In the early 1900’s all four of my grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Poland.
My grandfather, Jan Stasiak from Płouszawica, Lublin; my grandmother Czesława Kozierowska (Stasiak) from Goleszyn near Sierpc (Płock), though I’m not sure if that’s the region her family is originally from; my grandgather Józef Ruszczyk from Myszyniec Stary (Łomża); and my grandmother Paulina Soliwoda (Ruszczyk) possibly from the same region.
My father, Slyvester Ruszczyk was born December 5, 1918 in Ashland, Wisconsin, and my mother, Helen Stasiak (Ruszczyk) was born May 22, 1923 in Buffalo, NY. They married in 1947, and I was born June 7, 1952.
My brother, Ronald John Ruszczyk was born September 30, 1956.
My father worked for Bell Aerosystems, and built some of the Gemini rocket modules that the NASA astronauts rode in. He was always playing the accordion, so I wanted to play, too. At the age of 5 they bought me a full key accordion, just a smaller size, and I played until I was 11, when I discovered the Beatles, and I wanted to play the guitar. I played a little, but discovered that it wasn’t logical like an accordion. I also played the piano and harpsichord a little, but struggled with the left hand since I was used to the accordion. From time to time throughout the years, I’d pick up the accordion and play again.
I did have a musical family, most of my aunts and uncles, and some of my cousins (I do have a lot of them!) played accordion.
My musical background served me well. Throughout grammar school, I was at the top of my class. It turned out that there were 4 of us who played musical instruments, and we were all the smartest. I think that is why I have always been attracted to guys in bands, because I saw them as superior human beings.
My first love, at the age of 4, was Zorro. Yes, Guy Williams. I watched that TV show every week. I would go to sleep at night, dreaming that I was kissing him... even at that young age. No wonder that I have always been attracted to guys with dark hair. My first crush in kindergarden was a boy with dark hair and black glasses (which reminded me of Zorro’s mask).
My next crush in the 1st grade was a kid who played the organ, and had longish hair, though when I discovered his older brother who sometimes played organ in church, that is where my heart wandered.
Again, it was no wonder that my next great love would be Paul McCartney, the musician with long hair and big brown eyes. When they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show February 9, 1964, I immediately fell in love with Paul when he sang, “All My Loving”. And the rest is history.
I first became aware of the Beatles the previous December. My Dad and I often took walks, because he liked to hike… I guess he was into the physical fitness craze before it became popular. Since I was the older child, I often accompanied him, even on a cold winter’s day.
As we walked, we ducked into the doorway of a record store to warm up, and there on the door were tiny stickers with four Beatle wigs, saying:
“The Beatles are coming” I mis-read that as “Beat-less” and had no clue.
But walking wasn’t always what we did. My family enjoyed the beach.
Every weekend it was Long Beach in Canada, and for vacation it was Wasaga Beach.
There were some bigger vacations, too. Like the trip we took to Miami. My cousin, Mary Ann coming along as my babysitter. And later some trips to other parts of Canada, like Montreal, Ottawa, St. Anne DeBeaupre, and Algonquin Provincial Park.
We also enjoyed weekends at Chestnut Ridge Park, and my Dad would take me and all my cousins, hiking in the creek. It was always an adventure because we would sometimes get to a waterfall that we would sometimes climb. And then there was the derelict school bus which had been converted into sort of a camper, and somehow had ended up in the creek.
This love of nature also extended to weekends in Franklinville, NY, where friends had a vacation home near a pond. It was later that our vacations turned into camping trips in the Adirondack Mountains. We camped at Fish Creek Pond, where our transportation was a boat, and the quieter Rollins Pond, where we relied on a canoe. And, of course, there was the hiking. Up Mount Marcy, the highest elevation in New York State. My Dad and I went up to the top, while my Mom and Ron only went part way.
While my Dad was more of a nature lover, my Mom loved to dress up and go out Polka Dancing. She was a great dancer, and a member of the Polka Boosters Club. She also was an excellent bowler. Her team was sponsored by the Schuper House, and the blowing shirts had the greatest looking embroidered foaming Schuper of Beer on the back.
My Mom also was secretary, and later National Director for the Polish Union of America, a fraternal insurance company that my grandfather Stasiak originally worked for. My Mom was very much in the spotlight with that organization, which did a lot for the Polish community in Buffalo and areas in the Northeast U.S. Plus, with her big black hair, she was quite photogenic, so her picture was always in the local Polish newspapers.
After my father died in 1968, my mother began dating Ed Zasada, who owned a Tavern and Catering service. This allowed my Mom to be more of a social butterfly, helping out with the catering, etc. It was then that she met and talked privately with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, who would later become Pope John Paul II.
Meanwhile, I had fallen in love with yet another musician, Bob Radel, the bass guitarist from the Buffalo, NY rock band, The Rogues. They were undoubtedly the best cover band ever. They could sound exactly like the Beatles, the Stones, Sam & Dave, the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, etc. etc.
In grammar school I had short brown hair and glasses, while the popular girls were blonde, like my best friend, Barbara. And so, when I was 15, I became a blonde, got contac lenses and false eyelashes, and suddenly I was “in”. Most of the girls from my grammar school, St. Luke’s went to my high school, Villa Maria Academy (originally Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy), and yet one of my best friends, Colleen had never gone to school with me. She lived across the street from Geri, and the three of us used to follow the Rogues and went to all their dances.
Colleen and Geri were my good friends, good girls who talked with their parents, etc. Then there were my other best friends, Sue and Sue, who were more on the wild side. It was an interesting tug of war with me in the middle, a little good and a little wild. But it was all about music, and after the Rogues broke up, Colleen and I followed other bands, Cold Soup, Grace Rush, Raven (Rising Sons), Parkside Zoo, etc. becoming friends with the guys in the bands, hanging out at places like Aliotta’s, or going to other clubs and college mixers. Our parents didn’t worry about us using fake ID to go to these places, because we didn’t drink. We were there for the bands.
We also did a lot of walking….. usually to Delaware Park, where all the cool people hung out in the summer, inside the Albright Knox Art Gallery in the winter, even though we did not like modern art.
We also took the bus to Crystal Beach, to swim on weekends. We had fond memories from grammar school when the classes used to go there to ride on the rides. I loved the Comet rollercoaster, Laff in the Dark, and the Magic Castle. And now, we could still partake of the Logenberry drinks, and take walks down the beach, the waves lapping at our feet. This is something I shared with all of my girlfriends. A magical place that was a kind of second home to us.
In college, when I worked at WBFO radio, we would often ride our bikes over the Peace Bridge into Canada, and go to Windmill Quarry. Once I ran into Jim Ralston there. He played in some of the bands I liked, and it was good to think that I was traveling in the same social circles as he. (Jim went on to play with Tina Turner’s band, and I saw him in a frozen yogurt place in Los Angeles once, but I didn’t go to talk to him, since I had just come from the gym.)
Of course, at the time I had friendship with Michael Spriggs, former lead guitarist with the Rogues. He played briefly acoustic with Ken Thomas, as Mike and Ken, and then later Michael had a group, Magnacoustic. I used to go over to his apartment to listen to them rehearse. We did have a couple of dates, and once, when we were kissing, he said I was “dangerous”. I liked that.
As for Bob Radel, the first time I saw him afrter the Rogues broke up was at the movie, Woodstock. Colleen and I just happened to run into him on the way to see the film, and so he sat with us !!! It was so exciting, kind of almost like a date.
I never did get to Woodstock, I was too young to go that far. Kind of like when the Beatles came to Toronto when I was 12. My parents wouldn’t let me save up bottle-caps so that I could go with WKBW radio by bus to see them. Something I always regretted. But then, we had the Rogues, and that was almost as good.
I did get to go to other rock concerts and festivals. I saw Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs and Englishmen (with Leon Russell, etc. ) at Kleinhans. Also saw Sly and the Family Stone there. Saw the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and B.B. King at the small bar, Aliotta’s. One of the first rock festivals that took place after Woodstock, was Strawberry Fields in Canada. We snuck in, but only walked around a bit, and left without really seeing any bands, though we could hear music in the distance. I think Jimi Hendrix was playing the day we were there.
We also went to the Festival Express in Toronto in 1970, and saw Janis Joplin, Tom Rush, Eric Andersen, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Traffic. And at the Mariposa Folk festival in 1972, we saw Bob Dylan just hanging around. Sue talked to him and he let her take an awesome photo of him.
Meanwhile, Bob Radel was in a few other bands, and we would go to hear them play, and he would talk to me. But he soon married his first wife, and moved away and that was the end of that….or so I thought !!
In an attempt to make myself someone that Bob would notice, I thought that being on the radio would be the thing, and, as a result, I got to interview people like Vincent Price, and Pistol Pete Maravich !!
I was really into basketball….pro basketball, that is, after the graduation of some of my favorites, like Bob Lanier, etc. from St. Bonaventure. When they went to the pros, so did I, and that’s when I discovered Pistol Pete.
As a radio sports reporter, I got to go to the Buffalo Braves games free, and when I asked about interviewing Pete, I was told that, since women (at that time) weren’t allowed in the locker rooms, that I should meet him at the hotel after the game.
So, there I was at the Statler Hilton Hotel, waiting in the lobby. Jim W., a gorgeous basketball player, came in and immediately came up to me, remembering me from the game. I had long blonde hair, a long black coat with mini cape, so I guess I did stand out. I told him I was there to interview Pete. Pete also found me, and invited me to dinner, then to his room. I got a really great interview. Also I interviewed him the next time he was in town, and after that, we would just get together for a drink after the game, by then he had become more of a big brother than a lover. Something that I think happened to me with Mike Spriggs. It seems that as wild as I was, these guys saw me as young and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, there were the guys from the radio station. Wally, who was Sir Walter Raleigh, etc. at bigger stations, was a good friend, and somehow we always spent Christmas together because, no matter who we were involved with, they were always away during the holidays. And there was Mike K., who had been a black-face clown for Ringling Brothers. We briefly dated. He could tap dance and do the fox trot, and he inspired me to go to Fred Astaire Dance Studios for lessons…. When they told me they had a teacher training program, and that it was free, ( I just had to promise to work there), I said, ok, sign me up!!
I loved ballroom dancing, and the music, especially the Latin Cha Cha and Mambo. Ballroom dance was sexy, too. Some of my wildest adventures involved the dance business… especially the out of town dance competitions. The first one I went to was at St. Thomas, V.I. where I met Giancarlo. He was Italian, who barely spoke English, and he was very handsome. He was from the Philadelphia studio, and we immediately hit it off.
That was on the last night of the trip. The Houston studio (the biggest and most prestigious FADS), held a party in one of the hotel rooms. (By invitation only, very exclusive). I had been talking to Mike L., also from Philadelphia, about becoming dance partners, (You were always looking for a good dance partner, even from another studio.) When Giancarlo came along to collect me for that walk on the beach we had been hoping to take. He said it was ok if we took Mike along, so we did. We ended up with a From Here to Eternity moment… the three of us… on the beach. (I think I did better than Jim M. from my studio, who spend the night with two women.) And when we woke in my room the next morning, Giancarlo was shocked to see Mike, until he saw me standing there, and it all came back to him. (Years later when I saw Mike at another competition…Giancarlo having since left the dance business…he said that is one of the stories he loves to tell. And it is one of my favorite stories, too.)
I had seen Giancarlo at a couple of competitions, and we planned on getting together at one of the National competitions in Miami, but that was the week when everything went wrong for me, despite being the most fun. First off, Giancarlo saw me at the Numero Uno Club, where Joe Cuba and other latin bands were playing, with Victor Shariff, and he became jealous. Shariff, (who is gay, and from Massachusetts), and I were talking about becoming dance partners. That, and a few other incidents, and it looked like things were over.
Most of that week, I hung around with a guy from Houston, who was just a friend. One night we took our students out to a place called the Flamenco Club, where the restaurant suddenly transformed into a large showroom, with Las Vegas style dancers and a band and fountain, etc… much to our surprise.
One night, I had a date with Jim M., (whom I had been dating at home), for after the competition. He waited for me in the ballroom while I escorted my student to his room. When I came back, two guys from New York latched onto me. One taking one arm, the other the other arm, and they walked me into and out of the ballroom, despite my protests. Of course, Jim saw this, and so, by the time I was able to extricate myself from these guys and get back to the ballroom, there was Jim, dancing with a girl who looked very much like me. I waited, but he left with her. And so the week went like this.
Finally, the Houston party. I had an invite from my Houston friend, and Jim and I got things straightened out, and he said we’d get together after the party. Then as I was watching the competition, Giancarlo whispered in my ear that he was sorry for doubting me, and said we would get together after the Houston party.
Well, I had been out partying till all hours of the night all week, so by this last evening, I was pretty tired. After a while, I was ready to leave the Houston party, but both Jim and Giancarlo wanted to stay longer. When I was ready to drop, I decided to leave. Unfortunately, Shariff (remember him?), who hadn’t been at the party, just came up to give a message to someone, and it appeared that I was leaving with him. Now everyone was mad at me again. Sigh.. but the week was over, so I didn’t care anymore.
Lol….
February 22, 1973 was a life changing time when I first saw the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble at Kelinhans Music Hall. I was aware of them, and recall the group at a luncheon sponsored by the Polish Union of America back in 1964 or somesuch. But this was the first time I saw them perform, and I loved them as much as The Beatles.
Little did I realize that I had been hearing their songs on the radio all my life, so when I heard them sing, it went right to my heart.
After the performance, there was a Midnight banquet sponsored by the PUA. I got to present the director, Mira Ziminska-Sygietynska with a bouquet of flowers. Afterwards, several of the dancers danced with me, including Michal Jarczyk, one of the soloists, who danced a tango with me. I was just learing to become a dance teacher, so this was quite fun.
Of course, my Polish was kind of rusty, since I never actually spoke it before. (I understood it perfectly, and could pronounce it because I sang Polish songs, but I never learned grammar, so I was just going by what sounded right.) So, when Michal asked what I was studying in school, I said “everybody” instead of ‘everything’. Lol
Then, I danced with Ryszard Blige, a tall, light haired, chizzled handsome dancer. He then danced with my Mom and told her she had a beautiful daughter, and asked if we could join him for lunch the next day, but she declined, saying she was busy. Yikes!
So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knew they were staying at the Statler Hilton Hotel, so I went there and just hung out in the lobby. Then I saw Ryszard heading into the dining room. What to do? Luckily, the President of the PUA was in there, too. (Daniel Kij and I were doing a TV show together, featuring news from the Polish community). Danny just happened to step out into the lobby for something and saw me. Thankfully, he didn’t ask what I was doing there. He invited me in to join him. He was seated with a couple of the girls from Mazowsze.
When Ryszard saw me, he came and brought me over to his table. Afterwards, we promised to keep in touch, but you know how things are.
A week later, however, I went with my Mom and a few other people from PUA to Albany, where we got to see Mazowsze perform again. Of course, now we knew several of the performers, so it was more fun.
It began with a luncheon, and I got to ride on the bus with the dancers. In fact, with my long blonde hair and false eyelashes, etc. people took me for one of the group! When I was in line at the buffet table with Ryszard, someone asked me if I was one of the dancers. Ryszard responded that I was his “American girlfriend.” Wow.
I didn’t remember my room number at the hotel, so Ryszard gave me his, and told me to call him so we could spend the afternoon together. I had never called a guy in my life, so by the time I worked up the courage to call, he had already gone.
I wandered around the hotel, hoping to run into him, when I was Andrzej K. one of the other dancers. I sat and talked with him a while, when Andrzej Tatarewicz came to join us. Tatarewicz, really looked like a Tatar! His dark hair and slanted eyes, and stocky build. He was the exact opposite of Ryszard, who danced in the more stately numbers. Andrzej T. performed in the more acrobatic dances.
My mother thought I was going out shopping with Andrzej K., whereas I ended up in bed with Andrzej T. Later, the three of us ate ice cream and danced the cha cha in their room. Great fun!
Then, that night, after the performance, there was a party in one of the rooms. Soloist Stanislaw Jopek and other singers, got up and told jokes and sang. I was sitting on one of the beds with Ryszard beside me, telling me that we’d have beautiful children together. Then Andrzej T. came in and sat on the other side of me, and there seemed to be a battle between them.
Eventually they left. Ryszard and I shared a romantic kiss together. Andrzej T. wanted me to come and spend the night with him, but I was already in a lot of trouble with my Mom for the afternoon romp.
It would be 25 years before I’d see Andrzej again…. I never did get to see Ryszard.
Mazowsze inspired me to go to Poland the following year. It, too, was a life changing event. “As I walked through the empty shell of the castle, I was filled with pride. For my people were rebuilding what had been destroyed by war… specifically, The Royal Castle in Warsaw. I first became aware of the construction, when the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble sang a song about it.
Mazowsze’s music touched my heart, and awoke in me a life-long passion for all things Polish. This trip was to be the first of many excursions to my homeland.
I was attending the same University as Copernicus and Pope John Paul II !!! Ok, so it was just a summer school program at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, (on scholarship from the Kościuszko Foundation), but I learned some Polish folk dances, and traveled around Poland, from Gdansk on the Baltic Sea, to Morskie Oko in the Tatra Mountains.
One of my favorite places, however, was right there in Kraków. For about a half cent, the tram took me from the student dorms, to the Sukienice (cloth hall) in Kraków’s Rynek (old Town Square). I loved the architecture, but best of all, inside the Suk were treasures… folk art and clothing that reflected Poland’s rich cultural history. I spent a lot of time there, vowing that someday I would live in Poland.”
During my 6 weeks in Poland, I had a free weekend, and used it to go to Romania!
"The moon was full, lighting the way for my late night visit to Dracula’s Palace. I was accompanied by a handsome Romanian college student, whom I had met on the train from Bucuresti to Tirgoviste. He didn’t quite understand my interest in this “historical site” where Vlad Tepes had lived, and so, I climbed over the wall alone.
I had only been walking around for a few minutes, when out of the lower courtyard it flew towards me, narrowly missing entanglement in my hair. I knew that birds did not fly at night. This had been a bat !!
Well, I did survive. The Romanian guy then took me Tango dancing. We both used our high school French to communicate.”
Full of ambition, I always followed my heart, and as a Gemini, I had a lot of interests. Besides working at two TV stations (as anchor and hostess for Polish community programs on a station in West Seneca, and producer for a weekly religious program on WUTV), 3 radio stations (WBFO, campus station WIRR, and the station owned by the Hound Dog, WBLK), and teaching Ballroom Dancing at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, I did some modeling for Pantastick stores, including dance fashion shows at the Club 747, and fashion shows before musical shows at Melody Fair…. all while attending the University of Buffalo on a 4 year, New York State Regents Scholarship.
Eventually I moved to Los Angeles, when I was offered a job at the Sherman Oaks Fred Astaire studio. I made friends with a young couple who owned the studio, and even had a flirtation with the husband, with the ok of the wife. Yes, the dance business is like that. One of the great things is that I had private lessons from Jock McGregor, a world champion (Blackpool) dancer.
I guess I must have learned something because at a dance competition in Las Vegas, a teacher from the Ridgewood, N.J. studio (another prestigious FADS studio) asked me to be his partner in the International Style, and had me audition for the studio’s owner, whereupon I was offered a job there. It meant moving to New Jersey, but it was worth it, and I ended up living in a cottage on Greenwood Lake, N.Y.
While I was there, Bob Radel tracked me down and called me at the dance studio. Even though we all wore fur coats and gowns, we were too poor to have phone at home, so they allowed the teachers to take personal calls at the studio. Bob said that he was going to surprise me in California, but thankfully, he called my Mother first and she told him I was back in New York State. He had gotten divorced and thought about us dating. He lived in a friend’s cottage in a rural area, about 100 miles from Buffalo, about 350 miles from me.
One time, on my way to Buffalo, I agreed to go and spend the weekend at Bob’s place. At first it was great. He was playing in a band, and I went with him to the club he was playing at. This is what I had dreamed about all my life! But that night when we were back at home, he went up to sleep in the loft, leaving me to sleep on the couch. Which was ok, because it was cold (I was sleeping in my clothes), and there was no running water (he had to get water from the creek). When he finally asked me to come up to join him, I said, no thanks, I’m fine, cos I felt kind of grungy. Well, then I wanted a shower, so I said I’d go on to Buffalo, and then come by on the way back.
When I returned, however, he was kind of distant. He was kind of hot and cold. He hadn’t gotten over his divorce, and now there was that awkwardness between us. I visited him a couple times on my drives to Buffalo, stopping to where his band was playing. Once he was so thrilled to see me, but I didn’t stay. The next time, he was very down, and wanted to be alone. Eventually, I gave up on him. I saw a side of him that I wish I had not. Working as a welder during the week, wearing a torn T-shirt. We never did kiss. But one, he touched me affectionately on the cheek.
After a year, I decided I wanted to leave the dance business. I did some modeling in New York City, and acted with a comedy group based in Bergen, N.J., but we also performed at night clubs in NYC. When this group disbanded, I did some trade-show modeling for Lake Adventure in the Poconos, which meant working at all the Malls in northern New Jersey, as far down as Ocean City. Eventually, I got a part-time at a radio station, WTBQ in Warwick, N.Y., as a weekend disc jockey and talk show host. I also began dating Polka Bandleader, Jimmy Sturr. Shortly after I mentioned to him that I always wanted to own a radio station, he bought WTBQ, and, even though he didn’t like women disc jockeys, he gave me a full-time job… as a News Reporter.
Bob Radel called me once, we did try to get together, but when I suggested a three-some with Jimmy, he said he wasn’t into that sort of thing. The next time I heard from him he had gotten married to Mary Jane. He said he had wanted to pursue me and marry me, but he thought I wasn’t interested. I said that’s what I had wanted since I was 13 !!!
I did go to visit Bob and Mary Jane in Olean one time. She allowed us time together, and Bob tried to talk me into moving near them, but I had my life and my career(s) somewhere else.
I loved living in that area… Orange County, N.Y…. out on the farms. I knew everyone and was a celebrity, even appearing on the local TV station, WLAE-TV. It was a lot of fun going to Jimmy’s dances, and dancing the polka. I missed dancing, so it was a thrill when Jimmy got me an introduction to the Matusz Polish Dance Circle from New York City.
Even though I didn’t know the Polish folk dances, Krakowiak, Mazur, Polonaise, Kujawiak, Oberek, and the various regional dances, I was allowed to join because of my ballroom background. At 28 I was grouped with the 18 year olds who were also new to the group, having learned the dances at the Polish School, but it was the best time of my life.
The Matusz group performed every weekend, sometimes two engagements, but with my 6-day a week job, I could only participate in some of the shows. My day off was Tuesday, when I would drive 2 hours each way to Brooklyn for rehearsal. I usually chose the bigger performances, when all 60 dancers performed. That included Carnegie Hall (3 times for me!), the Garden State Arts Center, Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown, PA, even the Cheektowaga Polish Festival near Buffalo! It wasn’t until the end of the 3 years that I was with the group (I had gotten a TV job and would not be able to get to the rehearsals), that I started dancing in some of the smaller shows (like a Telethon in Pennsylvania), which featured 4 or 8 couples, that I realized that those were much more fun, because I got to perform all the dances, like the Biały Mazur, which was my favorite.
I got a little taste of travel with two trips to Jamaica. The first with one of my girlfriends from Matusz, and the second with a guy from WTBQ.
“It’s called the ‘See Me No More Valley’, because people tend to disappear when entering. Fortunately we were just passing through by train… a day-long tour of Jamaica that we took while our sunburns healed. After baking like coconut macaroons because we applied the coconut oil sold to us by ‘Doctor Joe’, we were lucky we had also purchased his fresh aloe concoction, which did the trick.
I love Jamaica. And, though I have only been there twice, it is one of my favorite vacation spots: the Reggae, the beaches, climbing Dunn’s River Falls, the crab races, the bar in the middle of the pool, the rum punch… But one of the most memorable days was that train trip we took. Our first stop was in a village where we picked out material and were measured. On the way back from visits to various plantations, we stopped there again, and were presented with hand-made dresses, shirts, jumpsuits, etc.”
I got a job as a News Reporter and morning Anchor at a TV station in Middletown, N.Y., but when they cancelled the morning news, I did some free-lance work there and at the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, N.Y. What fun!! While I was learning to be a tour guide, I actually stomped grapes. Well, it was for the annual Harvest Festival an I had to partner contestants in a grape stomping contest. But soon I was giving tours. I felt like a stand-up comic sometimes, because of the jokes, and also a teacher. The bigger the audience, the better, because I was guaranteed someone would laugh at my jokes. It really helped with my TV work, too. Eventually I got a job Anchoring and Reporting at a TV station in Poughkeepsie.
But I did miss dancing. I had taught on my own, renting a hall one day a week for classes for a while, but I only broke even. But at least I had some fun. I also learned the dances for the Orange County Onion Harvest Festival in 1983, which was making a return after 19 years. Kind of like a Polish Woodstock with a parade, a pageant, and lots of dancing. But because of the TV job I couldn’t perform, but I did report on it for TV.
Since I was making a little more money working in TV, I was able to take a trip to Egypt in 1985.
“I had no idea where the Egyptian on horseback had taken me, but it was wonderful. We had ridden out into the desert, away from Saqqara, to an area where workers were excavating several small pyramids. Crawling into one of them, I discovered only sand, and a bucket.
It wasn’t until I returned home from my third trip to Egypt, 12 years later, and looked at my photos that I discovered that I had been to Abu Syr, a site that had not been open to the public.
I did not know much about Egypt when I made my first visit. I traveled alone for a few days, then joined a tour. What I learned I could not have gotten from books. It ignited in me a passion for the Land of the Pharohs, and laid a foundation for further study, and several more trips.”
Eventually I did find a part time job at the BLI Dance Studio in Rockland County. One of the things I am most proud of is the Formation I choreographed. I never got to dance in a Ballroom Formation, even though the Ridgewood FADS was famous for them. (They didn’t do any in the year I was there.) Thankfully the Polish folk dancing I did gave me an idea of how group dancing works, so I used that knowledge to teach 8 couples a routine with the Cha Cha, Fox Trot, and Swing. I heard that years and years after I left the studio, the studio would still perform it for special occasions.
But after 10 years, I decided it was time to return to California. Unfortunately, it was then that I went to see The Lonely Hearts Club Band, Beatles impersonators. I always avoided groups like this because they weren’t the real thing, but turns out I loved them! And I picked up the guy who played Paul, Jim G. We had a couple of dates, and I really fell for him, but luckily he was also moving to Los Angeles, where we also had a couple of dates, but it didn’t work out. There was even a time in Pennsylvania when I went out with both him, and the John guy, Al. The best time was when the three of us watched the movie “A Hard Days Night” together!!
In Los Angeles, I started working in Television, but behind the scenes, as a video editor for the News. Very easy job, like someone giving you coloring books and crayons, and saying go ahead. I worked free-lance but it ended up being 5 days a week, so I got paid more and had as much free time as I wanted.
One of the great things about working in TV was that I got to go to Paul McCartney’s Press Conference when he came to perform in Los Angeles. It was a thrill that I got to ask him a question that he answered. This was 1989… 25 years after I decided to go into radio so that I could interview the Beatles. Also 25 years that I had waited to see the Beatles perform. First it was Ringo in Buffalo, then Paul in Los Angeles. That same day I also got to be in a TV commercial for VISA that Paul was filming. I got to play a “fan” who got his autograph, and gave him a rose, and yes, he held my hand. The only thing I missed out on was going to the China Club after the concert that night. It had been a long day and I was tired. Turns out that George Harrison was there, so I missed seeing him.
I did get to see Ringo perform again, this time in Los Angeles at the Greek Theater. I went backstage afterwards (as I have a habit of doing), and he and wife Barbara walked right past me!
I also got to see Paul in concert again a few years later, but best of all, I got to see him get a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1990. I attended the Grammy awards as a seat filler!
In a city like L.A. it was very difficult to meet guys I wanted to date, but I ended up dating a great guy for a while. Tom Nettles. He had been weekend Sports Anchor at Ch. 11, but it wasn’t until we had worked together for over a year and a half that we got to know each other. He began seeking me out to edit for him, and he always seemed a bit shy as if he liked me.
Eventually my friend Drake got us together at a blues club we used to go to on Saturday nights. When Tom and I began talking, it just clicked. We had a lot in common. He was an ex-pro football player and pro golfer, and liked to play guitar and dance. He even took me out Ballroom Dancing one night, and acted the perfect, old fashioned gentleman. But he never kissed me or anything, until he lost his job. Turns out he had a policy not to date co-workers because it always went bad.
It was great because we did everything I always wanted to do with a boyfriend, walks along the beach, playing model and photographer, dancing together, etc. But soon he realized that he would have to leave Los Angeles to get a job and didn’t want to start something we couldn’t follow through with. But I insisted we at least maintain a friendship, which we did.
When he had to move to his condo in Palm Springs, it was like mini-vacations for me going there every week, and when he moved into his brother’s place in San Diego, we took West Coast Swing dance lessons together, and went out to blues and c&w dance clubs when I’d visit.
Eventually, however, he got a job at the Golf Channel in Orlando.
As much as he was against long distance relationships, he said now he was in a position to get romantically involved. But it just didn’t work out.
So, I decided to take some International Ballroom dance lessons, and had a lot of fun. I even had a bit of a flirtation with my dance teacher, who reminded me that he was the guy who was holding me in his arms, as if we were on a date.
But then my life turned a couple of corners first was a trip to Egypt in 1995. I had found my new life, and a lot of new friends. But first, a couple of trips with my Mom to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Luxor Hotel.
“An Egyptian friend of mine had been a consultant on the building of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. When it first opened, it even had a Nile River cruise, complete with tour-guide. And so, before my second trip to Egypt, I thought it was worth checking out.
I was never much into gambling, that is, until I started winning…though after losing my winnings, I lost interest again, but that’s another story.
I have, however, been to Las Vegas many many times, because it was my Mother’s favorite place. We would usually meet there for Mother’s Day, and one of the things I enjoyed the most, was visiting the various ‘theme’ hotels. In fact, one year, when I did not travel overseas, my ‘travel’ Christmas card (a joke) was made up of scenes from Vegas hotels.”
Now my traveling began. Before each trip I learned to speak the language. Mostly I learned with the Pimsleur audio tapes, where you learn naturally, and have the right accent. So I spoke quite well, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Greek, Russian, German, Hindi, etc. For other languages I had to use other tapes, like Uzbek (which was the same as the Uyghur of Xinjiang China spoke), Tibetan, Thai, etc. , so I didn’t learn those languages as well, mostly food and numbers, etc. As for Polish, since I was already fluent, I had books and takes which taught me grammar . As for writing, I did learn Russian, which was easy, but I didn’t really take the time with Arabic. As for Chinese, I just learned a few symbols because that would have been a tremendous undertaking. Also, when Pimsleur came out with Egyptian Arabic, I was able to incorporate that into the Eastern Arabic I had previously learned. (In Egypt everyone kept asking me where I learned Arabic, because I spoke with a Lebanese accent!!)
The 1995 trip to Egypt began with a 24 hour stop in Rome.
“The elevator was full, so we stepped over to the next one, and waited. It was midnight, and we were exhausted from our long journey. When the door finally opened, we were stunned to see that it, too, was full. Inside, the same people who had been in the other elevator. What?!??
Turns out they were confused by the numbering of the rooms and floors, so they had taken the next elevator back down. It was going to be a long night.
We were only in Rome for 24 hours, on our way to Egypt, so we took off on our own for a quick tour. Boarding the bus, we discovered that we should have paid at the newsstand in the street. It was going to be an interesting trip !!”
And then, off on the trip that would change my life:
“The tomb was filled with debris. It was still being excavated, and we were not supposed to be inside KV 5, but we had connections with the Antiquities Department. I went in as far as the Osiris statue, and it was, to quote Kent Weeks himself, “One of the most amazing experiences of my life.”
The Egyptologist was still in the beginning stages of clearing out KV 5, the tomb which may have contained most of the 50 sons of Rameses II. This was an amazing opportunity.
I was also one of the first tourists to go inside the tomb of Rameses’ beloved wife, Nefertari, which had just been restored. (The tomb was to open a month later. It has since been closed to the public in order to preserve it’s vivid colors.)
Having already been to Egypt, I knew where I wanted to go, I even knew which hotels I wanted to stay at, and luckily chose to travel with Joy Travel International, whose owner, Fadel Gad is an Egyptian scholar, and close friends with Director of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass. Zahi was among the Egyptologists who traveled with us. I made many friends on that trip, most of us remain best friends and travel partners; our love of Egypt and archaeology binding us together.” Among my new friends, Gayle, who would travel with me to Egypt again two years later…. And Zahi, who often visited Los Angeles, giving lectures, etc.
Nothing could top that, but I would try, with travel to other exotic locations, like China in 1996: “We walked the streets of the village that would no longer exist after the dam was built. I was glad to have gotten to China while the Yangtze River was still low enough that the mountains soared.
Having been to the most exciting place on earth, Egypt, I now wanted to see other exotic places. Europe was not very high on my list right now, and forget about the Western Hemisphere. Asia was the continent I would explore first, beginning with China.
The Great Wall, the Terra Cotta soldiers, the Yangtze River, the Buddhist carvings at Dazu, and, of course, the food !!! Yes, everything was delicious, including the dumplings in Shanghai !!”
But then it was back again to Egypt the following year, 1997. A course in Egyptian Hieroglyphics at UCLA made this trip even more fun!
“’Homage to thee Ra, Supreme power, who makes the earth visible, who gives light to those Westerners…’
That was the Litany to Re that we recited one night in front of the awesome temple of Rameses the Great at Abu Simbel.
Instead of a Nile cruise, we took a Nubian cruise on Lake Nassar. This was the first year that this was offered, and there were only 3 cruise ships on the entire lake, so we pretty much had it to ourselves. We visited Wadi El Saboua, Qasr Ibrim, and docked overnight at Abu Simbel, my favorite place in all of Egypt. Despite having been re-located before the building of the Aswan Dam, there are still two days of the year when the rising sun penetrates 200 feet into the interior of the temple, illuminating the figures of the gods in the sanctuary.
Once again traveling with Joy Travel International, this was a tour for those who have already visited Egypt, and we saw sites we had not seen before, including areas that were just now opened to the public, like Abu Syr, and Dashur, the site of the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, whose interior we got to explore.
After the tour, we all went our separate ways. There were four of us (me, Gayle, and the Bretons) who chose to go to Luxor, in order to see the opera Aida performed in front of Queen Hapshetsut’s Temple.
Of course, there were the usual hi-jinks. Piling our unsecured luggage onto the top of a small car, hoping nothing would fall off as we barreled down the street. Rushing to dress into our finest, in order to catch the bus to take us to the opera. Then, arriving there hours early without having eaten, devouring all the peanuts on the bar. But it was worth it. Aida was magnificent, we had a hotel right on the Nile (unlike the older hotels which are across the street), and we took a hot-air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings.”
That trip also included a week in Jordan: “Passing through the Sikh, we emerged, looking upon the facade of the Treasury, rising high above us. The rose-colored rock-cut building marks the entrance to the lost Nabatean city of Petra.
Feeling much like the explorer who disguised himself as a Bedouin to discover the secret, the treck through the narrow gorge which rises 80 meters above head itself was spectacular. And the reward was awe-inspiring. The Treasury was only the first of the many architectural wonders of this centuries old site.
Meanwhile, Jordan offers much more, from the Roman ruins we explored at Jerash, to the Ottoman Village where we stayed, from the delicious ice cream we tasted in Amman, to the mud baths we took before floating in the Dead Sea.”
And then my life turned another corner when I saw the Mazowsze perform again. In 1992 Tom had come with me to see Mazowsze, and really enjoyed it. I had recently seen Virsky from Ukraine and Moisejev from Russia, which made wish that Tom could see them, so that he would know more about me. As luck would have it, my Mom mentioned that Mazowsze would be performing in Buffalo, and maybe they’d perform in California. I hadn’t seen them in 10 years, so this news was wonderful. It turned out that they were performing in Palm Desert, right where Tom was living. I also went to Las Vegas to see them, as well. I was thrilled that Stanislaw Jopek was still with the group.
Then when they returned in 1997, I made sure I saw them 3 times, with various girlfriends.
At the Ceritos center, the promoter told me to go around the back of the building where the dancers would be boarding the bus, so that my friend, Alison’s daughter could get some autographs. Well, they had a new head choreographer, Michał Jarczyk, who looked as good as he did when I met him 24 years ago, so I talked to him, reminding him of our dance. When I said I was also going to see them perform in Las Vegas, he said then maybe we could have another Tango then. Also, Mieczysław Piwkowski, the musical arranger who took over after Tadeusz Sygietyński died, came over to talk to me. I didn’t realize who he was at the time, but every time I saw the group after this, he always made it a point to talk to me.
So now, I was smitten with Michał. (In Las Vegas we did talk, but I did not go to see him after the show because we had Marva’s young daughter with us and had to leave.) But not only that, I realized that I was in love with Mazowsze. Usually I would focus on one person in a band or group, but this was different. I loved them all and I loved Poland and I loved my life. Suddenly I was different. I was totally happy and no longer needed to be in love with a guy. This was a total revelation to me!!
That summer, I discovered that in L.A., there would be a festival of Polish Folk dance troupes in from the U.S. and Canada, and one of the choreographers from Poland would be Witold Zapała, who had been Mazowsze’s head choreographer (and best dancer) from 1957 until he recently quit. (When Director Mira Ziminska-Sygietińska died earlier this year, things were a mess, so he left…. turns out it was temporary.)
I bugged the guy in charge of the festival to let me meet Zapała. Jasiu Sobanski who had been a member of Mazowsze (the first non-Pole to be allowed to join the group) for a short while. He now was director of a group called Podhale.
It was such a thrill to watch Witold (Witek to his friends) working with the dancers. When he saw me sitting there at the rehearsals, he came over to talk to me, and a wonderful friendship began.
I was to see him again when I went to Poland the following year, for a 5 week all encompassing trip:
„What are your plans for Warsaw?” he asked me. “I hope to visit Wilanów Palace, Łazienki Palace, and the Royal Castle, and, of course, see a Mazowsze performance.” “Ok, I’ll pick up up at 9 A.M.” OMG !!!
I had just arrived in Poland, and, at the insistence of a friend, I called Mazowsze Choreographer Witold Zapała, to say “Hi” (we had met the previous year in Los Angeles), and he was going to take me sight-seeing !!! and to the Opera (Straszny Dwór), and best of all, I was going to sit with him at a Mazowsze concert !!!
That was the beginning of my second trip to Poland. I knew it was going to be magical when I woke from my jet-lag induced nap, to hear Mazowsze singing outside my window. Stanisław Jopek and the singers had been rehearsing in my hotel!!
I had not been to Poland for 25 years. The Communists were no longer in control. With the help of PAT Tours, I rented a car, and mapped out a “tour” for myself, which included the cities and villages where my grandparents were born; a couple of villages that bore my name; several skansens (out-door museums); and stays in palaces and castles which had a limited number of rooms for tourists.
I spent 5 weeks driving 5,000 km throughout all of central and eastern Poland, from the Mazury Lakes in the north, to the Tatra, Pieniny, Bieskidy, Biesczady, etc. Mountains in the south. I photographed churches, and sampled Pierogi in all the restaurants…… I was home !!!”
Austria trip with my Mom, 1999. “We sat in the second row at the Muzikverein, as the Mozart orchestra performed, dressed in period costumes. This was where the New Years in Vienna concerts were held, and this was where my Mom wanted to be. Inspired by Andre Rieu, she chose this musical trip to Austria for her first visit to Europe.
Every day there were concerts, and tours of musical sites, churches, palaces, etc. all across Austria, from Vienna to Salzburg. Hayden, Beethoven, Brukner, Schubert, and, of course Strauss. We saw where the Sound of Music was filmed. We were treated to the Vienna Boys Choir. And then there was the marionette performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which was totally fantastic !!
Meanwhile, no trip to Vienna would be complete without a visit to the Sacher Hotel to sample the famous Sacher Torte !!”
In 2000 my trip to Thailand began with a pre-trip to Cambodia. There were just 5 of us, and we became best friends. Larry & Shirley were about 20 years older than I; George also 20 years older; and his sister-in-law Meg was 10 years older. They laughed that I had signed up with a tour company that was for older people… “Didn’t you see all the people with grey hair in the brochure?” But I was lucky. I eventually traveled other trips with different combinations of these people, plus visited their homes, etc.
“Proud of his heritage, and with the knowledge of an archaeologist, our Cambodian tourguide explained the Hindu and Buddhist carvings on the temples around Angkor, including the famous Angkor Wat. “
Then in Thailand, “given the opportunity to ride as Mahout, I climbed onto the elephant’s neck… and prayed that he didn’t decide to bend down to eat or something, for I could only hold on with my knees.
Traveling with some of my new best friends, Thailand did not disappoint. It has everything from magnificent temples, to beautiful scenery, exotic dances, and delicious food !!! Thus, I have many fond memories, like when Anya stopped a guy on a motorcycle, and bought from him a few bamboo stalks. Inside the bamboo, a treat !! Sticky rice with raisins.
Buddhism is the popular religion of Thailand. It retains its pure form, unlike the Buddhism of the Himalayan countries, where other, older religious ideas are mixed in.”
“Following the trail of the lavender jade, we crossed the border into Myanmar (Burma), and spent the day in the city of Tachileik, near the Golden Triangle.
I have to be content with that brief visit for now, since I had missed the chance to go with a couple of my travel friends to see the marvelous temples at Bagan.”
I almost didn’t go on this month long Silk Road trip… 5 weeks earlier I had brain surgery to remove a meningioma, which left me with a weak ankle. I really came to appreciate my friends at this time. Marva drove me to the hospital, held hands with me until the surgery, then half way through, Alison came, and was there holding my hand when I woke up. Penny came by everyday to see if I needed anything, buying me a pair of shoes to wear for PT, since I had decided to stay a few days to begin therapy in the hospital. Then Gayle drove me home, and stayed with me for a week as I recovered.
I treated these four to a Podhale performance on my 50th birthday the following year. The best way to celebrate. (I was also acknowledged by the dance troupe for having gotten them on a TV show on Ch. 11 in L.A.)
2000 Uzbekistan. “We left the fabled blue-tiled city of Samarkand, following the Silk Road through the Kara Kum desert, on our way to the holy city of Bukhara, and Khiva, the city of a thousand and one domes. Samarkand, one of the oldest cities of the world, the legendary capital of the Sogdians, the seat of Tamerlane’s empire, the city that Alexander the Great called the most beautiful he had ever seen.
I had wanted to travel the Silk Route for a long time, and finally, here I was. I wanted to take my time, no quick tour, so I began by spending a month in the “Stans”. With the fall of the Soviet Union, these ancient countries were now returning to their former glory, and I was seeing it first hand.”
Turkmenistan – “The immense golden statues of the Turkmenbashi could be seen all over the city of Ashkabat, and, in every hotel and public building, his portrait. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Saparmurat Niyazov declared himself President for Life. He did a lot for the people of Turkmenistan, but, as with most dictators, not all of his actions were beneficial.
Tourism was something new here. The hotel we stayed at in Mary was severely lacking. The television in my room was physically broken, serving only to house the cockroaches. There were holes in the bathroom wall, the towels were grey, as was the water from one faucet, the other faucet producing brown water. But that did not matter, since there was no way I could shower. The water was either very cold or very hot, a balance could not be achieved.
But we were not there as tourists, we were there to explore the nearby historical site of Merv, once the largest city in the world.”
St. Petersburg, Russia, was the treat at the end of a month long archaeological Central Asian Silk road trip.
“I was having trouble reading the menu in the McDonald’s in St. Petersburg, so, with my limited Russian, I asked the girl what kind of sauces they had for their Chicken Nuggets. Thankfully, the Russian words for “sweet and sour sauce” are the same in Polish, so I was able to place my order.
With only a day in Moscow, and three in St. Petersburg, I still managed to see all the highlights. The best part, however, was the Astoria Hotel. After nearly a month of travel in the “Stans”, this stop in St. Petersburg was meant to pamper, and it did. From the luxurious comforter on the bed, to the heated tiles in the bathroom, to the white chocolate Toblerone candy in the mini-bar. This was my heaven !! My favorite hotel ever !!”
2001 South India. “The professor traveling with us for our month long journey through southern India, would always read to us excerpts from the Mahabharata, the Panchatantra, and the Ramayana on long bus trips. Not just entertaining, but a window into the Hindu religion itself.
But it wasn’t just history or religion that I learned about in India.
I was fascinated by the mixture of cultures that peacefully make up this subcontinent. Interesting that English is the assistant language in this multi-lingual country. The TV game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, for example, featured conversations in Hindi, but the game questions were in English.
Yes, I try to watch as much local television as I can when I am traveling. The most fun here, of course, were the Bollywood movies.
Oh, and one thing I though was worth mentioning…after noticing the people who were washing their clothes in the river and drying them by laying them on the grass, one of the hotels I stayed at, sent our laundry “out” to be done. Yes, it came back clean, but there was a bit of grass on some of the items !!!”
Poland 2001 “The Choreographer for the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble, Witold Zapala, left his car double parked in front of the hotel, as he rushed in to greet us. A bouquet of flowers for my Mother, a turquoise shawl for me. ‘What kind of tour is this that you are already leaving Warsaw?’ he asked.
Accustomed to traveling around Poland on my own, a guided tour was a concession made for my Mother, who had never been to this country before. Together with a pleasant group of travelers, we visited all the popular sites, including the Wieliczka Salt Mines, with it’s carved statues and chapels; Jasna Góra, home of the Black Madonna – Our Lady of Częstochowa; Mariacki church in Kraków, with it’s golden altar; and Zakopane, where we took a cable-car up the mountains.
There, in a local karczma (tavern), we were entertained by a Góralski kapela (Highlander band), whom I immediately recognized as Andrzej Obrochty-Bartuś, my favorite !! In fact, I had just that day purchased a couple of their CD’s, so I asked for their autographs. I am sure they were surprised that an American even knew who they were.”
2001 China Silk Road, traveling with Bob Z. whom I met on one of my Egypt trips. “We were about 100 miles from Afghanistan, when the president of the USA talked about bombing that country. Up until now we believed that China was the safest place to be in the days following 9/11. The Beijing hotel where we stayed that fateful day, had given all the Americans letters of condolence. As we traveled westward towards Kashgar, the news reports were all in Mandarin, but the images were unmistakable.
During my first trip to China 5 years earlier I had discovered that there were a myriad of ethnic groups living in that country, and longed to visit as many as I could. I became obsessed with the idea of traveling the Silk Road, and began that journey with travels through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
The Chinese portion of the Silk Road took me to the Buddhist caves of Dunhuang, through the Taklamakan Desert, and into Xinjiang, the home of the Muslim Uyghers, whose language I found was nearly identical to Uzbek.”
Poland 2002, my 50th birthday!
“I returned to my room in the tower of Krasiczyn Castle following a performance of the Magnificent Mazowsze at the giant sports arena in Rzeszów. Filled to capacity, including the floor of the arena, the audience began cheering wildly as soon as the orchestra walked out. It was like being at a rock concert or sporting event, for among the attendees were performers from 30 dance groups from around the world, and they all idolized the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble.
They were there for a week-long festival where dance troupes from countries like: France, Australia, USA, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Brazil, etc. performed Polish folk dances.
A few days earlier I had been at Karolin, Mazowsze’s headquarters, watching them rehearse. Choreographer, Witold Zapała directing the dancers, Conductor Jan Grabia directing the orchestra, and Soloist Stanisław Jopek singing to me !!! Well, I was the audience there in the old rehearsal hall. Joining me later was an opera singer, who was also a fan.
This was a multi-cultural musical trip for me. Among the festivals I attended was an Old Music Festival in Kraków, where I got to see the Hungarian Gypsy Band, Szászcsávás Band
from Transylvania. Then there was the Tydzień Kultury Beskidziej in Wisła, which featured not only song and dance troupes from the Silesian Mountain regions of Poland, but ensembles from all over the world, including Turkey, Belarus, Croatia, and Italy.
As an added bonus, there was the Mazowszacy z Karolinie, entertaining tourists at hotel in Warsaw where Witold and Danuta Zapala had taken me. Made up of members of Mazowsze, they encouraged a few of us to get up and perform with them, and then they delighted the Japanese tourists by singing a Polish folk song in Japanese. “
2002 Bhutan, traveling with George and Meg. “Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon. That is the Kingdom of Bhutan. Secluded high in the Himalayas, it is a country based on Gross National Happiness. There is no poverty here, no crime, and the only country I’ve been to where you can visit the market without someone pushing you to buy something.
No beggars or children looking for hand-outs, either. The only request I received was from two school girls attending a Bhuddhist festival. They wanted my address so that they could write to me. We have kept up that correspondence ever since, as those little girls have grown into beautiful, capable young ladies.”
Nepal – “The Hindu traditions exist side by side with Buddhist in the three cities of the Kathmandu Valley.
Our stay in this Himalayan kingdom was brief. Unrest was brewing. But we had a few days for sight-seeing and shopping in this impoverished country.”
Tibet 2002 – “There I was, on top of the world !! Well, it wasn’t exactly Mt. Everest, but I was at 17,121 feet (5,220 meters) atop the ‘Ocean Pass’ high in the Himalayas.
You had to be part of a tour group in order to get into Tibet, so the 3 of us joined a small group of 7 international travelers, and we were off.
Beginning in Lhasa, the site of the Potala palace, we traveled upward every day, visiting monasteries, and farms, until only the nomads and their yaks could be found.
The Tibetan form of Buddhism incorporates many of the older local religions, and, thus there are many deities and demons, buddahs, and bhodisatvas. However the basic Buddhist tenants still apply: ‘If you have compassion and wisdom, anything is possible.’ And I was happy it was possible to be there.
One of the interesting sites were the cow patties which decorated the exterior of homes. In winter they provided insulation, and were later burned as fuel.
Though I always learn the language of the countries I visit, occasionally, as with Tibetan, my vocabulary was limited. I tried, however, not to fall back too much on Mandarin, by making sure that I remembered the important words, like ‘chicken’, and ‘ice cream’.”
2003 there were no foreign trips, instead my Mom’s surprise 80th birthday party at Salvatore’s in Cheektowaga. I got to see cousins that I hadn’t seen in a long time. A nice group of over 40 people.
2004 Egypt. “The area around Amarna had been off limits to tourists for years, due to problems at El Minya, but now we were headed there. Even though the four of us (Helen & Dick B., Linda M, and myself, with Egyptian friend Lotfy) were traveling on our own, not part of a tour, we still had a police escort, which changed as we entered new territories. But when we neared Assyut, we were shocked to see our escort was a Tank !!! Yikes !!!
Of course we were assured that the only reason for the tank was because that was all that was available. And so, after escorting us to our hotel, they allowed us to climb inside and check it out. Not your usual tourist fare.
This trip, too, was not on the usual tourist path. From Port Said, through Bubastis and Tanis, to Meidum (where we saw Senefru’s collapsed pyramid) and Fayoum, out into the desert, then down to Abydos, and finally to Luxor for shopping and Amelia Peabody’s favorite walk over the hill from the Valley of the Kings to Queen Hapshetsut’s temple.”
2004 Poland. “Having identified the restaurant with the best pierogi, and having located a booth with incredible placki (potato pancakes), I was still being challenged in the search for my favorite ice cream, Advocaat likier jajeczny. That’s because all the ice cream stands changed their selection every day.
Of course, the real reason I was spending 11 days in Zakopane was the International Highland Music Festival. There were musicians and dancers from Mongolia and Montenegro, Slovakia, and Switzerland, and everywhere else you can imagine, but I was mostly interested in the performers from the Polish highlands. I love to hear them sing in ‘white voice’, playing their fiddles and cellos, and I love listening to them speak in the dialect of the
‘Górale subculture.’ Of course, I also spent time in Warsaw with Mazowsze friends Witek Zapala and Danuta and their son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons.
Day trip to Slovakia. “Are you afraid of heights? she asked. No. Do you have good hiking shoes? Yes. According to what I could translate of the brochure, the Slovenský Raj (Slovak Paradise) was a beautiful natural park with almost 200 caves and abysses, and I was looking forward to the hike. There were other words, however, that I was not sure I was translating correctly: Ladders and Bow-ties. What??
Turns out the ‘ties’ were half-sized railroad ties that you had to navigate in order to cross deep chasms or creeks. They were usually slippery wet, and there were no barriers or anything to hold on to!!! Yikes!!! After being assisted by my fellow hikers (including Maltese tourists Chris & Dorianne) across a couple of these so called ‘bridges’, I realized that I could not turn back. I had to stay with the group, so I proceeded.
One of our stops later in the day was at a local market, where I discovered that they sold Absinthe !!! I have always been fascinated by this drink, but alas, I was not going to get the chance to try it because we were about to cross the border into Poland, where Absinthe was illegal. That experience would have to wait for another time.”
Italy 2005, traveling with Nickie and Yvette. “As we watched the glass-blower create intricate patterns, we wondered, where in the world is Yvette? After all, it was Yvette’s idea to come to the Island of Morano. Sure enough, after visiting every shop on the island in search of the glass jewelry Yvette so desperately wanted, she was the only one who did not buy anything (other than gelato, of course.)
And now, having missed our boat back to Venice, we boarded the “local”, which got us back just in time for the darkened skies to unleash a torrent of cold rain. Dressed for a hot, sunny day, the three of us crowded under one umbrella, and made yet another error in judgment. We allowed Yvette to guide us through the maze that was Venice.
We should have known right from the beginning of the trip, when we discovered a TV remote tucked safely away in Yvette’s handbag.
On the other hand, we did do a lot of things right. We visited the Ufizzi Gallery and the Academia in Florence, half hour before closing times. This way we did not have to spend hours in line to see Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, and Michelangelo’s David. Also, at the Vatican, first visiting the tomb of Pope St. John Paul the Great, got us into St. Peter’s Basilica quicker.
The smartest thing, however, riding trains between cities. Much more civilized than air travel. If I lived in Europe, I would never fly. Too bad the railway system in the U.S.A. is not very efficient.”
Malta. “A Roman Catholic country with an Arabic sounding language, Malta’s charm is its beautiful people, its magnificent architecture, and its sandy beaches.
What luck, then, that I had met a wonderful Maltese couple (Chris & Dorianne) on a previous trip to Poland. They generously took time off from their jobs in order to proudly show us the wonders of their idyllic homeland.”
In 2006 I officially became a Polish citizen. Since my grandparents left Poland before 1918, when there was a Republic of Poland, I had to apply for citizenship, by proving that I was worthy! I had to write my biography in Polish, highlighting my contributions to Polonia… my Polish TV and radio shows, my contributions to Polish charities, my dancing with a Polish dance company, etc. I was approved by the President of Poland, who only accepted 1,000 new Polish citizens each year. I was in!!
Poland 2007, now I was there as a Polish citizen!
“There I was, sitting in the shadow of the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill, gazing out over the Wisła River, and eating pierogi. It just doesn’t get any better than this!!!
I was in Kraków for the city’s 750th anniversary celebration, and, as always, PAT Tours booked for me a hotel at this wonderful location. A nice walk to the Rynek put me in the center of the celebration.
Most of this trip, however, was spent around Warsaw, visiting friends, including former dancers from the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble (Witek and Danuta and family). I also met the widow of singer Stanislaw Jopek (Maria), who treated me like an old friend, as we spent the day together (including a visit to the cemetery). I also was privileged to travel with Mazowsze to see two of their performances outside of Warsaw. As always, their concerts touched my heart.
Greece 2007. “Traveling with some of my best friends (Larry & Shirley, and Meg), people I met in Cambodia eight years earlier, I marveled at the way people can bond so easily. The love of travel, of learning, of history, of beauty, and a sense of adventure is something that we have in common, but our friendship goes beyond that.
It was not luck that brought us together, but fate, and now we were embarking on another adventure in Greece and its islands.
The people here are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Each woman a goddess, each man an Adonis !!
One of the many things I learned on this trip was that the Greek alphabet is the same, Cyrillic alphabet used by the Russians. That is because of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and the Eastern Orthodox religion.
It was in Greece that I finally got to try the mythical drink, Absinthe !! Unfortunately I was unaware at the time that it should be poured over sugar and mixed with water. We drank it straight !!! Or, rather we had a few sips. It was quite strong. Not sure how many brain cells died that day.”
A big thrill for a few years, was The Rogues’ Michael Spriggs!! We connected through e-mails, then spent a couple of years with him phoning me and having long talks. He was sort of separated from his wife then, but she had health problems, so they still lived together, outside of Nashville, where he is still an A-list session guitarist, performing on over 10,000 albums!
He was always trying to meet up with me in Buffalo, but it never worked out. Eventually, he re-connected with his wife, which is ok, since I was not looking for a relationship. He also has two incredibly beautiful daughters.
On a sad note, however, Mike called me one morning at 7 AM. I think he forgot the time difference, but I think I was the only one he could talk to about this… He had discovered that Jim Pierotti (lead singer of The Rogues) had died a couple of years ago in Delaware. This broke Colleeen’s heart because she was never able to connect with him. At least I had a long time friendship with Bob and Mike.
I was glad when my brother Ron, met Dawn. They lived together for awhile, then married in 2008. He had been alone for so long after his divorce from his first wife, and it was great to see him happy again.
My Mom died in 2009. I had stopped working that year, and was with her that Christmas when she passed. So was my brother. We had been to a family Christmas party a couple of days before. It’s like she waited for us to be all together. The last couple of years of my Mom’s life she spent in and out of hospitals, and it traumatized me. So, in a way, I was glad to see her at peace.
After selling my Mom’s house, I only made one visit to Buffalo in 2010, staying at Mary Ann’s house. Mazowsze was performing, and I had box seats. I took my family to meet Witold Zapala, and was showered with gifts from him and other Mazowsze members. Then a month later, I went to Cleveland, staying with Larry & Shirley, and we got to see Mazowsze perform again. And we spent time backstage. Though these travel friends are not Polish, they had become friendly with Mazowsze staff when we attended Mazowsze’s last performance in Ohio, in 2007.
It was a quiet time now in my life. Some excitement, however, when I went to see Tony Galla (formerly of Raven, now living in Califorina), at a Beverly Hills Hotel. He sang, and played guitar with a small blues group, and was thrilled to meet me, a “friend” from Buffalo. I only got to hear him perform twice, first time I was with Marva, the second time I was with Alison and Penny, and he sat with us during all the breaks.
I stopped traveling because I was not unemployed, though comfortable financially. I simply did not want to make the long commute to Los Angeles. Also, the rest of the “Fox 100” who were laid off at the same time, were having difficulty finding work anyway.
And, my health wasn’t the best. I was feeling lost without my Mom, etc. I tried new things, like fencing and sword fighting, eventually I tried to get back into ballroom dancing, despite my weak ankle, and was having fun for a couple of years until I fell practicing the Tango. That was 2013. A brief stay in the hospital brought back all the trauma of what my Mom went through, so I avoided doctors, etc. for a long time afterwards.
Outings with friends, Oscar parties, etc. kept me busy, and visits to Ron & Dawn’s house in South Carolina, then eventually Portland Oregon, were my only travels. In 2017 some cousins came to L.A. for a wedding and others for Thanksgiving, so I was able to spend time with family from both sides, including my one surviving aunt, Reggie.
My old friend, Wally Gajewski from WBFO retired recently at the age of 70 (he’s 5 years older than me), and has been active on Facebook, along with other WBFO alumni. I first saw Wally, known as Sir Walter Raleigh on a major Buffalo radio station, introducing a rock concert at Kelinhan’s Music Hall, and I had kind of a crush on him. When we later worked together, we were great friends. In my mind, it was Wally, Mitch, and I as kind of three amigos. Wally had a huge apartment, so we would have a lot of parties there.
Wally always had a girlfriend, and there was a time when I sort of dated someone, yet at Christmas time, Wally and I always spent time together, as everyone else had gone home for the holidays, while we were home.
Mitch was the first to move to Los Angeles, then I moved there, but left to take a job in New Jersey. It was then that Wally and his girlfriend (later his wife) moved to LA, and by the time I returned to the west coast, Wally had a family.
Wally and I have a lot in common. Both Geminis (his birthday is two days after mine), both Polish, both play accordion, both love the same type of music, both worked in radio, both love photography… and now I discover that he also loves to travel. And that is what he has been doing since his retirement. All over the world !! I thought to myself… gee, I should have married Wally!!! But then I realize that our timing was off. I had those 10 years in New York State where I embarked on all my “careers”… modeling, radio disc jockey, TV news anchor/reporter, ballroom dance teacher, and Polish Folk Dance performer, even winery tour guide. Also, I did my traveling 20 years ago, and now I’m not fit enough to go on those types of trips. Plus, he had 2 kids. I don’t think I would have been happy to have children. So, It’s just a simple fantasy, as Wally and I connect on Facebook.
Unfortunately he lives in Long Beach, which is a 3 hour drive, and I don’t like to drive that far. I always get jealous when he posts photos of events down there, especially Tony Galla performances in the park!
On the sad side, Bob Radel, who has been keeping in touch via e-mail, and his wife’s Christmas cards, sent me an e-mail saying how happy he was knowing that I was out there somewhere, but that he was going away for a while, and I might not hear from him again. Was he ill??
Then something magical happened in 2019. I fell in love!! Well, sort of. I rediscovered Mario Lanza, and was filled with such emotion that my heart burst when I heard him sing. He made me laugh, and cry. What a magnificent voice. Plus he was gorgeous. He was the world’s first superstar. He looked like a god, he sang like a god. But sadly, he died when he was only 38… in 1959.
Of course, I had a dream about him that he was still alive, but very old, and performing on Dancing With the Stars. I went backstage to meet him, and he invited me to dinner. He put on the coat he wore in The Great Caruso, and we walked across the street… to a Polish restaurant!! Lol… yep, that could have happened in real life with me.
My father, Slyvester Ruszczyk was born December 5, 1918 in Ashland, Wisconsin, and my mother, Helen Stasiak (Ruszczyk) was born May 22, 1923 in Buffalo, NY. They married in 1947, and I was born June 7, 1952.
My brother, Ronald John Ruszczyk was born September 30, 1956.
My father worked for Bell Aerosystems, and built some of the Gemini rocket modules that the NASA astronauts rode in. He was always playing the accordion, so I wanted to play, too. At the age of 5 they bought me a full key accordion, just a smaller size, and I played until I was 11, when I discovered the Beatles, and I wanted to play the guitar. I played a little, but discovered that it wasn’t logical like an accordion. I also played the piano and harpsichord a little, but struggled with the left hand since I was used to the accordion. From time to time throughout the years, I’d pick up the accordion and play again.
I did have a musical family, most of my aunts and uncles, and some of my cousins (I do have a lot of them!) played accordion.
My musical background served me well. Throughout grammar school, I was at the top of my class. It turned out that there were 4 of us who played musical instruments, and we were all the smartest. I think that is why I have always been attracted to guys in bands, because I saw them as superior human beings.
My first love, at the age of 4, was Zorro. Yes, Guy Williams. I watched that TV show every week. I would go to sleep at night, dreaming that I was kissing him... even at that young age. No wonder that I have always been attracted to guys with dark hair. My first crush in kindergarden was a boy with dark hair and black glasses (which reminded me of Zorro’s mask).
My next crush in the 1st grade was a kid who played the organ, and had longish hair, though when I discovered his older brother who sometimes played organ in church, that is where my heart wandered.
Again, it was no wonder that my next great love would be Paul McCartney, the musician with long hair and big brown eyes. When they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show February 9, 1964, I immediately fell in love with Paul when he sang, “All My Loving”. And the rest is history.
I first became aware of the Beatles the previous December. My Dad and I often took walks, because he liked to hike… I guess he was into the physical fitness craze before it became popular. Since I was the older child, I often accompanied him, even on a cold winter’s day.
As we walked, we ducked into the doorway of a record store to warm up, and there on the door were tiny stickers with four Beatle wigs, saying:
“The Beatles are coming” I mis-read that as “Beat-less” and had no clue.
But walking wasn’t always what we did. My family enjoyed the beach.
Every weekend it was Long Beach in Canada, and for vacation it was Wasaga Beach.
There were some bigger vacations, too. Like the trip we took to Miami. My cousin, Mary Ann coming along as my babysitter. And later some trips to other parts of Canada, like Montreal, Ottawa, St. Anne DeBeaupre, and Algonquin Provincial Park.
We also enjoyed weekends at Chestnut Ridge Park, and my Dad would take me and all my cousins, hiking in the creek. It was always an adventure because we would sometimes get to a waterfall that we would sometimes climb. And then there was the derelict school bus which had been converted into sort of a camper, and somehow had ended up in the creek.
This love of nature also extended to weekends in Franklinville, NY, where friends had a vacation home near a pond. It was later that our vacations turned into camping trips in the Adirondack Mountains. We camped at Fish Creek Pond, where our transportation was a boat, and the quieter Rollins Pond, where we relied on a canoe. And, of course, there was the hiking. Up Mount Marcy, the highest elevation in New York State. My Dad and I went up to the top, while my Mom and Ron only went part way.
While my Dad was more of a nature lover, my Mom loved to dress up and go out Polka Dancing. She was a great dancer, and a member of the Polka Boosters Club. She also was an excellent bowler. Her team was sponsored by the Schuper House, and the blowing shirts had the greatest looking embroidered foaming Schuper of Beer on the back.
My Mom also was secretary, and later National Director for the Polish Union of America, a fraternal insurance company that my grandfather Stasiak originally worked for. My Mom was very much in the spotlight with that organization, which did a lot for the Polish community in Buffalo and areas in the Northeast U.S. Plus, with her big black hair, she was quite photogenic, so her picture was always in the local Polish newspapers.
After my father died in 1968, my mother began dating Ed Zasada, who owned a Tavern and Catering service. This allowed my Mom to be more of a social butterfly, helping out with the catering, etc. It was then that she met and talked privately with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, who would later become Pope John Paul II.
Meanwhile, I had fallen in love with yet another musician, Bob Radel, the bass guitarist from the Buffalo, NY rock band, The Rogues. They were undoubtedly the best cover band ever. They could sound exactly like the Beatles, the Stones, Sam & Dave, the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, etc. etc.
In grammar school I had short brown hair and glasses, while the popular girls were blonde, like my best friend, Barbara. And so, when I was 15, I became a blonde, got contac lenses and false eyelashes, and suddenly I was “in”. Most of the girls from my grammar school, St. Luke’s went to my high school, Villa Maria Academy (originally Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy), and yet one of my best friends, Colleen had never gone to school with me. She lived across the street from Geri, and the three of us used to follow the Rogues and went to all their dances.
Colleen and Geri were my good friends, good girls who talked with their parents, etc. Then there were my other best friends, Sue and Sue, who were more on the wild side. It was an interesting tug of war with me in the middle, a little good and a little wild. But it was all about music, and after the Rogues broke up, Colleen and I followed other bands, Cold Soup, Grace Rush, Raven (Rising Sons), Parkside Zoo, etc. becoming friends with the guys in the bands, hanging out at places like Aliotta’s, or going to other clubs and college mixers. Our parents didn’t worry about us using fake ID to go to these places, because we didn’t drink. We were there for the bands.
We also did a lot of walking….. usually to Delaware Park, where all the cool people hung out in the summer, inside the Albright Knox Art Gallery in the winter, even though we did not like modern art.
We also took the bus to Crystal Beach, to swim on weekends. We had fond memories from grammar school when the classes used to go there to ride on the rides. I loved the Comet rollercoaster, Laff in the Dark, and the Magic Castle. And now, we could still partake of the Logenberry drinks, and take walks down the beach, the waves lapping at our feet. This is something I shared with all of my girlfriends. A magical place that was a kind of second home to us.
In college, when I worked at WBFO radio, we would often ride our bikes over the Peace Bridge into Canada, and go to Windmill Quarry. Once I ran into Jim Ralston there. He played in some of the bands I liked, and it was good to think that I was traveling in the same social circles as he. (Jim went on to play with Tina Turner’s band, and I saw him in a frozen yogurt place in Los Angeles once, but I didn’t go to talk to him, since I had just come from the gym.)
Of course, at the time I had friendship with Michael Spriggs, former lead guitarist with the Rogues. He played briefly acoustic with Ken Thomas, as Mike and Ken, and then later Michael had a group, Magnacoustic. I used to go over to his apartment to listen to them rehearse. We did have a couple of dates, and once, when we were kissing, he said I was “dangerous”. I liked that.
As for Bob Radel, the first time I saw him afrter the Rogues broke up was at the movie, Woodstock. Colleen and I just happened to run into him on the way to see the film, and so he sat with us !!! It was so exciting, kind of almost like a date.
I never did get to Woodstock, I was too young to go that far. Kind of like when the Beatles came to Toronto when I was 12. My parents wouldn’t let me save up bottle-caps so that I could go with WKBW radio by bus to see them. Something I always regretted. But then, we had the Rogues, and that was almost as good.
I did get to go to other rock concerts and festivals. I saw Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs and Englishmen (with Leon Russell, etc. ) at Kleinhans. Also saw Sly and the Family Stone there. Saw the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and B.B. King at the small bar, Aliotta’s. One of the first rock festivals that took place after Woodstock, was Strawberry Fields in Canada. We snuck in, but only walked around a bit, and left without really seeing any bands, though we could hear music in the distance. I think Jimi Hendrix was playing the day we were there.
We also went to the Festival Express in Toronto in 1970, and saw Janis Joplin, Tom Rush, Eric Andersen, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Traffic. And at the Mariposa Folk festival in 1972, we saw Bob Dylan just hanging around. Sue talked to him and he let her take an awesome photo of him.
Meanwhile, Bob Radel was in a few other bands, and we would go to hear them play, and he would talk to me. But he soon married his first wife, and moved away and that was the end of that….or so I thought !!
In an attempt to make myself someone that Bob would notice, I thought that being on the radio would be the thing, and, as a result, I got to interview people like Vincent Price, and Pistol Pete Maravich !!
I was really into basketball….pro basketball, that is, after the graduation of some of my favorites, like Bob Lanier, etc. from St. Bonaventure. When they went to the pros, so did I, and that’s when I discovered Pistol Pete.
As a radio sports reporter, I got to go to the Buffalo Braves games free, and when I asked about interviewing Pete, I was told that, since women (at that time) weren’t allowed in the locker rooms, that I should meet him at the hotel after the game.
So, there I was at the Statler Hilton Hotel, waiting in the lobby. Jim W., a gorgeous basketball player, came in and immediately came up to me, remembering me from the game. I had long blonde hair, a long black coat with mini cape, so I guess I did stand out. I told him I was there to interview Pete. Pete also found me, and invited me to dinner, then to his room. I got a really great interview. Also I interviewed him the next time he was in town, and after that, we would just get together for a drink after the game, by then he had become more of a big brother than a lover. Something that I think happened to me with Mike Spriggs. It seems that as wild as I was, these guys saw me as young and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, there were the guys from the radio station. Wally, who was Sir Walter Raleigh, etc. at bigger stations, was a good friend, and somehow we always spent Christmas together because, no matter who we were involved with, they were always away during the holidays. And there was Mike K., who had been a black-face clown for Ringling Brothers. We briefly dated. He could tap dance and do the fox trot, and he inspired me to go to Fred Astaire Dance Studios for lessons…. When they told me they had a teacher training program, and that it was free, ( I just had to promise to work there), I said, ok, sign me up!!
I loved ballroom dancing, and the music, especially the Latin Cha Cha and Mambo. Ballroom dance was sexy, too. Some of my wildest adventures involved the dance business… especially the out of town dance competitions. The first one I went to was at St. Thomas, V.I. where I met Giancarlo. He was Italian, who barely spoke English, and he was very handsome. He was from the Philadelphia studio, and we immediately hit it off.
That was on the last night of the trip. The Houston studio (the biggest and most prestigious FADS), held a party in one of the hotel rooms. (By invitation only, very exclusive). I had been talking to Mike L., also from Philadelphia, about becoming dance partners, (You were always looking for a good dance partner, even from another studio.) When Giancarlo came along to collect me for that walk on the beach we had been hoping to take. He said it was ok if we took Mike along, so we did. We ended up with a From Here to Eternity moment… the three of us… on the beach. (I think I did better than Jim M. from my studio, who spend the night with two women.) And when we woke in my room the next morning, Giancarlo was shocked to see Mike, until he saw me standing there, and it all came back to him. (Years later when I saw Mike at another competition…Giancarlo having since left the dance business…he said that is one of the stories he loves to tell. And it is one of my favorite stories, too.)
I had seen Giancarlo at a couple of competitions, and we planned on getting together at one of the National competitions in Miami, but that was the week when everything went wrong for me, despite being the most fun. First off, Giancarlo saw me at the Numero Uno Club, where Joe Cuba and other latin bands were playing, with Victor Shariff, and he became jealous. Shariff, (who is gay, and from Massachusetts), and I were talking about becoming dance partners. That, and a few other incidents, and it looked like things were over.
Most of that week, I hung around with a guy from Houston, who was just a friend. One night we took our students out to a place called the Flamenco Club, where the restaurant suddenly transformed into a large showroom, with Las Vegas style dancers and a band and fountain, etc… much to our surprise.
One night, I had a date with Jim M., (whom I had been dating at home), for after the competition. He waited for me in the ballroom while I escorted my student to his room. When I came back, two guys from New York latched onto me. One taking one arm, the other the other arm, and they walked me into and out of the ballroom, despite my protests. Of course, Jim saw this, and so, by the time I was able to extricate myself from these guys and get back to the ballroom, there was Jim, dancing with a girl who looked very much like me. I waited, but he left with her. And so the week went like this.
Finally, the Houston party. I had an invite from my Houston friend, and Jim and I got things straightened out, and he said we’d get together after the party. Then as I was watching the competition, Giancarlo whispered in my ear that he was sorry for doubting me, and said we would get together after the Houston party.
Well, I had been out partying till all hours of the night all week, so by this last evening, I was pretty tired. After a while, I was ready to leave the Houston party, but both Jim and Giancarlo wanted to stay longer. When I was ready to drop, I decided to leave. Unfortunately, Shariff (remember him?), who hadn’t been at the party, just came up to give a message to someone, and it appeared that I was leaving with him. Now everyone was mad at me again. Sigh.. but the week was over, so I didn’t care anymore.
Lol….
February 22, 1973 was a life changing time when I first saw the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble at Kelinhans Music Hall. I was aware of them, and recall the group at a luncheon sponsored by the Polish Union of America back in 1964 or somesuch. But this was the first time I saw them perform, and I loved them as much as The Beatles.
Little did I realize that I had been hearing their songs on the radio all my life, so when I heard them sing, it went right to my heart.
After the performance, there was a Midnight banquet sponsored by the PUA. I got to present the director, Mira Ziminska-Sygietynska with a bouquet of flowers. Afterwards, several of the dancers danced with me, including Michal Jarczyk, one of the soloists, who danced a tango with me. I was just learing to become a dance teacher, so this was quite fun.
Of course, my Polish was kind of rusty, since I never actually spoke it before. (I understood it perfectly, and could pronounce it because I sang Polish songs, but I never learned grammar, so I was just going by what sounded right.) So, when Michal asked what I was studying in school, I said “everybody” instead of ‘everything’. Lol
Then, I danced with Ryszard Blige, a tall, light haired, chizzled handsome dancer. He then danced with my Mom and told her she had a beautiful daughter, and asked if we could join him for lunch the next day, but she declined, saying she was busy. Yikes!
So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knew they were staying at the Statler Hilton Hotel, so I went there and just hung out in the lobby. Then I saw Ryszard heading into the dining room. What to do? Luckily, the President of the PUA was in there, too. (Daniel Kij and I were doing a TV show together, featuring news from the Polish community). Danny just happened to step out into the lobby for something and saw me. Thankfully, he didn’t ask what I was doing there. He invited me in to join him. He was seated with a couple of the girls from Mazowsze.
When Ryszard saw me, he came and brought me over to his table. Afterwards, we promised to keep in touch, but you know how things are.
A week later, however, I went with my Mom and a few other people from PUA to Albany, where we got to see Mazowsze perform again. Of course, now we knew several of the performers, so it was more fun.
It began with a luncheon, and I got to ride on the bus with the dancers. In fact, with my long blonde hair and false eyelashes, etc. people took me for one of the group! When I was in line at the buffet table with Ryszard, someone asked me if I was one of the dancers. Ryszard responded that I was his “American girlfriend.” Wow.
I didn’t remember my room number at the hotel, so Ryszard gave me his, and told me to call him so we could spend the afternoon together. I had never called a guy in my life, so by the time I worked up the courage to call, he had already gone.
I wandered around the hotel, hoping to run into him, when I was Andrzej K. one of the other dancers. I sat and talked with him a while, when Andrzej Tatarewicz came to join us. Tatarewicz, really looked like a Tatar! His dark hair and slanted eyes, and stocky build. He was the exact opposite of Ryszard, who danced in the more stately numbers. Andrzej T. performed in the more acrobatic dances.
My mother thought I was going out shopping with Andrzej K., whereas I ended up in bed with Andrzej T. Later, the three of us ate ice cream and danced the cha cha in their room. Great fun!
Then, that night, after the performance, there was a party in one of the rooms. Soloist Stanislaw Jopek and other singers, got up and told jokes and sang. I was sitting on one of the beds with Ryszard beside me, telling me that we’d have beautiful children together. Then Andrzej T. came in and sat on the other side of me, and there seemed to be a battle between them.
Eventually they left. Ryszard and I shared a romantic kiss together. Andrzej T. wanted me to come and spend the night with him, but I was already in a lot of trouble with my Mom for the afternoon romp.
It would be 25 years before I’d see Andrzej again…. I never did get to see Ryszard.
Mazowsze inspired me to go to Poland the following year. It, too, was a life changing event. “As I walked through the empty shell of the castle, I was filled with pride. For my people were rebuilding what had been destroyed by war… specifically, The Royal Castle in Warsaw. I first became aware of the construction, when the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble sang a song about it.
Mazowsze’s music touched my heart, and awoke in me a life-long passion for all things Polish. This trip was to be the first of many excursions to my homeland.
I was attending the same University as Copernicus and Pope John Paul II !!! Ok, so it was just a summer school program at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, (on scholarship from the Kościuszko Foundation), but I learned some Polish folk dances, and traveled around Poland, from Gdansk on the Baltic Sea, to Morskie Oko in the Tatra Mountains.
One of my favorite places, however, was right there in Kraków. For about a half cent, the tram took me from the student dorms, to the Sukienice (cloth hall) in Kraków’s Rynek (old Town Square). I loved the architecture, but best of all, inside the Suk were treasures… folk art and clothing that reflected Poland’s rich cultural history. I spent a lot of time there, vowing that someday I would live in Poland.”
During my 6 weeks in Poland, I had a free weekend, and used it to go to Romania!
"The moon was full, lighting the way for my late night visit to Dracula’s Palace. I was accompanied by a handsome Romanian college student, whom I had met on the train from Bucuresti to Tirgoviste. He didn’t quite understand my interest in this “historical site” where Vlad Tepes had lived, and so, I climbed over the wall alone.
I had only been walking around for a few minutes, when out of the lower courtyard it flew towards me, narrowly missing entanglement in my hair. I knew that birds did not fly at night. This had been a bat !!
Well, I did survive. The Romanian guy then took me Tango dancing. We both used our high school French to communicate.”
Full of ambition, I always followed my heart, and as a Gemini, I had a lot of interests. Besides working at two TV stations (as anchor and hostess for Polish community programs on a station in West Seneca, and producer for a weekly religious program on WUTV), 3 radio stations (WBFO, campus station WIRR, and the station owned by the Hound Dog, WBLK), and teaching Ballroom Dancing at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, I did some modeling for Pantastick stores, including dance fashion shows at the Club 747, and fashion shows before musical shows at Melody Fair…. all while attending the University of Buffalo on a 4 year, New York State Regents Scholarship.
Eventually I moved to Los Angeles, when I was offered a job at the Sherman Oaks Fred Astaire studio. I made friends with a young couple who owned the studio, and even had a flirtation with the husband, with the ok of the wife. Yes, the dance business is like that. One of the great things is that I had private lessons from Jock McGregor, a world champion (Blackpool) dancer.
I guess I must have learned something because at a dance competition in Las Vegas, a teacher from the Ridgewood, N.J. studio (another prestigious FADS studio) asked me to be his partner in the International Style, and had me audition for the studio’s owner, whereupon I was offered a job there. It meant moving to New Jersey, but it was worth it, and I ended up living in a cottage on Greenwood Lake, N.Y.
While I was there, Bob Radel tracked me down and called me at the dance studio. Even though we all wore fur coats and gowns, we were too poor to have phone at home, so they allowed the teachers to take personal calls at the studio. Bob said that he was going to surprise me in California, but thankfully, he called my Mother first and she told him I was back in New York State. He had gotten divorced and thought about us dating. He lived in a friend’s cottage in a rural area, about 100 miles from Buffalo, about 350 miles from me.
One time, on my way to Buffalo, I agreed to go and spend the weekend at Bob’s place. At first it was great. He was playing in a band, and I went with him to the club he was playing at. This is what I had dreamed about all my life! But that night when we were back at home, he went up to sleep in the loft, leaving me to sleep on the couch. Which was ok, because it was cold (I was sleeping in my clothes), and there was no running water (he had to get water from the creek). When he finally asked me to come up to join him, I said, no thanks, I’m fine, cos I felt kind of grungy. Well, then I wanted a shower, so I said I’d go on to Buffalo, and then come by on the way back.
When I returned, however, he was kind of distant. He was kind of hot and cold. He hadn’t gotten over his divorce, and now there was that awkwardness between us. I visited him a couple times on my drives to Buffalo, stopping to where his band was playing. Once he was so thrilled to see me, but I didn’t stay. The next time, he was very down, and wanted to be alone. Eventually, I gave up on him. I saw a side of him that I wish I had not. Working as a welder during the week, wearing a torn T-shirt. We never did kiss. But one, he touched me affectionately on the cheek.
After a year, I decided I wanted to leave the dance business. I did some modeling in New York City, and acted with a comedy group based in Bergen, N.J., but we also performed at night clubs in NYC. When this group disbanded, I did some trade-show modeling for Lake Adventure in the Poconos, which meant working at all the Malls in northern New Jersey, as far down as Ocean City. Eventually, I got a part-time at a radio station, WTBQ in Warwick, N.Y., as a weekend disc jockey and talk show host. I also began dating Polka Bandleader, Jimmy Sturr. Shortly after I mentioned to him that I always wanted to own a radio station, he bought WTBQ, and, even though he didn’t like women disc jockeys, he gave me a full-time job… as a News Reporter.
Bob Radel called me once, we did try to get together, but when I suggested a three-some with Jimmy, he said he wasn’t into that sort of thing. The next time I heard from him he had gotten married to Mary Jane. He said he had wanted to pursue me and marry me, but he thought I wasn’t interested. I said that’s what I had wanted since I was 13 !!!
I did go to visit Bob and Mary Jane in Olean one time. She allowed us time together, and Bob tried to talk me into moving near them, but I had my life and my career(s) somewhere else.
I loved living in that area… Orange County, N.Y…. out on the farms. I knew everyone and was a celebrity, even appearing on the local TV station, WLAE-TV. It was a lot of fun going to Jimmy’s dances, and dancing the polka. I missed dancing, so it was a thrill when Jimmy got me an introduction to the Matusz Polish Dance Circle from New York City.
Even though I didn’t know the Polish folk dances, Krakowiak, Mazur, Polonaise, Kujawiak, Oberek, and the various regional dances, I was allowed to join because of my ballroom background. At 28 I was grouped with the 18 year olds who were also new to the group, having learned the dances at the Polish School, but it was the best time of my life.
The Matusz group performed every weekend, sometimes two engagements, but with my 6-day a week job, I could only participate in some of the shows. My day off was Tuesday, when I would drive 2 hours each way to Brooklyn for rehearsal. I usually chose the bigger performances, when all 60 dancers performed. That included Carnegie Hall (3 times for me!), the Garden State Arts Center, Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown, PA, even the Cheektowaga Polish Festival near Buffalo! It wasn’t until the end of the 3 years that I was with the group (I had gotten a TV job and would not be able to get to the rehearsals), that I started dancing in some of the smaller shows (like a Telethon in Pennsylvania), which featured 4 or 8 couples, that I realized that those were much more fun, because I got to perform all the dances, like the Biały Mazur, which was my favorite.
I got a little taste of travel with two trips to Jamaica. The first with one of my girlfriends from Matusz, and the second with a guy from WTBQ.
“It’s called the ‘See Me No More Valley’, because people tend to disappear when entering. Fortunately we were just passing through by train… a day-long tour of Jamaica that we took while our sunburns healed. After baking like coconut macaroons because we applied the coconut oil sold to us by ‘Doctor Joe’, we were lucky we had also purchased his fresh aloe concoction, which did the trick.
I love Jamaica. And, though I have only been there twice, it is one of my favorite vacation spots: the Reggae, the beaches, climbing Dunn’s River Falls, the crab races, the bar in the middle of the pool, the rum punch… But one of the most memorable days was that train trip we took. Our first stop was in a village where we picked out material and were measured. On the way back from visits to various plantations, we stopped there again, and were presented with hand-made dresses, shirts, jumpsuits, etc.”
I got a job as a News Reporter and morning Anchor at a TV station in Middletown, N.Y., but when they cancelled the morning news, I did some free-lance work there and at the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, N.Y. What fun!! While I was learning to be a tour guide, I actually stomped grapes. Well, it was for the annual Harvest Festival an I had to partner contestants in a grape stomping contest. But soon I was giving tours. I felt like a stand-up comic sometimes, because of the jokes, and also a teacher. The bigger the audience, the better, because I was guaranteed someone would laugh at my jokes. It really helped with my TV work, too. Eventually I got a job Anchoring and Reporting at a TV station in Poughkeepsie.
But I did miss dancing. I had taught on my own, renting a hall one day a week for classes for a while, but I only broke even. But at least I had some fun. I also learned the dances for the Orange County Onion Harvest Festival in 1983, which was making a return after 19 years. Kind of like a Polish Woodstock with a parade, a pageant, and lots of dancing. But because of the TV job I couldn’t perform, but I did report on it for TV.
Since I was making a little more money working in TV, I was able to take a trip to Egypt in 1985.
“I had no idea where the Egyptian on horseback had taken me, but it was wonderful. We had ridden out into the desert, away from Saqqara, to an area where workers were excavating several small pyramids. Crawling into one of them, I discovered only sand, and a bucket.
It wasn’t until I returned home from my third trip to Egypt, 12 years later, and looked at my photos that I discovered that I had been to Abu Syr, a site that had not been open to the public.
I did not know much about Egypt when I made my first visit. I traveled alone for a few days, then joined a tour. What I learned I could not have gotten from books. It ignited in me a passion for the Land of the Pharohs, and laid a foundation for further study, and several more trips.”
Eventually I did find a part time job at the BLI Dance Studio in Rockland County. One of the things I am most proud of is the Formation I choreographed. I never got to dance in a Ballroom Formation, even though the Ridgewood FADS was famous for them. (They didn’t do any in the year I was there.) Thankfully the Polish folk dancing I did gave me an idea of how group dancing works, so I used that knowledge to teach 8 couples a routine with the Cha Cha, Fox Trot, and Swing. I heard that years and years after I left the studio, the studio would still perform it for special occasions.
But after 10 years, I decided it was time to return to California. Unfortunately, it was then that I went to see The Lonely Hearts Club Band, Beatles impersonators. I always avoided groups like this because they weren’t the real thing, but turns out I loved them! And I picked up the guy who played Paul, Jim G. We had a couple of dates, and I really fell for him, but luckily he was also moving to Los Angeles, where we also had a couple of dates, but it didn’t work out. There was even a time in Pennsylvania when I went out with both him, and the John guy, Al. The best time was when the three of us watched the movie “A Hard Days Night” together!!
In Los Angeles, I started working in Television, but behind the scenes, as a video editor for the News. Very easy job, like someone giving you coloring books and crayons, and saying go ahead. I worked free-lance but it ended up being 5 days a week, so I got paid more and had as much free time as I wanted.
One of the great things about working in TV was that I got to go to Paul McCartney’s Press Conference when he came to perform in Los Angeles. It was a thrill that I got to ask him a question that he answered. This was 1989… 25 years after I decided to go into radio so that I could interview the Beatles. Also 25 years that I had waited to see the Beatles perform. First it was Ringo in Buffalo, then Paul in Los Angeles. That same day I also got to be in a TV commercial for VISA that Paul was filming. I got to play a “fan” who got his autograph, and gave him a rose, and yes, he held my hand. The only thing I missed out on was going to the China Club after the concert that night. It had been a long day and I was tired. Turns out that George Harrison was there, so I missed seeing him.
I did get to see Ringo perform again, this time in Los Angeles at the Greek Theater. I went backstage afterwards (as I have a habit of doing), and he and wife Barbara walked right past me!
I also got to see Paul in concert again a few years later, but best of all, I got to see him get a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1990. I attended the Grammy awards as a seat filler!
In a city like L.A. it was very difficult to meet guys I wanted to date, but I ended up dating a great guy for a while. Tom Nettles. He had been weekend Sports Anchor at Ch. 11, but it wasn’t until we had worked together for over a year and a half that we got to know each other. He began seeking me out to edit for him, and he always seemed a bit shy as if he liked me.
Eventually my friend Drake got us together at a blues club we used to go to on Saturday nights. When Tom and I began talking, it just clicked. We had a lot in common. He was an ex-pro football player and pro golfer, and liked to play guitar and dance. He even took me out Ballroom Dancing one night, and acted the perfect, old fashioned gentleman. But he never kissed me or anything, until he lost his job. Turns out he had a policy not to date co-workers because it always went bad.
It was great because we did everything I always wanted to do with a boyfriend, walks along the beach, playing model and photographer, dancing together, etc. But soon he realized that he would have to leave Los Angeles to get a job and didn’t want to start something we couldn’t follow through with. But I insisted we at least maintain a friendship, which we did.
When he had to move to his condo in Palm Springs, it was like mini-vacations for me going there every week, and when he moved into his brother’s place in San Diego, we took West Coast Swing dance lessons together, and went out to blues and c&w dance clubs when I’d visit.
Eventually, however, he got a job at the Golf Channel in Orlando.
As much as he was against long distance relationships, he said now he was in a position to get romantically involved. But it just didn’t work out.
So, I decided to take some International Ballroom dance lessons, and had a lot of fun. I even had a bit of a flirtation with my dance teacher, who reminded me that he was the guy who was holding me in his arms, as if we were on a date.
But then my life turned a couple of corners first was a trip to Egypt in 1995. I had found my new life, and a lot of new friends. But first, a couple of trips with my Mom to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Luxor Hotel.
“An Egyptian friend of mine had been a consultant on the building of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. When it first opened, it even had a Nile River cruise, complete with tour-guide. And so, before my second trip to Egypt, I thought it was worth checking out.
I was never much into gambling, that is, until I started winning…though after losing my winnings, I lost interest again, but that’s another story.
I have, however, been to Las Vegas many many times, because it was my Mother’s favorite place. We would usually meet there for Mother’s Day, and one of the things I enjoyed the most, was visiting the various ‘theme’ hotels. In fact, one year, when I did not travel overseas, my ‘travel’ Christmas card (a joke) was made up of scenes from Vegas hotels.”
Now my traveling began. Before each trip I learned to speak the language. Mostly I learned with the Pimsleur audio tapes, where you learn naturally, and have the right accent. So I spoke quite well, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Greek, Russian, German, Hindi, etc. For other languages I had to use other tapes, like Uzbek (which was the same as the Uyghur of Xinjiang China spoke), Tibetan, Thai, etc. , so I didn’t learn those languages as well, mostly food and numbers, etc. As for Polish, since I was already fluent, I had books and takes which taught me grammar . As for writing, I did learn Russian, which was easy, but I didn’t really take the time with Arabic. As for Chinese, I just learned a few symbols because that would have been a tremendous undertaking. Also, when Pimsleur came out with Egyptian Arabic, I was able to incorporate that into the Eastern Arabic I had previously learned. (In Egypt everyone kept asking me where I learned Arabic, because I spoke with a Lebanese accent!!)
The 1995 trip to Egypt began with a 24 hour stop in Rome.
“The elevator was full, so we stepped over to the next one, and waited. It was midnight, and we were exhausted from our long journey. When the door finally opened, we were stunned to see that it, too, was full. Inside, the same people who had been in the other elevator. What?!??
Turns out they were confused by the numbering of the rooms and floors, so they had taken the next elevator back down. It was going to be a long night.
We were only in Rome for 24 hours, on our way to Egypt, so we took off on our own for a quick tour. Boarding the bus, we discovered that we should have paid at the newsstand in the street. It was going to be an interesting trip !!”
And then, off on the trip that would change my life:
“The tomb was filled with debris. It was still being excavated, and we were not supposed to be inside KV 5, but we had connections with the Antiquities Department. I went in as far as the Osiris statue, and it was, to quote Kent Weeks himself, “One of the most amazing experiences of my life.”
The Egyptologist was still in the beginning stages of clearing out KV 5, the tomb which may have contained most of the 50 sons of Rameses II. This was an amazing opportunity.
I was also one of the first tourists to go inside the tomb of Rameses’ beloved wife, Nefertari, which had just been restored. (The tomb was to open a month later. It has since been closed to the public in order to preserve it’s vivid colors.)
Having already been to Egypt, I knew where I wanted to go, I even knew which hotels I wanted to stay at, and luckily chose to travel with Joy Travel International, whose owner, Fadel Gad is an Egyptian scholar, and close friends with Director of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass. Zahi was among the Egyptologists who traveled with us. I made many friends on that trip, most of us remain best friends and travel partners; our love of Egypt and archaeology binding us together.” Among my new friends, Gayle, who would travel with me to Egypt again two years later…. And Zahi, who often visited Los Angeles, giving lectures, etc.
Nothing could top that, but I would try, with travel to other exotic locations, like China in 1996: “We walked the streets of the village that would no longer exist after the dam was built. I was glad to have gotten to China while the Yangtze River was still low enough that the mountains soared.
Having been to the most exciting place on earth, Egypt, I now wanted to see other exotic places. Europe was not very high on my list right now, and forget about the Western Hemisphere. Asia was the continent I would explore first, beginning with China.
The Great Wall, the Terra Cotta soldiers, the Yangtze River, the Buddhist carvings at Dazu, and, of course, the food !!! Yes, everything was delicious, including the dumplings in Shanghai !!”
But then it was back again to Egypt the following year, 1997. A course in Egyptian Hieroglyphics at UCLA made this trip even more fun!
“’Homage to thee Ra, Supreme power, who makes the earth visible, who gives light to those Westerners…’
That was the Litany to Re that we recited one night in front of the awesome temple of Rameses the Great at Abu Simbel.
Instead of a Nile cruise, we took a Nubian cruise on Lake Nassar. This was the first year that this was offered, and there were only 3 cruise ships on the entire lake, so we pretty much had it to ourselves. We visited Wadi El Saboua, Qasr Ibrim, and docked overnight at Abu Simbel, my favorite place in all of Egypt. Despite having been re-located before the building of the Aswan Dam, there are still two days of the year when the rising sun penetrates 200 feet into the interior of the temple, illuminating the figures of the gods in the sanctuary.
Once again traveling with Joy Travel International, this was a tour for those who have already visited Egypt, and we saw sites we had not seen before, including areas that were just now opened to the public, like Abu Syr, and Dashur, the site of the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, whose interior we got to explore.
After the tour, we all went our separate ways. There were four of us (me, Gayle, and the Bretons) who chose to go to Luxor, in order to see the opera Aida performed in front of Queen Hapshetsut’s Temple.
Of course, there were the usual hi-jinks. Piling our unsecured luggage onto the top of a small car, hoping nothing would fall off as we barreled down the street. Rushing to dress into our finest, in order to catch the bus to take us to the opera. Then, arriving there hours early without having eaten, devouring all the peanuts on the bar. But it was worth it. Aida was magnificent, we had a hotel right on the Nile (unlike the older hotels which are across the street), and we took a hot-air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings.”
That trip also included a week in Jordan: “Passing through the Sikh, we emerged, looking upon the facade of the Treasury, rising high above us. The rose-colored rock-cut building marks the entrance to the lost Nabatean city of Petra.
Feeling much like the explorer who disguised himself as a Bedouin to discover the secret, the treck through the narrow gorge which rises 80 meters above head itself was spectacular. And the reward was awe-inspiring. The Treasury was only the first of the many architectural wonders of this centuries old site.
Meanwhile, Jordan offers much more, from the Roman ruins we explored at Jerash, to the Ottoman Village where we stayed, from the delicious ice cream we tasted in Amman, to the mud baths we took before floating in the Dead Sea.”
And then my life turned another corner when I saw the Mazowsze perform again. In 1992 Tom had come with me to see Mazowsze, and really enjoyed it. I had recently seen Virsky from Ukraine and Moisejev from Russia, which made wish that Tom could see them, so that he would know more about me. As luck would have it, my Mom mentioned that Mazowsze would be performing in Buffalo, and maybe they’d perform in California. I hadn’t seen them in 10 years, so this news was wonderful. It turned out that they were performing in Palm Desert, right where Tom was living. I also went to Las Vegas to see them, as well. I was thrilled that Stanislaw Jopek was still with the group.
Then when they returned in 1997, I made sure I saw them 3 times, with various girlfriends.
At the Ceritos center, the promoter told me to go around the back of the building where the dancers would be boarding the bus, so that my friend, Alison’s daughter could get some autographs. Well, they had a new head choreographer, Michał Jarczyk, who looked as good as he did when I met him 24 years ago, so I talked to him, reminding him of our dance. When I said I was also going to see them perform in Las Vegas, he said then maybe we could have another Tango then. Also, Mieczysław Piwkowski, the musical arranger who took over after Tadeusz Sygietyński died, came over to talk to me. I didn’t realize who he was at the time, but every time I saw the group after this, he always made it a point to talk to me.
So now, I was smitten with Michał. (In Las Vegas we did talk, but I did not go to see him after the show because we had Marva’s young daughter with us and had to leave.) But not only that, I realized that I was in love with Mazowsze. Usually I would focus on one person in a band or group, but this was different. I loved them all and I loved Poland and I loved my life. Suddenly I was different. I was totally happy and no longer needed to be in love with a guy. This was a total revelation to me!!
That summer, I discovered that in L.A., there would be a festival of Polish Folk dance troupes in from the U.S. and Canada, and one of the choreographers from Poland would be Witold Zapała, who had been Mazowsze’s head choreographer (and best dancer) from 1957 until he recently quit. (When Director Mira Ziminska-Sygietińska died earlier this year, things were a mess, so he left…. turns out it was temporary.)
I bugged the guy in charge of the festival to let me meet Zapała. Jasiu Sobanski who had been a member of Mazowsze (the first non-Pole to be allowed to join the group) for a short while. He now was director of a group called Podhale.
It was such a thrill to watch Witold (Witek to his friends) working with the dancers. When he saw me sitting there at the rehearsals, he came over to talk to me, and a wonderful friendship began.
I was to see him again when I went to Poland the following year, for a 5 week all encompassing trip:
„What are your plans for Warsaw?” he asked me. “I hope to visit Wilanów Palace, Łazienki Palace, and the Royal Castle, and, of course, see a Mazowsze performance.” “Ok, I’ll pick up up at 9 A.M.” OMG !!!
I had just arrived in Poland, and, at the insistence of a friend, I called Mazowsze Choreographer Witold Zapała, to say “Hi” (we had met the previous year in Los Angeles), and he was going to take me sight-seeing !!! and to the Opera (Straszny Dwór), and best of all, I was going to sit with him at a Mazowsze concert !!!
That was the beginning of my second trip to Poland. I knew it was going to be magical when I woke from my jet-lag induced nap, to hear Mazowsze singing outside my window. Stanisław Jopek and the singers had been rehearsing in my hotel!!
I had not been to Poland for 25 years. The Communists were no longer in control. With the help of PAT Tours, I rented a car, and mapped out a “tour” for myself, which included the cities and villages where my grandparents were born; a couple of villages that bore my name; several skansens (out-door museums); and stays in palaces and castles which had a limited number of rooms for tourists.
I spent 5 weeks driving 5,000 km throughout all of central and eastern Poland, from the Mazury Lakes in the north, to the Tatra, Pieniny, Bieskidy, Biesczady, etc. Mountains in the south. I photographed churches, and sampled Pierogi in all the restaurants…… I was home !!!”
Austria trip with my Mom, 1999. “We sat in the second row at the Muzikverein, as the Mozart orchestra performed, dressed in period costumes. This was where the New Years in Vienna concerts were held, and this was where my Mom wanted to be. Inspired by Andre Rieu, she chose this musical trip to Austria for her first visit to Europe.
Every day there were concerts, and tours of musical sites, churches, palaces, etc. all across Austria, from Vienna to Salzburg. Hayden, Beethoven, Brukner, Schubert, and, of course Strauss. We saw where the Sound of Music was filmed. We were treated to the Vienna Boys Choir. And then there was the marionette performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which was totally fantastic !!
Meanwhile, no trip to Vienna would be complete without a visit to the Sacher Hotel to sample the famous Sacher Torte !!”
In 2000 my trip to Thailand began with a pre-trip to Cambodia. There were just 5 of us, and we became best friends. Larry & Shirley were about 20 years older than I; George also 20 years older; and his sister-in-law Meg was 10 years older. They laughed that I had signed up with a tour company that was for older people… “Didn’t you see all the people with grey hair in the brochure?” But I was lucky. I eventually traveled other trips with different combinations of these people, plus visited their homes, etc.
“Proud of his heritage, and with the knowledge of an archaeologist, our Cambodian tourguide explained the Hindu and Buddhist carvings on the temples around Angkor, including the famous Angkor Wat. “
Then in Thailand, “given the opportunity to ride as Mahout, I climbed onto the elephant’s neck… and prayed that he didn’t decide to bend down to eat or something, for I could only hold on with my knees.
Traveling with some of my new best friends, Thailand did not disappoint. It has everything from magnificent temples, to beautiful scenery, exotic dances, and delicious food !!! Thus, I have many fond memories, like when Anya stopped a guy on a motorcycle, and bought from him a few bamboo stalks. Inside the bamboo, a treat !! Sticky rice with raisins.
Buddhism is the popular religion of Thailand. It retains its pure form, unlike the Buddhism of the Himalayan countries, where other, older religious ideas are mixed in.”
“Following the trail of the lavender jade, we crossed the border into Myanmar (Burma), and spent the day in the city of Tachileik, near the Golden Triangle.
I have to be content with that brief visit for now, since I had missed the chance to go with a couple of my travel friends to see the marvelous temples at Bagan.”
I almost didn’t go on this month long Silk Road trip… 5 weeks earlier I had brain surgery to remove a meningioma, which left me with a weak ankle. I really came to appreciate my friends at this time. Marva drove me to the hospital, held hands with me until the surgery, then half way through, Alison came, and was there holding my hand when I woke up. Penny came by everyday to see if I needed anything, buying me a pair of shoes to wear for PT, since I had decided to stay a few days to begin therapy in the hospital. Then Gayle drove me home, and stayed with me for a week as I recovered.
I treated these four to a Podhale performance on my 50th birthday the following year. The best way to celebrate. (I was also acknowledged by the dance troupe for having gotten them on a TV show on Ch. 11 in L.A.)
2000 Uzbekistan. “We left the fabled blue-tiled city of Samarkand, following the Silk Road through the Kara Kum desert, on our way to the holy city of Bukhara, and Khiva, the city of a thousand and one domes. Samarkand, one of the oldest cities of the world, the legendary capital of the Sogdians, the seat of Tamerlane’s empire, the city that Alexander the Great called the most beautiful he had ever seen.
I had wanted to travel the Silk Route for a long time, and finally, here I was. I wanted to take my time, no quick tour, so I began by spending a month in the “Stans”. With the fall of the Soviet Union, these ancient countries were now returning to their former glory, and I was seeing it first hand.”
Turkmenistan – “The immense golden statues of the Turkmenbashi could be seen all over the city of Ashkabat, and, in every hotel and public building, his portrait. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Saparmurat Niyazov declared himself President for Life. He did a lot for the people of Turkmenistan, but, as with most dictators, not all of his actions were beneficial.
Tourism was something new here. The hotel we stayed at in Mary was severely lacking. The television in my room was physically broken, serving only to house the cockroaches. There were holes in the bathroom wall, the towels were grey, as was the water from one faucet, the other faucet producing brown water. But that did not matter, since there was no way I could shower. The water was either very cold or very hot, a balance could not be achieved.
But we were not there as tourists, we were there to explore the nearby historical site of Merv, once the largest city in the world.”
St. Petersburg, Russia, was the treat at the end of a month long archaeological Central Asian Silk road trip.
“I was having trouble reading the menu in the McDonald’s in St. Petersburg, so, with my limited Russian, I asked the girl what kind of sauces they had for their Chicken Nuggets. Thankfully, the Russian words for “sweet and sour sauce” are the same in Polish, so I was able to place my order.
With only a day in Moscow, and three in St. Petersburg, I still managed to see all the highlights. The best part, however, was the Astoria Hotel. After nearly a month of travel in the “Stans”, this stop in St. Petersburg was meant to pamper, and it did. From the luxurious comforter on the bed, to the heated tiles in the bathroom, to the white chocolate Toblerone candy in the mini-bar. This was my heaven !! My favorite hotel ever !!”
2001 South India. “The professor traveling with us for our month long journey through southern India, would always read to us excerpts from the Mahabharata, the Panchatantra, and the Ramayana on long bus trips. Not just entertaining, but a window into the Hindu religion itself.
But it wasn’t just history or religion that I learned about in India.
I was fascinated by the mixture of cultures that peacefully make up this subcontinent. Interesting that English is the assistant language in this multi-lingual country. The TV game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, for example, featured conversations in Hindi, but the game questions were in English.
Yes, I try to watch as much local television as I can when I am traveling. The most fun here, of course, were the Bollywood movies.
Oh, and one thing I though was worth mentioning…after noticing the people who were washing their clothes in the river and drying them by laying them on the grass, one of the hotels I stayed at, sent our laundry “out” to be done. Yes, it came back clean, but there was a bit of grass on some of the items !!!”
Poland 2001 “The Choreographer for the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble, Witold Zapala, left his car double parked in front of the hotel, as he rushed in to greet us. A bouquet of flowers for my Mother, a turquoise shawl for me. ‘What kind of tour is this that you are already leaving Warsaw?’ he asked.
Accustomed to traveling around Poland on my own, a guided tour was a concession made for my Mother, who had never been to this country before. Together with a pleasant group of travelers, we visited all the popular sites, including the Wieliczka Salt Mines, with it’s carved statues and chapels; Jasna Góra, home of the Black Madonna – Our Lady of Częstochowa; Mariacki church in Kraków, with it’s golden altar; and Zakopane, where we took a cable-car up the mountains.
There, in a local karczma (tavern), we were entertained by a Góralski kapela (Highlander band), whom I immediately recognized as Andrzej Obrochty-Bartuś, my favorite !! In fact, I had just that day purchased a couple of their CD’s, so I asked for their autographs. I am sure they were surprised that an American even knew who they were.”
2001 China Silk Road, traveling with Bob Z. whom I met on one of my Egypt trips. “We were about 100 miles from Afghanistan, when the president of the USA talked about bombing that country. Up until now we believed that China was the safest place to be in the days following 9/11. The Beijing hotel where we stayed that fateful day, had given all the Americans letters of condolence. As we traveled westward towards Kashgar, the news reports were all in Mandarin, but the images were unmistakable.
During my first trip to China 5 years earlier I had discovered that there were a myriad of ethnic groups living in that country, and longed to visit as many as I could. I became obsessed with the idea of traveling the Silk Road, and began that journey with travels through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
The Chinese portion of the Silk Road took me to the Buddhist caves of Dunhuang, through the Taklamakan Desert, and into Xinjiang, the home of the Muslim Uyghers, whose language I found was nearly identical to Uzbek.”
Poland 2002, my 50th birthday!
“I returned to my room in the tower of Krasiczyn Castle following a performance of the Magnificent Mazowsze at the giant sports arena in Rzeszów. Filled to capacity, including the floor of the arena, the audience began cheering wildly as soon as the orchestra walked out. It was like being at a rock concert or sporting event, for among the attendees were performers from 30 dance groups from around the world, and they all idolized the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble.
They were there for a week-long festival where dance troupes from countries like: France, Australia, USA, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Brazil, etc. performed Polish folk dances.
A few days earlier I had been at Karolin, Mazowsze’s headquarters, watching them rehearse. Choreographer, Witold Zapała directing the dancers, Conductor Jan Grabia directing the orchestra, and Soloist Stanisław Jopek singing to me !!! Well, I was the audience there in the old rehearsal hall. Joining me later was an opera singer, who was also a fan.
This was a multi-cultural musical trip for me. Among the festivals I attended was an Old Music Festival in Kraków, where I got to see the Hungarian Gypsy Band, Szászcsávás Band
from Transylvania. Then there was the Tydzień Kultury Beskidziej in Wisła, which featured not only song and dance troupes from the Silesian Mountain regions of Poland, but ensembles from all over the world, including Turkey, Belarus, Croatia, and Italy.
As an added bonus, there was the Mazowszacy z Karolinie, entertaining tourists at hotel in Warsaw where Witold and Danuta Zapala had taken me. Made up of members of Mazowsze, they encouraged a few of us to get up and perform with them, and then they delighted the Japanese tourists by singing a Polish folk song in Japanese. “
2002 Bhutan, traveling with George and Meg. “Druk Yul, the Land of the Thunder Dragon. That is the Kingdom of Bhutan. Secluded high in the Himalayas, it is a country based on Gross National Happiness. There is no poverty here, no crime, and the only country I’ve been to where you can visit the market without someone pushing you to buy something.
No beggars or children looking for hand-outs, either. The only request I received was from two school girls attending a Bhuddhist festival. They wanted my address so that they could write to me. We have kept up that correspondence ever since, as those little girls have grown into beautiful, capable young ladies.”
Nepal – “The Hindu traditions exist side by side with Buddhist in the three cities of the Kathmandu Valley.
Our stay in this Himalayan kingdom was brief. Unrest was brewing. But we had a few days for sight-seeing and shopping in this impoverished country.”
Tibet 2002 – “There I was, on top of the world !! Well, it wasn’t exactly Mt. Everest, but I was at 17,121 feet (5,220 meters) atop the ‘Ocean Pass’ high in the Himalayas.
You had to be part of a tour group in order to get into Tibet, so the 3 of us joined a small group of 7 international travelers, and we were off.
Beginning in Lhasa, the site of the Potala palace, we traveled upward every day, visiting monasteries, and farms, until only the nomads and their yaks could be found.
The Tibetan form of Buddhism incorporates many of the older local religions, and, thus there are many deities and demons, buddahs, and bhodisatvas. However the basic Buddhist tenants still apply: ‘If you have compassion and wisdom, anything is possible.’ And I was happy it was possible to be there.
One of the interesting sites were the cow patties which decorated the exterior of homes. In winter they provided insulation, and were later burned as fuel.
Though I always learn the language of the countries I visit, occasionally, as with Tibetan, my vocabulary was limited. I tried, however, not to fall back too much on Mandarin, by making sure that I remembered the important words, like ‘chicken’, and ‘ice cream’.”
2003 there were no foreign trips, instead my Mom’s surprise 80th birthday party at Salvatore’s in Cheektowaga. I got to see cousins that I hadn’t seen in a long time. A nice group of over 40 people.
2004 Egypt. “The area around Amarna had been off limits to tourists for years, due to problems at El Minya, but now we were headed there. Even though the four of us (Helen & Dick B., Linda M, and myself, with Egyptian friend Lotfy) were traveling on our own, not part of a tour, we still had a police escort, which changed as we entered new territories. But when we neared Assyut, we were shocked to see our escort was a Tank !!! Yikes !!!
Of course we were assured that the only reason for the tank was because that was all that was available. And so, after escorting us to our hotel, they allowed us to climb inside and check it out. Not your usual tourist fare.
This trip, too, was not on the usual tourist path. From Port Said, through Bubastis and Tanis, to Meidum (where we saw Senefru’s collapsed pyramid) and Fayoum, out into the desert, then down to Abydos, and finally to Luxor for shopping and Amelia Peabody’s favorite walk over the hill from the Valley of the Kings to Queen Hapshetsut’s temple.”
2004 Poland. “Having identified the restaurant with the best pierogi, and having located a booth with incredible placki (potato pancakes), I was still being challenged in the search for my favorite ice cream, Advocaat likier jajeczny. That’s because all the ice cream stands changed their selection every day.
Of course, the real reason I was spending 11 days in Zakopane was the International Highland Music Festival. There were musicians and dancers from Mongolia and Montenegro, Slovakia, and Switzerland, and everywhere else you can imagine, but I was mostly interested in the performers from the Polish highlands. I love to hear them sing in ‘white voice’, playing their fiddles and cellos, and I love listening to them speak in the dialect of the
‘Górale subculture.’ Of course, I also spent time in Warsaw with Mazowsze friends Witek Zapala and Danuta and their son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons.
Day trip to Slovakia. “Are you afraid of heights? she asked. No. Do you have good hiking shoes? Yes. According to what I could translate of the brochure, the Slovenský Raj (Slovak Paradise) was a beautiful natural park with almost 200 caves and abysses, and I was looking forward to the hike. There were other words, however, that I was not sure I was translating correctly: Ladders and Bow-ties. What??
Turns out the ‘ties’ were half-sized railroad ties that you had to navigate in order to cross deep chasms or creeks. They were usually slippery wet, and there were no barriers or anything to hold on to!!! Yikes!!! After being assisted by my fellow hikers (including Maltese tourists Chris & Dorianne) across a couple of these so called ‘bridges’, I realized that I could not turn back. I had to stay with the group, so I proceeded.
One of our stops later in the day was at a local market, where I discovered that they sold Absinthe !!! I have always been fascinated by this drink, but alas, I was not going to get the chance to try it because we were about to cross the border into Poland, where Absinthe was illegal. That experience would have to wait for another time.”
Italy 2005, traveling with Nickie and Yvette. “As we watched the glass-blower create intricate patterns, we wondered, where in the world is Yvette? After all, it was Yvette’s idea to come to the Island of Morano. Sure enough, after visiting every shop on the island in search of the glass jewelry Yvette so desperately wanted, she was the only one who did not buy anything (other than gelato, of course.)
And now, having missed our boat back to Venice, we boarded the “local”, which got us back just in time for the darkened skies to unleash a torrent of cold rain. Dressed for a hot, sunny day, the three of us crowded under one umbrella, and made yet another error in judgment. We allowed Yvette to guide us through the maze that was Venice.
We should have known right from the beginning of the trip, when we discovered a TV remote tucked safely away in Yvette’s handbag.
On the other hand, we did do a lot of things right. We visited the Ufizzi Gallery and the Academia in Florence, half hour before closing times. This way we did not have to spend hours in line to see Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, and Michelangelo’s David. Also, at the Vatican, first visiting the tomb of Pope St. John Paul the Great, got us into St. Peter’s Basilica quicker.
The smartest thing, however, riding trains between cities. Much more civilized than air travel. If I lived in Europe, I would never fly. Too bad the railway system in the U.S.A. is not very efficient.”
Malta. “A Roman Catholic country with an Arabic sounding language, Malta’s charm is its beautiful people, its magnificent architecture, and its sandy beaches.
What luck, then, that I had met a wonderful Maltese couple (Chris & Dorianne) on a previous trip to Poland. They generously took time off from their jobs in order to proudly show us the wonders of their idyllic homeland.”
In 2006 I officially became a Polish citizen. Since my grandparents left Poland before 1918, when there was a Republic of Poland, I had to apply for citizenship, by proving that I was worthy! I had to write my biography in Polish, highlighting my contributions to Polonia… my Polish TV and radio shows, my contributions to Polish charities, my dancing with a Polish dance company, etc. I was approved by the President of Poland, who only accepted 1,000 new Polish citizens each year. I was in!!
Poland 2007, now I was there as a Polish citizen!
“There I was, sitting in the shadow of the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill, gazing out over the Wisła River, and eating pierogi. It just doesn’t get any better than this!!!
I was in Kraków for the city’s 750th anniversary celebration, and, as always, PAT Tours booked for me a hotel at this wonderful location. A nice walk to the Rynek put me in the center of the celebration.
Most of this trip, however, was spent around Warsaw, visiting friends, including former dancers from the Mazowsze Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble (Witek and Danuta and family). I also met the widow of singer Stanislaw Jopek (Maria), who treated me like an old friend, as we spent the day together (including a visit to the cemetery). I also was privileged to travel with Mazowsze to see two of their performances outside of Warsaw. As always, their concerts touched my heart.
Greece 2007. “Traveling with some of my best friends (Larry & Shirley, and Meg), people I met in Cambodia eight years earlier, I marveled at the way people can bond so easily. The love of travel, of learning, of history, of beauty, and a sense of adventure is something that we have in common, but our friendship goes beyond that.
It was not luck that brought us together, but fate, and now we were embarking on another adventure in Greece and its islands.
The people here are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Each woman a goddess, each man an Adonis !!
One of the many things I learned on this trip was that the Greek alphabet is the same, Cyrillic alphabet used by the Russians. That is because of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and the Eastern Orthodox religion.
It was in Greece that I finally got to try the mythical drink, Absinthe !! Unfortunately I was unaware at the time that it should be poured over sugar and mixed with water. We drank it straight !!! Or, rather we had a few sips. It was quite strong. Not sure how many brain cells died that day.”
A big thrill for a few years, was The Rogues’ Michael Spriggs!! We connected through e-mails, then spent a couple of years with him phoning me and having long talks. He was sort of separated from his wife then, but she had health problems, so they still lived together, outside of Nashville, where he is still an A-list session guitarist, performing on over 10,000 albums!
He was always trying to meet up with me in Buffalo, but it never worked out. Eventually, he re-connected with his wife, which is ok, since I was not looking for a relationship. He also has two incredibly beautiful daughters.
On a sad note, however, Mike called me one morning at 7 AM. I think he forgot the time difference, but I think I was the only one he could talk to about this… He had discovered that Jim Pierotti (lead singer of The Rogues) had died a couple of years ago in Delaware. This broke Colleeen’s heart because she was never able to connect with him. At least I had a long time friendship with Bob and Mike.
I was glad when my brother Ron, met Dawn. They lived together for awhile, then married in 2008. He had been alone for so long after his divorce from his first wife, and it was great to see him happy again.
My Mom died in 2009. I had stopped working that year, and was with her that Christmas when she passed. So was my brother. We had been to a family Christmas party a couple of days before. It’s like she waited for us to be all together. The last couple of years of my Mom’s life she spent in and out of hospitals, and it traumatized me. So, in a way, I was glad to see her at peace.
After selling my Mom’s house, I only made one visit to Buffalo in 2010, staying at Mary Ann’s house. Mazowsze was performing, and I had box seats. I took my family to meet Witold Zapala, and was showered with gifts from him and other Mazowsze members. Then a month later, I went to Cleveland, staying with Larry & Shirley, and we got to see Mazowsze perform again. And we spent time backstage. Though these travel friends are not Polish, they had become friendly with Mazowsze staff when we attended Mazowsze’s last performance in Ohio, in 2007.
It was a quiet time now in my life. Some excitement, however, when I went to see Tony Galla (formerly of Raven, now living in Califorina), at a Beverly Hills Hotel. He sang, and played guitar with a small blues group, and was thrilled to meet me, a “friend” from Buffalo. I only got to hear him perform twice, first time I was with Marva, the second time I was with Alison and Penny, and he sat with us during all the breaks.
I stopped traveling because I was not unemployed, though comfortable financially. I simply did not want to make the long commute to Los Angeles. Also, the rest of the “Fox 100” who were laid off at the same time, were having difficulty finding work anyway.
And, my health wasn’t the best. I was feeling lost without my Mom, etc. I tried new things, like fencing and sword fighting, eventually I tried to get back into ballroom dancing, despite my weak ankle, and was having fun for a couple of years until I fell practicing the Tango. That was 2013. A brief stay in the hospital brought back all the trauma of what my Mom went through, so I avoided doctors, etc. for a long time afterwards.
Outings with friends, Oscar parties, etc. kept me busy, and visits to Ron & Dawn’s house in South Carolina, then eventually Portland Oregon, were my only travels. In 2017 some cousins came to L.A. for a wedding and others for Thanksgiving, so I was able to spend time with family from both sides, including my one surviving aunt, Reggie.
My old friend, Wally Gajewski from WBFO retired recently at the age of 70 (he’s 5 years older than me), and has been active on Facebook, along with other WBFO alumni. I first saw Wally, known as Sir Walter Raleigh on a major Buffalo radio station, introducing a rock concert at Kelinhan’s Music Hall, and I had kind of a crush on him. When we later worked together, we were great friends. In my mind, it was Wally, Mitch, and I as kind of three amigos. Wally had a huge apartment, so we would have a lot of parties there.
Wally always had a girlfriend, and there was a time when I sort of dated someone, yet at Christmas time, Wally and I always spent time together, as everyone else had gone home for the holidays, while we were home.
Mitch was the first to move to Los Angeles, then I moved there, but left to take a job in New Jersey. It was then that Wally and his girlfriend (later his wife) moved to LA, and by the time I returned to the west coast, Wally had a family.
Wally and I have a lot in common. Both Geminis (his birthday is two days after mine), both Polish, both play accordion, both love the same type of music, both worked in radio, both love photography… and now I discover that he also loves to travel. And that is what he has been doing since his retirement. All over the world !! I thought to myself… gee, I should have married Wally!!! But then I realize that our timing was off. I had those 10 years in New York State where I embarked on all my “careers”… modeling, radio disc jockey, TV news anchor/reporter, ballroom dance teacher, and Polish Folk Dance performer, even winery tour guide. Also, I did my traveling 20 years ago, and now I’m not fit enough to go on those types of trips. Plus, he had 2 kids. I don’t think I would have been happy to have children. So, It’s just a simple fantasy, as Wally and I connect on Facebook.
Unfortunately he lives in Long Beach, which is a 3 hour drive, and I don’t like to drive that far. I always get jealous when he posts photos of events down there, especially Tony Galla performances in the park!
On the sad side, Bob Radel, who has been keeping in touch via e-mail, and his wife’s Christmas cards, sent me an e-mail saying how happy he was knowing that I was out there somewhere, but that he was going away for a while, and I might not hear from him again. Was he ill??
Then something magical happened in 2019. I fell in love!! Well, sort of. I rediscovered Mario Lanza, and was filled with such emotion that my heart burst when I heard him sing. He made me laugh, and cry. What a magnificent voice. Plus he was gorgeous. He was the world’s first superstar. He looked like a god, he sang like a god. But sadly, he died when he was only 38… in 1959.
Of course, I had a dream about him that he was still alive, but very old, and performing on Dancing With the Stars. I went backstage to meet him, and he invited me to dinner. He put on the coat he wore in The Great Caruso, and we walked across the street… to a Polish restaurant!! Lol… yep, that could have happened in real life with me.