The Family Treebark

According to family history, the Tryba family originated from southern Poland. Josef Tryba arrived here in the New World somewhere around the tail end of the 1800’s and the beginning of the 1900’s. Various facts have trickled in: Josef came with his wife (name?) and their children were born here in the U.S. I believe Josef may have been a stonemason. And another story told me indicated that the Tryba family may have originated from bandits who resided in the foothills of the mountains in southern Poland. Can anyone provide additional info?

And there are other stories besides those about Gigi… In fact, “the boys” have several to tell:  like how Jeff and Freddie Martin were in the attic of Freddie Martin’s house (or maybe over the garage?) with their bb guns and were shooting out the windows on the Yankee Workshop.  And when the owner came over with the cops to complain, Gigi insisted that “it can’t be my boy – he would NEVER do that!” It was much later that my Dad actually fessed up…

And then there’s the other story about the round house that used be up the street from the house – my Dad and others (I don’t remember who… anyone?) would take cats up to the top story and then drop them from the four story height to listen to them yowl all the way down… my Dad even has a photo of the round house at the house!

Did you ever hear the story about how Gigi lost his shoes one winter?  You may have heard that the family all lived around Webster Lake and they would cut across it once it froze over.  But apparently, he took a little more liberties as far as deciding when the ice was safe or not.  From what I remember being told, one time he came down to the lake and saw that there was water on top of the ice, and the edge had actually pulled away from the shore.  So he took his shoes off and left them on the shoreline and walked briskly across.  The ice was very thin and it was like walking on a waterbed!  But he made it safely to the other side without falling in at all… the problem was that, by the time he needed to come back, the ice had melted quite a bit more and he couldn’t get back on to the ice… and when he walked around the entire shoreline to where he originally started, his shoes were gone.  I don’t remember who told me that (maybe Uncle Ron?) but I thought it was hysterical.  What a crazy man!

I guess the 1950’s were a crazy time… and a perfect time for a scrappy guy named “Bud”… I heard this week from Lynn that Gigi (Joseph) bought his first and only new car with his winnings from the lottery… which, btw, was run by the Italian mafia.  They paid him $1,500 in cash!

Can anyone shed additional light on this story?