Verhovayak Lapja, 1941. július-december (24. évfolyam, 27-52. szám)

1941-09-11 / 37. szám

Fage 2 Verhovayali Lapja___________________ Make Way for Our Verhovay Sailors, Too! Westward to Beautiful California By Albert Jozik (Jóczik Albert) III Seaman Agárdi Albert Jozik and the Steinmetz Family James Agárdi, member of Branch 438, Lockwood, Ohio, has fared * well since he joined the Navy in June, 1940, furthering his school­ing and advancing in rank, these despite his youthful nineteen years. A few weeks after join­ing the Navy Agárdi was made Third Class Petty Of­ficer, and about two months later passed examination for trade school training, taking in a Virginia naval air station the course of air­plane mechanics. This spring past he went tu Corpus Christi, Texas, to another school, and there also successfully completed the examinations. On July 22d Agárdi was advanced to Second Class Betty Officer, which rank corresponds to sergeancy in the Army. He now not only repairs airplanes but oversees train­ees engaged in airplane mechanics work. The picture above does not show youthful Agárdi in his present rank, but was taken shortly after he joined. Agardi’s father, John Agár­di, is secretary-treasurer of Bianch 438.---------------O--------------­A Diplomat “Why don’t you buy some­thing at my table?” demand­ed the girl at the charity fair. “Because I only buy from the homely girls,” said the man. “They have a harder time making sales.” The girl was not offend­ed, and the man worked the game right down the line. The tunnel leading from the train platform to the waiting room of the* Union Terminal is long. Hence 1 had plenty of time to form many mental pictures of the Steinmetzes who were in the station awaiting my arrival. Finally, reaching the end of this subterranean passage, an upgrade led to the waiting room, and people crowd­ing against the roped lanes of the passageway, could be seen eagerly waiting for their relatives and friends. At this juncture I put some extra zip into my usual fast manner of walking, for I was just as anxious as any oi them, if not more. I began peering about me, and I craned my neck in hopes of catching sight of my hosts. Suddenly, as I had my head turned the opposite direction a sweet and gentle voice tinged with the Hungarian ac­cent. said, “Are you Mr. Jozik?” Turning around post­haste, I immediately recognized the smiling face of Mrs. Albert Steinmetz and her lovely little daughter, Manci, who was dressed in somewhat of a red riding hood out­fit which became her very well. The greetings and ex­change of words that followed I leave to your rich imagi­nations. Picking up my luggage, we walked out of the beauti­ful new Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, which was completed in 1939 at a cost of $11,000,000, and is an outstanding example of the Spanish motif of Southern California. For a moment I paused and assumed an absent-minded stance, for here at last I was in Los Ange­les, the city that every American raves about and wants to go to. We hurriedly stepped into the new Buick and headed for home. Little Manci must have heard of my vain boast: that I am “strictly masculine” and “aware of the wiles of the female species,” and so that cherubic creature soon began to exercise her feminine charms in my direc­tion, with the intention of breaking my “morale,” by holding my hand, putting her arms around me, asking me how much I liked her, etc. Well, not being a railroad tie, not being a mummy, and possessing some emotion, I yielded to the innocent wiles of Manci, and for about the first time in my life shed my indifference toward children and actually became enthusiastic. But don’t misunderstand. I am not a disliker of children. I have been merely indifferent toward them. In her particular case, Manci changed my attitude, and zing! went the strings of my heart. Oh yes, I never got around to asking Mrs. Steinmetz whether or not she recognized me by my “Magyar face,” the hirsute condition on my upper lip, or just guessed right. It’s a good thing I didn’t, for she may have had to tell a white lie about my vaunted “Magyar face,” and I don't want to be accessory to anyone’s committing wrong, even a little white lie. When we reached home Mrs. Steinmetz discovered that she had locked herself out. In her excitement to get to the station she had left the key in the house be­fore locking the door. Being a typical Magyar woman, which means very modest and very naive, Mrs. Stein­metz’ face flushed a pretty pink, even in the dark! She offered a number of irrelevant excuses to cover up her embarrassment. Of course I sympathized, but within my heart I could not help being amused. After trying every method to get into the house, Mrs. Steinmetz decided that she must go to her husband’s place of employment and risk being razzed by Albert. When we got there it wasn’t so bad as all that. Naturally, there was some rub­bing from Albert. It was there at the entrance that I first shook the hands of my host, Albert Steinmetz, and I found him to be just as I had pictured. We could not enter the place where he works because it is one of the defense industries, making parts fór airplanes, and guard­ed by U. S. ■ soldiers. On our way back Manci gently—oh so gently— suggested that she was a habitual ice cream eater. Ah! an ulterior motive for being so nice to me! Well, I forgot about that because I’m also an ice cream fiend. From that time on I was in the extra good graces of Manci, for every day during my stay there Manci and I had something in common-—dishes of ice cream. But I was not to do my sleeping at the Steinmetzes, for their home did not have accomodations for guests. Instead I was taken to the home of Mrs. Lydia Morgan­­ella, who had through her friends the Steinmetzes kindly offered me one of her bedrooms during my visit. And so Mrs. Steinmetz drove me there, just a few blocks from her home, and would call for me in the morning. Mrs, Morganella received me very graciously, and I imme­diately felt at ease. Here I must say that she treated me just like a mother, made my bed every day, changed the sheets and pillow cases, cleaned the bedroom, and all those other things that make life worthwhile. She could not have treated her two sons with any more considera­tion than she did me. I am most grateful to Mrs. Mor­ganella. The next morning I had my first real meeting with Albert. What do you suppose the topic of our conversa­tion was? You’re right! VERHOVAY and the VERHOVAY CONTRIBUTORS. Albert was veiy curious to know about the various contributors, he being among the best of them. The burden of the entertainment the rest of this week fell on Mrs. Steinmetz, who did an admirable job, for Albert was still working on the night shift. The fol­lowing week he began working the day shift, which left him freer to entertain me. I am sorry but it is here impossible for me to enumer­ate the many kindnesses of the Steinmetzes and the many wonderful things I saw during my nine day stay in Los Angeles. To do that my superiors would have to grant me one whole issue of the Journal, but that would be selfish of me and unfair to the rest of the contributors. So let me mention some of the features (this is all from memory so I can not guarantee the chronological order): Albert drove me to see the famous “Moving Moun­tain” of Los Angeles, of which you no doubt have read in your local papers. Just a few days before it had de­cided to “go places,” and the city Workers were work­ing feverishly to clear away the debris. On Saturday afternoon through the evening the Steinmetzes and I attended a “wiener bake” at State Beach, on the Pacific Ocean, in the company of the Hun­garian Baptists, the fellow parishioners of the Stein­­metzes. The Reverend Charles Molnár was with us, and the congenial little group, among whom was the sister and brother-in-law of Albert, Mr. and Mrs. John Endrey, made me feel right at home. We had a very pleasant time. It was not till late in the evening that we dispers­ed, the Steinmetzes and I leaving earlier to go to the Magyar House. By way of parenthesis I here add that many people think the Baptists frown on all pleasure. This is not so. The Baptists encourage innocent pleasures and are not the blue-noses some attribute to them. On Sunday afternoon we went for a drive through the various beautiful sections of Los Angeles, among them Hollywood (111 come to Hollywood later, girls). We went, to Griffith Park, located on Mount Hollywood, where there is a large planetarium. A majestic view of Los Angeles and Hollywood is afforded by looking down from the planetarium. After taking some pictures we drove out Sunset Boulevard intent on going to the “Little

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