Our BoJon Life

Downtown Pueblo, this is Main Street. Do you remember shopping at Kress? The city has revitalized this beautiful building and I think today it may be offices. I miss those days when you could walk into the five and dime and get just about anything you wanted.

My Uncle Louie Steblay would always say, there is nothing you can not buy at Woolworth's! I am going to take a road trip to Pueblo and  take a picture of the original building. When I find google images some of them are copyrighted. Gee, I don't want to sell your photo, I just want to remember the good ole day.

Woolworth's had a great lunch counter. Somewhere, in the thousands of recipes I have collected throughtout  the years was their cheesecake recipe. Oh, that stuff was addictive! Light and fluffy and so lemony! My oldest daughter Noelle worked at the Woolworth's restaurant in the old Northglenn Mall for several years. There are so many memories...

I think my mom had her hands full with me. Check out those buckled up snappy shoes in the left photo. I was standing between the front yard of  Rudy and Gabriel Trontel and my Grandmother Cecilia Steblay's homes. They lived in the Grove. That right handed photo was probably around Easter time although my mother would never allow us to go to church without our Easter bonnets from House of Paris (Main Street Pueblo) and gloves and purses with patent leather shoes.

Grandpa and Grandma Kocman on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1955. By my calculations Grandma was 16 when she married. She was born in 1889 and Grandpa was born in 1883. Grandpa was 22. People married very young in their day and they stayed together to the end of their lives. Grandpa was a really kind man. He took care of grandma and relied on my mom in his older years to drive Grandma back and forth to all her various doctor appointments. He was a good cook too. He also was into the herbal lifestyle long before people started to go "green" or "natural" or whatever they like to label it today!  The first health food store in Pueblo was opened in 1972 by the Schrock family but Grandpa Kocman was ahead of his times. 

Millie Blondie Cotton Top

Grandma and Grandpa's youngest child, Auntie Millie Kocman- Cosimano. She was so blonde. I am loving all the wonderful photo shares I have. My sister Mary and cousin Juliane have made me laugh as well as cry. Cousin Kay had shared some funny stories. I am going to share one here:

In sixteen days I am going to be flying on an airplane. I use to love flying. Then I had neurosurgery. Not once, not twice but three blasted times! After that final surgery I became so claustrophobic! Ugh! I hated getting on an airplane and have to have my hubby or someone extremely trustworthy at my side. I once held hands with a really cute young man on a flight back from Vegas. We hit such turbulence and he and I had been sharing some great conversation! He was the nicest fellow and I wasn't as frightened because he was as afraid as I was! This is not even the funny story.

Cousin Kay, who is blessed beyond measure and heading to Slovenia in August shared this story with me: Auntie Anna Skender was a character. She could be very dramatic and say words in Slovenian that we did not always understand. The first time she flew on an airplane Kay said she made the sign of the cross, crossed her arms across her chest and braced her feet firmly on the ground! Kay heard this story from her mom, Auntie Steffie. Auntie Steffie, Auntie Anna and her friend Joe flew to NY to see Auntie Millie.  They had several plane changes and Auntie Steffie said everytime the plane started to taxi during take off Anna would make the sign of the cross, cross her arms across her chest and brace herself with her feet planted firmly on the ground. That ritual became known as the Bojon Brace. Kay says a plan has never crashed with someone on board performing the Brace! I am going to go through that ritual when I get on that airplane in a few weeks.

I keep saying we need to have a reunion, get together and get some cool "BoJon" t shirts. We could write our last names on the back of these hoodies. I hear the last name of KOCMAN is quite a popular name in Slovenia!

 We were blessed BoJons. We grew up in the greatest neighborhood, raised by the greatest people and happen to be related to some incredibly wonderful BoJon's even today! Never let go of your heritage. Never forget where you came from.

Before I sign off I have a little surprise for tomorrow. It would be something to have a big reunion and, well..., until tomorrow: