Making connections with the Kowalczyks through the years; snow fall this year; and a giver or receiver?

Posted By: Staff January 13, 2024

By Bob Montgomery

This week’s column will begin with the contacts I’ve had regarding the Kowalczyk Family here. It started out with Maryann (Euley) Kowalczyk who asked my friend Don Provost on Facebook if he knew how I was doing. The three of us go back to our younger days and the segments this week will be connected to that last name.

Paul Kowalczyk

Paul Kowalczyk is retired from the City of Bristol. He visited me a little over a month ago when he came up here from Florida. He hadn’t traveled north in a couple of years and looked great. Paul went to school at Bristol Eastern in the same class as my ex, Dale Giramondi, and Maryann.

Mary Jane (Kowalczyk) Ouellette

Paul’s older sister, Mary Jane, is married to Reynald Quellette, and Rey did a thoughtful deed for me which also involved Mary Jane’s interest. So, that’s three Kowalczyk people. (Note: As treasurer of the Forestville Village Association, Mary Jane was about to send me my annual dues form for $20 and Rey paid it before she put it in the mail.) 

The fourth — Losacano Family

Dawn Losacano is a Kowalczyk. Paul and Mary Jane are her uncle and aunt, respectively. They live just around the corner from where I reside, and Dawn’s husband, Tyrone, and two college sons, Adam and Luke, showed up at the house with a snowblower and shovels to do our driveway. (Our driveway, meaning the one where I reside in Forestville with Lorette Caouette.)

Lorette’s sister, Mrs. Marilyn Egan, babysat for the boys when they were younger, and they have been doing her snow removal, too. Marilyn and her husband, Frank, live up the street from us about five houses or so. 

(Note: This street we live on, Cronin in Forestville, has a number of homeowners in the area that are related. I find that quite interesting. My daughter, Jessica and her husband, Paul, also live close by and that’s around the corner and two houses up from the Egans.)

Bits

Bristol averages almost three feet of snow per year. So far we’ve had eight. The highest peak in Bristol is just over 300 feet above sea level, and that’s on Willis Street before the Bristol Fish and Game Club as you drive up from South Street. The lowest point is East Main Street in Forestville just before the Plainville line. Hank Lodge of the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame was team captain of the Hartford High freshmen basketball team. He didn’t play varsity as a sophomore, junior or senior, because he had to work. The team his senior year won a state championship:

Bits and pieces

Bristol Central coach/teacher Kevin Kalat is one of the finest individuals we have in the Bristol school system; with Donovan Clingan likely to play in the NBA one day, the only other athlete from here to play in that league was another Bristol Central/UConn basketball captain Bruce Kuczenski.

Ask yourself…

Am I a giver or taker? It is better to give than receive.

Contact Bob Montgomery at BobMontgomeryNews@BristolEdition.org or call 860-583- 5132.

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