Catechists, Our Lady of Czestochowa - Wordless Wednesday

(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette) My son began a new year of CCD a couple of weeks ago.  Things have certainly changed over the last ninety plus years.  I'm not positive, but I believe this may be a photo of the children in the religious education program at Our Lady of Czestochowa (also known as St. Mary's) in Worcester, MA.  The photo was probably taken in the late 1910s.  My grandmother, Antonina (Bulak) Szerejko, is the young teacher in the white blouse holding a book.  Her sister, Helen Bulak, is the third person to her left wearing a dark, round-brim hat.  Father Boleslaw Bojanowski, the longest serving pastor at St. Mary's, is to the left of my aunt.

Take a close look at the photo.  Observe the serious look on the children's faces.  In the front row, near the sidewalk to the left, there is an unhappy looking little boy with two black eyes.  I wonder how that happened.  In the middle of the photo, in the first row of children standing, there is a child with a shaved head.  Lice?  Illness?

Times were tough.  My grandmother use to say, "There was nothing good about the good old days." I think some of the children in this photo might agree...


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