I already had open and clicked "View Blog."  They really had taken it down! I quickly read through what they considered "Malware and Similar Malicious Content," and was confident that there was no way I had violated the terms. My only recourse was to click the "Request Review" button. Reviews were said to take an average of 10 days but could be longer depending on the issue. I never received a confirmation email that I requested the review. Nothing! All I could do was wait. I went to the GeneaBloggers Facebook page to ask if anyone else had experienced anything like this and how long it took to resolve....
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Mom's Big Trip

Mom, and friends Janet and Zora, in traditional Croatian costumes, taken at Braddock, Pennsylvania, May 1953.
By Nancy Gilbride Casey

"Boy were we surprised. We never expected anything like this hotel." 

A trip to Pittsburgh was the ultimate in excitement for a 15-year old from Cleveland, Ohio, back in 1953, if a letter home is any indication. My mother, then Anna Margaret "Margie" Kozlina, had just checked in to The Penn-Lincoln Hotel in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. Mom was a member of a Cleveland-based Croatian dance ensemble, and had set out to perform at a Kolo festival in the Pittsburgh area.

Mom was exposed to kolo by her father's family, who immigrated from Croatia in the early 1900s. A traditional communal dance, it is performed in a closed circle, a single chain or in two parallel lines. One of many European chain dances surviving from ancient times, kolo is spirited and often fast-moving. 1  (Click here to view a video of a kolo dance from the Sv. Jana region of Croatia; 2  my great grandmother Vjekoslava "Louise" Baltorinic, was born in Sv. Jana, near Zagreb, Croatia.)

Mom's postcard and a longer letter capture her wide-eyed thrill at staying in a fancy hotel—on probably her first solo trip away from her family—as well as youthful antics with her friends. Four photos of her troupe taken on a hillside in Braddock, Pennsylvania provide a visual backdrop to her exciting teenage adventure.

It's a wonderful snapshot of a time in Mom's life which she clearly treasured.

Penn-Lincoln Hotel, where Mom stayed in May 1953.

Writing home to the family in Cleveland.




Captioned on the photo reverse: "Friends: Margie, Madeline & Janet. Taken at Bradock, PA, May 30, 1953"

Mom, standing, far left, and the rest of the ladies of the ensemble.

The men of the ensemble, enjoying a beverage!


 NOTES

 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (https://www.britannica.com : accessed 29 Nov 2019, 09:38:00), "Kolo."

2 J.I.M. Video, "Kolo “Croatia “ Croatian Independence 2019 San Pedro," uploaded 27 May 2019; YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQNUpTmz7I : accessed 29 Nov 2019).  



Until next time... 

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