Two habits that Jaja had that were troublesome in the spousal relationship between Jaja and Bopcha were smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey and wine.

Jaja would buy both tobacco and cigarette paper separately. Then he would use a cigarette rolling device to make his own smokes, which saved him much money this way. He would smoke everywhere he went, in his home, in the car, outdoors, and everywhere. The tobacco habit eventually resulted in both his death and Bopcha’s death from cancer, even though Bopcha never smoked. The coughing and wheezing from the effects of tobacco are memorable sounds of his tobacco habit.

Jaja also had his own vineyard that surrounded both the front and rear of the Wargoski home in West Warwick. He would ferment the grapes to make his own wine. The wine was kept in wooden kegs downstairs in the basement, which was dark and musty, and smelled strongly of wine.

During the Prohibition years of 1920 to 1933, oldest daughter Amelia writes: “We lived in a rented house in Westerly, RI. The Clark’s lived upstairs and the Wargoski’s lived downstairs. Well, I told you that my father, Jaja, liked to drink. And in Europe, you don’t drink water because the water is contaminated. So you drink whiskey or wine or something like that. So that was a habit that came over with dad as a result of his prior life [in Poland]. Well, when the Prohibition came, and you couldn’t buy whiskey, dad made his own. And he would take grains and he would make mash, and it would ferment. Then he had to distill it in order to get his whiskey. So he had a copper distiller, and he hooked it up into the water system, because you need the cold air to condense the steam from the mash in order for it to drip out as whiskey. And when he did, there was quite a fragrance of whiskey in the house. And the Clark’s upstairs would bang on the floor and call out, “Mike, we know what you’re doing down there. We’re going to call the police. You stop that.” So dad would stop, and then in a day or two he would start it again, hoping that he could get some more done before the police got called. Well, when we moved to West Warwick after I was 10, we had the same problem. The Prohibition was still in effect. And Jaja did not make his own by that time. I do not know why. But he would give me a bottle all wrapped up in newspapers. And he would tell me to go to such and such a house, and you knock on the door so many times. And when you give them that bottle, and they will give you another one that you bring home. And don’t tell anyone what you’ve got. And this is the way that the bootleg booze got distributed. I was a little girl who felt very guilty. She was a little girl who knew there was something wrong about it. But her daddy told her to do it. It’s a good story. I’ve shared it many times as we reminisced about the old days.”

Michael Wargoski & Wictoria Salomeja Tolpa Family History