Sophie Wojihoski's archaeology interest began in high school ancient history and geology classes. It has taken the nonagenarian around the world and then some.
Mottos are an animated and vigorous foundation of Sophie's daily life. She faithfully lives by "never put off until tomorrow what you can do today - tomorrow may never come" and "for life, not for school, we learn." She also touts that it's not perfection but the direction of your life that counts.
The 90-year-old, "pushing 91" she chortles, enthusiastically recalls her archaeological digs whether it's been to Zaire (now the Republic of Congo), to Montana for a paleontology search for dinosaur fossils or back home where for the past six years she has participated in the Collier Lodge dig along the Kankakee River. She most relishes Africa having gone there seven times with digs in Zaire and Swaziland.
Her itinerary has also taken her to China, the Phillippines, the Middle East, Egypt, Mexico, Australia, Papua-New Guinea and Poland.
This chock-full life hasn't been only travel and archaeology. At age 50 she enrolled at Indiana University Northwest to fullfill a long held ambition to teach. Her degree in hand, she taught reading at Hobart Middle School for 23 years. Retired now of course, she still continues teaching reading within the Portage Adult Education program. Sophie lives in Hobart where she and her husband, the late Joseph Wojihoski Sr., raised their four children.
Sophie is a good archivist with files full of pictures and news clippings relating to her adventures. Chief among them is a photo of Sophie holding a 1000 B.C. Iron Age skull found in 1989 during road construction in Goma, Zaire. She's also pictured in 1990 with a huge 2.4 million-year-old elephant bone she uncovered in the Semliki Valley dig in Zaire. The artifact was dated by a London geologist accompanying the team.
Digging in Africa had its challenges. The teams lived in tents, fought heat exhaustion with lots of water and some salt - "eat at least three potato chips a day" - and always on the lookout for snakes, scorpions, hippopotamuses, lions, baboons, impala and elephants.
Today the one thing that most puzzles Sophie is the heavy, silver man's ring she unearthed last year at the Collier Lodge dig. Found at a depth of three feet, the ring with two swastikas and a likeness of a Viking helmet, which she initially thought outlined the devil, was identified as a Waffen SS German World War II relic. She's still curious how it got there - perhaps brought to this country by a returning American soldier who later fished along the Kankakee? Well maybe.
Internet research reveals that the Waffen SS was an elite military unit under the command of Reichfuher Heinrich Himmler. Its most formidable unit was the Viking Division which defended Berlin's Third Reich Chancellery and Hitler's bunker to the bitter end with their motto "Ersten rein Und Letzten raus" (first in, last out). Further research also found there's a local historical Viking Division that participates in Buckley Homestead's World War II re-enactments in Lowell.
The opinions are solely those of the writer. Contact her at janetcopywrite@sbcglobal.net.
