There I go again....such memories...
My brother Tony is so glad to see your web site.
He has old photos to scan and send you as well.
He drew a map of the Polish side of Delray by St. John's that I attach- Easier to see when enlarged, etc.
My sister has TONS of memories of the Hungarian Gypsy funerals- She went on and on and on telling me about them in detail.
You have really started people's memories working and have brought great joy!!!!
Everyone remembers the live chicken store and the flower shop by the Reformatus church on Harbaugh and Dearborn...
And the gas station across from it...and on and on.
My Brother and sister lived in Delray, married people from Delray, are full of accurate memories, details.
My sister just said that there is a very large collection of old Delray photos in the Delray Recreation Center, the park at Leigh St.
Pics of original settlers' houses, the early McMillain school being built, the Delray fire dept. asnd so on.
This is a treasure of info-Old newspaper articles discussing Morley School, people who lived in Delray.
How exciting.
The photos are on display there, I think.
Some names, like Roulo-from French spelling Rouleau-
wind up in East Dearborn, where there's a Roulo Street off of Patton Park, and there was a school on that street named Roulo too...
A decendant of Burdeno is a founding member of the Grosse Isle yacht club...
I am no longer driving, as I have MS now-I wish I were physically able to do more...
Steve Nagy, btw, from Delray, I hear, has a Delray web site and tons of photos...
There are meetings at the Delray park-one at the end of the month, and my sister will get his info.
She and her daughter and grand daughter(5 generations!) still live in Delray,. Sadly, all of her older neighbors with their memories have passed away.
One old man on Keller Street told us in the early 1970's how the park used to be a farm.
The "sheeny man"0junk man, would come down the alley in a horse-driven wagon as late as about 1970...
Remember the sheeny man??
(Delray culture, Polish, Hungarian mothers saying,"You have so much junk! You're like the Sheeny man."
Gino Stavola I send my best!
The rich, once marshy land in Delray grew the best gardens.
My gramma said, "I could spit on the ground in Delray and something would grow.
Here, in the suburbs, nothing will grow for me."
Ages of marsh land, fertile, poisoned by industy, pollution.
My sister just said that there is a very large collection of old Delray photos in the Delray Recreation Center, the park at Leigh St.
Pics of original settlers' houses, the early McMillain school being built, the Delray fire dept. asnd so on.
This is a treasure of info-Old newspaper articles discussing Morley School, people who lived in Delray.
How exciting.
The photos are on display there, I think.
Some names, like Roulo-from French spelling Rouleau-
wind up in East Dearborn, where there's a Roulo Street off of Patton Park, and there was a school on that street named Roulo too...
A decendant of Burdeno is a founding member of the Grosse Isle yacht club...
I am no longer driving, as I have MS now-I wish I were physically able to do more...
Steve Nagy, btw, from Delray, I hear, has a Delray web site and tons of photos...
There are meetings at the Delray park-one at the end of the month, and my sister will get his info.
She and her daughter and grand daughter(5 generations!) still live in Delray,. Sadly, all of her older neighbors with their memories have passed away.
One old man on Keller Street told us in the early 1970's how the park used to be a farm.
The "sheeny man"0ld junk man, would come down the alley in a horse-driven wagon as late as about 1970...
Remember the sheeny man??
(Delray culture, Polish, Hungarian mothers saying,"You have so much junk! You're like the Sheeny man."
Gino Stavola I send my best!
The rich, once marshy land in Delray grew the best gardens.
My gramma said, "I could spit on the ground in Delray and something would grow.
Here, in the suburbs, nothing will grow for me."
Ages of marsh land, fertile, poisoned by industy, pollution.
I remember as a little kid that there were big glass windows at the drug store at Dearborn and Harbaugh- And at Papp's market, and at Kish's on Keller. He was Byzantine-Greek-Catholic. In the 70's, we lived in the house next to the store he had owned, in his former house, where I found old Byzantine Catholic newspapers.
It led me to explore St. Janos Gorog Kat. church and later joined it before it closed.
That church was a gem. It has been stripped of all icons and statues by the people who own it now.
They are iconclasts, prefer to pray in the basement, I saw when I went there on Easter in 2001 or so...
There are painting of Hungarian saints on the walls there- Szent Imre, Szent Margit....
I'm not even Hungarian, and there I was, trying to tell the pastor what he had on his church's walls.
Where are the children and grand children of this fantastic gem?
Why didn't they save it, as Holy Cross people saved their church?
Our grandparents built monuments to leave their families and what did they get for their sacrifices?
Kids who only care about who won American Idol and oder pizzas, that's what.
Their building and sacrifices were spat on.
The churches in the suburbs today are like barns, as my Gramma said.
No culture, no beauty.
Just Walmarts and drive-thrus...
Luckily I saw what used to be before it vanished-
Even the Greek Catholic church.
Ha. I'd take our Easter food to be blessed (on foot, in Delray) to 3 different churches-Saint John Cantius, Holy Cross,St. John's Greek Catholic church...
Triple-blessed Easter foods.
I made the traditional Easter eggs dyed with onion peels like my Gramma did.
Enough. Thanks, Gino Stavola
The "Greek Catholic" church is the way Hungarians call the Byzantine Catholic church-Szent Janos, on Harbaugh, with the cross with 3 bars-There's a pic of it on your site where it's labeled St. John Cantius...
There were tons of Armenians who lived on and around my mom's family house on Green Street...
They used a Protestant church and a hall for services and eventually moved out to build churches on Ford Rd., and in Southfield...
I wonder if Beth Isaac members in Trenton know about the Hebrew Congregation of Delray's history?
(Do they care is the question, maybe...)
What about the Hungarian Lutheran church in Delray?
Or the 2 huge brick churches at Burdeno and Dearborn...What were they?
Baptist?
There was a Hungarian Baptist church in Lincoln Park...
If I could only go back in time to my youth in the 70's in Delray with a camera and video cam and tape recorder and document and ask everyone questions!
I thought Delray would last forever- Never, ever thoughtpeople would allow St. John Cantius be destroyed, forgotten.
And for what culture, tradition?
If there were great, beautiful churches here in this suburb or a community, like the one that existed in Delray, I could see why people wouldn't care.
But Taco Bell drive-thrus are not even close....
Ok, enough.
Thanks for understanding, and thanks for your web site. Gino
Below is the "Gorog Katilikus" -Byzantine Catholic church on Harbaugh that housed beautiful icons and statues that were all taken away...
Can you imagine what the founders of this church would say?
Opposie Delray, across the river, is the Windsor district of Sandwich, where equally old buildings are kept up, used, and restored.
It, too, used to be a seperate town, like Delray.
There is a school and a community hall that are alive there still...
There is an old picture of Queen Victoria hanging in one old building...
St. John Cantius:
The girls in the pics are my sister-in-law and her sister.
She attended St. John Cantius every Saturday, driving from Westland with her husband, my brother, until it was closed under Fr. Zaorski
Even though a priest from Wyandotte said he would say mass there, and the church had a money surplus under Fr. Szczygiel that suddenly vanished...(((POOF))) when St. John's was clustered with All Saints and Sts. Andrew and Benedict.
Leaving my brother and wife with a very unbeautiful church to attend in Westland...Sad, really...
It is all about money, in the end.
Fr. Zaorski (edzski@aol.com) let homeless stay in the abandoned school, who ended up burning it down(sort of doing the job for him, we all think) and it was easily torn down.
Excuse my bitterness.
It doesn't stem from my religios beliefs, but a deep respect for the lost achitecture, artwork, and history and heritage.
I was inspired by the Polish language classes given on Saturdays at St. John's by assistant priest Fr. John Paczek to go to Poland twice to study Polish in Krakow.
Fr. Paczek wrote and published a book about St. John Cantius church-
It can be found at the Detroit Public Library in the reference books section.
He did so much work in the parish, making visits to members' homes, walking up and down the streets of Delray- At least Thaddeus, Keller, Melville.
Life is just a flash of lightening in a summer storm cloud, Chinese say.
But HOW is it that in Sandwich, section of Windsor, opposite Delray, buildings have been restored and are in use?
Google Sanwich, Windsor...
Okay. Enough.
I'm only 45- the last year of the Baby Boomers Generation,
and my blood pressure goes up thinking about the terrible losses.
Plus I have MS and should just take it easy. Ha! Right...
All the best,
Gino
