Magical Mystery Tour: Day 5 (Sarris Family gathering for fun and historical purposes)

On Sunday 11/23, three cousins came to Stockton to visit my aunt Liberty Sarris. And with that golden opportunity, 7 of us got together to share Sarris Family info and photos.  Our merry little band met for church and then repaired to Papapavlo's Restaurant for lunch and a 3-hour photofest. 

From left to right: Temia Demakopoulos, Kathryn Demas, Jane Demas, Libby Sarris, Sofia Demakopoulos Osborne, Connie Mellis and Paula Xanthopoulou.

Our conversations were all about the families of my Papou George Sarris and his younger sister Sofia (see photo above), plus various cousins also from Kyparissi, Lakonias. Sofia married Bill Demakopoulos, who had the Palace Candy store on Main Street in Stockton next to the old Fox Theater -- and where both George and Evghenia Sarris came to cook and make hand-dipped chocolates. George and Evghenia had two children, Angeline and Liberty. Sofia and Bill were the parents of Evelyn (Mellis), Jim, Nick (Demas), Demie, and Georgia (Johnson). All but Liberty are deceased.

For the record: Connie Mellis, from Aptos (Santa Cruz), is the widow of Evelyn's son and only child, Spiro. Sofia Osborne (born in Stockton) and Temia are the children of Jim and Sylvia. Demie Demakopoulos had no children. Elaine Sampanis of West Chester, OH (Cincinnati area) - and former Grand President of the Daughters of Penelope -- is the daughter of Georgia Johnson, who was a Charter Member of Stockton's  Sparta Chapter No. 18. Her brother Johnny lives in Louisville, KY. Kathy and Jane Demas are the youngest of Sofia Sarris Demakopoulos' seven grandchildren. And Paula Xanthopoulou -- whose brother's are George and Bill Xanttopoulos -- is the oldest of George Sarris' three grandchildren. There you have it.

The research to-date represents five generations of Sarris Family members.  But there is still much work work to be done. We collected some new info and great photos -- now to connect the dots. Stay tuned!

NOTE: A few days later I finally met up with Katherine Lourentzos of Manteca. For a long time I had been curious about research she had done on her own family (from Piana, Arcadia) that resulted in the detailed and Limited Edition 254-page, A Century in America, The Petropoulos Family: From Past to Present (Lourentzos, Poulos and Gaines).  The Book was "Written and compiled from memories, stories, pictures and love" as a result a 1995 reunion of the whole clan. It was published in 2012 in conjunction with Ted Poulos' 85th birthday and a second reunion. I was very moved to see photos of Helen Panagos (nee Poulos), who was my brother Bill's godmother and died tragically of cancer.  Kudos to Katherine and her family, who have set the bar VERY high for the rest of us!

Magical Mystery Tour: Day 2 (The Xepoleoses)

After being treated to "La Boheme" at the SFO the night before by Candace and George, I set out on 11/20 to visit with a distant relative living in a senior community in downtown San Francisco -- hoping to find out more about my Papou George Sarris' early days in California and who his relatives also from Kyparissi were.  The Xepoleoses were his cousins on some level.

Bessy Xepoleos is 92 and darn sharp. As the second wife of Pete Xepoleos, she did not have recollections/photos of the early days. But she did know some of Pete's 6 siblings (Elsie Gogas and Yoda Manolis) and added 2 brothers to my list (John and Steve). The parents, James and Vasiliki (Sarris, I believe now), were married in Kyparissi and 3 sons were born in Greece.  Bessy and Pete visited then land-locked Kyparissi in 1972 with Yoda and Evelyn Mellis...

My SF visit was delightful, including dinner and a good look at the few photos she did have, one of her as a 2 1/2 year-old child. Bessy (also Vasiliki!) was born in Seattle, went to Cephalonia, grew up in Argentina, and then to SF where worked for McKesson Corp. She speaks fluent Spanish, too, but we spoke mostly in Greek. Bessy introduced me to the only other Greek in the place and gave me the grand tour of The Sequoias where she has lived for 15 years. What a gem, so glad I met her!

But there was still no answer as to why the Xepoleoses used to always come -- according to my aunt Liberty -- to Stockton on Memorial Day. So I visited the Rural Cemetery and found out that James Xepoleos, aged 63, had died in Stockton on March 10, 1925. Where was buried? No longer in Stockton, but moved to San Mateo on July 11, 1944 -- which would explain why I have no recollection of the Xepoleoses in Stockton, though I did know Yoda and Elsie as a kid when they lived in Santa Cruz...

I also know that Yoda had been born in SF and "grown up in Stockton," and lo-and-behold the Stockton Telephone Directories list the Xepoleoses from 1920 (when the Demokopoulos also were first listed) through 1926. They lived at 717 E. Channel (no house there now) and 2000 S. San Joaquin, with a now extinct City Free Market at 338 E. Jefferson...Looks like they moved after the father died, perhaps to Pittsburgh. The mother was called "Thea Vasilo," but whose daughter was she?  

Anyone out there know anything more about the Xepoleoses in Stockton???

NOTE: Bessy wanted to know if I had seen "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" w/Penelope Cruz and Nicholas Cage set in Cephalonia. Ordering it from Ebay right now!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Love Letter to Angelo Mitchell & Others

Our dear family friend Angelo Mitchell was buried a few days ago (just 3 weeks after a Coffee Hour in honor of his 90th birthday, what a blessing!) -- and I wasn't there, except in spirit.  

Angelo (somehow, I cannot call him "Mitch") was our Go-To-Guy -- for a hug, a wooden step stool, a golf game or a story about the past. And he knew a lot about that as a life-long Stockton boy who became a soldier, husband, father and important member of St. Basil's parish. He spent 90 years in and around our town with almost any member of the Greek-American community you can think of, including my grandparents and parents. I simply cannot remember not knowing Angelo and Flossie Mitchell and their daughters (and my pals) Angela and Mimi. Rides out to their house so many years ago on some rural roads was a special treat (and practicably a field trip).

Our parents were great pals over many years, just like many of our foremothers/fathers were. Angela is quick to remind me that my Dad Steve drove her Mom Flossie to the hospital so she could be born because: "Mine couldn't seem to find his boss to ask for permission to leave for the occasion" (traits of honesty and diligence that go way back). She has said that my Dad will always have a special place in her heart for that reason, just like the Mitchell Family has a special place in mine that neither time or distance can erase. 

We cannot bring back our Loved Ones or The Good Old Days. We can only aspire to live up to them. Zoi se mas.

NOTE: I will be in Stockton soon for the Thanksgiving Holiday, so please get your photo albums ready and sharpen you memories of those Good Old Days. And when you are sitting around the Thanksgiving table sharing family stories, please write them down. (You'll regret it some day if you don't!)

August 15th & Panayia Soumela (circa 1973) -- Hronia Polla kai Kala!

Panayia Soumela/August 15, 1952

Some call the Assumption of the Virgin Mary the most important religious holiday in Greece. So on August 15th, most Greeks make plans to head for their hometowns or one of the places that celebrate this feast day big time like the islands of Paros, Tinos, Patmos, and Cephalonia. Pontians head for the Monastery of Panayia Soumela in Kastania, on the slopes of Mt. Vermion near the town of Veria. I made that pilgrimage in 1973.

To explain my attachment and love for the Pontian people would take too long, even if I had words for it.  Not to mention that when I first arrived at the American Farm School in Greece to begin a 10-year stint (68-78), I had no idea who they were!

Panayia Soumela/August 15, 2013

Pontians are amazing people whose roots date back  2,000+ years when the ancient Greeks colonized Asia Minor around the Black Sea. And whose resilience through the centuries of occupation, genocide, and displacement is embodied by "Panayia Soumela," an icon of the Virgin Mary painted by St. Luke -- first established in a monastery on Mount Melas in Trapezounda (395 A.D.), lost in a circuitous manner of speaking, and then found. And finally reestablished in 1952 at a new monastery in Greece where the faithful will venerate her today with great pomp and circumstance. 

Panagia Soumela in1973

In 1973 I joined one of the my student's family and neighbors from Nea Santa, Kilkis, for their bus trip up the mountain to Kastania. We stayed in dorm-like rooms overnight on the monastery grounds, preparing to attend church services and take communion on the 15th along with hundreds and hundreds of others in an air of reverence mixed with whispered talk about what was to come after church.  First to break the fast by feasting on Pontian delicacies like tsirikta, hapsia and miliasta.  And best of all, Pontian dance groups from all over Greece competed all day long to the magic music of the kementche (lyra)!

AFS Student Dance Group

Pontian dialect and music/dance are akin to the speech and dance of Ancient Greece. I usually could not fully understand the former and am permanently enamored of the latter. The best way to describe Pontian dance (performed at the 2004 Olympics) is that you step on the off-beat and sort of hover the rest of the time. I eagerly learned many of those dances and even started a Pontian dance group at the AFS -- driving the students to the neighboring village of Sedhes every week for lessons from the local dancers and using their costumes for our special events.  That exciting, unique authenticity is magnified 1000 times at Panagia Soumela, where faith and family secure the beautiful Pontian legacy every August 15th.

If your name is Maria, Hronia Polla kai Kala (Happy Nameday)! And if you are Pontian and your name is Maria, I kinda wish I was you...

Does the name Bezzerides ring a bell?

In New Mexico for a few days, and I thought of Bandel Bezzerides, my parents' godson and physics whiz who had moved to Los Alamos about 37 years ago. Bandel, now retired, was first in his class at UC Berkeley at the age of 20 and went to work in the Livermore labs and then in Los Alamos. Don't ask me what he did there...

At one point, he brought his parents, Marianthe and Aghapios -- formerly of 1409 E. Channel Street in Stockton -- to Los Alamos so they could be near the grand-kids. I visited Kyria Marianthe on a trip to Santa Fe in 1990 (he died in 1989), and she seemed very glad to see me. Did not get a chance to see Bandel then or now. But we did speak at length by telephone.

Amongst my parents' papers/photos there was a letter Bandel had sent them in 1994 to let them know his Mom had passed, in his arms he told me yesterday. He then asked me how my folks were, and it dawned on me that I had not returned the favor in either 2002 or 2007. My bad.

"I miss her dearly, but bow to God's will." he wrote about his Mom in that letter.  Indeed he still holds his faith dear, but perhaps not as dear as his wife Elizabeth (a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy) does. She purchased a property down the street from their home and worked with others to establish Saint Dimitri Orthodox Church (OCA) of Los Alamos. Call that a labor of love.

And their son Vasillios, a pediatric cardiologist in Boston, is married to Ann Mitsakos Bezzerides, Director of the Office of Vocation & Ministry at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Oldest daughter, Annamarie, is Associate Vice-President for Advancement at Georgetown University. And Marianthe, a multi-instrumentalist since the age of 5, is a gifted composer. The fruit did not fall far from the tree.

We spoke of his sisters, Margaret and Liz; both died of cancer some years ago. Margaret had five kids with Father George Makris (also now deceased). Peter -- the only one I remember -- is now a chiropractor in Portland, Oregon.

Last but not least, we spoke of something else we had in common: Agnes Hoffman. She was an English teacher par excellence at Stagg High School that we both loved. Bandel, however, was Miss Hoffman's Gold Standard for the rest Greek-American kids to live up to and a very tough act to follow...I still hope we see him back in Stockton one day!