"We lost the language. But we remember the recipes and the food."
Daria Savickas
Daria Savickas's great-grandfather came to the United States from Poland in 1875 as part of the largest wave of Polish immigration to this country at the turn of the century. He worked at a hotel in Chicago, and then at a factory in Buffalo, New York. "He was a forest ranger," Savickas said. "He liked being in the forest," so he eventually returned to his homeland.
Years later, Savickas's grandfather returned to the U.S. and settled in New Britain. He met his wife, and had a son, Stanley, who was Daria's father. She said Stanley was one of the first attorneys in New Britain's Polish community.
Mary Wesoly Zurek, of Ukranian and Polish descent, was Savickas's mother. She served as first lieutenant nurse in the U.S. Army during World War II. "They lived on Smith Street," Savickas said about her parents in New Britain. "They raised chickens, and all that." Her mother was featured in a book called The Polish Community of New Britain, which Savickas held as she talked about her family's history.
Savickas herself grew up in New Britain and attended Sacred Heart School and Church. She now works as an office assistant at Central Connecticut State University.
Savickas wishes she spoke Polish, but "we lost the language," she said, "because they wanted us to be American. But we remember the recipes and the food."
Listen below to some of Savickas's story:
This story is part of WNPR's Polish Stories Project. Find out more.
