GAR Memorial Class of 1941

I've received some comments that posting the wartime ( WWII ) letters from Raymond M. Raykovitz has allowed at least one reader to get to know Ray as a person instead of just a picture on the wall, a few photos and some stories.

Well, I think we're going to learn a lot more about Raymond as I go through the next few posts detailing some of the hundreds of comments written by his fellow classmates at GAR Memorial High School in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania - Class of 1941. Evidently, Ray was a very good baseball player, had a flair for having fun, and ummmm, had quite a few nicknames.

So stay tuned as we get a glimpse of the teenager known as Rakey, Slick and the "Wolf."

 

In the photo directly above, the future (Aunt) Florence (Adams) Raykovitz - and her comment signed "Flossie" - are in the upper left corner of the page.

  

    

MARYMOUNTIAN - 1950

I've found several high school yearbooks tucked away in boxes over the past few months, including Raymond's Sr. Year (1941) GARCHIVE. I'll get to that one next.

For starters, here's my Mother's Sr. year "MARYMOUNTIAN" from the graduating class of 1950. I'll post some more pics from this yearbook in the future.

 

Below: I guess my Mom wasn't into white socks. A born rebel from day 1.

Front row, first chair to left of lectern...no white socks.

 

 

Below: I'm 99% sure that's my Uncle Bernard Michael ( Mickey) Raykovitz

standing directly behind the globe.

 

 

More to follow. Have a good weekend.

 

  

Uncle John & Aunt Stella

I have many fond memories of the frequent visits over the years by my mother's older brother John and his wife, Stella. As they lived in NJ, they were usually not overnight stays.

 

And of course, who could forget those two hyper Chihuahuas; Chichi & Coco?

 

Above: John Raykovitz in younger days ( HS photo? )

Below: Stella and John on their wedding day.

John's lifelong friend Leo Laboda is second from right.

 

 

  

From September 1964

Yet another snippet of family history found tucked away in a small Bible.

 

And on the reverse side...

 

 

 

BTW - thanks to all who have offered comments and corrections.

 

They are both appreciated.

    

 

Raymond's Purple Heart

Here's another of the many recent discoveries. 

From ~1944.

My cousin Raymond, Frank's son, has his Uncle's Purple Heart.

  

  

 

Uncle Leon and Aunt Stella Raykowicz

Here's the second of many wedding/formal pics we recently found. According to my Mom, this is her Uncle Leo ( Leon ) Raykowicz and his wife, Stella.
 

And in case you didn't notice, Grandpa ( John ) Raykovitz's tobacco can is in the pic at the header of this blog. I truly remember watching him roll cigarettes using that dark blue (?) can. And remember the kitchen flooring...and the coal/gas stove in the lower right corner? I'm 99% sure the white cabinet to the left in the picture is still at the family homestead.

 

Many more pics to follow.

 

      

W-B Police Officer Stanley M. Raykowicz

To all:

As I had offered, we recently discovered a "treasure trove" of pictures and other documents in one of the last few boxes we retrieved from the Raykovitz family homestead. I wish there was an easy way of just scanning and uploading all of the photos, etc., but things take time and I know we'll get there...eventually.

 

In addition to posting pics and letters from Raymond, there has been some interest expressed in whether I had found any pictures of my grandfather's brothers. I recently posted a picture of Uncle Carl ( Karol ) Raykowicz from May 1942, and based upon my mother's identification, the photo immediately below is that of her Uncle Stanley M. Raykowicz, a former Wilkes-Barre (PA) Police Officer, who died a few days short of his 47th birthday on September 28, 1950.  As her Uncle Stanley never married, she does not know who the woman in the photo is.

 

 

 

We also believe we've found Uncle Raymond's burial flag from Arlington, as it has 48 stars and is the right size and, equally important, my mother's quick call-around to her siblings all indicated that Ray's flag was held in the family homestead. Another point of note: I found a second flag yesterday with...48 stars.

 

Anyway, the photo below should give you some idea of the number of photos I have to scan.

 

Stay tuned...more to follow in the days ahead.

 

 

  

Letters from Ray

For those that visit frequently, you know I've been posting letters written by Raymond M. Raykovitz to his family between 1941 and 1944 while he served in the Marines during WWII.

 

This past weekend, we found an album with dozens of pictures of Ray and his service buddies that I had never seen before. Although many of those photos will follow, this picture of Ray apparently writing a letter in November 1941 is one of my favorites so far.

  " So Long + Keep Smilin' "

  

Marjanna Rajkowicz: 1936 Prayer Book

So much for taking a break from posting...

Yesterday, my wife, sister and I spent ~5 hours at the Raykovitz family homestead.

 

Our plan of attack for the day?  The dreaded basement.

 

Items that most would consider "of value" were removed from the property years ago. What we are dealing with now are the last few boxes and other items that were mothballed, in some cases, over six decades ago.

 

Grandma Raykovitz's Stations of the Cross prayer book from 1936 was one of the many priceless finds yesterday. For those of us who remember her, we know how many times Mary Barbara (Geffert) Raykovitz must have held this STACJE DROGI KRZYZOWEJ in her hands.

 

Trust me...you do not want to miss what I will be posting in the days and weeks ahead.

P.S.: Another descendant of John and Mary Raykovitz, Frank's daughter Cathy, stopped by the homestead yesterday to pic up a picture of her parents on their wedding day that we discovered along with many others.

 

 

 

 

From Liverpool to Mayflower: More Family History

From what my Mom told me, the first set of dishes pictured below were in her parent's china closet. Every spring, the Raykovitz girls were tasked with - among other chores - taking these dishes out of the china closet, cleaning them, dusting the closet, and then returning the dishes until next spring rolled around.

Several months ago, I retrieved two sets of dishes from the Raykovitz family homestead. Based solely on the crackling and slight discoloration on some pieces, I felt the dishes pictured directly below were much older than the second set ( last pic below ), which my Mom recalls being a wedding gift to her parents from her mother's sister, Sally Geffert Adamczyk.

She was not certain where the first/older set came from.

After my Mom placed several phone calls to her siblings, her eldest sister Rita claimed this older pattern was given to her parents by her paternal grandparents, Stanley and Katherine Rajkowicz.

As per the information below, these dishes were made before 1903. Since John Theodore Raykovitz and Mary Barbara Geffert were married in 1918...the timeline works.

 

Below: Here's the mark on the bottom of the dish above. Notice the crackling.

 

 

Here's some of the info gleaned from my research on the internet:

 

 

 

The text from above:

 

ELPCO stands for East Liverpool Pottery Company, from Liverpool, Ohio, which made pottery from 1894 to 1903, then became Hall China Co. So, your plate was made before 1903.

 

And from another source:

 

 

 

So, considering the ELPCO dishes were at least 15 years old when they were passed down to my maternal grandparents, chances are fairly good that they were used by my great-grandparents and some of their children over 100 years ago.

 

Finally, here's a pic of one piece from the second set of dishes that were ( per my Mom...and she's always right ( ;o>) ) a wedding gift to her parents from my Mom's Aunt Sally.  

 

 

I'm going to take a slight break from posting.

 

Back in a few.

 

  

So Long + Keep Smilin'

 

Raymond M. Raykovitz (1922-1944) ended most of his letters to his parents with

" So Long + Keep Smilin' ".

 

He also loved baseball, especially G.A.R. baseball, as you will see in the next few letters.

 

 

Here's a letter from 1942.

 

 

 

 

  

Guadalcanal: Where Angels Sang

I have now had the honor and privilege of reading all of Raymond's letters that I have in my possession at least once. I read the following V-Mail from Ray to his brother John ( aka "Jackson" ) for the first time last night. It is now one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

It was written one month to the day before Ray was killed in battle on an island in the Pacific. It was postmarked on 22 Feb 1944.

I believe it is one of the last letters Ray sent. Before I'm done here, I will post them all.

 

  

Carl "Pooch" Raykowicz: A letter from France

As the days become longer at work, and our weekends are getting busier, I decided to start using my daily “train time" to get a little ahead of the curve by sifting through some of the hundreds of family documents I have accumulated over the years.

Earlier today, I read quite a few “wartime” letters to & from Raymond, John, Frank and a few from my great Uncle Carl “Pooch” Raykowicz ( my grandfather’s brother ) that I will feature over the next few posts.  

Although I’m only about halfway through the first round of letters I grabbed for reading, I will offer that many of them are pretty funny and use some family nicknames I had never heard before. Blondie? Tip? Fat? Jackson? Alas, poor Mickey & Helen were just…Mickey and Helen. And from the multiple comments by Ray, it seems his younger sister “Blondie” (my Mom) had quite a growing reputation of being a little, um, difficult? And she spent all her allowance money on…candy?

 

Decades pass, and some things never change…

 

Others, especially those letters referencing Raymond’s death, were pretty darn sobering when you take time to imagine yourself in the moment.
 

Anyway, here’s the first of a few letters written from the front lines by Pvt. Carl “Pooch” Raykowicz almost 70 years ago.
 

 

 

 

 

More to follow in the days ahead.

 

A Gift from Marymount

I found this latest piece of my mother's family history while crawling around in the attic this past weekend. My sister was peeking into the attic from the small access portal when I found this plaque wrapped in a plastic bag. We both uttered (almost) the same words when I held it up.

What I did not know until I showed it to my mother was that John and Mary Raykovitz received this for having the most children (6) enrolled at Marymount Grade/High School in Wilkes-Barre, PA at the same time.

I'm sure many of my cousins, as well as their parents, remember this adorning the walls at the family homestead in Mayflower.

This one find made all the crawling and sweating in that attic (a.k.a. sauna) well worth the effort. The plaque has "Cie La France Statuaire" engraved on the side. The only date I could find online for another piece made by this company was 1938. My mother guesses this was given to her family sometime in the early 1940's

More to follow in the days ahead.