Agnes Cecelia Kozlowski
— an autobiographical memoir

[Early childhood in a boarding house]

 p6  Summer passed on and Fall was on its way. During August Mother been very ill, and the end of her life was at hand. She would tell us to be good and to obey and listen to Sophie. I didnt know what it was all about but she would kiss us with tears in her eyes. If she passed on to eternity at home or in the hospital I dont know. But when she was laid out in the front parlor, I realized why she wanted us to tell her we were going to be good. Friends came over and paid their last respects. We were in the kitchen or on the back porch to keep out of the way since the house wasnt too large for the crouds. The burial day came the priest of the parish came and that last moment will never be erased from my mind, departing for all of us. All kissed her farewell, and the priest stood at the head of the coffin. Some one picked up Blanche to kiss Mom bye, and then my turn came I have been in tears (as I am right this moment) and they fell on her cheek I looked at them and said that is all I can give you Mama. I have been taken by the hand and led to the dining room. Procedure took place and the three of us youngsters just cried and cried. What was going to happen now with out a mother who we loved so much?

 p7  We were allowed to go to church, but right after the blessings while we approached the front door Aunt Karwoska my mothers Sister took us by the hand and led us aside and took us with her. So we didnt go to the cemetary. I need not mention what was going on during the next day not to have mother to talk to and to love. . . . Sophie who was 22 had to take her place. It must have been very hard to cope with a situation like ours, nine children and on N. R. A. How well I recall the sticker with the eagle on it and the three letters that meant a helping hand.⁠a A hundred and one times have we been reminded that Mom told you to obey and try to be good. Days passed on when I couldnt find a corner to cry myself to death. Dad came in with a puppy and then for the evenings for a few days we have forgotten our heart pain. Dad was a heavy alcoholic and that made things just go for the worse. Now I sit and wonder what I would do if some one left me with so many children to bring up, how would I have managed in those days? I'm sure the elder ones had to discontinue their schooling and try to give a helping hand with the food situation. After mothers death we have lived in the same place for the next four years, and then since we had been of a different father he wanted us four and left the other children. The last year I hope Im right my sister Sophie gotten married, and that gave her financial help.

Dad knew some one who would take us in and off we have gone hoping to find something. We were placed in a truck with our clothing and off we went during the evening. It was a corner boarding home for every one in fact at #4 Maryland Ave. We were placed on the third floor. Whiskey making was forbidden and this was where youngsters were placed to be looked after, in such a place. When we arrived we cried, for we felt that this isnt what we expected to find, drunkers all over the kitchen, the terrible odor of spirits, and an old women who was going to care for us. She herself was very untidy and unpleasant to look at. She also had a candy store in front of the building so she treated us with a green mint leaf to stop us from crying

 p8  She didnt have any children of her own, although she had her third husband since the other two have been deceased. Little did any one of us realize that this Mrs. Babinski was going to play a very important role in my life in the future. She would buy food from the remains of the pigs as their heads and the tails and cook that with a full hand of vegetables thrown in, no color or flavor. Albert and Blanche had to walk to school while Joseph and I stayed home. When I did start going I found myself mostly at the Principals door at her office with my Polish reader. I just couldnt study why perhaps due to malnutrition. The school book had to be bought, but who was going to give us the money Dad had to pay for the board and Im sure he didnt make much at the time. So the Nuns would send us home to get the money we walked back with out it; so down to the principals office again to tell her we didn't pay for our books. By that time the school year was over and we didnt gain much knowledge. Since we have been hungry many a times and couldnt eat the meant [meat] that had been green and spoiled, we sat on a step that led up stairs from the kitchen. At the side was a fist opening and we would throw the meat under the step for the cat and the dogs that used to make their home there. Sometimes I'm sure the poor animals couldnt have eaten the meat either and the small of the kitchen was enough to knock any one over as they entered the door. Drunkers came in, men and women and we would sit around just watching what was going on when they did have to much, this was called our home. Police came in more than once and searched the house, although we knew where the liquor was hid and how many bottles (quarts) since we used to hand it to Dad to hide it. We were instructed to run out side and play while the search was going on.

The old lady would try to make us happy by buying material down at the shops, and she discovered her time sewing us dresses. The shoes we had to wear was a sight to see, two or three sizes too big, but they would last a longer time we were told. As we have gotten kind of used to the routine of this all, Dad told us that we will be getting up at four oclock in the morning to do the wash and to hang it out side on the roof of the building. We began hating the place more and more for we had to wash for the drunken boarders whose clothes were more than messed up.

 p9  This is where trouble began and we were going to get into it pretty deep. Since we have been hungry and filthy we ran down through the tracks to Sophies place to ask for something to eat. Naturally she knew why we did come for we told her what was happening at the other place. She would take one by one and give us a good bath and put clean clothing on us and feed us. She would keep the dirty clothes to do up and have them for the next change. As I found out later she wanted to keep Joseph and me with her since she knew a place like that wasnt for children as us, but she didnt suceed. While running throught the rail road tracks we could hide under the arch cemented structure to make sure no one would catch us, or that would mean trouble. On the way back we would stop at the dumps and pick up pig iron to be able to sell it for a few pennies Since the junk shop was next door to the boarding place we didnt have to worry about sneaking out to sell what we found. If things didnt go our way we would go to the back of the junk yard and rip up a place of fence and pull metal out and then place it in a bag and when we felt it weighed something run to the front and sell it to the man. In that way we would buy a piece of gum or candy from the candy store. Collecting glass was our hobby also for the junk yard. One day we set up a scheme and it worked out pretty well as far as we planned it. We wanted some money and didnt know where to get it from. The little old women was accustomed to read her bible every evening or the life of some saint, in the side room. We figured one would go to the store and make believe they wanted to buy something while the other went to the cash register to wait on the customer. In the mean time the penny was to be put into the register and a quarter was to be taken out before it was closed. It all worked out beauti­fully. Then during the evening the amount from the register was counted and money was missen. Naturally this never happened before. We were called by our father and he questioned us all, the truth came out we werent good liars yet. The one who came in gave a penny and a quater was given back in change with the piece of candy. That was it. Dad took off his strap from his trousers, we all began shaking and pleading it didnt help not for stealing like you planned this. One by one we all received our share of a whippen. That taught us a lesson not to steal money at any time or manner.

 p10  Men came and went as boarders at the house. Young and middle age. One day while cleaning the up stairs rooms one of the boarders wanted his clothes washed, so he handed them to my sister and she took them as that was her obligation to do the laundry. The following day while she was ironing the things he came back and asked for the clothing, in the mean time he had something pretty heavy to drink as my sister handed him the things he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to himself and another act was on I just looked on. She was about thirteen years old then I only ten. She didnt know what to do to tell my father or keep it to ourselves and that we did. Magazines and catalouges were every where in the house we would pick them up go through them. Poison at every arm reach and we played with such things and looked on them as if they were nothing. We had to be confined to this place for four years and what will be the out come at the end.

From a routine the lady would call us down to the kitchen on Saturdays and tell us that today all the rooms have to be cleaned and the bed bugs have to be killed also for they are many. We would throw the mattress on the floor away from our way and bang the spring with a shoe and what a mess the bugs would come in tens and we would step on them with our shoes to kill them. If I got a penny for every one we killed I would be a millionaire today. After we completed our work then she would get us to the kitchen and make us kneel down in front of her and she would fine comb our hair it was long and buggy at that. She would braid it for us and put in ribbon. We wouldnt take out the ribbons for two days so one can see what was the result. Playing hookie from school was a treat for us, we would go to the river bank and play in water, hoping it was time to go home after school at three.

What was nice about Mrs. Babinski, she made sure we went to church every Sunday, she went also. It wasnt like down on Brown Town when we went to church with a handkerchief, a penny, or nickle and rosary was placed on the table for us to pick up and march to church. May devotions also we attended to, all of us little ones would walk up front while the bigger girls kept an eye on us not to get hurt crossing the streets. Nothing stopped us from going to evening devotions while on Brown Town.  p11 When I have been in school and didnt know my lessons since I did have difficulty in studying I would play sick and that was real sick from time to time. I didnt have the books any way since they werent paid for in the first place. Stealing pretzels from the Beer Garden next door from the boarding house or standing near the entrance asking the men when they come out to bring us some pretzels out with them kept us there for hours, but we got them. Many times the proprietor came out himself and chased us away from his place, we returned like a daily routine. Time passed on and we children have begun growing up to be what in life: Can any one solve a problem like that, four orphan children let loose to face life alone.

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Thayer's Note:

a The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a federal agency formed in 1933 as part of President Roosevelt's "New Deal"; its purpose was to eliminate what the government of the time felt was unfair competition among commercial firms by allowing industry groups to create codes of "fair practices" — wage and price controls — benefiting workers and consumers. Businesses voluntarily participating in the program were authorized to display Blue Eagle stickers; social pressure often resulted in boycotts of businesses that did not display the stickers.

The NRA sticker displayed by participating businesses.

Our memoir is instructive in that it shows how a sketchy awareness of the program filtered down to ordinary people and their young children. While individual consumers were not "on NRA", the program's impact was generally felt to be positive, the government protecting them against corporate greed.

A scant two years after its inception, in 1935, the NRA and its program were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; so as an aside, we notice that, if we had no other data, this reference to the NRA would date the event commented on by the writer to 1933‑1935.

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