In this second column in a series, Susan Kovach Nemith Hinkle of Northampton continues writing about the experiences of her grandfather Andrew Kovach and his daughter, Madeline Kovach Kress, from Madeline’s memoirs.

Susan Hinkle: We are continuing Madeline Kovach Kress’ memoirs of her father and mother, Andrew and Zuzanna Kovach, immigrants from Czechoslovakia, and their small America experience.

Madeline Kress: After living on Newport Avenue in Northampton until I was in third grade, we moved to Washington Avenue, and I entered fourth grade in the Central Building on Main Street.

We lived in a house owned by my oldest sister and her husband. Uncle Mike ran a grocery store, Mushko’s, on 16th Street in the previous Northampton jail house. The building is still standing.

The following year, my parents bought a house across the street for $5,000. I lived in this home until I married. There are descendants of the Kovach family still living in this home.

The Great Depression was on, and Pop lost his job at the Atlas cement plant. Things were difficult, and we had no money for luxuries.

We were never hungry, though, because Mom had a big vegetable garden. She would bake and cook good homemade foods. The children would help with preserving jars of fruits, jellies, vegetables and meats.

The kitchen always smelled good when Mom was baking and cooking. She would bake big batches of kolatch (nut or poppyseed rolls) and doughnuts for her family. She would kill and pluck her own chickens for soups and make her own noodles.

My older sisters got jobs in the cigar factory, shirt factories or silk mills in the area. Our brother worked for our brother-in-law in his first business, a bakery in Newport, prior to the opening of Mushko’s grocery.

In those days, all the children gave their pay to their parents to help with mortgage payments and the general support of the whole family.

My parents were charter members of Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church at 14th Street and Washington Avenue. Apo (father) actually helped to dig the foundation for the church building. All the Slovak Lutherans in town helped with this labor of love.

The first pastor I recall was Pastor Bellan. We attended this church a few years until my father had a misunderstanding with the pastor. Because of this, he never went back to this congregation.

But Pop never lost his faith. He would faithfully read the Bible and pray out loud on Sunday mornings, his voice being heard throughout our home. He would question us when we came from church, wanting to know what the lessons were for that Sunday. Pop read the whole Bible many times and knew just where to find certain passages.

After Pop broke with the Slovak congregation, we children went to the English Lutheran Church, Holy Trinity on Main Street. I loved Sunday school there. It was a big Sunday school and had a lending library where I could borrow books to take home and read.

I got my love of reading from Pop, an avid reader himself. He would read and reread books in Slovak that he owned and would read the newspaper in English. He could understand written and spoken English and spoke broken English himself.

I was confirmed in Holy Trinity on Main Street. Mom wanted to go back to the Slovak church, and I began attending services with her. I remained a member of Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church until I was married.

When we were growing up, our social life involved the church, church choir, Luther League and church social events for young people.

It was the time of the big bands. We would travel to Allentown on Saturday nights by trolley car for 15 cents to Mealy’s, a dance hall where big bands would play.

On Sunday afternoons, the boys and girls in Northampton would stroll up and down on Main Street and stop at the drug store for a peanut sundae for 15 cents.

I met my husband, John Kress, at a young peoples’ church retreat at Camp Wilson on the Delaware in New Jersey. Young people came from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Camden areas, where we could meet others from nearby states. John and I corresponded by mail for a time. He came to Northampton on Easter to visit me and meet our whole family. He was of Czechoslovakian heritage and spoke Slovak, so my parents were very happy with him.

My first trip to New York City was by special excursion train that made day trips. One of my brothers-in-law accompanied me as he always enjoyed visiting New York City. I was very excited to see the big city and to meet John’s family. Eventually, I spent a week in New York with John’s family. We saw the great 1939 World’s Fair and Radio City Music Hall. Radio City had a stage production called “Under Water Sea-Scape.” Imagine how impressed I was, being from a small town. My only theater experience until then was at the Roxy in Northampton.

John and I married after two years of courting. The local paper announced our engagement in a headline stating “Local Girl to Marry New York Banker.”

We married in 1941 at Holy Trinity Slovak. The Rev. Albert Billy officiated. Our reception was held at home on Washington Avenue. Mom and her friends did all the cooking and baking.

We had dancing to good polka music. Pop was worried all the dancing would stress the floor boards, so he went down to the cellar and propped up the floor with posts. Pop need not have worried. The floor of this 100+-year-old house has not failed to this day.

John worked for Manufacturers Trust Company in New York City for $21 a week. I worked for $15 a week at the Kaiser Manufacturing Company making ladies’ lingerie. We rented a small apartment on 228th Street in the Marble Hill section of Manhattan. The monthly rent was $25.

When our family started growing, we moved to the Bronx. This was the post-World War II era. Housing was difficult to find with all the servicemen returning home. John had also served over three years, returning home in 1946.

John was able to continue his career in banking. It was in the Bronx we raised our family and socialized with other Slovaks in our new neighborhood.

We joined a Slovak Lutheran church in our neighborhood and had a rich spiritual and social life, where we made many lifelong friends. Throughout my life, from Northampton to New York City to my current home in Whiting, N.J., my Slovak heritage and strong Lutheran faith handed down by my parents, Andrew and Zuzanna Kovach, have been my guiding light.

Susan Hinkle: A note here: During World War II, Pastor Billy, then pastor of the Slovak Lutheran church, was called to serve in the Navy. During his absence, Vladimir Hibian was a seminarian assigned to serve the congregation. Many years later, Pastor Hibian was called to the Bronx and again became pastor to the Kresses at their Slovak Lutheran church there.

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Next time, we will have memoirs from Ethel Kovach Nemith, the youngest child of Andrew and Zuzanna Kovach.