The Historians Interviews and Conversations. Go Fund Me 2023 needs your partnership in History. April on The Historians-Composer, choral director and pianist Maria Riccio Bryce, creator of a new work called Requiem: What Remains Is Love. Coming in November Episode #500

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Monday, March 27, 2023-Story behind the story. We’ll call the baby Harry

Tuesday, March 28, 2023-Pastries produced popularity

“It helped with my popularity,” said O’Brien, who now lives in Saratoga Springs.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023-Mark Sullivan discusses his historical novel, The Last Green Valley that chronicles how members of a German family living in Ukraine were able to escape clashing armies in World War II and find a new life in America.

Caught between two warring forces and overcoming horrific trials to pursue their hope of immigrating to the West, the Martels’ story is a brutal, complex, and ultimately triumphant tale that illuminates the extraordinary power of love, faith, and one family’s incredible will to survive and see their dreams realized.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Remembering Teddy Roosevelt

Some say he had a "cowboy" persona defined by robust masculinity.

Friday, March 31, 2023-Episode 468-Alan Maddaus is author of The Prestons of East Street, the Story of a 19th century American Family.  The lives of seven Preston family members from Galway, N.Y., were impacted by events including Civil War, the Second Great Awakening and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the natural disaster claiming the most lives on US soil. 

We’ll call the baby Henry

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Descendants of Albert and Katie Sikora have preserved fascinating accounts of daily life during the 1920s and 1930s in Amsterdam. 

   The nine-member Polish American family lived on Clark Avenue, which runs between Forest and Sloane avenues.  In 1931 Albert Sikora is described in a City Directory as a spinner at Mohawk Carpet Mills.

   One of Albert and Katie’s daughters, Paula Sikora Martin, wrote down memories of the birth of her youngest brother in 1928.  The pregnancy was not discussed with the children and a “birthing lady” attended their mother.  

   At first shooed out of the house into the rain by their father, the children eventually were brought inside and told to get sheets for the birthing lady to use.

   “(Sister) Kay and I ran through the house and started pulling the sheets off the bed,” Paula wrote.  “We tried to give them to the birthing lady but she hollered at us--she wanted unused sheets.  

   “Then all of a sudden we were allowed to go to Mom’s room and she introduced us to our new little fat wrinkled baby brother.  I had a new doll to play with!   He was so cute.  Mom was back.  All was well again.”

   The baby’s father wanted to name him Alexander, after a Polish prince.  Paula’s name, for example, was in reality Pelagia Julianna, the name of a Polish princess.  However, his mother prevailed and the baby was named Henry, after the American auto maker Henry Ford. 

   The family always called him.  Harry though and he legally changed his name to Harry when he came of age. 

       Harry Sikora, who died in 2008, served in the U.S. Army, went to Union College and Syracuse University and became an industrial engineer at IBM.  His later years were spent at a farm in Bradford, Pennsylvania and a winter home in Clearwater, Florida.

   “Was four years old when I started school in the first grade,” Harry wrote.  “Mom lied about my age to get me into school early.  Believe she had enough of children by the time I arrived.”

   The school was about seven blocks from their home and his mother told Harry to follow the other children to get there.

   Paula recalled when the family had no refrigerator, no washing machine and no radio.  Eventually, a windup Victrola came their way. 

   Their father finished building a home in 1923 on a Clark Avenue lot across from the flat they were renting in a four family house.  The Sikoras rented out an upstairs flat in their new home.

   “Our renter had a radio—wow,” Paula wrote.  The tenant played the radio loudly and the Sikora children would gather on the hall steps to hear Fibber McGee and Molly.

   Paula married in 1937 but Harry did not want to attend the wedding, saying he would break his six-year perfect school attendance record. 

   Harry wrote, “Heat came from a wood/coal stove, which heated the kitchen and living room area.  Bedrooms were cold during the winter and hot during the summer.  Coal bin was located in the basement.  Had to be carried upstairs and ashes emptied daily.

   “We had two sour cherry trees.  One year, dad made cherry wine in the basement.   When he wasn't looking, I tasted some of it.”

   Ray Knapik and his Mom rented the upstairs flat in Sikoras’ home from 1943 to 1950.

   Knapik wrote, “In the back of the house was the community playground known as the Rockton Diamonds. Had a lot of good friends in Rockton and that was our hangout place.  Learned how to ice-skate on the sidewalk in front of the house.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, March 27, 2023

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