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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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Finishing Up Travels with the Little Lady

Mom (in bonnet), taken October 1938 when she had just turned one year old.

This week, we finish up our travels with the Little Lady on the Move—aka my Mom, Anna Margaret Kozlina. Below are the final entries written in Mom's baby book by my grandmother Margaret Simonik Kozlina from late summer 1938 through spring 1939.1


Aug. 28 Went to Lemont, Andy Shurley’s & do Docc’s Grove Picnic & Rock hole Grove Picnic.
Sept. 4, Ballgame at Tower Hill 2, Pete’s place, & Daddy’s place, & home.
Sept. 11, Lemont & Shadow-Land Park Picnic, St. Mary’s
Sept. 15, Went to Connellsville
Sept. 18 Went to Shurleys, Fairchance
Sept. 25 “ “ Ballgame at Pitts, home & Gates.
Oct. 2, Went to Lemont & back home.
Oct. 9, “ “ Conn., Conn. Airport, Dunbar & Lemont & back home.
Oct. 16, Went to Lemont & Daddy’s Place to a Spaghetti Dinner
Oct. 23 Went to Lemont & a Show at Republic
Oct. 30 Went to St. John’s Church, Uncle Steves & home. Mom & Dad had a Birthday Dinner for me.

Mom at her first birthday in 1938.

Mom and her Dad, Thomas Kozlina.

Mom at age one, taken October 1938.


Nov. 2 Went to Lemont & then to William Balaban’s Funeral at Masontown.

The Balaban family appears to have been Croatian friends of the Kozlina family. Their young son William died after being struck by a car days before this entry.2


Nov. 6 Went to St. John’s Church, Uncle Steve’s & Aunt Mgts., Aunt Ann’s grave in Conn. Cemetery, Aunt Barb’s back home, Lemont town, Shurley’s in Fairchance & back home.
Nov. 13 Went to St. John’s Church, Uncle Steve’s home then to Lemont, Cont. 2 Daddy’s place & Puskarichos, then to Franklin Hall & home.
Nov. 20 Went to St. John’s Church, & Lemont then to Republic to show, Footedale & Back home.
Nov. 27 Went to Lemont & back home.
Dec. 4 Went to St. John’s Church, Conn. & Lemont & over Kern’s place & back home.
Dec. 11 Went to Lemont & back home.
Dec. 18, “ “ “ “
Dec. 24 “ “ Lemont for Xmas came back Dec. 26
Dec. 25 Went to Kern’s place, Ann Kotlar’s, Marcus’s, back to Grandma’s then to Kenyal’s & back to Grandma’s & home.

[1939]

Jan. 1, went to St. John’s Church Lemont & back home.
Jan. 3, moved to 91 Millview St.

The Millview Street house that Mom and her family moved to no longer exists. Below is a map of where it was located in relation to West Leisenring, where Grandma's Simonik family lived, and Lemont Furnace, where Grandpa's Kozlina family lived.

Location of 91 Millview Street, where Mom and family went to live in 1939.3

91 Millview Street lot in Uniontown.4


Jan. 8 Went to Lemont & back home
Jan. 11 ” ” Bute & back home
Jan. 17 ” ” Uncle Steve’s
Jan. 22 “ “ “ “
Jan. 29 “ “ Went to St. John’s Church & Lemont & Kern’s place Riebarick’s & back home. Fanny.
Jan. 31 Went to show with Mommy.
Feb. 1st. Went to Bute & back

I was confused by the reference to Bute, but after emailing my aunt, she explained that Mom and her siblings differentiated between their grandmothers by calling them "Bubba Bute" referring to their Simonik grandmother, and "Bubba Lemont," referring to their Kozlina grandmother.5 While looking at a map of the area (below), I spied Bute Road which ran right up to West Leisenring from Uniontown. I imagine Grandma's parents lived right off of Bute Road.6


Feb. 2nd. Went up Steve’s.
Feb. 5th. Lemont to Grandma’s & Kern’s baby Christening.
Feb. 8th. Went to show with Mommy & Aunt Ann
Feb. 12 Went to St. John’s Church Bute, & Lemont.
Feb. 19 Went to St. John’s & home then to Franklin Hall & Shurley’s place.
Feb. 26 Went to St. John’s Church, home, then to Lemont & to a stork shower at Mrs. Marcus’s place & back home.
Mar. 5, Went to Church & Bute Lemont to Salingers to see Kum, Kuma & Baby and back home.

"Kum" and "Kuma" translate to godmother and godfather in Croatian.7


Mar. 12 Went to church, Bute & Lemont & back home.
Mar. 19 Went to church, Conn. to see Aunt Barb’s baby, Lemont & back home.
Mar. 14 Had my picture taken at Cohens.
Mar. 26 Went to Lemont & Conn to Aunt Barb & her family, Lemont & over Salingers to Kums Birthday party & back home.

_______________________

It's been really fun and informative to follow along with Mom's Baby Book, to get a glimpse into her life, and to get to know the people and places she visited. It must have been wonderful for her to live so close to both sets of grandparents and to be able to visit them often—sometimes both sets in the same day or even multiple times in a day! I get the sense that the roads between West Leisenring, Lemont Furnace, and the Kozlina home were very well travelled.

A little over a year after these last entries, Mom's brother Tommy was born and Mom was no longer the baby of the family. As life became busier for Grandma, there was likely less time to write down all the details of everyday life. But I'm sure glad that she kept such a great record of Mom's early years for us to read and enjoy all these years later.

Until next time...

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IMAGES

All images: private collection of author, Tioga, Texas.  


NOTES

All website accessed 20 June 2023.

1 Baby Days, baby book presented by Katherine Kurutz to Anna Margaret Kozlina's family, ca. 1937; privately held by Nancy Gilbride Casey, [address for private use,] Tioga, Texas, 2023. Book inherited by author from her mother Anna Kozlina Gilbride, 2010.

2 "Schoolboy Fatally Hurt at Masontown as He Chases Ball," The Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 31 October 1938, p. 1, col. 5-7; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/63796649/).

3 Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps), 91 Millview St., Uniontown, Pennsylvania, default view.

4 Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps), 91 Millview St., Uniontown, Pennsylvania, street view.

5 M. Graff, Willoughby [e-address for private use),] to N. Gilbride Casey, e-mail, 3 June 2023, "hello!!"; privately held by N. Gilbride Casey [(e-address) and street address for private use,], Tioga, Texas.

6 Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps), 91 Millview St., Uniontown. 

7 Google Translate, "kum," Croatian "godfather," "kuma," Croatian "godmother," (https://translate.google.com/).

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