Family members are invited to share stories of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on, to add to our Steven Hollenczer tribute. Any remembrances you have of family members are welcome, and will be added to the appropriate pages! Please e-mail me with any stories you would like added to these pages.

The following are some of these remembrances, by Helen Weeks Hollenczer, Janice Weeks Hollenczer Bernath, Margaret Hollenczer Spatafore, Dorothy Hollenczer Dziomba, Steven Hollenczer Jr. and Pete Hollenczer III.

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Mary Horvath Hollenczer
  Janice has done a lot of genealogical research, and has discovered: "Mary arrived at New York on 22 July 1893, with some of her sisters. At this time, I don't know which ones travelled with her, if her brother accompanied them, or what ship they arrived on. One possibility is the "Suevia". Pop always told me she never came through Ellis Island, and she was 16 when she arrived, so I always assumed she came around 1890. It wasn't until I started dabbling in genealogy that I discovered that only Third Class or Steerage passengers had to disembark at Ellis. The first and second class passengers were processed on board ship. (This makes me wonder if it wasn't Grandpa who came when he was 16! That would have been 1891, so no Ellis Island yet!)
Mary went to work on the Glen Cove Estate of a Mr. LeDoux (spelling?), where she met Peter. Mr. LeDoux owned steel mills in western Pennsylvania as well, I believe Johnstown and Pittsburgh, where Peter worked after he and Mary married, before returning to Long Island.
They lived in Roslyn Highlands for a while, where Anna was born, and also in Bull's Head, where Steve was born. When Steve was about 1 year old, the family moved to Redgrounds, the estate of Clarence Mackay, in Roslyn. They stayed there for about 10 years.
Peter then moved his family to Roslyn Heights, on Jessica Place, where Dotty Dziomba still lives, in a house built by her father, Joe.
Around the time of Aunt Anne and Uncle Joe Whitlow's marriage, Grandma, along with Pop and Aunt May and Aunt Agnes, moved to 89 Powerhouse Road, in Roslyn Heights. Aunt Anna and Uncle Joe had rented it, and lived there for a short time before Uncle Joe and Aunt Anne moved, I think to be closer to Uncle Joe's work.

Dotty sent me some of her memories of Grandma, a kind of "do you remember.....? for my Dad, her Uncle Steve: Grandma making root-beer soda and putting it in little bottles for Dot and Marie; making rhubarb pie, which Aunt May loved, but Dotty hated! Cooking red cabbage and making ron-tash (spelling), a kind of roux, which smoked up the whole kitchen. ( I remember the red cabbage, cooked with pieces of apple, or cooked with tomato sauce from years later, and still love it. I used to love the aroma while it cooked, and I was always given a wedge of the raw cabbage to eat while we waited.)
.....Aunt Anna's and Uncle Joe's (Whitlow) wedding in the park (Roslyn Park), and what is now the library for the reception; sewing bibs and making string doilies for the chairs, couches, and tables. (Aunt Anna)....And how about Joe-Joe getting lost at about 3 years old? All the neighbors and firemen searching for him and Aunt Mary finding him asleep in a weed covered lot. Here Dot says she knows Pop remembers Joey took off again when he was about 14 years old.

Some of my memories of Grandma came back to me when I thought about how my Dad kept Tootsie Rolls and bubble gum in his bureau for the kids, even us older ones! Grandma always kept a tin in her bedroom closet with candy in it, and we all loved it when she called us upstairs for a treat. She always had a Mason Mint for me, which is one of my favorites still--I guess it brings back those memories! Patty Kehoe, I think, always had chocolate from Grandma. Pat also reminded me about us playing under the dining room table, which had "X" shaped stretchers between the legs. We'd sit in between them and play for hours. I don't really remember it, since I was so young at the time, maybe 2 or so. I remember that dining room set, though, and always wished we'd brought it with us to PA when we moved. I think it was given to Marie Adams, but don't know what's happened to it since then.

Another memory I have is riding my red tricycle madly around the house, indoors! Aunt May told me Grandma would never yell at me for anything! I loved playing with Grandma's long hair, taking the tortoise shell pins out, and brushing it. I know Patty did that, too, and that's probably why I wanted to.. I have a couple of those hair-pins now, which Aunt Mary kept with Grandma's hand tooled leather purse, in her cedar chest. It was a treasure trove of the past when we looked through it! Two items we found, which I've had restored and framed, are Grandma's and Grandpa's wedding certificate from the Church Register (St. Elizabeth's of Hungary, 345 E. 4th St., NY, NY) where they were married, and Uncle Pete's baptismal certificate from the same register. Quite a find!

I was afraid of thunder when I was a child, and I remember Grandma holding me on her lap, out on the side porch, and rubbing my back and telling me there was nothing to be afraid of. I know I was very young at the time; in later years, I'd pretend I was washing my hair where the water ran off the porch roof--no shampoo, just a silly little kid with her head under the rain gutter!! I remember waking up from naps in the fall after the time changed, and sitting at the top of the stairs in the dark, breathing in the aroma of cookies baking, or of dinner cooking, with Grandma and my mom, Helen, working in the kitchen.

One memory I DON'T have is from when Grandma died. We kids were never "protected" from that kind of thing, it being part of life itself, but I suspect it was something I didn't want to remember! Aunt Anna Duffy (Uncle John's Aunt Anna, as we used to say) told me that I said to her, at the funeral, Grandma went away, and she was never coming back, not ever again.....all the while I had a very loooooooong face, and was shaking my head very slooooowly, looking so very, very sad.

I remember Grandma trying to teach me Hungarian, and I was always too antsy to sit still and listen. I wish I had, now! Spoken Hungarian is like music to me, as is English spoken with a (quite) heavy Hungarian accent. I love it!! The funny thing, though, is that the language of our grandparents is almost completely unrecognizable to the Hungarians of today!
Pop told me a story the summer before he died, about taking Margaret and me to visit Aunt Julie, Grandma's sister, shortly after Grandma died. Pop said we knew Aunt Julie, of course, but at the sight of her, our eyes opened wide, and our mouths even wider, thinking she was Grandma come back! He thought the whole thing was awfully funny!!

Oh, There Are More Stories!

Uncle John Stories  Aunt Mary Stories  Steve Hollenczer Stories    Uncle Joe Stories

Uncle Mike Stories    Aunt Anna Whitlow Stories   Grandpa Hollenczer Stories

Joe-Joe Stories   Helen Stories   Uncle Pete Stories

Janice Stories    Margaret Stories

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