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Grandpa Vincent Dominic Zukowski

 

My last memory of my Grandfather is from this 8mm film on the left side of this page.  I believe the year was 1951 and my Dad even trusted me with shooting some of the movie. I must have been about 11 years old.




A few years after retiring, he and grandma took a long (4,800 mile round trip) Greyhound bus ride from NY City to Tucson AZ.  They couldn't understand why my dad and mom wanted to live in such a hot desert. So my Dad had to show them Sabino Canyon, a short drive from where we lived at 3725 E. Farr Place, in Tucson and give them a chance to cool off their feet.

For those who never hear of Sabino Canyon I added a second video that was available on YouTube to show and tell you more about this wonderful spot in the Catalina Mountains north and east of Tucson.

 

My Grandfather, emigrated to American with his older brother back in the early 1900"s with the help of their uncle who lived in New York.

 

He and his brother were in their late teens and were living on a farm in Poland near the Russian border.  Had they not hidden in hay stacks as the Russian Army marched by they would have been forced to join and they may never have had the chance to flee to America. 

 

I have no memory of any stories he ever told me and I only remember him as seemed old and quiet.  On a recent phone call to my cousin Christina, I learned for the first time that Grandpa worked for the New York Subway system as an electrician who kept the electric motors working.

I believe grandpa was 13 years older than my grandmother and he passed away April 7th,1957.