Yeah.

I'll just get one.

Oh, you're right, you're right.

I came here from Galicia, from West Ukraine, July 15th in 1949.

We never seen a better country than that.

And so rich, you know I see only three or four car in my life.

And I came over here.

I see line and line and line with cars.

Dancing.

It's it's it's not sharing with someone else.

It's knowing that you yourself.

That's your own way of expressing yourself.

When I'm up there dancing, I feel everything when Im dancing.

And if it reminds you of being Ukrainian and thinking, you're expressing that to everyone else.

We lived together when the children were small.

I lived with my parents upstairs, as a matter of fact, in the same house.

And it was just.

They they learned the language.

They were.

They spoke Ukrainian before they spoke English, before they went to school.

Grandmother would explain to them always that we do this this way because a grandfather would explain to them the same thing.

You know why we do things.

And, and they just grew up in that, and I don't remember very much about it.

Okay.

potatoes, everything.

What is growing up in Ukraine we eat.

Your grandparents sort of represent a symbol to you?

Yeah.

It's nice to to share things with them, to share experiences with them.

Tells me what like the good times he used to have.

And how it special occasions.

He'd be dancing around like we are now.

He gets a kick out of seeing me in and messing around all the time, and he tells us how to to get around things and how to have how to make more fun out of things.

He he tells us all types of traditions and things like that he used to do when he was in Ukraine still.

Is it hard to to keep you Ukrainian identity with all the American influences around you?

At times, you know.

And that's why I can appreciate the festival gives me time to walk around in costume and things like that.

Your friends, are they American or Ukrainian?

Both, I have no, I don't try to mix them because it doesn't really work out, you know, unless I have Ukrainian friends going to the same school because most of my American friends are school friends.

And, you know, like I have some American friends that aren't school friends.

They get along with my Ukrainian friends.

But on the whole, you know, it's usually two different things.

At the festival, you were feeling very Ukrainian, and tonight you're getting ready for your senior prom.

Do you ever get confused between the two?

All the time.

You know when people ask you, what are you?

You always say Ukrainian.

You know, it's it's hard to say that you're an American of Ukrainian descent because you just always brought up that you're Ukrainian, and that's all there is to it.

But you're still following the American way of life, trying to keep up your identity.

It sounds like that would be difficult.

It is sometimes, but I guess after living with it for a long time, you just find a way to balance things out.

Like I said, there's just some things are more important than others.

Both in both lives that I lead.

What about when the time comes for you to get married?

Cross that bridge when I come to it, of course, they're going to definitely want a Ukrainian guy because if you say, you're going to have to relinquish some of your customs.

And I don't always agree with, that you can still be your own person.

But my what family would like and what I would like just have to compromise.

What about when you get married, do you think you'll marry a Ukrainian girl?

I don't know, you know.

Does it matter to you?

Not really.

It's only thing that matters is, you know, that we can both exist.

You know.

You know that both cultures can exist in the same house.

It's something that you want to hold on to.

Why?

I think I really want to hold on to so I can teach my kids.

Because if I feel, I feel, you know, if I had the opportunity, why should I let go of it?

So my children don't don't even know, you know, like they'll be second generation born here and it'll be a lot harder for them.

But I'll tell you one thing.

When I get old, I'm going to have a group and I'm going to have them dancing, and I'm going to have them going to school.

When you get married, do you think you'll keep the Ukrainian traditions for your kids?

Oh definitely it's definitely there.

It's just so beautiful to be able to to have something that to keep, to keep running in your family, you know, like Americans have their Thanksgiving and all those types of customs here.

So to me, it's it's nice to be able to say this is way that your ancestors did it.

Oh, yes.

I would like them to marry Ukrainians.

I would like them to marry Ukrainians in order to continue the customs.

And, but I'm hopefully broad minded enough to to realize that they will marry whomever they wish, they will marry whomever they are in love with.

And and if you are going to tell me that if there is a Ukrainian boy who is, a good match.

Okay.

And there is, let's say, an American boy who is a better match, then of course I, I hope that that she marries the American boy.

But I would prefer that they marry their own.

I feel, you know, I would be a hypocrite if I would say that that I would not.

Oh, they growing children and all that anybody can do.

And what do you want?

I can tell them not to do.

You talk with them.

You do.

You tell them about the customs?

I tell him, And she promised she never going to lose.

But it would be best she if she married somebody else who is not Ukrainian.

And she know what she should do.