Christmas Night Into Dream

Celebration fetes ethnic pride

Carol Cuda remembers Christmas Eve when she was young, growing up in the Polish Village north of downtown Toledo.

All her aunts, uncles, cousins and close relatives packed into her grandmother's house to enjoy seven courses of Polish food and good company. Everyone was excited to see each other, smiling and telling stories.

The event served as a reunion of sorts even though the majority of this family had likely just seen each other a few days earlier. In fact, everyone in her family lived within a few blocks of Mrs. Cuda's grandmother's house. They all probably walked there for dinner.

What Mrs. Cuda remembers most about the Polish Village was the importance of family and how everyone she needed lived just a few houses away.

"All the holidays were spent at [Grandma's] house -- Mother's Day, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving," she said. "Families were closer then. You didn't go out or to the movies so much, it was more about being with family."

As the 28th Lagrange Street Polish Festival prepares to kick off Friday for the weekend, Toledo Poles look back at the mark they made on the old north side. Thousands of Polish immigrants and their descendants occupied the Polish Village for more than a century, shaping Toledo's development.

That community no longer exists today -- most have dispersed to other parts of Toledo, or even back to the homeland, and the neighborhoods have changed dramatically -- but the history and rich heritage behind the people who lived there remains.

Strong ties

In the 1800s, Polish citizens looking for a better life ventured to a new country and cities that reminded them of home.

The Polish in Toledo, a documentary broadcast on WGTE-TV, says more than 1 million Poles immigrated to Toledo between 1870 and 1937. They created the eighth largest Polish community in the United States and played an active role in Toledo's development and industrialization.

"Toledo at the end of the 19th century was developing ports and railway lines. It was a satellite of Detroit and the auto industry and had Jeep," said the Rev. Richard Philiposki, a former pastor at St. Adalbert and St. Hedwig Catholic parishes and co-author of Toledo's Polonia, a book on the history of Toledo's Poles. "It made jobs plentiful at the time. Whole villages came over [to Toledo]."

They settled in and transformed the north side from separate blocks and streets into a tight-knit home. Every block had its own drug or grocery store, each family had a butcher serving up the "best Polish meats in town," and women swept the gutters in front of their houses to maintain classy upkeep.

Sega Memories: NiGHTS into Dreams is 15 Years old today.

Funny how NiGHTS anniversary is so close to Sonic's really: only 5 years and 11 days between them. Both were the defining games for their respective Sega consoles though while one went on to become one of the biggest franchises in the industry the other has barely been seen of in it's entire existence with only two games (and Christmas NiGHTS which was sort of an expansion to the original) under it's belt, yet NiGHTS continues to have a large passionate fan base.NiGHTS had quite a big presence at Summer of Sonic which I would like to think pleased Yuji Naka and co greatly.

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