Alumni Stories

Frank Grabiec

Trying to recall events that happened 77 years ago is a privilege few people have and to do that at the age of 86 is a unexpected blessing. I have very vivid memories as a "Dead End" kid during the 1930’s depression.

I was about 11 years old, the 7th born in a family of 9. I had six sisters and one brother. My immigrant mother was the sole provider since my father was mentally hospitalized. Without any income, we were always on welfare. I remember that we received a lot of food from the “Surplus Communities” as they called it. We always had corn meal, rice, beans prunes, raisins, oatmeal, powdered milk and some meat on occasion.

We lived on Huron and Wood Street. I attended the Talcott elementary school a few blocks from home. I don't recall any food services at the school and kids went home for lunch. I always went home for lunch and I remember there were times that we had nothing to eat.

During that school year some kids told me about a place that gave out sandwiches after school. He took me to the Union League Boys Club, which was about two blocks away. Then we waited with a bunch of kids and finally were let in the building. We followed a line of kids going upstairs. At the top stood a guy spooning out thick clear cod liver oil. Those who didn’t take the offering went downstairs and didn’t get their sandwich and chocolate drink.

I can still taste that drink and I can only say that it tasted like Oveltine. If it was Oveltine, a very popular drink, I am forever thankful to that company. I was in that food line every chance I could get, and the cod liver oil was not a test of our hunger, but a vital supplement to our well being.

As I kept coming back to the Club I discovered all the other activities in the building. I went daily and never once was I asked to pay dues or join. I was a member because I was always there. It was my home away from home. The Club had pool tables, ping-pong and a print shop that taught kids how to set type. We had a wood working shop in the basement where I made an ashtray stand. The ashtray stand was a bellhop boy who held out his hand to hold the ashtray. He was painted red and blue with a typical bellhop cap.

The swimming pool was my favorite pastime activity. There was swimming all year long. My neighborhood buddies used to yell out my name "Oh Frank", and if I was on the 3rd floor I would toss out my towel and sneak out and go swimming. We never needed a swimsuit, after all only boys went swimming naked. You could not get in the pool without first taking a shower and passing an inspection to see if you were clean enough. A favorite place for the inspector to check a boy’s heel. I always had clean feet.

When swimming in the winter, Mrs. Howe would never let us go out until we were dry. She made us stay by the fireplace that was so warm and inviting. I spent many hours by that fireplace.

I felt like I got to know Mrs. Howe very well, she was such a loving and care giving person. I heard about the union league summer Camp and asked Mrs. Howe how much would it cost. When she said it was $7.00 per session, I knew it wasn’t possible for me to go. However, she did tell me that because of my circumstances, she might let me go for $3.00. I asked my poor mom and she told me that it wasn’t possible. Mom said she would be lucky to get fifty cents. When I told Mrs. Howe she said okay. How could you respond to a moment like that? I was programmed to go to Camp. I had nothing on my mind but anticipation to get out of the big city and to the open country.

Part of going to Camp required a medical examination. The union league did that for me. Would you believe that there was a dental chair at the Club where I had my first dental examine and a small cavity repaired.

At that time I was a union league member without dues paid. Fifty cents for Camp, free dental care, medical exams, sandwiches, Ovaltine, a swimming hole and access to all good things at the Club. I was there at the right time and right place at the Union League Boy’s Club in the 1930’s.

We got a free bus and train ride to Camp Salem for the first day of that Camp session. Hour and hours on that train that stopped in every little town and farm to load up milk cans, we knew this was no passenger train. We got Salem Wisconsin in late afternoon and had to hike to the Camp. We were assigned a to a cabin lettered “NO”. I did all the good things Camp had to offer like baseball, swimming, fishing and course three meals a day. We fished for blue gills, but were happy to catch anything. I remember looking across the lake to see a man trying to land a large fish that bent his pole. A sight that I never forgot and always wanted to duplicate.

In Camp, boys will be boys so one night after lights out our cabin became rowdy and unruly and our counselor had to restore order. He marched us out of the cabin and made us walk barefooted on a bed of sharp stones that were placed next to the cabin. I’m sure that they were placed there for just an occasion. The rest of the night, our cabin was very peaceful.

I used to tinker with crystal radio reception with my friends and so I found a book in the library at the Club on radio. I didn't check out the book, but started to read a few chapters. It described how a magnetic field will build up around a coil of wire if you pass an electrical current through it. The magnetic field will collapse if the current is removed and will be returned to the coil. The text as I recall it said that if you again pass current to the coil before the field has a chance to return to the coil the magnetic field will be radiated into space. That was easy for me to understand and that is exactly what radio waves do. From that basic introduction to radio and electronics I was motivated to follow that field.

I was a marine and was trained as a radio and radar technician. I received electrician maintenance journeyman training with Western Electric. I have owned and operated my consumer electronics repair center in Phoenix for 55 years. I’ve even received the electronics industry's hall of fame award.

All the time that passed I never forgot the Union League's Boys Club. Now you know how proud and grateful I am to the Union League's Boys Club. How I remember with heart-felt gratitude all those who provided the generous opportunities that I took advantage of. With a background of my past, I have always tried to repay in kind to those who are in need. I have been on the YMCA camp for over twenty years, sold a lot of Christmas trees and engaged lots of fund drives to send kids to camp. I worked on camp projects, building cabins and erecting two bell towers at the two YMCA camps. Kids love to ring the bells, just another moment of time that they will carry for their lifetime.

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