Stanley Galik, the 7th of 10 children,
was born to immigrant parents on November 23, 1922 in Belmont (Richland
Township), Ohio. His father John, from Nowy Targ, Poland, and his
mother Anna from Cervencia, Saris, Slovak Republic came to the United
States in the early 1900s. As other immigrants
did before them, Dad's parents sought a new and brighter beginning
in America. Stan had 3 sisters and 6 brothers. (Victoria "Vic", Frank,
Lloyd, Mae, Anthony "Tony", John "Jay", Andrew "Andy", Dorothy, and
Edward "Eddie")
Below is a photo of Dad with his younger brother Andy taken when Dad was probably 5 or 6 years old and his brother 2 or 3 years old.
STANLEY GALIK WITH BROTHER ANDREW GALIK
ANNA GALIK - MOTHER |
Dad's parents moved from Ohio
to Braddock, PA (Western Pennsylvania) when he was four or five
years old. Dad didn't talk much about his childhood or teenage
years, except to tell of his family's continuing struggles to
care for and feed a large family during the Great Depression.
Dad's father, whom he really admired, died tragically in 1936
about a week before his fourteenth birthday.
As a teenager Dad usually hung out with a number of his friends
or "pals" as he called them before he joined the Civilian Conservation
Corps and enlisted in the US Navy. Dad called his friends "the
Mob" and you could usually find them outside a local store where
they often drank Pepsi and "shot the breeze" together.
|
| Pictured on the right are
his friends holding bottles of Pepsi. Bob Pigman, third from
the left, was one of Dad's closest friends. Dad joined Bob
and 2 other friends in signing up to work at a CCC camp in
Pennsylvania in 1941. Bob followed Dad's lead and enlisted
in the US Navy in September 1942. |
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