One night after supper, grandpa and I went outside to get a little fresh air before nightfall and our retreat back to the house for cookies, milk and bed (for me anyway). We stood in the middle of the yard with the house to our backs (east), and a barn with a hay loft and attached slant-roof garage straight ahead (west), a utility shed with a metal roof to our left (south), and to our right was a pig pen, grain shed, chicken coop and dog kennel (north).
This Photo by Dave Kozlowski at http://dallasphotoworks.com/ is used with permission
As Grandpa lit a cigar, a swarming/migrating flock of grackles passed overhead. They were flying high. [Similar to the photo above by Dave Kozlowski taken in Fort Worth, TX January 22, 2010] Grandpa Andrew quickly got out his bolt action .22 rifle and loaded it with a 22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge. He aimed the gun upward for 20 seconds or so leading the movement of the birds with the gun's barrel. He shot only once and about 30 seconds later, a grackle came fluttering to the ground several feet away from us! The bullet had hit its wing. He dispatched it quickly by breaking its neck. I stood there in disbelief but also with great admiration for my grandpa's shooting skills!
Grandpa Andrew Kubiatowicz
Andrew spent his entire life in the nursery business, with the Mitchell Nursery Company, Owatonna Nursery Company, and the longest time with Cashman Nurseries Inc. He was an expert at grafting and one particular tree by the house contained 3 different varieties of apples! He and his brothers were avid hunters and fishermen.
Andrew and his wife Margaret (Learch) Kubiatowicz, daughter (also named Margaret) and son Eugene (my father) , moved to the farm in 1939 to take care of Margaret's ailing father Charles Learch, who owned the farm. Everyone except Eugene would stay at the farm which Andrew regarded as a "Hobby" farm. He kept a few cows (for milk), steers (for meat), hogs (for meat), and chickens (for eggs and meat) and butchered them at appropriate times.
My father Eugene left the farm after he married my mother Mary Bauman in May 29, 1939 and the two of them rented and lived in Andrew's home on South Street in Owatonna.
Andrew's house was between brother Steve and brother Martin's house on South Street. This was because years after immigrating from Poland in 1886 with their parents (Joseph Kubiatowicz And Josephine Larokowski), the three brothers Steve, Andrew and Martin built their homes in a row on South Street. There was a fourth home built for brother Joseph, but that one was sold and Joseph lived on the other side of town. I and my two brothers were born in a hospital that was just down the street from our (Andrew's) house.
The photo below shows Andrew Kubiatowicz's home under construction on South Street circa 1911.
The 1945 garden photo below (the house is to the left) shows Eugene (my dad), Andrew holding James(my younger brother), Margaret (Andrews wife) and Margaret (Andrew's daughter). In the Front is my older brother Michael (now deceased) and behind him David (your humble blogger). Shown behind the group is St. Paul Road (gravel at that time) it runs north and south. If a car drove on the road from the left to the right of the photo, it would be heading south.
