I found this in a closet at home on Ivy Oval in 2009. One Sunday afternoon, Joe interviewed Uncle Wally for hours. This is the 10th grade Western Civilization report from 1999, written by Joe Fedak about his Great Uncle, Walter Fedyk. In Joe's own words.
UNCLE WALTER FEDYK
MY GRANDFATHER'S BROTHER
Walter Fedyk lived through the Depression and fought in World War II. He is 78 years old and physically active and mentally alert. He is on the Internet.
He began school in 1925 or 1926 at Largemont Elementary School. The school had classes only through the third grade. At the time he started school, Walter and his family were living at 173rd Street, off St. Clair. He spoke English to his parents and they responded to him in Ukrainian. Today he only speaks a little Ukrainian.
Walter's father, Joe, worked on the Nickel Plate Railroad. He was a car repairman. He worked no matter what the weather. Walter remembers his father coming home from work in winter with a very red face. Joe was a very strong man. He was able to carry two railroad ties at one time, one on each shoulder. Once, a bakery truck got stuck in the mud in front of their house. Joe got behind the truck, lifted it out of the mud and pushed it to a place where it could get traction. Walter's mother, great grandmother Helen, worked as a cleaning lady in office buildings.
During the Depression, the family had hard times. His father was often laid off from the railroad. They never went on welfare. Walter remembers that they once gave a family who lived across the street some money in return for some of the food the family received from welfare. Both families benefited from welfare. During the Depression, his father took whatever work he could get, sometimes waxing floors at General Electric. Both parents often worked night jobs. This left Walter's older brother, Steve in charge. These two often fought. In one instance, Walter got the broom and threatened to poke it through Steve. This diffused the situation. Walter never remembers going hungry during the Depression. As he remembers, they had homemade healthy soup every day. His dad went to the market and came back with two baskets full of good food. One basket would be full of spinach which would be cooked into cream of chicken soup. There were times when Walter's father would come home with a whole, live chicken. Walter's mother would place the chicken between her knees while she was sitting and twist its neck off. She would then clean the feathers off and clean the insides out.
Walter and the family almost lost their home. The only thing that saved them was Homeowners Loan Corp, which was supported by Congress and lent money to people who were close to losing their homes. Walter believes that family was much more important when he was younger then now. They always had supper together. The family had the experience of having two Christmases and two Easters because of the two different calendars.
Buster, a Scottie dog who followed his mother home from work, lived to be eighteen years old. Walter's dog, Toby only lived to be about five. The dogs ate from the table. They ate leftovers with water poured over it. It is possible that Buster lived so long because he ate table scraps. Walter also had goldfish, which ate fish food. For money, Walter had a paper route. He delivered the Cleveland Press. At the time, the paper cost three cents. At eighteen cents a week, he got a nickel per customer as a commission. He had around forty customers, so he made about two dollars per week. He delivered the paper on foot for a year, then he bought a bike. The bike cost eleven dollars. When he had the bike he was able to fold the paper into a square and throw the paper on the porch. Even thought some of the customers were on the second floor, he never broke a window.
Walter graduated from high school in January of 1940. They didn't have any graduation parties then, but he did get to go to the prom twice. The twelfth grade was separated into an "A" and "B" section. One class graduated in June and the other graduated in January. After high school Walter attended Fenn College (Cleveland State) for one year. During the summer, he got a job at Murray Ohio, where they made bikes. He worked as a paint strainer. The job was very hard, dirty and smelly. Walter got a promotion when the assistant employment manager called people back who had been laid off, in a incorrect order. This cost the company thousands of dollars in back pay. Walter got this man's job when he was fired.
Walter remembers seeing homeless people. He recalls that many of these people traveled on the railroad. Sometimes they would come knocking on his door. Whenever his mother was home, she would give they anything she could. People back then were probably more generous then they are now. The church also tried to help poor people. Most of the neighbors would give what they could. Even in those hard times, no one locked their doors or complained of being robbed.
Church was very important in Walter's life. When his parents, neighbors and other relatives came over from Europe, they all joined the same church. When someone got married, everyone knew that person, so everyone went to the wedding and the reception. Church holidays were also important. Many saint days were celebrated.
Walter was drafted in October of 1942. He stayed in the military until January 7, 1946. For training, he went to the University of Wisconsin and studied Russian and German. After his training, he was sent to Melbourne, Australia via Long Beach and Saint Pedro. Walter was very disappointed with the way he was treated when he was on board ship, traveling to Melbourne. He had to wait in line for breakfast and dinner. There was no lunch. Often you would go right from the breakfast line to the dinner line. The food was awful. The enlisted men had to stand and eat. The officers sat at tables with white linen table cloth and were served three meals a day. Many times, there were general issue cans of steak and liver etc that weren't eaten but were dumped into the ocean. Many times men offered to buy that food. However, they couldn't. After Melbourne, Walter went to Bombay, India. From there he went by train to Calcutta. Then he went to the China, Burma, India border via truck. Walter then flew over "The Hump" and landed in China. The day he landed, a B-24 crash landed. The plane caught of fire. Everyone was able to get out of the flaming plane except the tail gunner. The pilot shot and killed the man to save him from having to suffer through being burned alive.
While he was stationed in China, Walter participated in Search and Rescue operations. One mission in particular, Walter remembers was when he was sent on a mission by five star General Hap Arnold. A very close friend of the general, who was colonel, was on a reconnaissance mission, trying to find a place to build a very large base. The plane disappeared. The general said that every possible lead was to be thoroughly investigated. The Chinese had found a piece of flight jacket leather with a colonel's eagle insignia on it. This material was found in Tibet, so Walter was sent to Tibet. He was the only American to go there. It took six weeks to get there. He ended up coming up with nothing.
Another time, he met Chinese general Chang Kai Chek. Walter and his friends had been walking along when they saw him. There were Chinese guards and American guards. the Chinese guards immediately recognized him and saluted, but the American guards didn't. The General took the time to get out of the car and reprimand the Americans through interpreters. Walter was very disappointed in this, because he should have been a bigger man then to be concerned with being saluted. Walter enjoyed China. The food there was very good. They ate Spam, but mostly they ate off the fat of the land. It was prohibited to fly in food from over the "Hump" because it was a difficult flight and there was some Japanese activity. The only problem with the food was that it had to be cooked, because of cholera. Even lettuce had to be cooked. In China, hardly any Chinese spoke English. This problem was solved through the use of interpreters. India was the most interesting place he saw during the war. The poverty there was incredible. However, there was no language problem because India was then a colony of Great Britain.
After the Japanese surrendered, Walter went to Shanghai to set up an airbase. When he first arrived, there were almost no army people there. He had to take a shower on a navy ship. The base grew quickly, though. Walter met many British soldiers in India. He didn't really associate much with them because he tended to stick with his own. He was discharged from the newly created Air Force on January 17, 1946. The closest Walter ever came to combat was when one lone Japanese plane dropped a dud bomb on the air base he was at. His rank was Sergeant. He thought he could have reached a higher rank but he moved around too much. His pay was $78 per month. He used the money to buy cigarettes and go to restaurants. He wrote home once a week. Walter also received much mail. He doesn't recall ever being afraid. When he returned home, he was treated very well.
Walter said that he never would have thought that technology would ever progress as far as it has. He recalled that there was a time when they didn't even have "white out." When you made a mistake on a typewriter, you had to use an eraser and rub it out. He said it's amazing how you can talk to anyone in the world through the computer. You can even see the person you are talking to through the cameras attached to the computer via the Internet. He says he loves the Internet. He says he has been to the Vatican and inside the White House. He likes to look at joke sites, information on health, etc. He also has made two family history books using the computer. He used a scanner and was able to include pictures of everyone as well as up-to-date addresses and phone numbers. He has lived a long life and has seen much. He fought in World war II and uses the Internet. Walter has a son, a daughter and two grandsons who live in Wooster, Ohio. He is retired and lives in Willowick, Ohio. He can see Lake Erie from his front picture window. He back yard looks like a well manicured park. I'm very proud of my Dad's "Uncle Wally."
