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:

My aunt came first [ed: to the US] as the elder child. I don't know how old she was when she came. She married here to a man named Emanuel DeCristoforo. He was an artist actually who worked with marble and granite. He had a hand in sculpting the two lions that are on either side of the stairway at the Boston Public Library.

Each of the brothers [ed: Joe, Achille, and Alfred] lived with their sister and her family. Each had his own trade. Uncle Joe was a barber. My father [ed: Achille] a tailor and qualified as a journeyman customs tailor. Uncle Fred was a shoemaker. And he made custom shoes. Put your foot on the pattern paper and he would trace your foot, take whatever measurements e needed and in due course, one would have his or her or children's shoes.

Aunt Angelina had children. I don't know how many at the time, there were nine. When I grew older Joe was the second last. Margaret, Chris [ed: Chris was Uncle Manny's son from his first marriage to Margaret Knox. Margaret died when Chris was 2 yrs old. He was raised by his mother's family]Raymond, Richard, Annie, Manuel, Joe, Alfred.

Each brother got a job and left their sister's on their marriage late. Uncle Joe was first. Knowing my aunt and from what I heard, she was not in favor of that marriage. Uncle went ahead, as I understood it, and married Aunt Clara, she was a lovely looking woman. The problem was that she was a divorcée [ed: At the time, as a Catholic and marrying a divorced person, one would not be able to marry in the Church or take Communion at Mass. In the eyes of the Church, the marriage would not be recognized.] with two children both girls and lovely looking. Uncle did not adopt them, but they did live with Uncle Joe and called him by his first name. Although they lived with him and their mother, he did not seem to have any friendship with the girls. They addressed him, but he was not always responsive.

Aunt Clara was very proud of him and left me no doubt that Uncle Joe was number 1. He was in love with her. Any many years later, he told me how they both would go to the Saturday night dance at the veterans' hall. And when the orchestra took a break he would go and refresh himself with drinks. He was quite a character. Always called me nephew and he would always come and visit when your mother and I moved to Natick [ed: Uncle Joe lived the next town West of Natick in Framingham] He brought a cake and would a lot of times wait for me. At that time I was a lawyer and I put in long hours or attended meetings. When I graduated and passed the Bar, he had a little dinner at my cousin's restaurant. He gave me a wristwatch. It's a Waltham, it still works and keeps good time. This April '07 it became 56 years old. It's an antique. Waltham Watch shut down long ago. [ed: Sorry, Dad, when I was cleaning out the house, I looked for this watch, but never found it.]

Whenever Uncle Joe came to visit us in East Boston or his sister, he either came alone without Aunt Clara. He never brought Aunt Clara to his sister's house.