- February 8, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Ben Zaleski is a pro at the accordion. Once the straps are around his shoulders and his fingers in place, music begins filling the air and for the man playing, there's a look of contentment on his face.
Zaleski may have been surrounded by family members as he played the red, white and blue instrument but for a few minutes it was just him and the music. Even the fact that he was in a wheelchair seemed to be of little concern as he pumped out tunes. What should be pointed out is that he didn't even start playing the accordion until he was 90. And that was 10 years ago.
Now he's celebrating his 100th birthday and, for him, he "doesn't feel any different."
According to his family, he doesn't take any medication and only has to deal with a bad hip. He still eats a very Polish breakfast of eggs and kielbasa in the morning and also enjoys pierogies, a kind of dumpling popular in Poland. Of course, celebrating 100 years did mean cake was on the menu for that day.
The centenarian, who turned 100 on Monday, July 31, had an early birthday with family members on Saturday, June 29 at the Heritage Waterside Assisted Living Facility. It was a day of reminiscing about Zaleski's life before he came to Florida five years ago.
In 1917, Zaleski, an only child, was born in New Jersey to Polish immigrant parents who had come to the U.S. to work in New York. It was the year Woodrow Wilson was president, the Chicago White Sox won the World Series and bread was only 7 cents.
When Zaleski was around two or three years old, he and his family moved back to Poland where he grew up in the village of Babice. In 1939, at the age of 22, Zaleski made the decision to return to the place he was born to start a family and begin a new life. By himself and with about $20 in his pocket, the young man spent about three weeks traveling on a boat back to the U.S. Three months later, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
His family lost everything during WWII and, because of the Iron Curtain, Zaleski was never able to see them again before they died, according to his daughter, Wanda Sutter.
With World War II taking form, Zaleski began the challenge of starting a new life on his own. It wasn't long before Zaleski established himself back in his home state of New Jersey where he married Genevieve, a woman who had also been born to Polish immigrants but grew up in Poland just as Zaleski had done. The Zaleski's had a boy and a girl.
"He worked hard but he would spend the money on my mom and they would get dressed and they would dance," said Sutter.
Zaleski speaks broken English and seems to be more comfortable speaking in Polish, which his daughter helped translate. Sutter said she grew up speaking Polish until she was seven years old. She noted it had been about 40 years since her father was last in Poland.
However, Zaleski's life in the U.S. has been full. He and his family lived in Leonia, New Jersey, just across from the George Washington Bridge that leads to Manhattan. The comedian Buddy Hackett had a house in the area, Sutter noted.
As for his job, Zaleski stayed busy.
"I have the job starts 2:30 in the morning, get up, everybody sleeping," Zaleski said. "I come in 9 o'clock in the evening. Dark in the evening, dark in the morning. I never see the light."
Sutter said when her father did have free time he liked to go dancing. He even met his wife while at a dance. Foxtrots, waltzes, polkas, Zaleski would dance them.
Sutter said that while her father worked hard he had very little stress, something she thinks might attribute to his longevity. He's also not a big fan of fish.
"Everything but fish, because fish will kill you," said Sutter translating for her father. "Because he said if you know what goes on in the ocean and all the ships that are in there, he said, why would you want to eat anything out of there?"
Kielbasa and eggs it is.
