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 passsed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them.

I remember my first love. She was the landlord's baby child. It was Summer and we were in the yard. The garden was cultivated and I was on the inside of the gate getting rides opening and closing it. She was on the walkway. Dressed in a light pink dress and her reddish hair nicely down. She was also drinking from wax bottles, small, and when emptied could serve as gum to chew. She shared them. I had evidently played with her previously. At some point she died and I remember my father talking my mother to dress me in a pair of short trousers he had made for me.

My mother was hesitant. She did not think that I should go. She didn't think I should visit. My father convinced her. She dressed me and I went down to the first floor where she lived with her brothers and sisters. She was the baby. I entered the living room and looked at the casket and saw her inside it. Of course, I did not know  what it was about.

At some time in the 1990s, I was visiting my sister, Olga. Peter Massimineo [ed: not sure of the spelling as I can't quite decipher the writing] Olga's brother-in-law dropped by. During the course of his visit, he was asked about his family, brothers and sisters and how they were doing. He covered everyone except his deceased sister. I told him you had another sister, described her and the wake. He said, "You're right. I did omit her."

Then there was a short silence and he asked me, "You remember that?"

I said, "Yes,"

"You were three years old."

I remembered, age I did not know.

[ed: The photograph is actually of Dad's youngest brother, Robert ( aka Bob, Bobby, Chick, or Chickie at 2 or 3 years old). I don't have a photograph of Dad as a baby/toddler. He and Uncle Bob looked a lot alike so I imagine this is what Dad looked like at this age]