Remembering    Buddies

As I tell people, I had four Greek buddies in Upland, CA and they have all passed on.  All of them were 6 to 10 years older;  two were born in Greece, and one was born in Constantinople.  The fourth buddy was born in Weirton, West Virginia.

Alex Prinzes (Constantinople) was an architect and a graduate of French schools.  He told me that his name was Italian and that his people had lived in Corfu under Venetian rule.  His grandfather had moved the family to Constantinople.  I considered passing the information to Georgia Keilman to check in her reference books, but Alex is dead, his wife Maria is from Crete, and they had no children.

Bill Katzelas (Weirton, WV) was a steel worker with Fontana Steel. His parents were from Foka.  His mother visited California a number of times and I spoke with his mother a couple of times.  Bill's wife Mary (nee Contos) is from Akron, OH.  Her father was from Foka, but her mother was from Chios.  Bill and Mary visited Greece a number of times because Mary and her two siblings inherited some land on the island of Chios.  On one occasion they took a boat (ferry boat, I believe) to Foca.

Maria Prinzes (nee Vlastos) is Alex's wife.  Her brother, Tony Vlastos, (electrician) was my son George's godfather.  Maria and Tony and Stella (Tony's wife) are all  from Crete, a village near Hania (which is on the  other side of the island from the Garofalos' village near Ierapetra).  The Vlastos name is not Cretan.  Tony claimed that at one time they were an important Constantinople family.

 And then there was Spyros Daoussis, an engineer originally from the  island of Cephalonia (Ionian Isles).  He was probably more interesting than all of the other guys put together.  

They were a fun-loving group,  and we had great coffee get-togethers.  Unfortunately, they are all gone.  

By
Nick Demetrion  
-
E-mail
7/21/2010

The
Archbishop visits our little church.

 That honor bestowed on the recipient permitted him to enter the altar any time in his lifetime. Back then altar boys were permitted in the altar until I believe age 25. I had forgotten that I had a certificate for that honor.  My mother had saved it and pulled it out for me to read today.