24 May 1906 Ellis Island, New York City

This all started with a dream. This all started with letters. This all started when my brother Antoni set it in motion. This all started when I left my village with four companions. This all started when we walked and took trains from Poland to Italy. This all started…

At the beginning of this dream, letters came from Antoni in America. He begged me to join him. He had sent a ticket in a letter for my older sister Katarzyna in 1902. Now it was my turn to meet them. I had to memorize the contents of the letters since I could not read nor write…my parish priest read them to me. A ticket and American money came for me…for me!

In the letter’s instructions, I was to walk and take a train to Trieste, Italy. I knew nothing of this place. Where was it? I would be accompanied by four others from my village. I was told to pack my possessions in a blanket and bind it up so I could carry it. Actually, I had so little. I made a packet of food. I was ready to start my journey to the unknown.

When we arrived in Trieste, I had never seen such activity of big ships and so many people. I heard all kinds of spoken tongues. I noted people of all ages. My companions and I held hands so we would not be separated from one another. We had to answer many questions so that our answers could be written down. I was told by my brother to state my age as 16…I was actually 14. Our ship’s name was the Georgia. We were to be in a part of the ship called the steerage. The golden day to start our journey was 30 April 1906.

In steerage, we were given food rations and were expected to prepare our own food. We crowded into bunks for sleeping and kept an eye open on our bundles. When we cried, we comforted one another. All these strange people, all these strange tongues, all these strange smells. We looked forward to the times we could go on deck and breathe the air. In just 25 days we would be in this place called New York City.

In his letters, my brother had told me to look for the Lady in the harbor. When I saw her, I would know that I was in America. I would soon be able to depart the ship and take a ferry with other passengers to a place called Ellis Island. There we would be examined by doctors, prodded by officials, questioned by workers. If I passed all these stations, I would be released to my waiting brother. I would walk down the Stairs of Separation, and I would take the aisle to the left for those going to New York and New England. We would be going to a place called Connecticut where I would be employed as a scrubwoman at a residence.

As I sit here on a bench in the Great Hall at Ellis Island, I am waiting to hear my name called. My companions and I are shedding tears since we will be soon parted. We are all headed to different places from one another…Philadelphia and Jersey City. Will we ever see each other again?

Here I sit on 24 May 1906…a day that I will forever remember…on a bench waiting. Finally, I hear it…”Anna Mroz”. I have been called forward…and so the rest of my dream begins.

Note: Anna Mroz is my paternal grandmother. So young…so brave. How long she resided in Connecticut with her brother is unknown to me. A few years later, she would relocate to Philadelphia. There she would become sweethearts with her Polish neighbor, Franciszek. They would be married on 3 October 1914.

April 3, 1910 Bloomington, Osborne County, Kansas

Dearest sister Clara Dell,
Oh my stars, I am so excited. I utterly cannot believe it. It’s like a fairy tale story. Husband Wash announced to the family at Sunday dinner that he is buying an automobile. How will this change our lives here on the farm? What does this actually mean? I just have so many questions.

Wash said it all started when he went into town one Saturday, and friends at the elevators started debating about the merits of owning an automobile. Pros, cons, and personal opinions were tossed all around. Someone stated that going over to Wolley’s Implements to see an actual automobile might be worth the trip. Who was interested in going along?

Wash went along with questions. Questions about operating it, maintaining it, paying for it were some of the queries. Did he think he could actually drive it because it was certainly different from taking out a team of horses and a wagon? To him, there was a lot to consider.

Finally, he said, he wanted to surprise us all at family dinner. Buying the Model T could change how often the family went into town on a Saturday. It could change getting to church. Why, they all may have more time to visit neighbors. I just thought to myself how blessed we all are. To me, I would feel less isolated as a farm wife…I could see and visit more folks.

I have to confess my sister-in-law Hattie asked me why I did not question Wash about the decision being made without me. Frankly, it is not of her business plus I trust him to make good decisions for our family. Enough said.

In the meantime, Wash needs to have Mr. Woolley’s men give him driving instructions before we take delivery. I cannot wait…I feel this is going to change our lives.

Love from your sister,
Mina

Note: Sarah Almina Nickel and Washington Irving Storer are my great grandparents. They had 8 children who were all still at home in 1910. So a total of 10 people got to feel the changes that the purchase of this automobile brought.

Spring, 1946 Topeka, Kansas

Am I crazy? Have I thought this all through? Am I certain that my decision is what I want? Will it all work out according to my dreams of a future?

Well, my folks think I am gambling on a promise. They do not like that I am moving from the land that I know to the unknowns of a large bustling city across the country. My wartime roommates think it is romantic. We all had jobs at the State Capitol. My gal pals Marge, Maxine, Edith, and Phyllis are all planning to meet their guys back from the war right here in Topeka as they plan their new lives together. Me…I am headed to Washington, D.C., to a secretarial job with the Department of the Navy. I will be living in a women’s apartment building with other gals working for the government. There, I will meet Eddie, who has taken a job with the Signal Corps.

In Topeka three years ago at a dance at the American Legion, I met Private Edward Slabik who was in training before he would be shipped out. We saw each other several times, and we had written back and forth during his time in combat in the Pacific Theater. Those letters contained many dreams and plans. Would all these words and promises come true?

So, all on my own, I planned how to get from Topeka to Washington by train. I had memorized the places I will switch trains. I have packed and unpacked my one suitcase. Finally, I have gotten my folks’ blessing. I will be leaving tomorrow…21 year old me as I am ready to meet my destiny. May God be with me.

~Merna Mae Storer

Note: Merna Mae is my mother. She claims she knew my dad for five days before he left for war. My dad claims they knew each other for two whole weeks. They married in Spring, 1947. They would be together for the next 60 years.

8 August 1958 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Reverently, he touched the airline tickets and passport on his dresser. He had not been home in nearly 50 years. Whom would he know when he finally arrived? Who would rush out to hug him? For that trip back to his homeland, he would go alone just as he had come here to this land…alone.

This trip would be different from his first: he had come here by ship with a ticket in steerage. He had little money in his pockets. Now for this excursion, he would be flying with a ticket in coach. He would be carrying travelers checks to pay for all the souvenirs he planned to bring back.

In just a few hours, he would arrive in New York City at Idlewild Airport to take the first leg of his journey back to his native country. His daughter and grandsons were taking him to see him safely off with best wishes for safe travel. He had never flown before.

Reverently, he opened his newly obtained passport and read his name: Frank Slabik. He saw his picture…my, how he had changed in that almost 50 years. Back then, he had recorded his name on the ship’s manifest as Franciszek Slabik. He was an American citizen now as his passport stated. He would be returning to his native country of Poland.

In just a few hours, he would be boarding a KLM airlines plane with flight to Amsterdam. He would make a connection and land in Poland. In the time he had been away, his beloved motherland had suffered from two world wars. Would anyone and anything look familiar?

As he descended the staircase of his daughter’s home, he carried his suitcase along with the precious tickets and passport. It was time to leave for Idlewild and the city. Just as he left Poland in 1912, he felt that same anxiousness now…that same longing for the traveling to the unknown. He was taking his first flight…a flight back to his family and roots.

Note: My grandfather Frank Slabik went back to Poland in 1958 for a visit to his hometown in the Carpathian Mountains. He reported that he gloried in the telling of his life in America and in his adopted city of Philadelphia. It brought tears to his eyes in the relating to us about his trip.