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:

The Brother was growing and at this time he was 14 years of age. He had gone from elementary school to high school. And along the way he managed to get himself into some episodes. Which we as parents found out [ed: mostly because as adult children during family get togethers where we reminisced. Otherwise, our parents had no clue ] 

Washing the cat in the shower. [ed: I was 12 so the Brother was 17 or 18 at this time. Ma wasn't fond of animals. Claimed the cat smelled.  The Brother ran the shower to wash poor Ginnette who didn't like the whole production. Leaped up the wall where there was a plastic shower curtain covering a window in the tub in an effort to escape over the shower doors. The cat grabbed onto the curtain rod and pulled the curtain down. The Brother opened the shower door and the cat made a bee-line for escape. The Brother wasn't able to get the shower curtain up properly, but enough so that it would stay up. A few days later, Ma was in the shower and the curtain rod came down. She didn't find out until years later what really happened]

Dropping a cherry bomb down the storm drain and having Mrs. Hunter scared out of her mind. [ed: The Brother was probably 13 - 14 yrs old. This really was a very funny event, at least to us. You can read about it and some other escapades here.]

Helping mother cook outdoors. He had a good fire going. He used gasoline to start it. Which caused her to whack him. [ed: Well, that but more because he had scared the daylights out of her. She was in the kitchen washing dishes. Watching him build the fire "Boy Scout" fashion like she told him. And then putting a steak on the grill. The fire wasn't going fast enough for him so the gasoline. The grill erupted in a column of flame which filled Ma's view of the kitchen window. She rushed out to thinking he had gone up in flames. After the adrenaline rush and seeing he was okay, but the steak sacrificed to the gods, she took her slipper off and whacked him a few times with it.] One of the neighbors called the police. Officer Fraser came to the house [ed: Officer Fraser would become well acquainted with my parents :-D] Saw all the toys in the garage and his room and said a well loved child. [Actually, Ma describing what happened said to the Officer, so you think sending him to his room with  a stereo and all his things is punishment enough?]

Had a ham radio set up [ed: The Brother was in his late teens] and forgot to ground it [ed: the mast and antenna] a lightning bolt came down the staircase into the television.

He thought he didn't get many toys at one Christmas and we showed him the pictures, home movies.

His driving caused a lot of worry and were we relieved when he came home.

St. Sebastian's was a prep school, but he hung around with the wrong boys.

I took him to some of my affairs [ed: Knights of Columbus, Italian-American Charitable Society] We rented a formal outfit for him.

And of course we were heartbroken with his standing at St. Sebastian's. [ed: The Brother had failed Latin in his junior year. The priests wanted The Brother to repeat the entire year rather than just repeat Latin. My mother reasoned The Brother wouldn't need Latin as he would never become a priest.] We transferred him to Natick High School.

He graduated and then came home one day saying that he wanted to go to computer school. I objected. Mother sent him. That section of the economy was in its infancy and like a lot of parents I wanted him to go to college. He refused.