Walter Kostanski, (1923-2015) of Turners Falls, MA
interview by Henry Hmieleski 6-21-1994;
Edited by Pam Hodgkins & Jeanne Sojka 08/13/2025
HH: June 21st, 1994. And we’re going to be conducting an interview with Walter Kostanski. This is one of a series of interviews being conducted by volunteers for the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, which is attempting to establish an oral history of Eastern European immigrants, and in most cases, as we have described, descendants of Eastern European immigrants.
Walter, you’re actually Walter Kostanski, Jr., I believe.
WK: That’s correct. Yeah, my dad’s name was Walter Kostanski, Sr.
HH: Did you know the locality of the ancestors’ villages?
WK: No, I didn’t.
I never got into the area. Well, more so that on my dad’s side, the family was on a German-Polish borderline. And as far as my grandparents are concerned, on both sides of the family, I don’t really know where they came from.
HH: Do you know what year he came here, Walter?
WK: Well, it isn’t the year. From what I understand, he came over here when he was 15 years old.
HH: That would be 1910, 15?
WK: Somewhere within that area, yeah.
Well, before then, because he went to the service, he volunteered for the Polish Army in the year of 1917, I believe. And of course, that was World War I.
HH: Was that Haller’s Army?
WK: That was General Haller’s Army, yes. As a matter of fact, many of the Polish people that came over here, the males, of course, many of them were looking for their citizenship when they did come over, and of course, there’s a waiting period of about five years to get the citizenship or naturalization papers, whatever you want to say.
So in the meantime, the World War I came about, and my dad, at 17, enlisted in the French Army, which had established a group of Polish people in Canada. And from Canada, of course, they trained there, and then they went over to France and fought in France, and also they ended up the war fighting in Poland, too.
HH: When he came to the United States, did he come to join some people that he knew were already here, relatives?
WK: Yes, my understanding, my dad, his parents came over first. Well, my grandfather, Kostanski, came over first. Then he sent for the rest of the family to get them over here. So he’s the one that established it here, and the same goes with my, in regards to my grandfather, Samorajski.
His wife, Josephine, came after he first came over. So what happens, one came over, then accumulates some finances and tried to bring the rest of the family over.
HH: Where did your father settle?
WK: My father settled in Millers Falls when he came from Poland. And my grandparents, Samorajskis, settled in Millers Falls, and my Kostanski family came right into Greenfield.
HH: My guess is that your dad was a shop worker.
WK: Yes, Dad was a shop worker, and also he worked the mines for a while.
Of course, I’m going back now, and I think this should be brought up, is this was during the Depression time, which was in the early 30s. And, of course, times were even rough at that time, more so for Polish immigrants who were still trying to learn the language, plus trying to find work. And it was a very hard life to really get established during that period of time with them just coming over from Poland in the 1900s, and then, say, 1907 or 1908, and then, of course, going into the 30s and Depression.
So they were hit twice, in other words, during this period of time.
HH: Your mother, my aunt, used English as a primary language in the household?
WK: No, as a matter of fact, it was, my mother spoke very good English because she was born on this side here in the United States. But my dad spoke a lot of Polish, and, of course, my mother did speak a lot of Polish, so there was quite a bit of the Polish language within the household.
And yet, they both did speak English, and more so my mother. She went to school in seventh grade here.
HH: Did you speak Polish?
WK: Is that on?
HH: Yes.
WK: I did speak Polish. Matter of fact, I went one or two years to summer school. We had a Polish school established in our public school in Millers Falls, and I did pick up some of the language, and I could understand it, and I still can.
And I can get away with trying to speak it, so I can project it to some Polish-speaking people if I have to.
HH: You can pick up the gist of what they’re saying?
WK: No doubt about it, yeah. Of course, my grandparents on both sides, every time I met with them, of course, it was also in the Polish language, so I got it from my grandparents, plus my own parents, as far as the language is concerned.
HH: When… All the time I’ve ever known you, you’ve lived in… My memory of your early life goes back to the monarchy side of Millers Falls. When did your father come there? Did you live on the Polish side of Millers Falls?
WK: I did, but I first moved, and I was born on the Erving side on the other side of the Millers Falls River, they called it. But it was the Erving side, down where the Millers Falls Tool Company was.
And then I lived there for a while, but then we moved into the Town of Montague and lived there for many years. Matter of fact, up until I lived there, until 1947 when I got married, and then I moved to Turners Falls and I’ve lived there ever since.
HH: Did your father work in the tool mill?
WK: No, my dad worked in the paper mill, and my mother, she worked in the Millers Falls Tool Company.
But previous to that, my mom did work in the old cutlery in Turners Falls, which manufactured at that time, where they specialized in knives.
HH: For a place?
WK: That’s correct.
HH: Just the two of you, your mom and your dad?
WK: Yes, just the two of us in the family.
HH: Did you observe holidays with any Polish customs?
WK: Oh, there’s no doubt about it. We still do have a lot of the old traditions, more so at Christmas time and Easter time. And this was our big, I think our big holidays, Christmas and Easter.
And I think I should mention at this time too, Henry, that the Polish people were very religious people, and I think they brought that over from the old country over to this country, and I think there’s no doubt about it that they instilled it in myself, coming from my grandparents and my parents, that religion was a big factor in our lives.
HH: Did you go to St. John’s Catholic Church?
WK: In Millers Falls, St. John’s, until I got married, and I got married at St. Mary’s Church in Turners Falls. My wife, her maiden name was Virginia Geraghty, and we’ve been married for 48 years.
HH: When did you first enter the Board of Governors?
WK: Well, I first started locally when I ran for the Montague Welfare Department. Well, I’ll take that back. I first started with the Playground Commission for the Town of Montague.
And then from there, I ran for the Board of Health. At that time, your Board of Health came under the local people. You were elected by the people.
Today, that’s abolished. All your welfare programs are under the state and the federal governments. And then, in the meantime, I’m going to cut it.
I had a thought and I lost it. So after I ran for office for the Welfare Board then, I was approached by the then Olaf Hoff, who was the representative, state representative, from the 3rd Franklin District in Franklin County, and he approached me to run for state office. And at that time, I didn’t feel as though that I wanted to, but he was very convincing.
So I ran for state representative in 1956, and I started the session in 1957 up until 1970, where then I ran for the Franklin County Registry of Deeds, and I’ve been with the Registry of Deeds from 1970 until the present time; which, it was 14 years in the legislature, 24 years here as a Register of Deeds for Franklin County. The Register of Deeds, you run every, once every six years for the positions. So this is my, I’m completing my last term, and I’ll be retiring here January the 4th, 1995.
HH: Was Olaf Hoff leaving his position?
WK: That’s correct, yeah. He was retiring from it, and he felt as though that he’d like to have it replaced by another. Of course, my affiliation is Republican, and I have been for all my life, and I ran in a Republican primary, and I won that, and then I had a run in November against a Democrat, and I won that, which I, it was a great, a lot of help for me from Olaf Hoff to get me into office.
As a matter of fact, Olaf Hoff’s son, who’s from Turners Falls, is an ex-governor of Vermont. He ran three times, he won three times there, and his name was Philip, and as a matter of fact, I had the privilege of playing football with Philip Hoff on the Turners Falls High School team in 1940 and 41.
HH: You’re mentioning assistance or welfare brings me back to an earlier question that I captured, brought back earlier.
That is, what your memories of the tough days were, that is, the Depression years in the early 30s. Did your family get some kind of assistance over in Turners Falls? I mean, did they have some kind of counseling there?
WK: Let me say this, that the Polish people were very proud people. You did have a welfare board, but in the meantime, the Polish people were so proud, such as my dad, my mom.
My dad was working one day a week in the Millers Falls Paper Company, and the other days he would work out on the farm and bring food home at that time so we’d have something on the table. Of course, he was a great fisherman and a hunter, and he brought a lot of game home, so we survived that Depression. I should mention, too, that that Depression, there was no unemployment compensation at that time, such as you have today.
At least when you’re out of work, you’re compensated and try to keep yourself alive until you can find a job. But at that time, there was no monetary monies at all. There was no monies at all, and it was a situation where it was tough sledding, and more so for the immigrants that came from Poland that are still trying to make their way into society.
HH: Do you think that that kind of mass herd experience, do you think that brought people closer together?
WK: Oh, I think so, and I think what it also left with us was that there was always that poverty that was involved. You were poor people. You worked hard.
You tried to save, and I think a lot of these values have been brought forward to me through what took place back at that, those days in the 30s, and it was a matter of, I think, also instilled in myself even today, I think, is that work ethic where you don’t have it in certain areas in the United States now, and also as far as religion was concerned, morals were concerned, I think this was a great thing that was certainly passed off on us by our grandparents and our parents to, right now, I’m even trying to project it to my four children that I have, of what life consists of and those two words that I’ve told them which was pushed onto me was discipline and responsibility, and I feel this way that I told my youngsters as such, you go according to those two words and you can’t help but be successful in life.
HH: Do you remember the old Polish picnics?
WK: Oh, yeah, I certainly do. This was usually sponsored by organizations such as we had St. Stanislaus and Millers Falls Society, we had a St. Stanislaus in Turners Falls and the St. Kazimier’s, we’ve had the White Eagles, the Kosciusko, and these organizations ran these picnics and it was a good way for the families to get together for that more so that you always felt as though Sunday was your big day for recreation, for prayer, for recreation, and just to relax.
And I should mention at this time when you just mentioned about the picnics that with these organizations that we had years back, I think this was the foundation of these people that came from the old country to join up with the organization and therefore they would pick up, try to pick up the language, plus trying to put people to work, plus lending money, so on and so forth, so I think the organizations were certainly a great asset to this Franklin County area for the Polish people that came over to get themselves established.
HH: They were members of the American Vets, probably more than once, is that right?
WK: Oh, that’s, yeah, that’s for sure and as a matter of fact, I also forgot to mention that we did have the Polish Veterans Association which was very active and these were a lot of the World War I veterans that volunteered to go over to France and a lot of them were Polish immigrants and then came back and organized as Polish vets and they were very proud people that they had fought for the whole world for peace which Poland was looking for at that time because they were overrun by the Germans, in France, and the European countries, so this was another area patriotic-wise. I think a lot of the immigrants, they appreciate this country and it passed off on to the youngsters, even my youngsters that I pass off to them is be a good All-American.
HH: Did your parents feel strongly about being much better off here or that is to be, did they give you the impression that they were very glad that your father, should I say, did not remember anything about Poland or was it sort of rather this was a thing to do?
WK: Well, let me say that going back to Polish history, I think I can still remember those memories, Polish vets, the holiday celebration for which they wore a light blue uniform, I think.
That’s correct, yeah. The Army put one on the American agent that was probably, I don’t know if that was a regular service uniform or if it was a veteran’s.
I think it was the regular Polish Army uniforms because I know my dad still tells me that that was his original that he had that he brought home with him after the war. Yeah.
HH: Did he ever express a desire to go back?
WK: Really, he never said that he liked to go back.
I think he enjoyed this country tremendously and of course my dad tells me that over there in Poland it was a lot of turbulence there. One time they had the Cossacks, Poland was cut up, they had different boundaries, so on and so it was not a real settled country for many, many years and I think Poland being a buffer nation between Russia and Germany were in between and these poor people were abused tremendously in two wars and I think more so going back even to World War I where a lot of these people just wanted to get out of Poland or before World War I over there and they felt as though there was a better opportunity for a better life here in the United States and I think this is where they said, well we’re going to make a move and they did and I think an asset with those people that came over here from Poland was that they were farmers, many of them and of course here in the Pioneer Valley this is where farmland was at and this is where the people I think this is where they got their start in life was on the farms here in the Pioneer Valley and then it sort of bloomed and spread out into the industrial part of the area and this is where a lot of the Polish people ended up working in factories.
HH: When did you first meet Virginia?
WK: Well, we go back to high school days when back to 19 oh 40, 39 and we sort of courted at that time through high school and then in 1943 when we graduated I was taken into the service I served in the Navy and then Virginia went to nursing school at the Mercy Hospital in Springfield and graduated out of there and took her state boards and then when I got discharged out of the service a year later, I got discharged in 1946 and in 1947 we got married and had four beautiful youngsters.
HH: Virginia wasn’t in the Navy?
WK: No, she wasn’t. She was thinking of going into the service but decided as a matter of fact she’s a very religious person and she had intentions at one time of going into being a nun but meeting me, I guess I must have upset the apple cart regardless. She had a brother that served his name was Michael Geraghty, served 20 years in the Navy and got discharged and he was and then he went into work into the medical field when he got out of the service and now he’s retired.
HH: In your experience as a state legislator you started at 1957 until 1970 right in 1957 there were still a good number of bailiffs?, judges in the public who spoke primarily in Polish. I suppose that there were some circumstances in which you might have been able to assist some of these people with their problems. Have you found any experiences that you had in that?
WK: Well, let me put it this way that I felt very proud being the first Polish representative out of the Franklin County District. I don’t know if there ever has been another gentleman from Franklin County or that served in the Massachusetts legislature from this area, senator or representative, but I do feel very proud that I did have the opportunity to serve with Congressman Conte in the Massachusetts legislature for two years from 1957 to 59. Then he ran for Congress and I helped him at that time to run for that office and make and win that position and at that time I did work with many of the Polish people not only in Franklin County but on the outside of Franklin County because there was 81 cities and towns that the First Congressional District covered and Silvio Conte covered a great, he covered that territory with a lot of pride and I felt very honored to be able to have served with him and in the meantime he was very good to the Polish people in regards to when I call him in regards to aid bringing people over here from Poland on a visa because as you recall the Polish government was under the communists and it was tough sledding at times to try to get these people out so through Congressman Conte he was very helpful to try to bring these people over here and try to get through the red tape, cut the red tape and it was a real, he was a real asset to the Polish people in this area. Also I should mention that Silvio also helped people in regards to their naturalization which many of them were still coming over from Poland even while he was in the legislature and I was in the legislature so we had an opportunity to help along those lines and I should mention at this time too that Silvio Conte’s parents both came from Italy, they were immigrants that came over here so I think he knew the feeling and the problems that the Polish people had such as the Italian people had.
HH: I know from firsthand experience what you’re talking about when you say that he might have helped some people with the naturalization process, that happened right in my family so I can attest to what you’re talking about. What outstanding experiences did you have as a what was your probably the most important legislation along?
WK: Well I had filed many pieces of legislation and I enjoyed working for my district and I got to just say that I got to be grateful to the people in Franklin County for putting me into office and as you mentioned what was my one of my most outstanding pieces of legislation I think it was one of them was the establishment of an office for the rehabilitation here in Franklin County. We never had one and it’s really paid dividends over the years where we’re putting handicapped people to work, educate them, put them out to look for a job for them, and this has been very very successful over the years more so right here in Franklin County.
Also in the county I think one of my I didn’t have to file legislation on it but I got it through the Housing Department and I think the first housing for the elderly was here in Turners Falls and I felt very proud of getting that program. Sunrise Terrace so it’s a beautiful place and I felt very proud and this was helping to take care of the elderly and I’ve always tried to have programs that were going to be beneficial to the public here in Franklin County and also the veterans I was very close to them I worked hard to get the Holyoke Soldiers Home have it open on a 24 hour basis to take care of our veterans here in the western county. The Holyoke Soldiers Home that I was going that I had filed legislation and it was passed that at least one of the four trustees would have to come from the four western counties which were Franklin, Hampshire, Berkshire and Hampden County and that still is on the books today and I feel very happy that at least we’ll have good representation from this area here for our veterans.
Well, I certainly I served on the legislative committee for Natural Resources for 14 years and during that period of time of course I sat on these committees got the hearings and then tried to get the legislation passed through once it went through committee and I think one of my programs was to get a a boat ramp which is the first boat ramp on the Connecticut River, it was over in the Town of Gill and we have it at the present time and it’s getting a lot of use and Barton’s Cove first one and then we built up build another one up in the Town of Northfield so we have two ramps here in the area and I feel very very proud of it and I also feel very happy in regards to working with Congressman Silvio Conte in regards to getting a fish research lab in the town of Turners Falls, it was an 18 million dollar project and it was a great asset it covers this research area covers all the way from Maine down to Virginia and of course a lot of its studies are represented and a lot of your studies are accepted by many of your foreign countries in regards to fisheries and wildlife and at the present time matter of fact they do want to build a wildlife refuge on the Connecticut River in honor of Silvio Conte who had expired in 1991. I also should mention that going back to our natural resources that I can go back to the time when we had the CCC’s the Conservation Corps which was located, we had at least four or five camps here in Franklin County and they were certainly an asset to us to build up our recreational areas and as a matter of fact I am a firm believer of this is the way that we should go today to reestablish the CCC camps and I put that on the Department of Interior plus the Department of Education and we get a lot of these youngsters that have nothing to do but with the hanging on the streets and we put them out into the woods and have them work on many projects, bridge projects, natural resource projects and as a matter of fact while I was in the legislature I did get the, we had a prison camp up in the Town of Warwick and I had the prisoners work in the areas of the Wendell Forest, Mohawk Park, and areas in Franklin County and this is why we have a few nice recreational areas around here because it was maintained by the prisoners that were in the Warwick prison camp. Also I’ve been in regards to the Fisheries and Wildlife people I’m still very close to them even though I’m out of the legislature and I’m just a plain environmentalist, I guess I got this going back to your parents I got this from my father that he loved to fish and hunt and as a matter of fact I even my mom mentioned that they used to, dad used to fish with her on the Connecticut River on a Sunday, take a ride and do some fishing, and I guess I sort of picked up this bug from my parents in regards to being an outdoorsman, an outdoor person and enjoying the environment.
HH: There was a CCC not far from where you live?
WK: That’s correct, it was where I was born and brought up in Millers Falls and as a matter of fact I can remember as a youngster going up to the camp which was in the Wendell area, Wendell Forest and I’d have lunch there with the boys and I felt like I was a part of them they’d invite me to take and watch them work and also it was really a great feeling to be amongst this group.
HH: You don’t remember the one that was near the airport?
WK: Yes, I remember one of the airport and then there was one over by the Polish Picnic Grounds yeah Polish Picnic Grounds in Greenfield and also they had one up in the Mohawk: Trail up in the Town of Charlemont.
HH: Walt, I think those boys switched uniforms that was a very, very good program then the war cops started to run into them.
WK: That’s correct, yeah it sort of built them up for future life I think it’s one of the greatest programs I think you need that year or two of that discipline and that responsibility that I was talking about before that you got from your parents and yet I think you still need it as you go along in life and I got it twice I got it from my parents, the discipline and responsibility then when I went into service I still had the responsibility and discipline and I think this makes you come out a halfway decent person yeah.
HH: Did you get out? Walt, did you ever get out on the river?
WK: Well, may I say this, that the Connecticut River is my playground. I try to get out at least once a week if not maybe once every two weeks but I enjoy fishing at the Connecticut River and not only fishing in the summertime but I’m also an ice fisherman. I’m out practically every Saturday or Sunday during the winter time fishing on the ponds with my family there we get back to being with your family taking them fishing and now I think I’ve brushed off on my family fishing and I used to be a hunter at one time one of my sons is and one isn’t but they still enjoy fishing period and the outdoors, they’re environmentalists and I have one daughter that she loves water rafting she’s out in Arizona and she’s sort of an expert rafter so most of my, all my kids, they love the outdoors, the fish and they got their start as a matter of fact on the Connecticut River No doubt about it
HH: Do you use a Barton Boat Ramp? Barton’s Boat Ramp.
WK: I’ve got, we have the Turners Falls Rod and Gun Club which I’m a member of and take off from there.
HH: And you keep the boat at home?
WK: We keep the boat at home yeah we take it we feel it’s safer there, take it when we need it.
HH: What do you think about the condition of the Connecticut River?
WK: Well may I say this we were talking about legislation before and the Connecticut River as a matter of fact is pretty clean right now and I feel that back in the 50’s legislation was filed and I had filed legislation to work in with what they call the Clean Waters Act of Massachusetts and I had a part of that and I feel very happy that I did file legislation and that we did get monies to help clean up the rivers, streams in Massachusetts whereas I had legislation filed to give cities and towns that were building sewage treatment plants 50 percent the federal government was coming through with 40 percent and then the towns were the cost was 10 percent so we I ended up with the state coming in with 45 percent so and then the federal came in with a little more so the towns were only still paying 10 percent so I felt that in this area here of the Clean Waters Act that passed that I had a part in it that our waters are real cleaner much cleaner than they were 25 or 30 years ago and not only what I look at, our rivers and streams, this might be your future drinking water which many of your cities and towns now are drinking some of your rivers using them as your water supplies, of course we do have more in our area our wells, but eventually where you’re going to be using those resources for drinking water and that’s why there’s no doubt about it in my mind that we’ve got to keep these waters clean.
HH: Going back to the early days of your mom can you remember as a kid seeing those homemade rowboats that were all over the used towns in Connecticut?
WK: Oh yes yeah Dad, he had a boat we, as a matter of fact, we had a camp we’d rent out this would be our vacation renting out a camp on the Connecticut River, I can remember down there just beyond the Turners Falls Rod and Gun Club that we had rented out a camp, we’d go for two weeks, so this was our big getaway so I was really born and brought up on the on that Connecticut River. Of course I used to fish at the mouth of the Millers Falls River we used to walk there where it emptied out into the Connecticut River and this was a great area for fishing and it still is as a matter of fact, I do fish this area even today.
HH: So how do you compare the appearance of it since the utilities have done away with all the homemade wharfs and boats?
WK: It is beautiful now but in a way I’m kind of missing the old wharfs and boats Well, what’s happening, Henry, is the Connecticut River is being to me it’s being abused by that I think we’re having boats that are on those rivers that are seafaring boats and the river is not big enough to hold this type of a boat and I think they should restrict the size of the boat and also another problem we’re having is the speed on the river plus your water too much recreation and of course the fisherman is still involved there and he doesn’t get much of an opportunity like he used to with all this new activity being on the river and I think that there’s got to be more controls somewhere along the line before someone really gets hurt bad.
HH: Can’t get touching with sailing and narrows if you’re trying to enjoy the new ride 75 to 60 horse.
WK: That’s correct and of course we do have a lot of people from the Boston area they have their boats, we have a boat club right there in Gill next to the ramp which I mentioned before that I had put in 30 40 years ago and the boat club there do have the docks and some of these boats are maybe $100,000 boats and big boats oversized too big for the that’s correct I noticed that the speed they’ve knocked it down from the Turners Falls Dam going down to the Holyoke Dam to 15 miles an hour or 20 miles an hour now I know they’ve had hearings to have it from the Turners Falls Dam up to the Vernon Dam up in Vermont and I think you’re going to see in the near future that they’re going to have to knock down on the speed on that river.
HH: They don’t have restrictions now?
WK: I think you can go up to 45 to 50 miles an hour yet so they’re trying to bring it down to the 15 to 20 miles an hour which they should.
HH: Did you ever maneuver into that little cove that’s not far from Bartons Cove?
WK: Has a little mouth opening almost as big as a small hole they call that the Bears Den Bears Den oh definitely I fished that whole area there and that Bears Den is a real nice natural area and there’s a lot of good fishing well kept secret and as a matter of fact just opposite the Bears Den we do have an island and on that island we do have the eagles what do they call them now? oh they’re a species that’s very rare and they’re starting to take in that area there too so it’s a real beautiful natural resource area which we all appreciate locally but also people from throughout different states are coming in to the area and enjoying this area.
HH: Yeah I want to back up to earlier you mentioned some legislative work that you did I have to admit it took me by surprise because I wasn’t in the area of the rehabilitation law.
WK: The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Center.
HH: When did you this was?
WK: I served on a legislative committee on public health and this is where I came about trying to finding out about the program of rehabilitation in Massachusetts people testifying before my committee so then I started to look into the matter and I finally checked out with a counselor from this area here, he came out of Springfield and he was the only one and there were so many cases that he was telling me about bad backs, people that are blind people that even today on the drugs and also the alcohol could come under the program handicapped individuals and I can remember one youngster that was born without any arms we took him under into this program and I met him about 10 or 15 years back and he’s done great in life of what he’s doing the job that he’s got and he’s raised a family of three kids so I feel very proud of that youngster coming up through that program so I felt as though that we needed an office in this area, we had so many cases so I worked with the commissioner of rehabilitation and filed legislation and I got it through and the first office that we had was the old Blasberg building, it burnt down that was located on Miles Street on the main street and it was a three or four story building and that burnt down, so then we got into the Shawmut Bank and now they’re in the Taylor’s Tavern up above the Taylor’s Tavern, they have they rent out space there and the caseload is heavy but the results are just great and I should mention at this time too, which we were talking about in regards to the rehabilitation back 40 years or so, the rubella went through which if rubella takes place during the pregnancy of a woman and the youngster can be born stone deaf and this happened in Franklin County and within Western Mass area, so I being on public health again I finally there were so many cases of youngsters, deaf youngsters in Franklin County that I went ahead and through the Department of Special Education set up a pre-nursery school for the deaf at the nurses, old nurses quarters at the Franklin County Medical which is now known as the Franklin County Medical Center and youngsters from 0 to 5 were brought in. I worked with the audio department of University of Mass. also with Clarke School for the Deaf from Northampton and we set up this program and that was a real big thing for me and then I tried to have the all Arms Academy School to be a continued education after grade 5 or 6 to continue on right up through high school and I had a study done on it and it was going to be about a million dollars and I lost it and I felt bad about that part of it, but meantime I did have, took care of those youngsters up until 5 years of age and then from there on in they had to go to other schools throughout the state and then there was, I think up in Vermont they had a school for the deaf that some of the youngsters, we sent them up there too, under what they called chapter 705 which was for special education, kids with special, they had special education for youngsters with certain disabilities, so this was an area, again where I, this school for the deaf I felt was something that I enjoyed doing, it was something that was an accomplishment for the needy.
HH: But the original legislation is still on, right?
WK: It is, yeah. They’ve come a long way with it now and now you have a chapter, what they call Chapter 666 [766] which houses the legislation for within our school system for any disability or handicapped youngsters where they’ve got to take care of those kids in the school system.
HH: You were recently still honored for the work that you do with veterans’ law?
WK: Yeah, that was quite a, I felt very proud, very honored that that was recognized by the Franklin County Patriotic Society that they chose me as the veteran of the year of 1993. And when I was in the legislature I did file many pieces of legislation pertaining to the veteran and I was recognized for that part of it and also down in Boston I was very close to the state veterans services plus the federal services veteran service with the Congressman Conte so I’ve been sort of riding on the veteran because I think he’s certainly deserving of all the benefits that he should be for giving part of his life for his country.
HH: You and Virginia have four offspring?
WK: That’s correct.
HH: Great.
Yeah, [Rick] he’s 35 and then Barry is 45 and Marilyn is 43 and Mary is 34.
HH: While you’re in the Army, we will always think of Walt Kostanski as an athlete. I don’t care whether he was a legislator or a registrar, but if you grew up in the territories, Walt was an athlete. What was your biggest thrill or what were your biggest thrills in sports?
WK: You mentioned sports. This was my life. I enjoyed sports tremendously and I think for youngsters taking part in sports today is another part of building your character and life and realizing responsibility, you get a discipline and you get it through sports and of course years back when times were rough, we’re talking again about hard times, all we had for recreation was probably a bat and a ball or a football and we took advantage of that and Right, and we had a lot of fun with it and of course one of my ambitions in life, which I never accomplished, and that was to play Major League Baseball. I worked hard at pitching.
I pitched down here for Turners Falls High School in 1942. We won the state championship in Arlington High School in Fenway Park and I also did some pitching down in the valley here in Holyoke, Indian Orchard, Chicopee, also pitched in Canada and I had a tryout with the Cubs, I had a tryout with the Dodgers and yet I never made it, so that was one of the ambitions that I wanted in life, which I had never accomplished and of course I lost three years in the service and this is where I think if I could have continued right on from high school to baseball, I think I might have had a shot at least getting into the minor leagues but it didn’t happen that way and I have no regrets but I still enjoy watching sports taking part with my youngsters growing up while they were playing sports, so sports is still part of my life.
HH: I don’t think you mentioned TFAC.
WK: I can remember some nice, very pleasant Sunday afternoons down there. Turners TFAC [Turners Falls Athletic Club] seemed to be one of the things we did.
You take semi-pro baseball back in my time was pretty damn good baseball and that was another recreation for everybody to watch a baseball game on Sunday.
Times were tough, the dollar was tough and yet we found that just taking in that ball game was a good recreation and we enjoyed playing for the people and the people enjoyed watching us, so this was an area where it worked two-fold. Of course then I forgot to mention about football where I felt highly honored when I was chosen as most valuable player in western Massachusetts in 1942 and I received the Angelo Bertelli Award which was presented to me by Angelo Bertelli himself at the school, at one of our conferences, not conferences, what do you call it, a board assembly and I felt very honored and they still continue on presenting the Angelo Bertelli Award and as a matter of fact, Angelo Bertelli was awarded the Heisman Trophy when he played for Notre Dame in 1941 and then of course the war came out, he went into the war, I went into the war but just before then, 1942, the year before I went into service, he presented me with this trophy which I still have today and cherish it very much.
HH: Well Walt, it’s been a wonderful experience chatting with you, we’ve known each other for a long time but we do a little bit of an age gap here so we never really ran together you might say but it has been a is there anything else you would like to bring up?
WK: No, I just want to say Henry I just want to compliment you and your people for volunteering and doing this type of work of trying to recognize the the Polish people, all ethnic groups had to work into society and we as Poles we try to do this and there are the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese are coming in and everybody is working as ethnic groups to come in and be recognized by the society and this country and the world and I want to compliment you on this of bringing out the highlights for the Polish people here in the Pioneer Valley, Henry.
HH: Well I’ll be looking forward to spending time with your mother soon.
WK: Fine, yeah we’ll make an appointment with her and she’s very alert at 90 and I’m sure that she’ll have a lot of stories to tell you, more so than perhaps myself.
HH: Thanks a lot.
WK: Yeah, okay Henry.
