Emigration from Uzhhorod to Saint Clair, PA

grandfather thoughts on Independence Day

2011-07-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

Did Vasil Lazlo Tomchany achieve what he came here for? Was it in the leaving or the arriving? What did he lose beyond the connection to family and place? What did he gain that he would not have had if he had stayed (beyond his life, which he may have lost if conscripted)?

What social class structures did VLT escape? Which did he not escape on emigration? Which did he “gain” on arrival in the U.S.? Did his class status change in the time he was here? Did he improve the class status of his children? Grandchildren? Great grandchildren? How? In what way?

Rusyn

2011-01-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

My daughter, Nellie Manis, who is currently a graduate student in Russian area studies at the University of Illinois (Champagne-Urbana), looked at the written lyrics of some of the carols sung in Saint Michael's Orthodox Church, our home church here in Saint Clair. It appears that many of the carols are in Russian, not in what is now called BCS, versions of which are spoken locally. Nellie, who has conversed with my mother in the "home language" she learned as a child, has determined it to be a dialect of Russian, not another Slavic language. From the language, Nellie speculated that my grandfather, who self-identified as ethnic Madyar (Magyar), may have been what is now recognized as ethnic Rusyn. My mother inadvertently confirmed this by presenting me with a little brochure from an organization my baba visited in the '60s or '70s, the Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center of Fairview, NJ.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry on Rusyns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusyns

an address!

2011-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

My mother, bless her, went through her papers and found a tiny notebook into which my Baba (her mother) had written just 10 pages of "family record," as she labeled it. My Didi, Charles Lazlo Tomchany, was born December 29, 1984 and died May 10, 1959. He became a citizen at the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville, PA (no date noted).

And here is the gleaming gem: His European address was

U.S.S.R.
Zakarpadska Oblast
Uzhorodskij Rajon (Rajou?)
Selo Veliki
Tazi
(Selo Veliki Tazi?)
P. Kholmets

Today, resuming my search after several months away (mostly because of illness), I downloaded Google Earth and plugged in some of that address. What resulted is the first set of clues that make sense. It appears my grandfather may have emigrated from what is now the Ukraine. And, yes, Charles Lazlo Tomchany would likely have traveled from there through Zagreb on his way to a ship departing from the Croatia coast.

Patrice, Patris, Patricia

2010-09-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

The ship Vasil Lazlo Tomchany took was the Patrice. Except there is no ship named the Patrice listed on the Ellis Island databases that can be searched now online. There is Patris--a Greek ship, leaving from Greek and Italian ports. And there is the Patricia, leaving from Hamburg in the period of time in which my grandfather likely would have traveled. She is pictured above, the photograph lifted from the Ellis Island site pages.

So far, my search of the databases of her manifests have yielded nothing definite, except for confirmation that the name spelled Tomchany has not been recorded. Search of offered alternate spellings and sound-alikes has so far also yielded nothing definite.

Yet two names intrigue:

Mihaly Tamkony, Austrian, last residence Tezowicz, arrival date October 31, 1902, 18-year-old male, single, arrived on the Patrica from Hamburg, manifest number 0001

Joun Seandor, Romanian, last residence Denges, Romania, arrival date December 26, 1913, 18-year-old male, single, arrived on the Franconia from Fiume, manifest number 0020

My godfather was John Shandor, and, my mother says, his father knew her father in the old country. To see if there might be a lead, I put Kresny John's name into the Ellis Island passenger database. Seandor was offered as an alternate spelling; the timing and his age seem right. (Kresny, which I am spelling as I pronounce it, is the respectful address for godfather.)

My initial foray into the Ellis Island databases was an exhausting 5 hours of hope raised and dropped. And I haven't yet figured out how to search systematically.

There are people locally I must talk with very soon about firmer leads.

Zagreb, 1901

2010-09-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

My memory of my grandfather and what I may have been told about him is faulty, fragmentary. So, I begin with the obvious source: My mother, his last living child, now frail and well into her 80s. But Alice Tomchany Angst's memory is also frail.

"Zagreb," she says when I ask where her father came from. For a moment, I have hope of a solid beginning.

Alice says, "1901," to my question when.

"Frankfurt," she maintains when I ask about the port.

But Frankfurt is not a port. And if her father left the old country in 1901, he would, according to his gravestone--which lists the year of his birth as 1894-- have been 7 years old, and the younger brother my mother says emigrated with him would have been 6, perhaps 5. Something here is wrong.

More likely Vasil Lazlo emigrated as a teen, well after 1901, probably prior to what his parents would have felt was pending conscription for the Balkan beginnings of what we now know as World War I. Likely also that he was not from Zagreb, but perhaps came through it. Perhaps. I have to brush up on my history. I have to straighten out my geography.

My friend Pete Oswald, who visited Croatia a few weeks ago, took the picture above of central Zagreb. Perhaps my grandfather walked before these buildings. If and when he got to Zagreb.

This much I think I know: My grandfather's spoken language was a form of what is now called BCS. I have to trust my firmest, though still very flimsy piece of direct-memory evidence: When I was a teen, my family visited Dubrovnik, and my mother spoke the language she spoke at home as a child, her heritage language, and she was understood, even by a shepherd whose flock blocked a road deep and high in the hills.

A form of BCS understood in rural Croatia: It's a start.

St. Michael's blue domes

2010-09-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

Every time I step out my door, this is what I see: The blue domes and three-barred cross of Saint Michael's Orthodox Church on North Nicholas Street in Saint Clair, the church my grandfather came to when he arrived in the United States.

Here is what I can glean from family lore:

Charlie (his Americanized name) and a brother emigrated as very young men to avoid conscription into the army of Emperor Franz Josef, leader of the Austrio-Hungarian empire that had taken over their homeland. Their parents, who called themselves Madyars, were probably vineyards-keepers and had planned and saved for their boys' travel, knowing they'd likely never see their sons again. Charlie came to "America," his brother to Canada.

Charlie traveled to Ellis Island on the Patrice, bearing few possessions. His trip had taken him from somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains (possibly), over Germany to the port of Frankfurt. He came to Saint Clair because others from his village or "oblast" were already arrived; he had friends here. And a church.

Charlie, my Didi (pronounced DID-ee), died in his mid-60s in 1959, when I was three. He died of pneumonia, before penicillin was in common use, his lungs filled not just with fluid but also with the black dirt from the mines.

It's a common immigrant story around here, so common I never thought to ask about it. I was 24 before I learned his real, given name: Vasil Lazlo Tomchany. I named my only son after him, giving my boy Charlie's Americanized name as his first. I kept as my son's middle name the Slavic Lazlo.

Now, at age 54, my children grown, I'd like to know more, though it boggles me that I never thought to ask before and it puzzles me some why I now need to know more. How did my grandfather get here? Why? What was his life like back in the old country? How did he meet and court my grandmother, who, astonishingly, lost her U.S. citizenship because she married a foreigner? What was life like for each of them and together in the early years of their marriage?

What I find, I'll share. Stay with me, please.

Catching Up in April

2010-04-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

In February, it seems that all we did in Saint Clair was shovel snow, chop ice, and hope for spring. Now that warmth has returned, and I can get back on the bike, I can face posting the snow pictures and have begun catching up here (when I'm not out on the bike). Thanks very much for checking back!

Holiday

2010-02-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

There was so much snow, it kept many of us separated from sweethearts on the February holiday. I dreamt of better days with mine. (This is Mike, my grillmaster, in the parking lot at Pocono raceway last summer.)

Snow

2010-02-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

We hauled it to dump in lots around town.

Snow

2010-02-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

Where's a dog-boy to lift his leg? Beau had this look on his face for weeks.

Snow

2010-02-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

Snow.

Snow

2010-02-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

I had press my plumbing to unusual uses. There was quite literally nowhere else to put the snow just outside my door.

Snow

2010-02-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

We measured it not so much by inches but by the foot.

Snow

2010-02-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

We dug, rested, dug some more.

Snow

2010-02-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

When we could walk in it, we played.

Snow

2010-02-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

We sure hope you remember exactly where you put your car.

Snow

2010-02-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

We worried for the weight of the snow on our roofs.

Snow

2010-02-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Where to go?

Snow

2010-02-04T11:12:00.000-08:00

SOOOO many February days, this is what my steps looked like. So many days began this way, we lost track.

winter view

2010-02-03T02:36:00.000-08:00

The winter view of Saint Clair may be prettiest from the Diener's Hill side of the road through the cemeteries at the top of the East Lawton Street Hill.

the pool in winter

2010-02-02T02:34:00.000-08:00

Another, different kind of empty place is the community swimming pool, drained for the winter.

where trees used to be

2010-02-01T02:31:00.000-08:00

A particular and poignant kind of grave marker is the earth block within a sidewalk. These "empty" spots mark the places where old trees have been removed. We have many in Saint Clair.

old dogs

2010-01-31T02:28:00.000-08:00

No one tracks such things, but Saint Clair, home to many older people, also seems to have a large number of old dogs, like this fit and vocal fellow.

junk hauler

2010-01-30T02:25:00.000-08:00

A local gentleman makes available his labor and his truck to haul away things some of us find difficult to dispose of--a service greatly appreciated. He can be spoken with many days near Tommy's M&S just south of the Second & Hancock stoplight. It won't be hard to find his truck; it's usually loaded.

for rent

2010-01-29T02:21:00.000-08:00

As a landlord, I'm currently quite fortunate: All my rental units are occupied. Perhaps because mine have not always been filled, I notice the "for rent" signs around Saint Clair and other Schuylkill County towns. There seem to be a lot of vacancies these days.

handsome Boxer

2010-01-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

This handsome Boxer lives close to my home. When he's out, he greets us on most walks, as we usually pass his yard. Surely, if he wanted to, he could hop the fence and join us!

boyfriend dog

2010-01-27T02:16:00.000-08:00

He's not supposed to be on the bed, but Mick thinks he's Nellie's boyfriend...and she sometimes indulges his particularly comic (and needy) kind of affection--especially when it's cold in our apartment.

out for a walk

2010-01-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

When you see these two out for a walk in Saint Clair, remember they're mine! The beautiful young woman is my daughter Nellie, who is around this year working locally before heading off to grad school in Russian area studies this fall. The sweet little pit bull is our girl Graciella.

another Byzantine church

2010-01-25T02:07:00.000-08:00

Saint Michael's is surely not the only Byzantine church in Saint Clair. Another, different, kind of Byzantine three-barred cross tops the domes of Saint Mary's on Morris Street.

the coal hauler

2010-01-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

The coal hauler is an important person in The Coal Regions. Mine is Jim Kerick, and he's so busy that I have to schedule deliveries at least a week in advance of the time I think my building will need tonnage. He's hauled coal for Saint Clair residents for decades.

close the gate

2010-01-23T02:28:00.000-08:00

This simple homemade contraption works pretty well to close the gate to the yard. They used to be common around Saint Clair, but they're rare now. You can see this one on South Mill Street.

January curbside

2010-01-22T02:20:00.000-08:00

A lot of these showed up around Saint Clair streets over the last couple weeks.

plumbers busy

2010-01-21T02:21:00.000-08:00

Maybe because there are so many old buildings, around Saint Clair the plumbers are busy. I love my plumbers, Mark and Bud Lutzkanin, but it's almost impossible to get any plumbers to schedule work unless it's a downright emergency. Say hello to Mark when you see him in this pretty red truck around town.

old school lights

2010-01-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

These two antique light globes atop their metal poles rested last week in the yard of the recently razed Saint Clair elementary school. Anybody know where they're going?

we know it won't last

2010-01-19T02:10:00.000-08:00

The weather may warm for a day or two, but Saint Clair residents know it won't last. Not until mid-to-late March will the number of shovels on borough porches go down.

sweet face on South Mill

2010-01-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

Not far from Saint Clair Elementary and Middle School, the sweet dog-girl watches over the walk. She is just as sweet as her face would lead you to believe. She's a fat little mutt, but quite prim and lovely.

another ramp

2010-01-17T02:05:00.000-08:00

When a house has front yard, an access ramp can be integrated pretty nicely, as it is for this home on Nicholas Street.

round porch, round window

2010-01-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

Many Victorian era homes in Saint Clair retain striking elements of their original architecture. This home on South Second Street has not only a rounded porch roof but an unusual rounded window to match.

breakfast for a good cause

2010-01-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

In fire companies throughout Schuylkill County, Sunday mornings offer breakfast feasts for a good cause. It's also usually a very good time--and the food is good and plentiful, though bad for the waistline and arteries. This Sunday is a good time to breakfast in Diener's Hill. This sign is on Second Street at the southern-most stop light.

first Cupid sighting!

2010-01-14T01:57:00.000-08:00

I had my first Cupid sighting! This optimistic putti announces a new holiday (my favorite one) from a porch on South Mill Street.

tough times but...

2010-01-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it's a sign of the tough economy, but more donation bins for used clothing are cropping up in Saint Clair, just as in other places. This new one is in front of DelCamp's.

still too cold

2010-01-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

If forecasts are correct, it may warm enough this weekend, but for now, Christmas decorations still abound around Saint Clair. This exuberant porch is on South Mill Street.

older population

2010-01-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

Pennsylvania, Schuylkill County, and Saint Clair have high senior populations. The entrance ramp is endemic and appears in many forms. This one was placed at the end of an alley between two houses right on the North Nicholas Street sidewalk.

too cold

2010-01-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

With high temperatures in the teens this weekend, it's too cold (and windy) for most to take down their Christmas decorations. Fortunately, despite the bad economy, Saint Clair residents see fit to ignite their holiday lights each night anyway.

winter recycling

2010-01-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

Saint Clair has been recycling as long as there's been Saint Clair. We rough-up our iced walkways with cinders from our coal furnaces. It's pretty simple, but it works.

end of school day 2

2010-01-08T03:10:00.000-08:00

This is another scene I didn't see when I was a child--nor did I see it when my children were in grade school: Blocks of public streets completely impassable because of parents lined up to pick up children who for some reason seem not to be able to ride the school bus.

Orthodox Christmas

2010-01-07T01:36:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas for those of Coal Regions churches observing the Julian holiday dates. It was good of the Three Kings to kneel, but it was always the shepherds who seemed most blessedly effected by the birth of their messiah. This cast shepherd with the tender demeanor and lamb observes the birth from the nativity creche in Saint Michael's yard.

Orthodox Christmas Eve

2010-01-06T01:33:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve for the Orthodox who still reckon by the Julian calendar. Saint Michael's Orthodox Church on North Nicholas Street is such a congregation, and this is the nativity in the church yard.

end of school day 1

2010-01-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

School is back in session after the holiday break. As in decades past, the yellow bus awaits its young passengers. Please note, however, that the school sign thanks basketball "sponsors"; I don't remember school sports being "sponsored" that way back in the Dark Ages of my childhood.

driveways

2010-01-04T01:24:00.000-08:00

It's hard to spot driveways on the small-town streets of Saint Clair. The gates look much like yard fences, except they open for residents to park alongside their houses or pull into backyard garages. So, those with such arrangements alert the rest of us with "no parking" signs.

Pom on Mill

2010-01-03T01:22:00.000-08:00

This beautifully coiffed Pom has a big yard with a beautiful wrought iron fence all to himself on South Mill Street.

keep out

2010-01-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

It seems unfriendly to put a "keep out" sign on the gate to your yard, but if you--like many Saint Clair residents--have found your gate open and your dogs loose or trash and cigarette butts in the alley near your house, it's sorely tempting to tell the local hooligans to stay away.

no resolutions for 2010

2010-01-01T04:15:00.000-08:00

I have no New Year's resolutions: My bike has been in the trainer since November. My son says it says a lot about my life that the bike is next to the bed--but my sweetheart does not mind sharing my time or this space with my beautiful road machine, which in winter ice I ride while I watch the evening news.

bar banners

2009-12-31T03:13:00.000-08:00

Though it doesn't take a holiday like New Year's Eve to bring out the banners, they do seem particularly obvious--and welcome--in the cold.

corner bar (or store)

2009-12-30T02:06:00.000-08:00

If you pay attention to how many corner structures have a door and steps carved out on an angle like this one on South Second Street, you'll have a pretty good idea why people used to say that The Coal Regions had a bar or church on every corner. A few of these corner establishments were stores when I was a kid, but not many. Most now have been converted to dwellings.

alley scene

2009-12-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile, a scene that could be placed in 1950 as easily at 2009 appears when you walk the streets of Saint Clair. This view of an old-fashioned backyard garage is on the west side of South Second Street.

beautiful not bleak

2009-12-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

Winter has its own beauty, including, if you on look, some stunning trees with stark and elegant shapes silhouetted against the sky. This is on East Carroll just northeast of Second Street.

winter tools

2009-12-24T02:46:00.000-08:00

While good weather holds, we in Saint Clair use our winter tools. My ice chopper gets a lot of use. Most of us locally like the heft and edge of the coal shovel for moving snow; it can be pushed (quite an effective little "plow" blade), allows some leaning in and, unlike most lighter-weight aluminum or plastic snow shovels, can work in a pinch as a chopper.

hand warmers

2009-12-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

Those of us who won't give up outdoor time even when temperatures drop--and stay--low have some ways to cheat the cold. The little charcoal activated warmers you slip in mittens, pockets, and boots are one of the best inventions ever!

yard birds

2009-12-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

Now that temperatures are cold, mixed flocks of birds are gathering around yards with feeders and scatter-corn. The bigger bird here is a startling, the rest sparrows.

reindeer

2009-12-21T02:37:00.000-08:00

The seasonal decorations around Saint Clair take many forms--almost all as happily recognizable as this white reindeer across from Borough Hall on Third Street.

planning for warmer days

2009-12-20T03:05:00.000-08:00

One of the things that makes winter more tolerable is knowing a new baseball season awaits at the end of it. I like the Phillies just fine, and I very much enjoy going to see the Reading Phils play at great little First Energy Park down Route 61. But this year, friends, I hope for the first time to get to see my Cubs play in Phillie! Is anybody else here in Saint Clair a Cubs fan like me?

skunk in a snowstorm

2009-12-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

This poor skunk was discombobulatedly meandering the sidewalk near the corner of Nicholas and Lawton this morning in the snowstorm, our first of the season. The little critter should be burrowed now but, as one concerned bystander commented, "The poor thing has lost its mind." Neighbors shoveling the walk say the skunk has been around for several days.

huge ornaments

2009-12-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

What may be the biggest ornaments adorning a private property in town are these glitteringly filling a winter-bare tree in the yard just north of Saint Clair Borough Hall on Third Street.

borough wreath

2009-12-17T02:44:00.000-08:00

Borough hall on Third Street has one of the nicest holiday wreaths in town.

32 for the high

2009-12-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

The bank clock on Second Street read 32 degrees at 3:30 p.m., even though my regular sources recorded the high in Saint Clair today as only 28, with a wind chill closer to 20. By mid-January, temperatures above freezing will feel almost balmy and we'll be opening jackets and peeling layers, but right now we're all bundling.

seasonal decorations.

2009-12-15T04:34:00.000-08:00

All around Saint Clair, including the borough's main drag along Second Street, is festooned by seasonal decorations.

Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Church

2009-12-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

Not all the three-barred crosses mark the churches and graveyards of the Russian Orthodox; Saint Nicholas's on North Mill is Ukrainian.

ice day laundry

2009-12-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today, we have precipitation in what may be our most common winter form: ice pellets turning to freezing rain. But I have laundry to do anyway. A year ago, I disconnected my dryer and have not used it since. Like Europeans and others of greener-mind, I now exclusively air-dry. Even the pipes in my basement apartment are called into several kinds of service.

old school gone

2009-12-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

As of today, the lot is all that remains of the old Saint Clair elementary school on Nicholas, Mill, and Carroll.

ice season

2009-12-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

From now until well into March, ice will be a factor in our days here in Pennsylvania's eastern and central Appalachians.

brrrr

2009-12-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ice arrived, temperatures dropped, and the wind picked up. It's winter for real out there now. Forecasts call for wind chills in the teens and lower. I bought my dogs winter horse-blanket coats with warm faux-sheepskin linings. Here are blonde retriever geezer-boy Beauregard and sweet-tempered pitbull mix Graciella after their new coats have been fitted. Crazy boy Mick, a big light-yellow Lab who wouldn't behave for this picture, has a red coat with reflective trim--and you may see us out running even in the winter chill.

St. Clare of Assisi entry update

2009-12-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

This is the impressive I-beam framework of the new entry over the North Mill Street stairs leading up to the doors of Saint Clare of Assisi Roman Catholic Church.

only the doors standing

2009-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Demolition of the old Saint Clair school is almost complete. The excavation where the basement and foundation used to be has been filled in, and only the two doors on Nicholas Street are still standing.

Arnot's garage

2009-12-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

This garage has been servicing the vehicles of Saint Clair longer than I can remember. It's on Wade Street just west of Route 61 and is now called Tom's.

entwined

2009-12-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

This dark still-life of entwined vines is at the western wall of the Civil War era cemetery on the northwest corner of the 61-Wade-Hancock intersection.

really winter now

2009-12-05T16:26:00.001-08:00

Our first snow fell today. It's the fluffy kind.

before municipal services

2009-12-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

Before the time of municipal services, most homes in the coal regions had a scrap pile at the end of the yard for waste that could not be composted. The pile was usually a little ways behind the outhouse. Some of the metal from these early-to-mid-20th-century piles can still be found at the edges of town. This collection of brick and metal is in Arnot's Addition.

Cyrillic alphabet

2009-12-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

The orthodox three-barred cross may be either Greek or Russian, the Cyrillic lettering on some of the grave markers fails to clear the possible confusion about the ethnic backgrounds of local inhabitants--a few may be Greek but most are Russian. This marker is in cemetery on the south side of Wade Street in Arnot's Addition.

before television

2009-12-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Before television, much of the paltry leisure time Saint Clair residents had often centered on interaction with religious or ethic--often both--compatriots. Much social time occurred at church, usually in a social hall that had a bar. But some was cultural: This granite three-barred cross stands in the orthodox section of the Arnot's cemetery south of Wade Street, and was erected by the Russian dramatic club, active before and in the 1930s!

everywhere a cemetery

2009-12-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

Probably because of the hills, almost every view over Saint Clair includes a cemetery. This is Arnot's cemetery on the south side of Wade Street, taken near the Game and Sports Association.

Arnot's Game and Sport Association

2009-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

This is likely to be a busy evening at Arnot's Game and Sport Association on Chestnut Street in Arnot's Addition. Today is the first day of Pennsylvania's two-week open season on white-tailed bucks. Hunters across the county will gather to discuss their day in the field. Inevitably, that involves complaining about the PA Game Commission deer count and harvest policies. Deer season is so important in Pennsylvania that many school districts and businesses declare Opening Day a holiday by simply not opening. (Getting a plumber this week is tough too.)

holiday overlap

2009-11-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

Those who decorate yards and porches for holidays in Saint Clair don't much observe the "traditional" holiday periods. We just leave up what we like, regardless the season. These pop-eyed skulls on West Carroll Street in Arnot's Addition observe passersby right now.

Arnot's Addition cemetery angel

2009-11-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

Particularly around holidays, my family walked Arnot's Addition, on almost every walk visiting the cemetery on the south side of Wade Street. It accommodates the dead of several Christian churches and denominations. I remember often stopping at this angel over the grave of a child.

gates

2009-11-27T06:19:00.000-08:00

Across the coal regions, gates like this are familiar. They close "coal land" from public access and are often at the ends of what are public streets, sometimes residential, such as this one on the northeast side of Arnot's Addition. Generally, such signs are ignored, though the size of vehicles going around the barriers is relatively small: The sound of ATVs on the hills will be heard throughout this holiday weekend.

Arnot's Addition's other playground

2009-11-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when we got rowdy, my baba called her grandchildren "tsigani" (wild gypsies) and took us to this playground. She pushed us on this very merry-go-round west and up the hill from her home on Broad Street in Arnot's Addition. On holidays like today, we sometimes got to play here for a little while with friends we had not seen since summer, now also visiting their own babas and didis.

Clement Gregory's fallen stone

2009-11-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

Clement Gregory's fallen limestone grave marker is at the high end of the Civil War era cemetery near Route 61 in Arnot's Addition, near the gateway at the back along the path that allows woods walkers to pass through.

Civil War era cemetery Arnot's

2009-11-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

From the 61-Wade-Hancock intersection, Arnot's Addition's Civil War era cemetery can be seen on the northwest hillside, behind a low stone fence. The cemetery is still tended, though irregularly, with veterans' graves marked with flags for Memorial and Veterans' Days.

Amanda and Carrie

2009-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

I have no idea who Amanda and Carrie are, but they have visited West Ward Playground in Arnot's Addition. When I was a kid, such marks were made with chalk. These appear to be in puff paint.

West Ward Playground

2009-11-22T05:56:00.000-08:00

Tiny Arnot's Addition has two public playgrounds, each with a basketball court. This is a funky view of West Ward Playground--which you must know is there to find--from the east entrance. The westerly entrance is informal (simply a path through the brush).

three-barred crosses

2009-11-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

Orthodox three-barred crosses can be found all over the coal regions, but they dominate sections of Saint Clair's many cemeteries. These three limestone crosses are among the early markers in the large cemetery along the south side of Wade Street in Arnot's Addition.

appeal to the heavens

2009-11-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

If you walk along Wade St. in Arnot's Addition, you can see this sweet grotto of Saint Frances of Assisi in a well-tended yard. Religion and faith are evident strongly throughout Saint Clair, perhaps most profoundly in Arnot's.

The Burma Road

2009-11-19T06:58:00.000-08:00

The ribbon of road up the distant mountain is what locals call The Burma Road (or simply The Burma)--because it is so exposed, like the original namesake in the country formerly called Burma. The name is unofficial and not marked; to get on The Burma, head east up the mountain on Hancock, which becomes The Burma as soon as you leave Saint Clair. When I was a child, the Broad Mountain along The Burma was covered with scrub and huckleberry, not forested, and the road was even more rawly exposed. This picture was taken from Wade Street on the Arnot's hill.

Arnot's hills

2009-11-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

This picture conveys how hilly Arnot's Addition is. The shot was taken near the sportsmen's club on the west side. Way back in the photo, on the other side of town, you can see the houses of Diener's Hill and the chapel of Saint Michael's Russian Orthodox Cemetery. Completely invisible in the dip between is Saint Clair proper.

alley west of Broad Street

2009-11-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

Much of the life in Schuylkill County towns is best seen not from the street but from alleys. This is the alley west of the 100 block of Broad Street in Arnot's Addition. One of these yards is where my baba set her children, including my mother, and us grandchildren out to play when we were little.

Broad Street Arnot's

2009-11-16T06:20:00.000-08:00

The is Broad Street in Arnot's Addition, sort of the "main" street. This is from the Wade Street intersection. The house my mother grew up in is on the left here, 118. Arnot's has steep hills.

densely populated

2009-11-15T05:54:00.000-08:00

One night, driving through, a friend from New Jersey asked, "What's this densely populated place?" She was looking at Arnot's Addition, which many Schuylkill County locals understand as a backwater with a strongly Slavic-Russian flavor. Arnot's Addition is where my mother grew up. It's where my grandfather, Charles (Vasil) Lazlo Tomchany, settled when as a very young man he came to America like so many others avoiding conscription in World War I, meeting friends from his "oblast" in the old country who had come earlier and helped him get work.

rough road

2009-11-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

This is Wade Street in Arnot's Addition. Not all of Saint Clair's streets have been repaved.

also main drag

2009-11-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

This is the view of 61 looking south from the Wade-Hancock-61 intersection. It's the fastest drive, but it doesn't let you see much of Saint Clair up close.

main drag

2009-11-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

The main drag past--not through--Saint Clair is Route 61, which bisects town along the division that to the west becomes Arnot's Addition, partly Saint Clair Borough and partly New Castle Township. This is the view of 61 looking north from the Wade Street side of the Wade-Hancock-61 intersection.