" Hunky " Culture in present day PA ? (Pittsburgh, York: how much, gated)

[Gene Chode]

Pennsylvania used to have plenty of areas with large populations of Central/East European immigrants , which raises the question of how much of their culture has survived into the present day . I imagine very few non elderly people remain who can speak their ancestral tongues and such , but that doesn't rule out the existence of not so assimilated people of " Hunky " extraction .

So what exactly remains of Hunky culture in PA ? Has it been relegated to small numbers of people getting together for occasional celebrations at a social club with declining membership ? Do people identify with the label of " Hunky " ? Are individual Central/Eastern European identities strong in parts of PA ?

[Flamingo13]

What does that even mean?

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

What does that even mean?

Mill hunky. Bastardization of Hungarian.

As to the original question, likely not a lot. It's been five or six generations since the large migrations from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. You still might see it a bit in the various Orthodox churches.

I would hope the split between pro and anti Tito Serbians would be healed by now as well as the blood feud between Serbs and Croats.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by Gene Chode

Pennsylvania used to have plenty of areas with large populations of Central/East European immigrants , which raises the question of how much of their culture has survived into the present day . I imagine very few non elderly people remain who can speak their ancestral tongues and such , but that doesn't rule out the existence of not so assimilated people of " Hunky " extraction .

So what exactly remains of Hunky culture in PA ? Has it been relegated to small numbers of people getting together for occasional celebrations at a social club with declining membership ? Do people identify with the label of " Hunky " ? Are individual Central/Eastern European identities strong in parts of PA ?

You'll get different opinions on this question based on the person's ethnicity and family background. I grew up on a hill that had at one time been referred to us Hunky Hill. I doubt that anyone uses that term today. I had great grandparents who were born in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and considered themselves Slovak.

My wife's grandfather on her mother's side was born in Hungary and spoke broken English. Her father only spoke Hungarian as a child growing up outside of Pittsburgh. Their family and many of the families of Hungarian Byzantine church held on to many of their traditions and customs. As the generations who were born in the 1920s and 1930s pass on, and children move away, most of those traditions are disappearing. Yes, you will still find some Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, and Ukrainian clubs around Western Pennsylvania, but many of the current members have no connection to that nationality.

So what remains of Hunky culture in PA? Many of the foods such as chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage, poppy seed rolls, nut rolls, pierogis, and many others that my wife still refers to in their Hungarian or Slovak names. What remains of this culture is mostly centered around ethnic churches, especially in former steel mill or coal mining towns.

[ki0eh]

That term might be considered a slur by some. I rarely hear that, or the more certain slur "******," anymore.

Many "Hungarians" were Slovak, or even more particularly Rusyn History from areas subject to the Apostolic King of Hungary prior to World War I. The USSR decided to equate Rusyn with Ukrainian. In vague memory of descendants it could become "Russian" too, especially in those communities that wound up escaping the Greek Catholic church due to Latin rite hierarchical struggles in the early 20th century into full-blown Orthodox.

My own folks moved to a town in upstate NY without the ethnic churches and clubs, so I remember very little from the 1970's before immigrant grandparents died.

[boney89]

In poconos still you can notice polish presents but 1 generetion born here is less interesting in mother land

[loose cannon]

Honky! People of 2nd generation are not into it and move to Philly and New York. Nonsense

[Gerania]

Don't drag George Jefferson into this conversation.

Let's not forget the Bohunks. I haven't thought about this for many years.

[Gene Chode]

Originally Posted by Gerania

Don't drag George Jefferson into this conversation.

Let's not forget the Bohunks. I haven't thought about this for many years.

George Jefferson ? Who is this fellow and how does he relate to this topic ?

[Ohiogirl81]

Wow. Really?