On February 19th, 2015, an audio recorder was turned on during a typical dinner conversation at the Previc household in Camp Hill, PA. Cal was a spry 95 year old at the time, and Tom (son) and Chris (grandson) were at the table. Conversation about Slovenia was occurring, which warranted the thought of spontaneously flipping on the record button.

In this edit of the clip, the thoughts begin with an image of Lihtenberk Castle, and moves to a bit of family history. As was commonplace at the table, the conversation quickly takes a political turn. What was it like for new immigrants 100 years ago? How did those groups organize to become the Americans of today? How does that inform our thoughts for the immigrants of the 21st century?

This was entirely a candid moment, and completely representative of dinner with Cal on any given Thursday.

Everyone recalls how great a cook Cal was. Even into her late-90s, she was experimenting with recipes and keeping some close at hand. Here is a great one for a zucchini casserole :

We all know that Cal had a lifelong passion for learning. She would sit for long stretches during the day reading everything and anything she could get her hands on.

Back in 1926 though, Karolina Kukovica had a tougher time adapting to school in Slovenia. She recounted the tale many a time of crying all the way to school because she could never remember if “6” had the little tail up or down, or was it “9.” Her teachers might have thought her efforts were just “dobro” at the time, but her commitment to education inspired generations of “vzorno” students.

Click on the image to read the full report card.