I was born April 18, 1926. I was the eleventh and final child of Sedor and Alexandra Musleve. I had six sisters: Mary, Anna, Olga, Joan, Mildred and Rose ... and four brothers: John, Anthony, Peter and Westley. We were a close family, and all lived in the same area all our lives.
My parents were Russian Orthodox. So being Orthodox, Christmas, New Years and Easter fell on other days than most people celebrated. We always had two Christmases and two Easters. On these holidays the whole family congregated at my parents' house. The Orthodox Christmas (or as we called it Russian Christmas) was different. We had no presents, but my mother prepared some foreign dishes that we only had at Christmas time. My father would get a small keg of herring. Russian Christmas was on January 7th, and New Years was on January 14th. A short time after the New Year, the priest and two or three members of the choir came to bless the house. While the priest went from room to room blessing the house with holy water, the choir sang. To me, as a child, it was very impressive.
Easter was different also, and was usually celebrated one week after American Easter. Once every so many years, it would fall on the same Sunday. On the Saturday night before Russian Easter, we always went to the St. Nicholas Church. We brought a large basket filled with easter eggs (which we all got together and colored), a few peeled eggs, ham, kielbasi, horseradish, butter (in a small round covered dish with a cross made on the top of the butter) and cheese, which my mother made special for Easter. Also, a large loaf of homemade bread which was braided on top and wrapped in a small white linen tablecloth with emboidery on it. This bread was called a paska. When we entered the church they sold candles and everyone bought several. One was to put in the corner or your basket. Then you went into the church for mass.
A little before midnight the priest and other altar attendants carrying a large cross and several other religious banners would lead the congregation out of the front of the church and started a procession around the outside of the church. I think it was three times around. Everyone carried a lit candle that they had bought earlier, while the priest chanted and everyone sang very solemnly. Also, the church bell would be chiming. (I always wondered what the people who lived near the church thought of all this going on at such a late hour.) The priest then went up the front steps and stood in front of the closed doors and chanted with the congregation below singing responses. The priest then said "Christ has risen" three times and opened the doors and everyone went back into the church for another mass to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We then got our baskets and bread and went to the churchyard and placed everything in a large circle and uncovered the food and lit the candles. The priest walked around in the center with his incense and holy water and blessed all the food.
It would be about 2:00am when we finally got home, and we were all hungry because we could not eat any of the food until it was blessed. Later that day, around noon, everyone came to my mother's house and the whole family had a feast. I did not miss an Easter at church for many years, as it was all so different and wonderful.
Being the youngest, I really don't have anyone to talk to about the family history. My mother and father never talked much about their life in the "old country." I always thought we were Russian and came from Austria. I still think the part of Poland from which they came at the time they lived there was ruled by Austria. That is why they said they came from Galicia, Austria.
I never knew my grandparents' names, neither on the Musleve or the Basalyga side (my mother's maiden name). My parents never talked about them. I remember my mother saying that she never wanted to go back. I never knew why until recently what kind of conditions they must have lived under back then.
I remember my mother telling me that she came from a town called Snietnica, and I thought that was a funny name. I think that is why I always remembered it. She said she lived on a farm, and she had to carry water to the fields for the men who were working. Also, they had a cold cellar where they stored food. She had to go down into the cold cellar and do various chores. While she was there working alone she would take bites of some of the food, and was afraid she would be punished if she got caught.
My father was a quiet man. He always worked during my lifetime, but took an early retiremen because of his health. He seemed to always work in places where it was bad for one's lungs and heart. When he first came to America he worked as a laborer in the
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