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.
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