The Bethlen Home Messenger, 2002 (1-4. szám)

2002-11-01 / 4. szám

Jtóíjten (Üuítural (Etntzr

For those visitors who come by our community T.V. room - you will hear the sound of chirping...we have some new additions at the home. A few months ago a pair of Lovebirds and a pair of Canaries joined our residents.

We will be holding a naming contest soon!

Resident Bela Bacsó with feathered friends

MIKULÁS will once again visit all the residents of The Bethlen Community on the morning of December 6. Remember to put your shoes outside your door for Mikulás to fill!! The big question is - will you receive onions or candy? Or maybe a little of both?

THE BETHLEN CULTURAL CENTER WISHES EVERYONE A BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON!!

"Look Back with Love" is a historical essay written by Ligonier Gardens resident, Mrs. Julianna DeTilla. Julianna recounts some of her observations and experiences, as she has grown up and lived in the Hungarian community of Pittsburgh. The following is the second installment of Julianna's essay.

It took very long for Hungarians to be assimilated into the Melting Pot that was America. The language was especially difficult for them to learn. The men found employment in the mills, at the railroad and at the brick yard. There was one foreman at the brick yard under the Hays end of the Glenwood Bridge, who exploited the immigrants who sought work there. He charged five dollars for every man he hired. He was known only as "Charlie", and out of their first pay envelope, Charlie had to be paid. After 80 years, Charlie is still remembered as a "fink".

The Hungarian women didn't learn English until much, much later. The grocer was Harry Harris. Ben Klein sold us our underclothes and stockings, etc. Mr. Spiegel sold us our shoes, and Fran Fleischner collected our rent. Our fathers, who went out to work and had to take orders from bosses, were learning English much faster.

As children were being born, and young people were pairing off, there was an urgent yearning among the Hungarian immigrants to have a place to worship God, to have their babies baptized into their faith, to have their children taught, to be joined in matrimony, to be with other Hungarians of the Reformed Faith and to worship God in their own language. There were men with leadership qualities such as Mr. Vég Hamborsky, Mrs. Andrew Hornák, and Mr. George Balia. They worried about the problems that beset their countrymen, and feared that some circumstances forced them to act outside the law. It was a dark, dark secret that when a member of the community expired, the neighbors had to fashion a coffin, when wood was available, or wrap the body in a sheet for a shroud. In the dead of night, they quietly carried the corpse up to Sugar Hill and buried their unfortunate countryman or woman on the hillside, overlooking the Monongahela River. We know for sure that if a man worked for Carnegie Steel, he earned $1.10 for a 12 hour day, 6 days a week. Until the Hungarian Reformed Federation, the Verhovay, the Rákóczi fraternal organizations, and various Sick