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BOOKS IN BRIEF.
REVIEWED BY FLORENCE WASZKELEWICZ CLOWES, MLIS.
GROWING UP POLISH
A History of the Polish Pioneers in Chicago Heights. Vol. I, II by John Wozny
"Growing Up Polish" Pubs., PO Box 66, Steger, IL 60475 1996 $25.00 each.
Two large spiral-bound volumes sitting on my desk are a labor of love for Wozny. They are a first rate example of one person's extraordinary effort to gather, compile and record, for perpetuity, the history of a Polish settlement.
Vol. I examines the lives of people settling in Chicago Heights, 30 miles from Chicago, from 1900 to the 1930s. The second volume continues to 1945. The last chapter also deals with the Polish churches and covers the 1990s.
The book provides a narrative, along with clips from newspapers, maps, unions, politics, war service, family portraits, sheet music (with a fragment of oplatek attached), business advertisements, church celebrations and group pictures of various organizations. While some of the above mentioned are in poor quality, it does not detract from the strenuous efforts of the author.
What probably began as a desire to record a family history, ends up as a history of the lives of immigrants, their civic, social and religious activities, with the central figure being...