12.10.07

The Freeze-Out

Posted in Daily Journal, Advent Calendar at 12:10 am by Administrator

One thing my family did not do was travel.

During the summers, a long trip was the 150 miles or so from Albany, New York to Worcester, Massachusetts via Route 20 (before the Massachusetts Turnpike was completed). During the winter, we barely traveled at all and, even then, our travel was restricted to the Albany area.

One trip during the holiday season I do remember, though, was not exactly a family trip. My Boy Scout troop went on a winter camping trip, a Freeze-Out, to the Helderberg Mountains to the southwest of Albany.

My father accompanied my troop on this particular camping trip and, to this day, he revels in relating the experience to anyone within earshot. He’s told even me the story dozens of times, even though he knows I was there. His story goes something like this:

The morning we arrived in the Helderbergs, the skies were crisp and clear. There was not a cloud in the sky. There was no wind. The temperature was below freezing, but none of us really noticed the cold all that much.

The side of the hill on which we set up camp was treeless, and would have been covered in grass during the summer, but was now blanketed with a thick pallet of snow, mostly unspoiled by footprints of man or beast.

We unpacked the cars, set up the tents, and started a campfire.

The boys grabbed their sleds, saucers, and inner tubes to enjoy this perfect winter day sliding down the hill. They packed down the snow to make fast sledding tracks down the hillside. They built ramps to propel their sleds and saucers into the air as they slid down the hill.

After sledding all day, we all gathered by the campfire for a simple, hot meal - beef stew. Nothing tasted so good.

And, then, the sun set. And the wind rose. And the temperature plummeted.

I have never been so cold in my life.

We dove into our tents and crawled into our sleeping bags without worrying about cleaning up the dishes.

Exhausted from the day’s activities, we all slept soundly and woke the next morning to another clear, crisp day. We approached the remains of the previous night’s supper to find that, had we any intent to clean the dishes before we broke camp, those hopes were long past. Everything was frozen solid including the ladle, frozen in the remains of the beef stew. The stew, in turn, was frozen in its pot.

No matter. We packed everything up into the cars and headed home. The dishes would wait.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Day 11.

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The Niedzialkowskis in the 1950 Worcester Directory

Posted in Daily Journal, Niedzialkowski, Directories, Occupations at 12:01 am by Administrator

In 1950, my grandparents were listed in the city directory with no changes from the 1950 edition for their own entry, but there were changes in the entries for other Nidzialkowskis. As in earlier directories, my grandfather was listed twice. The biggest changes

Kostanty, Helen, Raymond, Jane, and Frederick Niedzialkowski are listed in the 1950 Worcester Directory published by R.L. Polk & Co. A cousin, Ralph Niedzialkoski, was listed as well.

Worcester Directory 1950 Entry for Kostanty and Helen Niedzialkowski and Family

Worcester Directory 1950 Entry for Konstanty Niedzialkowski

SOURCE: Massachusetts City Directories, Worcester 1950, page 799, Kostanty Niedzialkowski; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 07 December 2007); citing Polk’s Worcester (Worcester County, Mass.) City Directory Vol. 1950 CVII. 1950. Boston, MA: R.L. Polk & Co.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Worcester Directory 1950 Entry for Kostanty and Helen Niedzialkowski and Family. The records state the following:

Kostanty Niedzialkowski resided at 40 Barnes av;
his wife Helen also resided at 40 Barnes av;
his son Raymond also resided at 40 Barnes av; and
his daughter Jane worked as a clerk for Graton & Knight and resided at 40 Barnes av.
Konstanty Niedzialkowski was a die setter at Worcester Pressed Steel Co. and resided at 40 Barnes av.;
his son Fred was a student who resided at 10 Denny;
Fred’s wife Janice was a finisher for P A Cleaning & Dyeing Co. who also resided at 10 Denny;
Konstanty’s cousin Ralph F. was an grinder for Crompton & Knowles who resided at 6 Wade; and
Ralph’s wife Jane J. also resided at 6 Wade.

In the first entry, the surname is misspelled as Nieczialkowski. My grandfather’s first name is spelled Kostanty in the first entry (which is the way he usually spelled his name) and is spelled Konstanty in the second entry (which is the proper way to spell the name).

The name Damian Niedzialkowski does not appear in the 1950 directory, although he had previously appeared for many years.

It’s curious as to why my mother was listed in this directory. She was married in 1947, and should not be listed living under her maiden name with her parents in 1950.

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