Pure Doggies

--> Okay! I will admit it right up front, I thought that Barb Cerri and mi esposa Sandy's all-in-one-day adventure trip out and back to Adams to make pierogi was not their best idea ever. Turns out it was.

Cioci Florence Romaniak mentioned to Sandy, her niece, that Saint Stan's was making fresh pierogi on Saturday morning in the huge kitchen under the same church that we were married in, 46 years ago. 

 How much fun could that be? How many senior citizens will show up for that? Even Sandy thought that it would be all babcis  (grandmothers). Six or seven people would be there, I thought.

Well actually there were around 75 people, and not all were seniors. The volunteer ages started at five. Among the mostly-Polish folks were an Asian-looking person and an Indian woman from Oklahoma who had married an Adams Massachusetts native Polish American. I enjoy putting in a whopper of a story, or a cowboy tall tale, in with the facts -- but I do not need to in this one.

 

 Why make hundreds of pierogis? Well! To support the Polish Parochial School that is still operating. Although there are only, for example, nine children currently in second grade there.

All day long Cioci Flo would bring people by to see Sandy and they would play the Guess Who I Am game. Yes! Millie Czerwinski was there. She is 96 now. She was a close friend of Cioci Genevieve who lived in the yellow house on Valley Street. They had two sons and three daughters. Two became nuns. One married a Gwosz fella. They lived right next door to the Strezpeks. You remember? After 50 years we don't even remember the names of the streets, never mind the people, but Sandy did well with it. 

Two of the original nuns were there, dressed in their habits. Sandy and her brother Brian and her 342 Polish cousins all attended the Polish School. Most of them still have their welts from being hit with wooden pointers. All of them still have the abnormal, but real, fear of being locked in the closet.

Some of the older Polish women asked Barb if she was Polish. She said no. Their faces fell. But then Barb said she had Czech blood, and the old folks cheered and said, "Close enough," and Barb was given her own babushka and accepted. Sandy told her own whopper, that Barb came from Chicago to be there. Well she did, but not directly – that was thirty years ago.

The pierogis that they made Saturday were filled with kapusta. Someone drives to Northampton and buys 100 heads of cabbage directly from a Polish farm for this delicious filling. (???!!!???)

Henry Ford gave the volunteers ideas on how to go about making hundreds of pierogis. If you heard how to say “pierogis” for as many times as I have written “pierigis” you no longer would call them Pure Doggies. I can't even write it out phonetically for you. My Mom, Nora Lemanski, taught me how to say it. They definitely had a production line going at the church. Sandy said everyone worked hard and there were no slackers.

 

All the food -- I just couldn't write pierogis again -- will go on sale at the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Bazaar on Saturday November 23rd. They always sell out quickly.

Next Saturday they will be making cheese pierogis, my favorite. See you there.

Your friend,  

Bobby Lemanski Bacon   

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Christmas card from Adams

Sandy,

Thank you so much for the wonderful photo album and especially for sharing in our pierogi workbee at  Saint Stanislaus Kostka Hall.

It was a pleasure to have both  you and Barb there to share in the fun and success.

In total we made:
cabbage  4,356
cheese & potato 5,036
782 dozen

And nearly sold out. At days end we had about 70 dozen left to sell after Mass.

Thanks for helping to keep the tradition alive.

We hope you can join us next year.

With wishes for health & happiness in 2014.

                                                                                    Suzanne