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05/19/2021 08:30 AMSophie Giza cautioned a birthday well wisher not to get too excited, even though it was less than a week before her 100th birthday.
“I haven’t made it yet,” she cautioned. “You never know.”
Now you know. Sophie made it.
There was a party, outside to comply with COVID-19 regulations, at Aaron Manor in Chester where Sophie lives now. Masked, and wearing turquoise sneakers and socks and pink pants and a warm jacket she sat in her wheelchair as friends, many from Deep River’s 60 Club, saluted her by waving streamers and in a tribute to her Polish heritage, banged tambourines as a recording of the classic polka “Roll Out the Barrel” played.
There was no birthday cake; Sophie wanted sugar cookies. All the guests got one, individually packaged with “Sophie 100” written on them.
Except for a short period as a young woman when she went to Hartford looking for a job, Sophie lived in Deep River. More than that, Sophie lived in the same house in Deep River, the house her parents also lived in on the corner of Warsaw Street and Woodland Road. As the name Warsaw Street suggests, the area had many Polish residents.
She remembers what the neighborhood was like growing up. The roads in her were unpaved.
“Sandy in summer, muddy in winter. Macadam didn’t come for a while,” she says.
Sophie’s parents were born in Poland but, with historical accuracy, she pointed out it was not a country at that time. For more than 100 years from the end of the 18th century to the end of World War I, Poland had been partitioned in various configurations between its powerful neighbors Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Her parents, she recalls, came from the Austrian part.
“But the people spoke Polish,” she adds.
And in this country, Sophie’s parents continued to speak Polish as did Sophie and her two sisters at home.
“My folks didn’t speak English. They had nobody to educate them,” she says.
Sophie remembers Deep River life before the town had electricity. Getting water meant going to the well. For doing laundry, her mother filled three large tubs, one for washing and scrubbing, the next for rinsing, and the last for bluing, a process that helps preserve the color white.
“That made the clothes nicer,” she says.
The family cooked and baked on a wood stove. Sophie still remembers the baked apples her mother made as snacks when she got home from school.
Kerosene lamps provided illumination. According to Sophie, some people kept a canary in the house to warn about the buildup of kerosene fumes. If the canary “went peep peep,” there was no danger from kerosene fumes; “If there was no peep, peep…” Sophie voice trails off as she contemplates the consequences.
All that changed in 1927, when electricity came to much of Deep River.
“The light was great, and no more canary,” Sophie remembers.
She also recalls after electricity there were some street lights, but not in one end of town.
“It was farmland; I guess they thought farmers didn’t need lights,” she says.
Around 1930, telephones came to Deep River. A party line coast $3 a month; a private line $5.
Sophie was the youngest child and one of her older sisters liked to play teacher so Sophie was ready for 1st grade.
“I was not too dumb,” she says.
Sophie herself graduated from Deep River High School in 1939, before Essex, Chester, and Deep River constructed Valley Regional High School, but the sister who loved to play teacher had to drop out of school.
“People needed money in those days,” Sophie says.
After high school, Sophie too went to work.
“It was hard to find jobs, hard to find good jobs for young girls,” she says.
One of her problems was getting to work.
“Not many people had cars,” she says. “You had to find a ride to work or you couldn’t work there.”
In addition to child care and a stint as a waitress at a local restaurant, Sophie worked at L.C. Doane, Monsanto, and Pratt Read companies.
She is eager to point out that in World War II, gliders used on D-Day were made in the Pratt Read Factory, converted for the purpose.
“Deep River played its part,” she says.
Sophie, too, has played her part. She was a volunteer for Meals on Wheels in Old Saybrook, and president of the Deep River 60 Club. She is also lifelong communicant at St. Joseph’s Church in Chester.
Sally Carlson-Crowell, who used to organize line-dancing for seniors in Deep River, recalls Sophie was an enthusiastic participant. She was in her 70s at the time.
“She liked all kinds of dancing,” says Carlson-Crowell, who put together Sophie’s birthday celebration.
The festivities including reading of a proclamation from First Selectman Angus McDonald, Jr., that named May 11 Sophie Giza Day in Deep River. U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney sent a congratulatory letter.
As the birthday party ended, Rich Nagot, wearing a red sweat shirt with Polska written on the front, sang a traditional Polish birthday song, “Sto Lat.”
“It’s a famous song, very famous. People always sang it,” Sophie says.
It translates as “May You Live 100 Years.” And the best part is Sophie already has.