Globeville Did Its Part

In the decade before World War II, Globeville’s population had struggled to find jobs, but the demands of war now created a labor shortage. Women filled vacancies at factories and foundries when men left for the service. June Jackson Egan rode the streetcar to 10th and Inca to make fuses for PT boats at Slack-Horner Foundry; Carol Christenson worked on aircraft, (including Eleanor Roosevelt’s plane), at McClellan Field near Sacramento.

 Mary Reed, left and Carol Christenson
® Mary Lou Egan

The Globeville community offered support in the way it always had: through its churches and lodges. Members of the First German Congregational Church formed the Blue Star Letter Writing Committee to keep the congregation’s 175 members in the service informed about church activities, and a newsletter called “The Minister’s Mailbag” kept the men in contact with each other as well.

The children at Garden Place School collected scrap and contributed to bond drives, while the young women of Holy Rosary Young Ladies’ Sodality volunteered at the Catholic USO at 16th and Logan. The Polish Harmony Club, a young-people’s social group affiliated with Polish National Alliance, entertained servicemen who were recovering at Fitzsimons Army Hospital and sponsored weekly dances at the Polish hall for military personnel of Polish descent. Paul Goreski recalls, “During the war my folks used to go out to Lowry and invite a Polish serviceman over for dinner. He had to be Polish.” 

Mary Canjar joined the Red Cross and attended classes to become an Air Raid warden.
She was issued a uniform with a shirt, pants, helmet and armband, and made sure that windows were covered and lights turned off during blackout periods. Canjar also won an award for persuading every family on Logan Street to purchase War Bonds. Residents were rewarded with a bus tour of Lowry field, a lunch and serenade by a marching band. 

                   Mary Canjar, photo used with permission from Father John Canjar

Victory Gardens became the name for the substantial gardens Globeville’s citizens had always planted. The community’s traditional frugality and resourcefulness made the
war rationing of gas, sugar, meat, and cooking oil, easier.

 Fathers Robert and Joseph Meznar's 1940 Ford
with its "A" gas sticker (highlighted in red).
Photo ® Mary Lou Egan

On both V-E Day and V-J Day, church bells rang, factory whistles and car horns blared. Twelve young men from Globeville lost their lives in the conflict; the nation and the neighborhood were forever changed by the experience.

Remembering Lent

The short, dark days in February and March were the perfect setting for Lent. There were the weekly rituals of stations of the cross, recitation of the rosary, benediction and confession. Before Vatican II, everything was in Latin and people of a certain age know all the words to Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Praise We Christ's Immortal Body) and Stabat Mater (for the stations of the cross). 
Adults were required to observe a complicated set of rules for fasting (not eating between meals) and abstinence from meat, while youngsters under the age of fourteen were granted a little more leeway. (I looked forward to Friday dinners with Mac 'n Cheese, potato pancakes and Mrs. Paul's Fishsticks). Everyone was urged to “give up” something like soda, candy, gum or TV.
By Holy Week, the days were getting longer and brighter, and the preparation more intense. More church visits, more rosaries, longer choir practice, baking Potica, apple strudel and painstakingly coloring pysanky eggs (every eastern European celebration seems to be time consuming).
Lent is about transformation - darkness to light, from distraction to contemplation, from busyness to solitude. Christ is risen, indeed He is risen from the dead. 
Customs that used to annoy me, now comfort and reassure me. I enjoy the symbolism of ashes, incense, the washing of feet, lighting the new fire and blessing of oils. Ash Wednesday is next week and I'm rehearsing Latin hymns.

  

Stations of the Cross at Holy Rosary Church

Potica or Povitica

Pysanky eggs - ours never looked this good