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 returning to East Boston I began seeing Mary more often. I had been seeing her and we had dreams which we did not express outwardly. I had to ask her father as Mary said I should if we were to be a twosome. I asked him and he ok'd our going together predicated on the community's fathers oral essay. Knowing who you were, your parents, etc. concluding with the famous saying, "no monkey bissonis." And coming in no later than 11 PM.

She also had a young Greek interested in her, and since she and I had arrived to an understanding, I informed him I was giving  her a cedar chest for Christmas.

Prior to this time I was being invited to her house and on Sundays I would have dinner. There by invitation of course or be there on evenings for coffee and pies. Yes we were serious.

[Ed: When Ma told me the story of her Greek suitor, she said Dad had to discourage the Greek fella from seeing Mary so told him he (Dad) was going to give Mary a hope chest. And then he had to make good his threat. Ma seemed perturbed that she wasn't the one to decide which suitor she was going to choose as Dad jumped the gun.

The hope chest in the picture is Ma's, but not the original finish. The original finish was cherry mahogany with a waterfall pattern in the grain of wood. Somewhere in the 1970s DIY furniture stain became popular. Dad refinished his desk with this gawdawful Spanish Red stain. He had a lot of stain left over and being frugal, he didn't want to waste it so a lot of furniture that didn't need to be refinished became fair game for him. Ma was so upset when she saw what he had done to her beautiful hope chest. I hope to have Ma's cedar chest restored to a cherry mahogany finish.]