Thursday, November 29, 2007
I lived in New Jersey all my life. While still a child in the 1950s, my father let me stay for several summers at the homes of Aunt Elizabeth Sudol, Aunt Clara Smolka, or Aunt Stella Sperry, all in the Utica NY area. For a few days during most of these summers, especially when I was older as a teenager, I also stayed at Uncle John Papierski's farm, helping out as much as I could with the haying. Uncle John owned a used 1937 Willys, probably selected because my father owned an older used 1933 Willys. Uncle John also owned a great team of horses that he trained well. They did their own steering way up in front of the hay wagon, while Uncle John was busy in the very BACK of the wagon working the hay loader. With a loud voice either in English or Polish, he would issue commands remotely to the horses -- which could be heard a thousand feet away in all directions. Years later, Uncle John Papierski was finally able to afford a tractor. So he bought an "International Harvester Farmall Super C" tractor that had "only" four speeds forward. Uncle Stan Sudol bragged that he had a better tractor, the International Harvester Farmall H tractor, with five forward speeds. But because of special tractor driving skills of Uncle John and the perfect gearing of the Super C's transmission, he did routine hay raking at record speed "in high gear", most likely the only farmer in Herkimer County to do so. Uncle Stan's tractor's 4th gear was too low to match Uncle John's high-speed hay raking rate, and its 5th gear was too high and would stall in the process. I especially remember and will continue to remember how KIND Uncle John was to me and to others in his extended family. And finally, Uncle John Papierski's handsome good looks with full head of hair and piercing eyes, and strength and timbre of his voice, reminded me of the movie star and singer Robert Goulet, who sadly, also passed away this month. Ken Tekel and family, Warren NJ 11/29/07 kentekel @ yahoo.com
