‘Mr Zee’ was celebrate 100th birthday with vehicle parade

Longtime Joliet businessman and musician Norbert Zielinski never thought he’d live to be 100, much less witness such a big celebration of that milestone birthday.

Family and friends were hosting a vehicle parade for the World War II veteran at 2 p.m. March 24. Cars were supposed to line up at Cantigny Post 367 VFW and then drive past his house. The community was invited. But then Zielinksi became ill and was hospitalized. Organizers then canceled the parade.

Many people know Zielinski as Mr. Zee, as he had once owned Mr. Zee’s Music Shop on Cass Street for 18 years in the 1960s and 1970s. Zielinski’s Mr. Zee band played many weddings and other events.

Zielinski is mystified at all the fuss. But he is full of stories and was happy to share a few.

He was born in the former Saint Joseph Hospital (now known as AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center), which was a large stone building located on Broadway Street in Joliet at the time.

His parents bought a house “out in the country” in 1926. The house was located at the corner of Ingalls and Nicholson – 456 Ingalls Avenue.

Zielinski’s father was a barber in those days, until the Depression, when people either let their hair grow out or asked a neighbor or family member to cut it, he said. Then his father went to work for the state of Illinois at a diagnostic center on Collins Street near the Old Joliet Prison.

“They would send in prisoners from other states and counties and diagnose them and classify them and send them to whatever prison or situation fit the individual,” Zielinski said. “He did that until he passed away. He was 62.”

Zielinski was just 5 when he asked Santa for an accordion; he estimates it cost $2.98. As an aunt sang songs in Polish, Zielinski picked up the tune and played along. Each year, Santa brought a new accordion, each a little better than the last, he said.

“A couple of the guys in the neighborhood had piano accordions,” Zielinski said. “Back then, they had weddings in the house. They would roll up the rugs and move the furniture and hire a couple of musicians to play. I would sit next to them. So I wanted a piano accordion. My father found a used one for $5.”

Zielinski, who attended Holy Cross Grade School, took private accordion lessons for many years. He formed a first band with fellow students when they attended the former Catholic High School in Joliet (now Joliet Catholic Academy) to play school events, he said. He graduated in 1940.

After high school, Zielinski worked for the American Can Company and continued to play. He met his future wife Rosemary (deceased). He was with the sister of a friend.

“I just kept looking at her and she looked at me,” Zielinski said. “He (the friend) took me over and introduced me to her. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever met. So we stood around and talked for a minute and I thought, “Girl, someday, you’re going to be my wife.”

Zielinski was drafted on Dec. 8, 1942 at the age of 21. He did 13 weeks of basic training at Camp Waller, Texas. He then spent eight days on the Santa Rosa, the largest ship in a fleet bound for Casablanca, North Africa. He was subsequently assigned to the motor pool, which was fine with Zielinski because he loved to drive.

“They marched us out to the edge of town and said, ‘This is it,’ out in the field in the dark,” Zielinski said. “I didn’t know where we were, of course. I had my own blankets, so I put one down and covered myself with the other one and that’s where I spent the first night in Casablanca. The next day they put us on a train and hauled us away. We were in the box car for I don’t know how many days. They packed us in like you wouldn’t believe.”

Zielinski also recalled the invasion of Sicily.

“We landed at a little town on the beach and caught them by surprise — there was not a gun shot until the next morning,” Zielinski said. “They finally found out we were there.”

In England, Zielinski met up with his cousin Len Fordonski and had professional photo taken. Zielinski was also treated twice for a bleeding ulcer and then set back to the U.S. to serve at a prisoner of war camp in Oklahoma.

The officer who ran the camp was from the Lemont and took a liking to Zielinski. He helped arrange Zielinski’s discharge on Dec. 12, 1944 and write a letter of recommendation for Zielinski’s next civilian job. Zielinski actually returned to the American Can Company and, in hindsight, did not need the letter.

But he still has it. In the letter, the officer wrote that Zielinski “showed extreme perseverance and diligence” as well as “integrity” and that he “handled all the administrative problems perfectly,” Zielinski said as he read the letter.

Through the years, Zielinski also worked with invoicing for the University of Chicago, managed an Oldsmobile dealership from 1948 to 1962 and then ran Mr. Zee’s Music Shop, where he sold instruments and gave music lessons. His license plate read “A1 AND A2.”

Zielinski became part of a combo while he worked at the American Can Company and eventually formed the Mr. Zee band. The band played ballroom dance music and some polkas.

He has lived in the same house for most of his married life. He had bought the land for his home on Joliet’s west side for $1,500 and held it with a $25 deposit. The location was remote at the time. When Zielinski took his father to see it, his father said, “What are you going to do? Raise kangaroos?”

Zielinski and Rosemary were married 72 years. They had no children due to Zielinski having both diphtheria and scarlet fever in childhood. But they enjoyed their nieces and nephews and traveled throughout most of the U.S., as well as to Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

They also took quite a few spontaneous weekend trips, he said.

“We’d take the stuff out of the van and then go away like a couple of gypsies,” Zielinski said. “It was a beautiful life. I loved every minute of it.”