Bethlen Naptár, 1987 (Ligonier)
Rev. Stephen Sziarto: Magyar medley
1987 79 MAGYAR MEDLEY For me, going back to Lancaster, PA has always been a trip of gratitude. Thankful to God and my parents for giving me the opportunity to attend college and theological seminary; grateful for the beautiful city of my youth; grateful for the friends who enriched my salad days; and very grateful for and to my devoted professors who taught me that education was a journey and that I must always be enroute. Margo and I went to celebrate my 55th year of graduation from Franklin and Marshall College. It was marvelous to meet classmates who had succeeded as businessmen, a merited college professor, a Pennsylvania State Senator of note, a thoroughbred horse breeder, a Colonel-Chaplain now retired, now all men of note. But 59 years ago we were children of a depression era, uncertain that four years would bring a college degree or anything else. But now on this May day of 1986, together we gave thanks to our God for His guardian care. Shortly after registration I bumped into Dr. Louis A. Kalassay, who had just arrived from New Castle, PA, to celebrate his 60th anniversary of graduation from F&M. I first met Lajos in 1929, when we both were summer school teachers at First Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Hundreds of children were enrolled in our 79th Street Bible Vacation School, taught entirely in the Hungarian language. Of course, our basic textbooks were the Hungarian Bible and the Hungarian Psalter. What glorious days they were!! Lajos went on to distinguish himself as an excellent educator and school administrator in the Pittsburgh area. (Pittsburgh was his place of birth.) We shared fond memories of the Bethlen Home in Ligonier, PA. His parents were the visionaries and founders of that institution, which I first visited in 1929. Lajos remembered his childhood Hungarian Reformed Churches in Pittsburgh and his teenage days of struggles in the Ligonier Orphanage operated by his family. I remembered my mother embroidering pillowcases and my brother Frank and I selling raffle tickets, bought mostly by black Baptists and Orthodox Slavs in Elkhorn, W. VA., and sending the $2 or $3 to Rev. Alexander Kalassay to be used in the support of the Orphanage. We both laughed when we recalled our mothers' admonitions whenever we left our homes for play or whatever: “Vigyázz magadra!" — “Take care of yourself!" And so it was, with the help of God, we took care of ourselves. Lajos celebrating his 60th F&M anniversary and I my 55th... our Hungarian heritage with us all the way. My next memorable “bumped into” was Albert Stelkovics and his beloved Mary, in Lancaster to celebrate his 50th anniversary. I first met A1 way back when he was starting his F&M
