Favorite-Flower Reunion

Madison, Wisconsin, May 2013. Dahlias were a favorite of my maternal Grandmother Jadzė.

It's not that warm.

Nemunas Delta Region, Panemunė, Lithuania, about 1927. My maternal Grandmother, Jadzė, and my Mom enjoy the sand bar.

I love how Mom has a little play bucket.

A Closer Look (Part 63)

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1910. This is my maternal Grandmother Jadzė. Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 53)

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1938. This is my maternal Grandmother, Jadzė, and my Mom. I hadn't thought about this photo in a while, but Mom today mentioned the picnic at which it was taken. As the group lunched in the forest, a fortune teller approached Mom. The fortune teller read Mom's palm. She stated Mom would live "in another country, across the deep ocean" and correctly predicted how many children Mom would have. Everyone laughed.

The fortune teller then read Jadzė's palm. The woman shook her head and said nothing to Jadzė.

Season Tickets

Kaunas, Lithuania, January 21, 1927. This is a pass to the Lithuanian National Theater. It was issued to the American Consul to Lithuania. The Consul wrote, "Today the Foreign Office sent me a season ticket to the opera good for two seats in the diplomatic box every night during the 1927 season. We have not been there yet because the opera is far back from the street in the public garden and automobiles cannot drive up to the entrance. In this cold weather Lily does not like to walk out in the cutting night air."

Thanks to the Consul's Grandaughter for making this photo available to us.

My maternal Grandmother, Jadzė, bought season tickets to the same theater. Mom remembers attending performances there. Mom also recalls how wives of the Soviet soldiers arrived at the theater after the Russians occupied Lithuania in 1941. Most of the Russian women were of peasant stock, but they had heard they should attend the opera in ballgowns. The woman appeared in the theater lobby wearing satin nightgowns.

Cake, in Three Takes

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Suburban Chicago, Spring 1973. My Toronto Cousin and I share a Pepperidge Farm walnut layer cake. There was a period when we used to pick up one of those frozen cakes. We recently looked for that cake, but it apparently has been discontinued.

This photo set shows how pink our kitchen was. Behind us is the dishwasher and the Roper wall oven. My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, is washing dishes; the dish rack holds a plastic tumbler from the Jewel Food Store.

I'm wearing a turquoise ring my Parents bought when we first vacationed in Glacier. On my left hand is a minuscule ruby ring that belonged to my maternal Grandmother, Jadzė. I also wear the dainty watch I selected in Switzerland. There's instant coffee and a copy of "Draugas" on the table.

(Neither my Toronto Cousin [ever] nor I [in 1973] smoked; that looks like Dad's ashtray. Do you remember crafting ashtrays and trivets with those little tiles? Who supervised you when you spread the grout?)

Ah! The checkered dish towel is still in use.

On the Big River

Nemunas Delta Region, Panemunė, Lithuania, about 1927. My Mom rides in the dinghy with her Parents, Jadzė and Jake. Horses pull carts along the bridge.

Another View of the House

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1936. I recently stumbled upon this snapshot of my Mom's childhood home. Although the house looks quite different today, the original fence still stands.

Spring Ritual

Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, June 1973. Dora tends to the plot where Zigmunta (Dora's Mother), Jadzė (Dora's Sister), and Dora' first husband are buried.

Dora wrote, "Here I didn't know I was being photographed, but I liked this photo more than the other one."

Stepping Back

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1940. Here's the original framing of a photo I posted earlier.

A Closer Look (Part 44)

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1925. Mom focuses on the photographer.

Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 42)

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1925. This is my maternal Grandmother,  Jadzė.

Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 33)

Alytus, Lithuania, 1922. Here is how Jadzė looked shortly after she married.

Here's the original post.

The House, Later

Kaunas, Lithuania, September 7, 1997. My Mom's friend Joy sent this photo of Mom's childhood home. Mom's parents, Jadzė and Jake, incurred quite a bit of debt building it. It was a wooden structure; the builders put moss between the logs and then plastered the interior walls.

It's nice to see the residents retained the "veranda room."

A Closer Look (Part 30)

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1923. My maternal Grandmother Jadzė lost one of the earrings she wears in this photo. The earring fell down the same well into which her bracelet tumbled.

Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 24)

Mariampolis, Lithuania, December 24, 1936. This is my maternal Grandmother, Jadzė. The family resemblance is clear in this photo.

Here's the original post.

A Closer Look (Part 8)

Mariampolis, Lithuania, 1927. This is Edvardas, my Mom's maternal Uncle. Edvardas was a pianist (like his father, Silvestras). He graduated from the Königsberg Sondershausen music conservatory. After finishing school, Edvardas did not find a job as a professional musician in Lithuania. He instead worked as a secretary at the Army College where his sister Jadzė's husband—my maternal Grandfather, Jake—was an officer.

One evening, when the family gathered for dinner at the home of my Mom's maternal Grandparents, Edvardas complained of a stomach ache. Jake thought the problem was not serious and insisted Edvardas drink a shot of brandy spiked with ground black pepper to alleviate the pain. Edvardas suffered a ruptured appendix and died shortly after that meal. He was 29 years old.

Revisiting Another Image

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1927. Here's my Mom with her Mom, Jadzė. This photo appeared early in the blog's history.

Independence Restoration Day

Today is the twenty-fourth anniversary of the day Lithuania's Parliament voted to assert its independence from the Soviet Union.

 

Video of the vote appears here.*

*In Lithuanian. The Lithuanian flag rises at 0:37 and the singing of the national anthem begins at 0:54. Displaying a flag and singing the anthem had been, since 1944, criminal acts.

My Mom (who believes dreams deliver messages) recounts how, during the Soviet Union's 1940-1941 occupation, she dreamed about a day when her mother, Jadzė, climbed to the attic, retrieved a hidden flag, and flew it in defiance. In the woken world, Jadzė died before World War II ended.

На вкус и цвет това́рищей нет*

"In taste and colors, there are no friends." 

That's one of my Mom's favorite expressions. Mom grew up in a Lithuanian-speaking household. Her Parents, Jadzė and Jake, both spoke several languages, and Mom quickly picked up the Polish and German that occasionally slipped into conversations.

When her Parents didn't want Mom to understand something, they spoke in a more difficult language—Russian. Mom's Parents also entertained each other in the evenings by reading Russian novels aloud. Mom grew frustrated with these practices. She decided to teach herself Russian. Mom secretly made a set of Cyrillic-alphabet flashcards, and she spent time in her bedroom learning to read Russian.

Mom's Russian came in handy after she got married because her Mother-in-law—my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana—was Russian. My Parents and Tatjana continued the practice of switching to Russian when they didn't want me to figure out what they were saying. I've picked up a few Russian expressions, but I did not learn the language.**

What did you teach yourself?

Near Wasaga Beach, Canada, July 1960. I take the wheel of "The Swan."

*Pronunciation: Na vkus i tsvet [tzv]arischey n[y]et.

**Tatjana often called me a "Чёрт полосатый," (chyort polosatyy) or "striped devil." The Russian language preserves the tradition of associating stripes with the devil.