An overview of Mein Kampf

I was born 80 years after the beginning of the civil war; my father 60 years and my grandparents only 20 years after the end of hostilities and 18 years after Lincoln was assassinated. This is a simple way to state the chronology of my family in relation to that of the United States. John Kennedy was assassinated the year Steve was born in 1963. I paid my respect to Henry Ford as he laid in his casket in Greenfield Village in Dearborn back in 1947 I was 6.

  Both of my grandfathers came to Detroit to work for Ford's` $5 per day wage. Both built new homes as a result of the money they were able to earn by 1920.  My Grandfather John Kramarczyk lost $16,000 during the bank failures in '29 worth to times that of 250,000, in today's money. One can only wonder how the family would have been affected if the family fortune had been preserved.

 My mom’s dad (Joseph Zdyr) never drove a car. He died at the Ford Rouge plant in 1948 at age 58 from a stroke.

My father worked at Ford before he was drafted in 1943. My grandmother, Sophia Zdyr worked as a parts inspector at the Rouge My brother Bob retired after 30 years at Ford. My wife worked at Ford Tractor Plant.

My father in law, Steve Kruchko a heavyweight boxer at the time, worked for Ford Security when the union tried to organize the company. He may have been involved in the "Battle of the Overpass". His position was referred to as a Goon. I was raised within three miles of the Ford farm I camped at Ford Woods Most of entire family worked for Ford at one time or another.

But not me my mother - She had  just turned 18 when she married my father. He was 20 in 1939. Mom worked as  housekeeper for a Jewish family before getting married. her parents had it rough during the depression all through the 30s and early 40s until grampa got rehired at Ford. She lived on Mercier Street with her parents. They would often head out to the railroad tracks in back of the home and pick up coal that the trains dropped along the tracks. The coal was used to heat their home.Mom went as far as the 8th grade. She was a smart girl who did well in school and was actually double promoted from the 6th to the 8th grade. She never made it to high school, but went to work to help support the family Dad got discharged from the Navy in 1945, Soon after he got back he and my uncle John Misa were partners in the grocery business, John stayed at the original store on Waldo and my father opened a store a half mile away on Mercier Street, just down the street from where my mom lived. Business was good after the war. In 1946, my folks bought the house on Lonyo for $12,000 which they borrowed from Busia Kramarczyk, They paid it back in three years. Detroit was a great place when i was growing up. Asa kid, my friends and I could jump on a streetcar and head downtown or to a ball game with never a problem. That all changed in 1968 when the Detroit riots occurred. Soldiers flooded the streets and dozens were killed in what can only be described as a full blown race riot. Those were bad years.When I was a kid I met Governor Williams and was a stowaway along with 3 of my friends on a Coast Guard Cutter with the mayor of Detroit and a group of senators and city and state officials. They ere all on a mini cruise of the Detroit River that started at the foot of Woodward and sailed to Lake Erie and back. We just followed the big shots as they walked u the gangplank, No one said a word, except the captain who thought it was a brave stunt. We were 15. I met Mayor Cavanaugh, Mayor Young and Kwamee.. I had more fun shaking hands with Bobby Layne, the Lion's Q-back when I was 15 in the men's room at the Book Cadillac Hotel. He and I peed next to one another. Yep, what a thrill. I remember when Babe Ruth died. I think it was in 1948. I had a driver's license when I was 15. I was "too big" to attend kindergarten. So they enrolled me in the first grade. in 1946 when we moved to Lonyo after my father got back from the service. I was 5.

Besebal was a berry good for me

I loved baseball as a kid. My friends and I played every day at the school field. It was pick up baseball. We would have enough kids for two teams, If we came up short of players, we would play left or right field out. , depending on which side of the plate the batter swung from. We would alternate sides as needed. At age 12 we joined a Detroit Recreation League and played organized ball for the first time in our lives. That meant w had a coach, umpires, real bases and our catcher had full equipment. The city provided us with 2 new balls for every game and bought 3 bats for the team. We did very well the two years that I remember. The guys I hung with were all terrific athletes. When they got to high school, everyone became a starter on the Chadsey High School varsity team, a Class A team in the tough Detroit Public school League Pat Battistelli ss Jim Sendeck 2b Red Hennig 3b Mike Dziurgot c Mike Cupchak 1b Andy Justice cf Wally Petro p and of Ron Szymborski of Andy Justice cf These 9 guys were the guys that played baseball together before and during high school. 3 were all=city and one was an all state player.Mike Cupchak was a 6' 4" powerhouse who received a full scholarship to Arizona State, could hit a ball further than anyone in the city. The only problem was he struck out 90 percent of the time. I think he holds the record. I didn't attend Chadsey and did not play ball at U of D but I did play second base and OF with these guys in the Detroit Fireman's Federation League.. It was a good league in which most of the top high school athletes played. Our team actually won the regional finals due to a 7th inning, 2 out triple with two men out and a steal of home plate by yours truly. It was a hard line drive down the third base line. My most heroic baseball moment. The interesting thing about these tomes was that our parents rarely, if ever watched us play . They were too busy trying to make a living. My dad is the guy who taught me to catch and throw in the backyard on Lonyo. When we started, he bought two mitts a 4 finger wilson for me and a first basement mitt for him. We palyed fairly regularly until I was about 13. At that point I threw the ball too hard for my dad to see His coordination had slowed some and his vision couldn't follow the ball too well. I was throwing curves and a knuckle ball. Coach Chuck Moses was so excited that we all were afraid he would have a heart attack and die on the field. Coach was one of the first people in the country to have a successful heart transplant. His case drew national attention. Back then, we had very little if any adult supervision,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but we all had a love of the game We didn't have the other distractions that today's kids have. We met on the field every day at 3 o'clock when school was in session and we played until 6PM when the church bells announced 6 PM. During summer vacation we started at 10 in the morning and played intil we became exhausted, hungry and thirsty or until our parents came looking for us, They always knew where to find us.