HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN
For those of you not familiar with Michigan, specifically a city called Hamtramck, let me give you a little background about this once vibrant Polish-American community.
In the early 20th century this is where my family (both maternal and paternal) originated from. Being 100% Polish from both sides of my family, this is where both sets of my grandparents lived. It was known, and still is among many, known for the Polish-American diversity. The place where you can buy pierogis (potato, cheese, sauerkraut, fruit filled dumplings) and paczki (also known as the jelly-filled doughnut you eat on Fat Tuesday- the day before Ash Wednesday).
On every street corner, up until recently, were bakeries that sold the Paczkis and every meat market along Jos. Campau (pronounced Joseph Compo) sold pierogis, fresh (never the smoked variety) kielbasa, golumpki (also known as stuffed cabbage rolls) and so many of other Polish delicacies.
Well this past weekend, we headed down to Hamtramck for the Labor Day weekend festival- which used to be called the Polish Festival.
Here are some things we saw in this unique store
This store was so cool! SO many things to see...
Need an old bowling alley lane? Well they had one...
Need some old hand saws... yup, they had tons of those too
Want a chalkboard instead of a wipe-board for school? Yup, they had a few
And the traditional Kielbasa with sauerkraut and pierogis (lunch time!) as well as a view of Jos. Campau.
While it was a VERY hot day (hitting 94-degrees with a heat index of around 100) we had a great time. Hamtramck is quite a drive from our homestead but it was fun... we drove around our old neighborhoods too; and enjoyed reminiscing.
Pre-Birthday Storm Clean-Up
While Thursday is my 50th birthday... I will be spending my pre-pre-birthday day (as my oldest daughter calls it) cleaning up outside. We had a horrible storm come through here yesterday evening.
As we were (binge) watching a TV show on Netflix and enjoying some quite time before bed... we heard these repeat bumps and bangs on the roof of our house.
After peeking out some windows, we saw the reason for the things that go bump in the night.
Luckily no damage to the cars, windshields, house windows and no loss of power. thank goodness, but I will be checking things out real close today; I took tons of pictures and even a video; just in case.
Mr Golden D asked me why I was walking through the yard last night and videotaping... well, you never know if the roof was damaged... if there would be damage to one of the vehicles, etc and at least I'll have proof of storm and damage.
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haha! howdy there goldendawne! wow, I love those kinds of cultural festivals! so interesting and the food is so good and fattening..lol. I hope they maintain their strong heritage there in Hamtramck and I'm glad you didn't find any storm damage!
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OMGosh! When I worked for the newspaper years ago, I would go to so many small town festivals... the food was always the best! Nothing beats small town flavors!
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howdy this fine Wednesday goldendawne! oh man..you mean you were writing for a newspaper and got to go and cover all these small town festivals??
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When is your birthday?!?! Haha, and Mr Golden D must've think you went cuckoo in the night walking in the yard! :D
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Yeah.. he was saying...
"get in here.. are you crazy? It's still thundering and lightning out there..."
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Ngahahaha, oh gosh it was thundering? Nvm... U'll be the flash. :D
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Sounds like a cool festival to go to
I know your planning a cleanup after the storm pre birthday but wishing you a Happy Birthday for Thursday
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It was fun- a nice day out.
And thank you for the pre-birthday wishes!
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Oh how fun! I love pierogies, although I've never had a real authentic fresh one, I don't think. I want to go to that reclaim store - how cool! And happy early birthday!
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My maternal grandma made these weekly! She roll out the dough, make the mashed potatoes to fill them with then start constructing them. She'd lay the full cookie sheets on her bed. I can remember once she had about a dozen cookie sheets full in there... they are SOOOO good!
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Happy birthday in advance dear. Nice to see the polish culture in Hamtramck lives on
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Thank you for the pre-birthday wishes!
Yes... still some Polish-American culture alive and well there.
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Happy birthday!
I visited Hamtramck a couple of years ago for the first time and we ate lovely foods and looked through some of the cool stores too :)
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It is always nice to visit some old towns where you grew up/family is from/family is known etc. I like to do that just inside the border of my state where an area my last name is known well, then over the border is another area as well.
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My Great Grandparents lived in Hamtramck! My Great grandfather worked at the (chrysler?) auto plant back in the day. I only ever remember meeting my great grandmother once though, it's the only visit I remember to the city (everyone else lived in other Detroit suburbs) and she only spoke Polish. I was probably about 9 or 10 then.
But man, the sausages my grandmother and aunts would make for Christmas! so good!!
And the small town I grew up in (also in Michigan) was fairly Polish as well, so the local bakery made a mean pazcki, too.
Sounds like a fun time.
Hope your actual birthday and pre-birthday are far better than the pre-pre-birthday cleanup party.
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Awesome post! I'm from Lithuanian descent. Many of the foods are similar to Polish just have different names! I used to make my own fresh kielbasi and pirogis, but haven't for years. Homemade tastes the best!
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Oh, no! I hate storms that leave damage in its path. Glad that there was little damage, nothing serious anyway. Have a great 50th Birthday @goldendawne! You need a big celebration for this one! My hubby flew me to Canada for mine, so I could celebrate with all the family!
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