Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-03-01 / 3. szám
yietterz fintor Dear Mr. Pulitzer: Your (I guess I should say “our”) magazine is the one that I eagerly look forward to reading each month. As you probably know, I was among the last born in a relatively free Hungary in 1943. My parents raised me to be a solid American citizen, but always kept very much alive in me the knowledge and appreciation that I was and am a Hungarian as well. I try to do this for my two children as well, although their lack of being able to speak Hungarian makes it a bit more difficult. Nevertheless, we are all (my wife Shirley, also of Hungarian heritage, and my children, Paul and Lara) proud to count ourselves among those fortunate enough to be Hungarian-Americans. “Hungarian Heritage Review” has opened my eyes to the fact that there are Hungarians all over America, not only in Cleveland and my hometown, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Serving in the Air Force these past 21 years, I have lived all over the States as well as in many countries overseas (Germany, at present). Unfortunately, I always thought of myself as “The Lone Hungarian” wherever I’ve been stationed. Now I realize that I probably wasn’t. The problem was that I didn’t have a “Hungarian Heritage Review” to point me in the right direction to make contact with my Hungarian brothers and sisters. Now I do, and you can count on me writing to you, when I get orders in 1988 to return to the States, to tell me whom to contact at my new station. I thank you for this wonderful service. I thoroughly enjoy all the sections of the magazine and read it cover-tocover. I was especially pleased to see the new “Hungarian Supplement” and “Hungarian Classroom” in the January edition. I plan to use the latter to try to teach my family some of the “mother tongue”. They’ll find that useful during our visit to Hungary this June (our second one since we’ve been here in Wiesbaden). I do have a couple of suggestions that I’d like you to consider. The first is to use Hungarian letters (i.e. diacritical marks) in the Hungarian words used in the English section. If this is too complex to do vis-a-vis the printer you use, do what I do with the Christmas letters I send to Hungary... use a fine-tipped, black pen and fill them in by hand on the camera-ready proof page. If done carefully, it would look good and provide a great exercise for the non- Hungarian-speaking readers to practice what they’ve learned from the “Hungarian Classroom”. At the very least, it would eliminate a source of irritation for those of us who can read Hungarian a bit. (As an aside, I had a little difficulty pronouncing to myself the place where Attila József committed suicide on January 3, 1937 — December 1986 issue, page 6 — One of the pronunciations I came up with, the one without diacritical marks, didn’t sound too nice.) My second suggestion is to start a short series on Hungarian customs. For example, many of your readers may not know about Mikulás or namedays of locsolás (at least, I believe that’s what they call the custom of boys squirting girls at Easter.) There are undoubtedly many more that I don’t know of that I really would like to learn and pass on to my children. I suspect many of your readers would feel the same. After all, customs make up much of what we call “heritage”. Enough already. I’ll quit here with one last big heartfelt thanks for providing such a valuable service to Americans (and, I hasten to add, Canadians) of Hungarian background. I especially thank you for filling a void in my life as a Hungarian-American. Paul S. Olchvary, Colonel, USAF Wiesbaden, West Germany (EDITOR’S NOTE: We salute you, Colonel, with thanks for your kind letter. It has been letters like yours which has made us feel that, what we are trying so hard to do, is really meaningful and worthwhile. They also fuel our spirit to get-up-and-go and do what we believe to be the right thing to do, regardless of opinions to the contrary. We’re taking your constructive suggestions seriously, indeed, and will try to solve our “diacritical marks” problem with Hungarian words, which has been, and still is, attributable mainly to the fact that we have no one out in the Ligonier, Pennsylvania, area, where our printing is being done, to do our proof-reading for us... someone fluent in the “mother tongue”, of course. Colonel, you’ll find lots of “brothers and sisters” in the United States Air Force, as well as in the U.S. Army. All you have to do is to ask around. Better yet, a letter-to-the-editor of “Stars and Stripes” would trigger a surprising response.) Dear Mr. Pulitzer: Your publication is expanding in very interesting avenues and I anxiously await the arrival of each monthly issue. I especially enjoy the Hungarian Heritage Calendar by Dr. Boros-Kazai, the Milestones in Hungarian History by Roger B. Goodman, the Culinary Art of Hungary by our “Louis The Great” Szathmary and his very interesting and authentic Hungarian recipes, and last, but not least, the travel experiences related by Kevin Toth, one of your newer Associate Editors. Hopefully, he will again venture to other parts of Hungary this year and tell us more of its history from his point of view. Mary M. Cossa Arlington, Virginia Gentlemen: I am enclosing a check for another year’s subscription to your magazine. I’ve learned many interesting things about Hungary and Hungarians in America. It has been especially gratify—continued next page 2 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW MARCH 1987
