When I Was A Child~Happy Memories

One of my earliest memories was when my father would come home from work, he'd scoop he up in his arms, and I'd kiss his stubbly cheek. My father liked to do the cooking, so I would help him make the Thanksgiving dinner which I enjoyed. I would watch him bathe the turkey and stuff it. He would let me help mix the stuffing ingredients which was mainly stuffing from a box, eggs, and I forget what else. I would clean the dining room table for the company. We would have my mom's aunt Josephine, my dad's brother, uncle, Joe, and my mom's mom, my grandmother Grammy and her sister Aunt Josie, our great aunt. Uncle Joe picked up Grammy and Aunt Josephine from Brookline where they shared an apartment. We used to go over there to visit as kids, and my brother Bill would go to the top floor which I was afraid of, and both of us would cross Beacon St. and visit the store and buy candy of all kinds. My Aunt Josephine would give me a kiss on the cheek when we left, of which I was like gross! because her lipstick and all, and I'd wipe it off right away.

Grammy eventually moved to Canton into an elderly complex. I visited her along with my sister Catherine. She would cook all kinds of goodies, some of which I liked and some of which I didn't. She made bread pudding, and cream of wheat from the box without lumps. We had brown sugar with it and milk.

I liked Aunt Josephine's apple pies and when she visited on Christmas and Uncle Joe would give all of us kids $10 and he taught me the Hully Gully.

On Christmas morning, my sister and brothers, Billy, Catherine, and Joe, would rush down before Mass and look for all our gifts which we would then put in our own piles to open after church. We usually got ten or more because we had a big family and when we got older we all would buy each other gifts too. So each year I'd buy for my nine siblings, mom dad, uncle, aunt, grandmother, and later on, nieces and nephews.

I always like to get my cards for Christmas out early, as I got older. I would send then out on or right after Thanksgiving or December 1st. I really enjoyed writing calligraphy for the addresses, and I would send out about 20 or so.

My father was one of six, and uncle Joe was his favorite brother who happened to be a bachelor who lived in Jamaica Plain, MA where my father grew up on Elliot St. Uncle Joe loved to dance and would dance every week at a place for ballroom dancing. My parents met at a ballroom dance. One of my brothers was named after uncle Joe, and he turned out to be the closet to my dad. He has platinum blonde hair like my dad did.

My five brothers are all handsome. From oldest to youngest, Bobby, John, Wally, Joe and Bill. Mom said Joey used to mix the sugar and the salt when he was little. He got up early before anyone was up, and put the sugar in the salt container and the salt in the sugar container. She also said that while in the cry baby room at church, he would put his gloves on his feet, and years later the stores came out with toe socks.

Bobby moved out when I was very little. John went into the Navy. Wally was around for awhile. He was a football star in the Canton High School. His friends used to drive by our house and yell "Wally!" He was popular with friends. That made me feel proud.

Billy and Joey were around me the most since they were only 4 and 6 yrs older, respectively. Joey and Billy and Wally were altar servers. Joey used to give out Necco wafers pretending they were Communion. It was fun. Joey got his own room and decorated it nicely. He had a brand new blue comforter with that frill for the box spring,called a bedskirt, and it all matched, and he was the first one to do that. I used to like coming into his room and listening to Johann Strauss and Phantom of the Opera.

I used to go in Billy's room and use his VCR when he wasn't home. He was the only one who got dad to buy him one. I started watching INXS in the 80's on his VCR. My brothers listened to the Doors a lot so I used to also, and then Pink Floyd. I remember some song, I don't know the name of, they used to play over and over, it probably was Led Zepplin.

I walked by John's room and he was listening to Billy Idol "White Wedding". Bobby had music in his car "Another one bites the dust by Queen" He says he doesn't remember that but I remember music!!

My older sisters are Mary, Joan, Louise and Catherine. Mary worked for Friendly's as a waiteress and used to bring home a half gallon of ice cream with cones. That was a treat. Joan moved to Florida when I was little. She left our house around 16 or 17. Mary met and married her husband from Friendlys and had her first boy when I was ten. His name is Mark and I remember her putting him in a draw with a blanket in it, for a crib when he was a baby. We didn't have one I guess. Louise also left home around 16 or 17. When she was about 18 she went to visit Joan in Florida and came back with a baby in her belly. Dad was mad at her but she moved to her own apt and took care of my niece, Rachel. I got Louise's room :)

Catherine and I had rooms next to each other and we used to pass notes from our windows with a string or something. We used to say how cool it would be if we had a window between our rooms, and we used to knock on the wall between us to say good night.

Joey, Cathy, and I used to trade stickers with our neighborhood pals. Trend scratch and sniffs came out then. I loved stickers so much. We went to a store that sold stickers at the mall and we got shiny ones, and eventually puffies, fuzzies, and oilies. I also loved Lisa Frank ones.

We used to play games with the neighbor hood kids, Elizabeth and Melissa Spellman, Wendy Payne and Linda MacKay. We played Chinese jump rope, rode bikes, and played some kind of witch game, based on the wizard of Oz I think, where we'd cover Wendy, the witch, with fall leaves completely, and her little monkey Elizabeth would start chasing us. We'd go around the pile and say the witch is dead, the witch is dead, and then she'd get up form the pile of leaves and her and her monkey Elizabeth would chase us.

Joey Cathy and I went rollerskating. Went went down our street and up the big hill Lexington St. and used to come down fast, and Joey lost one of his stoppers on his skates. We three also went to the cemetery to play, and Joey and Cathy were jumping off a wall into the bushes below so I did, but my new sweatsuit caught on a sharp part of the bush, and Joey had to drag me out, and he put water from the the bottles they used on the graves, on my cut, on my left knee, part of the skin was peeled. I probably cried. But I was mostly upset my new sweatsuit was ruined. That was my first and only scar. It's gone now.

In school I was very talkative and the nun in first grade who was my teacher, Sr. Louise, told me to stop talking. I told my classmate Matthew Cross I was going to marry him. In second grade I had a crush on this boy Michael Jackson. I told him I had a dream of him. In third grade, this boy Michael Collins was following me around the schoolyard and I didn't like it, so I had one of those coats with a very high neck collar and I zipped it up over my face so he'd go away.

One girl peed her pants in class and had no underwear for the rest of the day.

Joan told me, that when I was born, she was so excited and told everyone she had a new baby sister. She said I was the cutest little thing with big blue eyes and blonde hair. She said Billy used to carry me around like a doll!

We had a lot of cats for pets. Mary brought home a grey one called Smokey. And my mom got one black and white I named Oreo. We also had an all white one named Snowball.

Snowball, Oreo, and Smokey all got along. We fed Oreo Tender Vittles. Me and Billy used to sleep with the cats Oreo and Snowball in our beds. Billy used to have Oreo on his bed next to his right side, and his arm around the head of Oreo, cuddling with him as he slept.

I met my best friend Sandra in fourth grade. She moved to Portugal in 7th grade. We wrote for 10 years and then she moved back here but we had nothing in common anymore.

The Spellmans moved to Portsmouth, NH and the Dohertys which we also played with, moved to PA.

When I played with the Dohertys, Beth and Collen, I used to invent the games and Beth got tired of going along with them So I continued to play with Colleen.

During the winter, we used to build snow forts and throw snow balls at the other kids. We had a compartment in ours which we kept candy bars in. Some times we made ice balls, and we also made a tunnel through the large snow bank!