CHERISHED MEMORIES OF MONONGAH'S BRZUZY FAMILY

 

Flashback in memories to Brzuzy family

 

Fairmont State graduate Karla Brzuzy Huff, Mon Power customer accounting associate living in Fairmont, stirred up my memories of the Brzuzy family with this post:

 

“Well, Momma . . .

 

“Today you would be 80. You would think the pain would start subsiding, but it doesn’t!!!

 

“ I could really use a porch sitting, coffee drinking, cigarette smoking talk with my Momma.

 

“Happy birthday in Heaven, Mom. Give daddy a hug for me.”

 

Karla’s mother was an RC Cola addict, just like I am a Pepsi addict. So Karla posted this about what would have been her late mother’s 80^th birthday:

 

“I don’t really drink pop. But this was my mom’s favorite. When I tell you she had at least five cases in the pantry at all times, I am under exaggerating!! On my Moms 80th birthday (husband) Jamie brought a RC Cola home to me. We took one to my Momma.”

 

There’s a photo on Karla’s Facebook page of her with Jamie Huff and Kristie Brzuzy Solheim.

 

As for my Brzuzy memories my favorite was when my father, coal miner John W. Olesky, Sr., was playing poker the Polish National Alliance Tavern operated by the Brzuzy family across the street from Thoburn Grade School.

 

Walter Brzuzy, the house man for his father in the poker game, placed a bet. My dad shoved all his chips – worth about 2 weeks of his pay – into the pot to raise Walter.

 

Walter studied it, knew my father memorized all the cards dealt in that hand, and folded. My toss mixed his hand into the pile of cards so that no one would know whether he was bluffing or had Walter, whose 5 cards showing were better than my dad’s 5 cards showing, beat with the addition to the 2 hidden, hole cards.

 

My dad would never tell me the rest of his life whether he was bluffing or had 2 hole cards that made his risk 2 weeks of his coal miner pay. Not even in his final 7 months in my home, when I asked him again.

Walter was an excellent pitcher for Monongah High and incredibly accurate with his 2-handed set shots despite the low Monongah "bandbox" ceiling in what would be 3-pointers today.

 

Then there was Johnny Brzuzy, a thorn in the side of the nuns at Sts. Peter and Paul School (as I was, too), who was a a three-sports star  and super football player at Fairmont West High School.

 

And an even better human being for all the work he did at a Boys Club in Richmond,  Indiana helping boys develop into solid young men for America’s society. John Brzuzy was the second executive director in Scott Boy’s Club’s history.  He was there 30 years.

 

Johnny’s children are Louis (Ann) Brzuzy of Anchorage, Alaska, John Brzuzy of Houston, Texas, Stephanie Brzuzy of Chicago, Illinois, and Cynthia (Kent) Cammack of Clinton, Indiana. His stepchildren are Roberta (Steve) Berhalter, Rebecca (Tommy Mayberry) Rankin and Kimberly (Tim) Golbuff.

 

Stash Brzuzy, as he was known to us in his Monongah childhood, was the baby brother of the group.

 

Wladyslaw “Walter” and Stephania Zuzak Brzuzy had 9 children:

 

Steve Brzuzy, the last to pass away in 2015;  Stephen’s wife, Eva Blanche “Banny” Hostutler Brzuzy, passed away in 2010.

The others were:

 

Stanley “Spud” Brzuzy, born in Monongah in 1939, passed away in 2014.

 

 

 

Brother Walter Brzuzy, Class of 1950, passed away in 1986 in Monaca, Pennsylvania.

 

Edith Brzuzy Bland, mother of Winnie Bland Few, passed away in 2008 while living in Texas.

 

 

 

Freda Brzuzy Rogers, Class of 1945; Edith Brzuzy Bland and Laura Brzuzy Yereb; Chester Brzuzy and Edwin Brzuzy; and sisters -in-law and brothers-in-law Eva Blanche Banny Hostutler Brzuzy, Robert Rogers, Ruth Ann Brzuzy, Ralph Yereb and Cecelia Brzuzy.