The Decades of My Life

The first decade of my life was from 1951 until 1961. Born in East Los Angeles, moved to Montebello Gardens and then at the end of this first decade we moved up to Montebello. Warning up front that these decade posts will be a photo and information overload for many of you.

Somewhere in East Los Angeles possibly on Humphreys if my memory serves me right about the street name from our Pop. My sister Vera is telling me to shush. My brother Fred is not happy about me crying.

Yikes, I’m crying again. My little babushka is standing behind my mom. My parents good friend Zena Katkov next to her and my Uncle Paul holding my cousin Valia and then my Aunt Nina with my cousin Walter beside her. The lady sitting next to mom is a friend from San Francisco (Mrs. Hamzieff) with her son. Not sure who the lady is between her and my Aunt Nina.

These next photos are from our home in Montebello Gardens/Pico Rivera, California.

My sister Vera’s birthday party with many of our cousins on our Father’s side.

Camping in Big Bear, California with our maternal cousins.

The paternal side of our family.

Our cousin Johnny’s birthday on our Pop’s side of the family.

Maternal side of the family on Easter. Our Babushka with her grandchildren.

That’s a pigeon on my head.

Paternal cousins on another Easter.

Berry picking somewhere in southern California.

Paternal grandparents.

Our brother Tim was born and he usurped me of my title of being the youngest in our family.

My seventh birthday.

Cracking up at the way I lay my hands for photos.

I’m on the rug in front of my sister Vera, sister Kathy holding our new baby brother Tim and our brother Fred with the accordion. Love my goofy expression!

Easter 1958. We always got new clothes and shoes for Easter and Christmas.

Christmas 1958

Another photo from Christmas,1958. I’m on the left at seven years old. Our little brother Tim was 11 months old. There’s a reason I’m the only one who isn’t dressed in their Christmas clothes in this photo. I had some medical problems that I can only remember as some kind of kidney infection that I was hospitalized for. I ended up having to have a teacher come to our home for a couple months in the new year, (1959). By Valentine’s Day I still wasn’t back to school because I remember that my home school teacher brought me Valentine’s Day cards from my classmates.

Easter 1959

My birthday in 1961 and our last year in Montebello Gardens. Our next little brother, Steve is on the left barely in the photo. Cousin Vera and Johnnie on my Pop’s side of the family. Our cousin Valia, Tania and Walter on our Mom’s side of the family and my two little brothers, Tim and Steve and older brother Fred who is not quite visible.

My 5th grade photo. I sent this photo to Paul Kushnerov when he was in the service. His girlfriend at the time asked me to write him while he was serving our country in the 50’s. This little act inspired me to be more of an encourager with letters and cards. It was always a joy to receive something in the mail. Paul and Vera were married and would be our youth leaders for a time at Bethany Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Paul’s son shared this photo he found in amongst his parents keepsakes after Paul passed away a few years ago.

At the end of my first decade I was still in elementary school. We were living in Montebello and we walked to school crossing busy Whittier Blvd. There were six siblings and our parents living in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom home. In my next decade our family increased.

Because I skipped a grade (2nd or 3rd). I’ve always thought it was 2nd grade that I skipped but now with a little detective work I think it was third grade since I do not have a school photo for the third grade nor do I remember a teacher from the third grade. Now I’m also wondering a lot about 3rd grade. What is 3rd grade known for? 4th grade you have multiplication. From 4th grade on I was a year younger than most of my classmates.

In this first decade of my life my parents socialized mostly with our relatives or Russians who we went to church with. Both of the churches we were a part of had services in the Russian language. Our pop made friends that were non-Russian at work but not lifetime friends. Work is where he picked up most of his English. My mom became friends with an Italian lady who lived across the street named Lucille. Lucille gave me simple jobs around her home and paid me. She made the best Italian cookies. She would let me have some out of the oven, delicious! She baked them for weddings and I remember them iced green and pink and stacked on every surface of the house! When I cleaned the detached room that 2 of her sons lived in she said if I found any money under their beds I could keep it. I did find some! Maybe that was a way of getting me to clean thoroughly. My mom learned a lot of her English from Soap Operas. As the World Turns. Lucille helped her, too.

There was another friend across the street who had an Avocado tree in her backyard. We learned to really enjoy Avocado on toast in the 50’s long before the current trend.

We had a lot of Hispanic neighbors. Rosie was my next door neighbor who’s dog bit me on the mouth. Not a fan of Boxers to this day! Her mom seemed to have a pot of beans simmering on the stove most days I visited inside the home. It was an aroma I had never experienced. Rosie and her cousin betrayed our friendship one day by jumping me and beating me up and ripping my favorite blouse when we were walking to the store. Our friendship ended. Needless to say I didn’t smell beans simmering after that day until high school days with my very good and faithful Hispanic friends!

Speaking of being beat up there was a day that I angered someone at school who let everyone know they were going to beat me up when we got off the bus after school. There was more than one school bus stop in our neighborhood of ‘The Jardines’ and at the last minute I jumped off the bus at the stop before our stop and ran home avoiding the fight.

We would watch TV as a family. Shows like Art Linkletter, Micky Mouse Club, I remember Chucko the Birthday Clown (popular in L.A.) because I went on the show for Victor Katkov’s birthday party. I would like to have footage from that show. I ended up winning a prize on the show, too. Can’t remember what it was. Other L.A. based shows like Engineer Bill were popular, too. “On the green light you go, on the red light you stop because no engineer would ever run a red light” They used that to get kids to drink a glass of milk. Sheriff John was another popular show and here’s his birthday song!

We were able to go to Disneyland shortly after it opened. We also would get in our jammies and load up in the car to go to the Drive-in to see all the latest Disney releases. Bambie was sooo sad. I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the sad parts. Falling asleep in the car on the way home was a regular occurrence. Knott’s Berry Farm was another experience we enjoyed. If my memory serves me right the first time I ever ate in a restaurant was at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Chicken Dinner restaurant.

Many families that we knew had a story about one of their kids falling out of a car from leaning on the door or from the door opening going round a corner. No seat belts and no car seats in those days.

This post is an ‘all about me’ historical post and if you made it all the way to the end congratulations. Maybe my grandkids will enjoy reading about their Baba in the future when I’m not around to answer all the questions.

Happy Birthday to me and I thank the God who loves me and called me, Jesus who saved me from my sins and the Holy Spirit who indwells me, Three in One, that I have made it to my ~~7th decade~~ 8th decade and to my 71st year. Thank you to Anneliese for noticing I’ve entered my 8th decade!!

A Fun Memory Popped Up…

This memory popped up on my Facebook page and I wanted to document it here on what could have been our parents’ 78th wedding anniversary.

In September of 2012 when talking with my parents they talked about the fact that they were married in April of 1979 just after Josh was born because they didn’t have an official wedding license from their marriage in Iran in 1943. They confused the judge but he re-married them with my Aunt Anna and Uncle Jim as witnesses and then they had to go get blood tests…LOL! I had forgotten or wasn’t aware of this or maybe because I was a very busy first time mom totally spaced it out. They celebrated 69 years of marriage in 2012! Our mom died on their 70th wedding anniversary on September 13, 2013. She was determined to make it to their 70th wedding anniversary and then peacefully entered her heavenly home. Our Pop followed her 5 years later in June of 2018.

Hope y’all have a very good week.

Knott’s Berry Farm in the 50’s.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Aunt Anna (Тетя Нура)

Our Pop’s sister Anna was called up to heaven last Wednesday May 20th at the age of 96. She was ready to go home. She was Moisi’s last surviving sibling. She outlived all her siblings and all her own children, too.

An earlier photo of Aunt Anna with her husband Pete. My Aunt Anna was always kind to me. I had my reservations even as a youngster with Uncle Pete. My reservations were substantiated through the years.

Uncle John, Aunt Anna, Our Pop, and Uncle Alex at our parents 60th wedding anniversary party.

Another photo from the 60th Anniversary party in Downey, California.

These photos aren’t in order. This Bogdanoff family photo is from the 1950’s. Aunt Anna has the white flower on her dress. I’m in the 2nd sitting row third from the right.

This is another photo from the 50’s. Aunt Anna is the right bookend of the upper row and our dear mom is the left bookend.

A great photo of Russian immigrants in the 50’s. Aunt Anna is at the top with a flower on her dress, again. She has glasses on. Our pop and mom are on the bottom row with Pop (Moisi) reclining and Nadia. I’m going to make the bold observation that Aunt Anna survived all the people in this photo.

Aunt Anna is sitting on the grass with all her brothers, sisters in law and mother in this photo. She survived all of them. I had my favorites of our Pop’s siblings. Aunt Anna and Uncle Alex earned my favor because of my experiences with them growing up.

Aunt Anna with her brothers.

Since today May 25th would have been our Pop’s 98th birthday I’m including this photo of him hitting the pinata at his great granddaughter’s birthday party a few years back.

Sister and brother. They were close friends.

Aunt Anna at Pop’s funeral.

She managed walking up the hill to sit for the graveside service. Her granddaughter and grandson in law cared for her in their home for several years before she died.

The last time I saw our Aunt Anna in person.

This will be the cemetery where she will be buried.

This is the plot where she should be buried. Her husbands information is on the headstone. He died February 2nd, 1978.

Looking forward to seeing you again in heaven.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Fedot

This bit of family history was shared by our brother Steve when he visited our Pop (Moisi) in 2014, February 28th.

“Spent some time with my Dad today (while my house was being inundated by a mudslide), and we talked about his oldest brother Fedot who died in WW2 after stepping on a land mine. He is buried in this mass grave in Rostov. Another one of his brothers (Mike) was in Siberia mining coal during WW2. This brother was in Siberia for 18 years (the joke being he had a two year sentence but it took 16 years for the paperwork for his release to go through). This brother, Mikhail, forever held a grudge against Americans whom he claimed stole Russia’s gold. He witnessed them loading it onto ships.”

Putting together the bits and pieces of history we’ve learned here and there.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Holy Moses!

The Timofey and Martha Bogdanov family (Our paternal grandparents). From top to bottom left to right…Ivan Voloshin, Oxahnya (Agnes Bogdanov) Voloshin, Uncle Mike, Aunt Anna (Nura), Timofey (our Dzedushka), Martha (our Babushka), Our Pop (Moisi), Uncle Tim better known as Jim, Uncle Bill, Alex Bogdanoff (our cousin). I do not know why Uncle Alex is not in this photo.

Our Aunt Oxahnya’s (Agnes) first husband did not come to Iran with her so she ended up marrying Ivan Voloshin. Our cousin Alex was her child from her first husband who my grandparents ended up raising after Agnes died. Agnes died after giving birth to her third child in Persia. The child also died.

This was taken in the first city in Persia where Pop’s family settled in for about 3 years. Mahshett (Holy Town). Pop said that people who lived here were called Mashti as a preface to their name. Our pop was called Mashti Moosah for quite a while (Holy Moses!) This would be in the mid 1930’s.

I’m posting this for the benefit of our kids and family history. It’s a small world as we found out after moving to Colville that one of Oxahnya’s grandchildren, our cousin lives just a few miles from us. She was named after Oxahnya. Her American name is Cindy. It has been fun to get together and connect some of the family history dots! We all grew up in Southern California and now both she and I have settled in Colville. It was Providence that we were able to connect.

Apple Pirog

In the Russian community I grew up in we called our sweet and savory sheets of yeast dough baked and filled with fruit or cabbage or meat, Pirog пиро́г (make sure to roll the r when you pronounce it).

This recipe will make enough dough for 2 small cookie sheet sized pastries. You can cut the recipe in half if you aren’t feeding a crowd or giving some away.

Dough Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
2 packages yeast (each packet is approx. 2-1/4 teaspoons yeast)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
Approx. 6 cups flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Dissolve yeast in warm water with the 1 tablespoon sugar.
Warm the sour cream carefully to lukewarm.
Mix the sour cream, butter, sugar, eggs, salt, and yeast mixture.
Start adding the flour 1 cup at a time till all mixed in and your dough comes away from the bowl and starts to form a ball. You might need a little more than 6 cups of flour.
Knead the dough on a floured surface.
Place the dough in a bowl in a warm place away from draft and let it rise twice punching in between rises, this could take up to 2 hours.
Divide the dough in half. Work with one half at a time if you are filling 2 small cookie sheets.
On a floured board or surface roll the dough out to the size of your small cookie sheet (approx. 15-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1) The dough should be 1/4-1/2 inch thickness.
Carefully transfer the dough to the prepared cookie sheet (greased) and pat the dough down to fit to the edges and up the edges.
Fill the prepared dough with your choice of filling.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until dough is a golden brown.
Cool before cutting in small portions and serving.

Filling:
4 cups fruit – fresh, previously frozen, or canned
1 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons corn starch

Bring all the ingredients to a boil and then let cool before spreading evenly over the dough.
I added nuts on top of the filling but that is optional.
I used apple slices that I chopped into bite sized pieces.
*This filling recipe was enough for one cookie sheet of the dough. Double it if making 2 cookie sheets.

*If your canned fruit has sugar added you could omit the 1 cup of sugar and just add the corn starch.

I had some roasted pecans and decided to sprinkle them on top before baking the Pirog пиро́г.

The finished product. I’m a novice at baking with yeast doughs and kneading dough but slowly but surely I’m practicing my way into a comfort zone to try these recipes my mom made for larger gatherings. I’ll share some of her savory Pirog recipes in the future using a slightly different dough recipe. My mom’s Pirog usually had another layer of dough on top of the filling that was pinched to the bottom layer of dough. Then you would cut decorative slits on the upper dough before baking. She also made more decorative tops like you would on a pie with zig zag designs.

I’m sorry that I never took photos of our mom’s creations.

My sister Vera sent me this photo of her pirog that she added the top to. Thank you Vera! This sheet pie/pirog was made with Apricot filling. Vera also made the apricot filling.

Our Mom’s Roolyet (Russian Nut Roll)

Roll the “R” when you try to pronounce the name of this nut roll that is a family favorite from my childhood and adult life, too. Our mom’s Roolyet was the best. We’ve just managed to perfect a recipe that brings back the memory of our mom’s roll. I think she would give us at least an A maybe not an A+ yet. Our pop got teary eyed when he bit into his piece because it reminded him of his beloved bride who died four years ago. (Since I published this post back in 2017 our dear Pop was called up to heaven in June of 2018.)

My sister Vera and I perfected this in 2017 while I was visiting in Southern California. I posted this recipe on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog but decided now to add it here for my own easy access.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:

2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 cup milk, scalded
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/2 cup milk
2 egg yolks (set aside egg whites)
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly, reserve 1 tablespoon
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup flour

For Rolling Surface:

1/4 cup powdered/icing sugar

For Filling:

2 1/2 cups ground walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites

Method:

In a small bowl dissolve the 2 teaspoons sugar with the scalded milk, add the yeast and mix well.
In medium bowl mix the 1/2 cup milk, egg yolks, melted butter minus the tablespoon you set aside, and vanilla then add in the yeast mixture and mix well.
Sift the 1 3/4 cup flour, salt, and 3 tablespoons sugar together.
Add sifted ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly while mixing, the dough will be sticky.
Prepare kneading surface with a light dusting of flour.
Knead the dough adding as much of the 1/4 cup of flour needed during this process to make the dough less sticky, knead the dough for 10 minutes then form into a ball.
Place the dough into a lightly greased stainless bowl that is 3 times the size of the dough and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot without drafts.
Leave the dough to rise to double its size, 1-2 hours.
While dough is rising prepare the filling by mixing the 2 1/2 cups ground walnuts, egg whites, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, mixing well.
Divide the filling into two equal portions.
Once the dough is doubled in size prepare the work surface where you will be rolling out the dough, dusting it with the powdered/icing sugar.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Punch down the dough and divide it into 2 equal portions.
Roll each portion of the dough separately into a rectangle approximately 1/4 inch thick.
Spread the filling evenly over the rectangle of dough leaving 1/2 inch free of filling along the edges.
Starting at the long edge fold over the dough carefully and keep rolling into a tight roll.
Pinch the seam well and pinch the ends to prevent the filling from leaking.
Place the roll seam-side down on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper.
Repeat the process for the second roll and add it to the baking sheet keeping the rolls at least 3 inches apart.
Use the reserved tablespoon of melted butter to brush the tops and sides of the rolls evenly.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool and cut into slices to enjoy.

Yield: 2 twelve inch long rolls

Notes: We found that 3 cups of whole walnuts make 2-1/2 cups of ground walnuts.
We used a slightly warm oven to let the dough rise in.
Use a serrated/bread knife to cut the roll.

Family Photo Shoot

We were gifted a professional photo shoot of our family from our kids Christmas of 2019. We were going to try to schedule the shoot in the Spring but then COVID19 struck and it didn’t work. We finally got a date on the books during our annual Family Hunting Weekend in October. What we didn’t count on was snow on that weekend and temperatures in the 20’s!

I think we did a great job at not looking like we were freezing! This was the photo we sent with our Christmas card and letter this year.

Gramps, Addyson, Baba, and Jaymison.

Oh how we love these two little grands!

Our firstborn son and his love.

Our second born son and his love.

Their beloved family.

Our youngest and our only daughter and her love.

The original three who married three exceptional human beings that we love dearly.

God has been good to us despite ourselves! We are grateful and thankful to Him.

My Little Babushka

I received a couple old photos new to me of our little Babushka Vera and I wanted to put all the photos I have of her in the archives of this computer together in one post. She’s sitting on the bottom row of this photo taken in Iran in the late forties. My grandfather that I never met and who was killed in Iran shortly after this photo was taken is on the right. The gal above my grandfather is our aunt Nina. She was married to our uncle Paul, our mom’s only brother. He’s next to Aunt Nina on the end of the top row. The rest of the people in this photo are Aunt Nina’s people and her mother and father are sitting next to our maternal grandparents. The little girls in this photo are the only ones still alive. They all live in Southern California. The two girls flanking the bottom row are both suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The little girl in her mother’s arms is alive and well in Southern California. My cousin Alex who is standing next to our Babushka died in an automobile accident in Wheaton, Illinois in 1979. The two grandmothers sitting next to each other, Manya and Vera were close friends and at the end of their lives they lived next door to each other in an apartment building a couple doors down from our Russian Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Several of our Russian widows lived in that apartment building. Our mom and pop had already immigrated to the USA when this photo was taken.

These are our little babushka’s three children. Our mom, her sister who died and her brother Paul.

This photo is from 1951 with friends and family after they all immigrated to the USA. Our little babushka is above our mom who is holding me. Our Pop next to our mom. Uncle Paul is holding our cousin Valia and next to him our aunt Nina is holding our cousin Walter. Next to our little babushka is our Aunt Nina’s sister in law Zena. Next to our mom is Mrs. Hamzieff from San Francisco and I’m not sure who the lady next to her is. The little boy, I believe belongs to Mrs. Hamzieff. Babushka immigrated from Iran as a widow to the USA with our Uncle Paul’s family.

These are our Babushka Vera’s 7 grandchildren as of 1956 ish. Cousin Alex, Babushka, sister Kathy, brother Fred, cousin Valia, Me, cousin Walter and my sister Vera. One more cousin and four more siblings were added to these two families. We had a sister that died in Iran so Babushka had 13 grandchildren in total.

This is a new to me photo of our babushka at a beach in California.

This is Babushka Vera and Babushka Manya in Arrowhead in California.

The two of them again in this photo. Our little Babushka lost her left hand and arm up to her elbow when she was young. Her arm was injured and got infected and had to be cut off at the elbow to save the rest of her arm and her life. She always positioned herself so that her missing hand was not in view in a photo.

Not a well preserved photo but this was our growing family with our Babushka at our Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina’s home in Huntington Park in California.

Me and Babushka at my 9th grade graduation and my high school graduation. I remember shopping with her for a dress at Sear’s once and she wore a size 16-1/2. She always searched for a dress with 3/4 length sleeves.

Our parents and Babushka at our home in La Mirada in the 70’s.

Cousin Walter, cousin Tanya, Babushka, our Pop and Uncle Paul.

Babushka, mom and me at Laguna Beach in California.

Kathy, Babushka and our mom.

Christmas at Babushka’s with our sister Lana in the late 60’s.

Our Babushka at Nick and Vera’s wedding in 1969.

Our little Babushka enjoyed embroidery and made a special gift for each of her grandchildren for their weddings. The tablecloth above was given to our sister Vera for her marriage to Nick.

Babushka at our sister Kathy’s wedding with our sister Vera in August of 1974.

Babushka, me and our mom at Dear and my wedding in December of 1974.

The center front row with our pop, mom, Babushka Vera, Babushka Martha and Dzeduska Timofei.

Dear’s family and my family at our wedding.

For our wedding Babushka Vera embroidered this tablecloth along with 8 napkins. A treasured gift. It’s amazing to us that her embroidery was so beautiful even with the handicap of having only one hand.

Christmas morning at Babushka Vera’s. See all those baked goodies that our Babushka baked with one hand! Grandkids with their spouses and our cousin Alex’s in laws. This was mid-1970’s.

Babushka would tell us to not stay out after dark. She said nothing good happens in the dark!

I think Debbee was Babushka’s first great grandchild. This was in 1976.

This last one is at our second home in Huntington Beach in early 1977.

I hope to add more photos to this post as I find them.

Our Babushka Vera died in March of 1980. She was a Godly woman who prayed for all her grandchildren and for all her grandchildren’s future spouses. She prayed for our Pop’s salvation and for the salvation of her own husband. Our Dzedushka Fedot became a Baptist Minister before he was killed in Iran. I am so looking forward to seeing Babushka in heaven and seeing Dzedushka for the first time in heaven.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Melissa’s Tribute

This is a photo and tribute our niece Melissa wrote about her Dzeda, our Pop, Moisi, on May 7, 2014.

“My Deda….he loves his Bible. Tonight he told me that he doesn’t rush when he reads. ‘I meditate on it,’ he says. His goal from now on is to start memorizing more of it. He’ll be 91 at the end of the month and questioning his purpose on this earth without Baba is a daily struggle. Yet despite his broken heart, he has never lost sight of what is truly important. He presses on, striving to live for Christ every single day. The man never ceases to amaze me. He is a true inspiration.”

This photo was taken of our Pop in his bedroom when he was still living in the senior apartment in Brea, California. He would soon move in with our oldest sister and her family, Melissa’s mom.

My prayer for you is that if you are meditating that you would only meditate on the Word of God, something from the Bible.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

“For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” Psalm 18:28

“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:20-23

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me -practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4: 8-9

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Heritage