Conrad James Posluszny

My Uncle Connie was the second-born child and first son of my grandparents, Julianna Ingram and Konrad Posluszny. He was born in Yonkers, New York, on November 12, 1910. He was a “junior” but it didn’t show up in official records except for his enlistment paperwork and the 1940 census.

He was 15 years old when the family made their move to 121 Clifton Street in Wallingford, Connecticut. His World War II enlistment record says his level of education was grammar school, which would mean he didn’t continue school when they moved to Wallingford and that is consistent with what I was told by family.

Connie inherited his mother’s baking skills. He may have been working as a baker for a few years but, he first appears in the Wallingford town directory in 1931 at 21 years old, working as a baker for Charles Heilman, who had a shop at 12 Pearl Street. If you’re from Wallingford and never heard of this street, Pearl Street was across from the Stanley Judd Factory, and some time later, it was renamed Judd Square.

He continued working for “Old Man Heilman” for another four years. He briefly worked as a drop operator for the International Silver Company’s factory in 1937, but by 1939, he was baking again with Mr. Heilman at their new location of 363 Center Street.

At the age of 29, and while an employee of Heilman’s Bakery, Connie filled out his draft card in October of 1940. His enlistment occurred on his birthday in 1942 and by November 30, 1942, he found himself at Fort Devens in Ayers, Massachusetts. His postcard tells his parents, “Can you imagine me making my bed, well I do now. It’s not to hard at all here. I will write a letter the first chance I get. Connie”

The pictures above were from the time before he left for Fort Devens in 1942 based on the ages of the children in the pictures as Judy was born in 1939.

From Fort Devens, he headed to Camp Swift, outside Austin Texas in early 1943, then to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio Texas in mid 1943. This is where he was stationed when my mother and Aunt Tootsie went to visit him.

Early June of 1944, found him at Camp Pickett in Virginia. From there, he headed to Camp Young outside of Indio California which was a Desert Training Center. Through a more thorough review of all the postcards he sent home, and with the help of Google AI, I have a good picture of his military service, which I will write about in my next post.

When my grandfather died in December of 1944, the newspaper said Connie had recently been sent to New Guinea. My cousin Judy, my fellow family genealogist, wrote about his time in World War II in her family memories in 1995. She wrote, “During World War II, Uncle Connie cooked in field kitchens all over the European front, serving hot meals to the troops when they could. I remember him talking about setting up and being ready to serve a meal, and they had to pull up stakes because the enemy had moved and were getting too close.” This passage falls into line with my more in-depth research, so I’m glad I went back to Judy’s family memoir.

He was released from service on January 10, 1946 and by 1947, he was back home and once again a baker. However, Judy wrote that, “when he returned from the war, he went back to work for the Heilmans, but after a few years he decided to move on and went to work for some hotels in the Pocono Mountains.” I have postcards in my mother’s collection from him during that time period. I didn’t realize he was working there. The directories for 1947 and 1949 only say “baker”.

In 1951 and 1953, he was working as a baker for Choate School. He tried his hand at owning his own shop, Connie’s Bake Shop at 96 Quinnipiac Street, for a few years from 1955 to 1958. Cousin Judy worked there after school and on weekends. Here is what she had to say about Uncle Connie’s bakery: “he worked so hard and so many long hours a day. On weekends, he went to Sunday noon, many’s the time I have seen him sleeping while he was still standing. He was such a perfectionist that he would train people to work with him and then never be satisfied with what they did. He made the best pastry and breads I have ever eaten (they were divine!) and his hard rolls were unbeatable. In fact, his type of hard rolls is still being made today at New York Bakery in Wallingford and have been acknowledged as the best in New England. He gave up the bakery after a few years because to keep up the pace would have killed him but he did not give up his profession.”

Masonic Home and Hospital hired him as their bread and pastry chef and he spent the rest of his career baking for the 900 or so residents and employees. He worked overnight at the hospital baking whatever needed to be made for the following day as well as making the night staff their 1 am dinner. One Mother’s Day he made and frosted 400 cupcakes, “each one with a single, full-blown confectionary rose that he completed by making them for one hour each of the three nights”, according to a 1977 article about him in the local newspaper. All because “they get ice cream every Sunday and I think Mother’s Day is something special.” He continued to live with his mother and sister, Tootsie at 121 Clifton Street.

When my twin and I were born in 1960, he was given the honor of being my godfather.

In 1962 at the age of 51, he married Ann Martineck Yasensky, a 52 year old widow with two adult children and three grandchildren. She became our Antie Ann (I’ve spelled it this way for phonetic reasons). We loved her very much and we would come to know her children and grandchildren over the years. They met when he had his bake shop as it was only a block or two from her home. After they married, they lived in her house on Bristol Street and on occasion, my sisters and I would stay over their house when my parents had a rare Saturday night out. I can picture us lying on the floor in front of the television watching Davey and Goliath on Sunday morning! By 1969, they were living in their home on Grandview Avenue, in our neighborhood and two houses away from the park we spent all our summer days at in the town Parks Program. Need a bathroom? Go to Antie Ann and Uncle Connie’s. Hungry? Tired? We knew where to go.

They lived happily ever after for 19 years until he died of a heart attack in his kitchen at the Masonic Home November of 1981, just a few days short of his 71st birthday. He was the first of my mother’s siblings to pass away and I felt my mother’s sorrow because I think he was her favorite sibling.

Antie Ann remained in their home on Grandview Avenue. When we moved home in 1995, our walks around the block always included a stop at her home to see if she needed anything or to just visit. Eventually, her chronic heart issues caused her to move to Georgia to her daughter and son in law’s home where she passed away in 2004 at the age of 95.

My uncle spent over 50 years of his life baking. His creampuffs, chocolate eclairs, hermit cookies, and previously mentioned hard rolls were out of this world delicious. I can picture them in my head today! He took care of and fed so many people in his lifetime between the bakery, his military service, and in the years following at Choate and Masonic Home. It must be where I developed my sweet tooth. He passed down the love of baking to my cousin Judy who was an amazing cook and baker herself, and to my niece Charlene, with a PhD in Food Science who has been recognized for her USDA-funded research on the sourdough microbiome. Her work focuses on how the unique yeast and bacteria in sourdough starters affect bread quality, digestibility, and health benefits.