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About Jodges Trunk

The idea for Jodges Trunk can be traced back to the fond memories I have of my grandfather when I was growing up in Connecticut.  Both he and my grandmother were polish so everyone in the family called them “Babcia” (pronounced bahp-CHAH, with the "a" sounding like the "a" in "father" and the "ci" sounding like "ch" in "chicken”) which is polish for Grandmother and “Dziadziu” (pronounced gah-Goo, with the "dz" sounding like the "g" in "genes”) which is polish for Grandfather.

I could say “gah-goo”, but I couldn’t spell “Dziadziu”.   And so it became “Jodge” in the letters and cards I would write to him.  

My grandfather was a very interesting man who knew a lot about a lot.  He had great diplomacy.  He was a bartender by trade “back in the good old days” and to my amazement, found a way to stay current on just about everything.  

Jodge was a bit of a collector we used to say.  He loved the outdoors, fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, sports, reading, food, jewelry, trinkets, gadgets, etc.  He had this green 1970 Pontiac Lemans Sport Coupe that had this humongous trunk.   All the trunks were huge back then and he always had his packed to capacity with “stuff”.  He never actually let any of us look in the trunk.  But to us grandkids, it seemed like he had everything in that magical trunk.    

Each time we would visit, it seemed someone in the family would be talking about something they saw, needed or wanted and Jodge would say “hold on a minute” and then he'd disappear to the garage where he’d proceed to dig through that trunk and magically produce the exact item that was being discussed.  And in many cases he'd provide a few other “add on” cool things to keep us kids entertained.  We were continually amazed at the trunk’s ability to produce the things we were looking for.  

In fact, it always seemed like he had everything.  But that wasn’t the amazing part.  The amazing part was whatever you needed it was always packed in the trunk of his car.  If you needed something, your first thought was always to call Jodge because he probably had one.  As we grew older, whenever one of us grandkids needed something, the immediate comment was “did you check Jodge's trunk?"

Going to visit my grandparents was always fun. It was usually for the holidays and it meant plenty of food, family and fun.  It was especially fun for all of the grandkids because we’d get to see each other and if we were lucky, we’d get something from Jodge’s trunk.  

Even though my grandfather and his car are no longer with us today, his spirit and passion for always having something you are interested in lives on today in Jodges Trunk.