jepsplace

Joey Parzych parents are immigrants from Poland. His father was given 50 cents and a pair of boots when he was young and told to make his way to America. At the end of a visit to Poland to see her family, Maria (Ma) traveled on foot through enemy lines to reach the docks in Holland to make the trip back to ‘Ameryka’ and her first husband. They were strong people who had goals and worked hard to obtain them.

After the deaths of their respective spouses, a date was arranged for them by a friend. Their marriage was a marriage of convenience. Both had children from their previous marriages. Due to the death of their spouses and hard times, they needed each other.

Joey’s Pa was very strict and did not show emotions other than anger to his children, ever. He truly believed if you ‘spared the rod you spoiled the child’. Joey was an inquisitive child, always asking questions, getting into mischief and constantly getting into trouble. When he was young he was sure he was unloved because if anything went wrong it seemed to fall at Joey'’s feet.

There was lots of hard work but also special times. Like when the family sat together around the table stripping turkey feathers for quilts and Ma told stories of her younger days in Poland or when Pa would bring them a special treat out of the blue - just because. As busy as Ma was she would walk the kids out to the outhouse after dark when they were scared. Of course, poor Joey - when he was real young - was scared to go to the outhouse because one time he decided that he was going to sit on the big seat. After all, he was a big boy. Unfortunately, he wasn't that big and fell in. There are all kinds of glimpses of humorous times, tragic times, and good times throughout the book.

I could relate so much to this story because my great grandparents were immigrants from Poland and were exactly like Ma and Pa. For that matter, my grandparents were a lot like them. It was almost like reading part of my history. They were stoic, hard working people that had very high standards for their children. Life was tough but it made Joey into a very diligent, gritty young man who wasn't’ afraid to work in order to succeed in life.

Stories from your parents that we all heard as children like “I had to walk 10 miles to school in 3 feet of snow with no boots” - might not have been true in our parent's time but there is a good chance they were true of our grandparents or great grandparents. Jep’s Place is that sort of true story.

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