My name is Mike Watts.
My father Stephen Anthony Wojtowicz (Watts) married Ethel Solomon (of
Solomon's Cut Rate Market), and I was born at Booth Memorial Hospital on Jan
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| Baby Mike in front of Solomon's Market |
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The market featured live poultry, meats, produce, and beer and wine. |
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| Mike standing in front of Solomon's Market |
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Sharon & Carol Solomon
& young Mike |
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7090 W Jefferson |
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David & Melvina (Rosenberger) Solomon |
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My father was Stephen (Wojtowicz) Watts, and my Mother was Ethel (Solomon) Watts.
My dad worked on Zug Island, and my mom worked at my the family store
Solomon's Cut Rate market at 8036 W Jefferson Ave with her brother David
Solomon and my grandparents. |
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Sam and Nettie Solomon of Solomon's Market |
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Young Mike with his grandfather, Sam Solomon
of Solomon's Market around 1952. |
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My grandfather on my dad's side Jacob Wojtowicz worked in the Detroit salt mines. |
I have fond memories of those days, and remember it to be a happy place.
I run into people all the time that have some family ties to good old Delray.
I also wanted to let you know that I've passed on the site to my cousins, and
they are also enjoying the memories.
While looking through some old pictures I found a newspaper article from the Detroit Times showing a Gypsy Funeral procession through Delray, and a story about the fiddle player who died.
It also mentions that Ziggy Bella was his relative, and led the funeral
march. As any good Hunky from Delray would know Ziggy was a home town boy who went on to become a pretty famous violin player.
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Gypsy Funeral
(click to enlarge)
Gypsy Violins Wail in Death
A strange funeral procession led by a family of mournfully wailing violins wandered through the dingy streets Delray today to the Holy Cross Church.
A Hungarian gypsy clan that was centuries old was parting with the mortal remains of a beloved' fiddler, Julius Rakoczi.
Rakoczi died In the middle of a melody in Uncle Louie's Restaurant.
FAMOUS ARTIST
Because he was famous, far and wide, as an Artist in playing real gypsy music, his kinsmen and fellow musicians came from many distant places for the melancholy farewell.
They took pains to say that they were not roving gypsies, that all had good homes and lived by music alone.
The women, conventionally dressed, but wearing their heavy gold earrings were packed in with the body in a home at 7878 Medina.
CHILDREN LAMENT
Somebody asked if this was Rakoczi’s house, but nobody seemed to know. The women and children lamented aloud while a 25 piece string orchestra tuned up outside standing in the snow and cold.
The Rev. Stephen Ball said prayers and the mustachioed, pallbearers lifted the casket.
The orchestra included two bass violists who each had men to carry the Instruments at the bases while they fingered the necks and bowed.
FAVORITE PIECES
Ziggy Bella, 45, a fellow fiddler and a cousin of the dead man, directed the musicians to Rakoczi’s favorite pieces. Bella tried to translate the titles into English: “The Blossom Disappeared”, “I Love You as Nobody Loves You”, and “Now That She Is gone I Have Nothing Left.”
They were all in the sad keys. When the band reached the church It was slowly playing Slowly flows the river Maros!”
200 AT CHURCH
For the requiem mass there were perhaps 200 in the church.
Then again, the orchestra tuned up and played “Numabandona" as the march started to Woodmere Cemetery.
There the violins were at last silent for the final prayer.
One of the players explained that his kinsmen were among the few gypsies that would play the ancient music properly and that the technique could only be handed down from father to son. Rakoczi is survived by his wife Emma; daughters Dorothy and Nancy; and a son Artie.
