Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

age 9

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. Today's chapter:

Once I got on the street I played with the other boys. We played football on a cobble street. We would get a bag and fill it with paper and make it look like a real football. There were not many cars in the 1920s most of the traffic was in the day time, mixed with horse and wagons or men selling out of push carts. What was purchased, he or she got their moneys worth. Newspapers were 2 cents, macaroni (pasta) was 3 cents per pound. Fruit was sold by the dozen. 10 cents a dozen. Veggies less.

Work hours were at least 12 hours per day at 10 cents per hour for workers without a trade.

I was bout 10 years old when I began to play football, baseball, soccer. In fact, I was looking to try out at jr. high school. At The Depression that game was discontinued.

At 12 [ed: years old] I was to go to the local library and could only take out 2 books.And I began to read the science books. Astronomy was my favorite subject. The library was small. It was an old house that belonged to the Kennedys [ed: Joseph and Rose Kennedy, parents of President John F. Kennedy]

The big library was in Central Square area but you had to be 14 years old to go there. And I did. This was a big deal because we could take out 4 books each time.

At the little library my sole books that I read were science books. The library was near my cousin, Ned's girlfriend. She asked me if I knew what I was reading. She said go when I said yes and explained the planets and the shape of our world and Columbus' discoveries. The next time that girl came in to see her I was checking books out and I heard her say "you should see the books he reads!"

I also played baseball, although it was not a favorite with the [ed: Italian] community. "What's the baseball and the football. Learn a trade at least you'll be able to support a family."

And like all immigrants the language in our area was Italian. Once in awhile someone would say speak to them [ed: the children] in English. The reply: They will learn the language in school and so it went.

I also in time progressed I did some boxing. It started with two older brothers coaching a young brother (a bully) to beat up everybody. I watched and then they picked on me. And at twelve I did very well. I hit that bully so many times that his brothers would have him go down to get a rest while the referee counted. He never touched me and I became a sort of a hero and was challenged many times after that. Which gave me a bad reputation.

We also had rallies.We would get bushels, pails of rocks, whatever and throw them at kids over the other street and of course once in a while would bounce on my head and I would bleed.