Thursday, April 27, 2017

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

At one of my birthday's, I was sitting on the kitchen window sill rocking back and forth and went back a little too far and fell on the piazza floor and split my head a bit enough to go to the local first aid hospital in East Boston. It would not be the last time.

To backtrack, when I returned to school in the Fall of 1924, I was put in the first grade. There was no problem this time. I think it was due to my teacher. She was beautiful and I took to her. And talked my mother or pestered her to invite her [ed: the teacher] for dinner and she finally did ask the teacher, Miss Mulledy, to lunch.

At the time, there was my brother, Mario, and me. And we had one room and shared the bed and still had the dining room. And our lunch was pasta and trimmings eaten in there. [ed: the dining room]

I was in my glory and proud to take my teacher home and back to school. At the end of the school year, I was moved to the second grade. In the Fall, I went into the second grade. For some reason, I did not like my teacher. She appeared strict. But we got along after a fashion. I don't recall anything special about her or myself. Once at recess, she gave the students rides on the swings and I got one. But sometime after school started, my mother began to worry about me. Because my complexion was changing color. And my father agreed. The following day the doctor was sent for. He lived in East Boston, not too far over the bridge and railroad tracks on Chelsea St. I think. Anyway, he was a relation of my father. Just how close, I never found out, but he was our doctor. His diagnosis was yellow jaundice and prescribed a prescription that was rather bitter. I was grounded for most of that year. And although I went back, I had not been in school long enough to do the necessary work to move into the third grade.It took some time for me to recover and the sickness was transferable so I had to have a clean bill of health.

Things continued in this manner for me

My birthdays were celebrated, the little music trio or quartet came, my mother's uncle came to make the Italian pastry. I was treated as a prince.

I became aware of my brothers and sisters and did not pay much attention to them. Until much later. ,Mario was next [ed: 18 mos. younger]. Olga [ed: 3 years younger]. Emma [ed: 5 years younger], Bobby [ed: 10 yrs. younger]. I remember Bobby's birth and something was wrong and I was sent to the pharmacy over the bridge on Chelsea St. (corner) I got what was needed and returned. When he was born, we were in The Depression.

9 comments:

  1. Throwback Thursday such an awesome name for this. It certainly transports you back in time. Thank goodness for medical advances. How about your dad going to the pharmacy for the medicine? Love that a music group came to the house for the birthday celebrations.

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    1. Throwback Thursday is an internet meme. I thought Dad's notebooks would fit. Too bad, he doesn't say who the medicine was for, his mother or his new baby brother. I think some of the musicians might have been relatives. One of his uncles played the violin.

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  2. Your father had an amazing memory - I can hardly remember what I ate for breakfast!

    Phillip | W is for White Shapes | What do you see?

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    1. When Alzheimer's took a hold on him, Dad used to travel back through a wormhole to the time when he was between the ages of 17 and 22.

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  3. BEST line of this whole post, "I became aware of my brothers and sisters and did not pay much attention to them." LOL Sounds about right for an older brother! ;)

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  4. CJ.....OW on your dad crackin his head and I laughed at the teachers...we didn't agree with most; a few we liked, but not many, and we did our best to give them grief; I went to catholic school where primarily nuns taught for a good many years; in 7th grade we really gave the business to the english teacher and she swore we would have the "terror" the next year for home room......we did. I think most of the class was made to stay after school for "discipline" that entire year :) we still did not fear her though !! ☺☺♥♥

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    1. I went to parochial school, too. Are you sure you weren't in my class? We had a substitute nun for 7th grade. We gave the poor woman a nervous breakdown. We ended up having our 6th grade nun for 7th grade. She and the 8th grade nun shared duties. I also spent the entire 7th & 8Th grade staying after school for discipline. If one was out of line, all got punished. There were 48 in my class so one of us was bound to screw up on any given day. The nuns hoped the good kids would gang up on the bad, but all it did was make us closer. Us againsts them :-D

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  5. I'm sorry your father had Alzheimer's!
    Your dad's head must have hurt! Ouch!! And, he had yellow jaundice too! Your poor dad!

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