Misc Info from Mary, Anna and Angie

Angie and Anna: Mary wouldn't go out with a guy who didn't have a car. (Mary says she was too shy to ride the street car.)

Anna and Mary loved to dance. They used to cut a rug, they say.

The guys loved Mary.

If a guy wanted to date the aunts, he'd have to come over and meet Grandma and Grandpa. He'd have to sit outside and talk to them. G'pa would serve them some of his (elderberry) wine.

Mary: Daddy always did the cooking on Washday--he always made potato soup.

M: Mother always said, "It wouldn't do for any of us to be alike."

G'ma made molasses taffy and would pick it up and start pulling it immediately, even though it was hot, hot. Sometimes she'd go outside to get it to cool down faster.

M: Many a time Daddy would make us girls a hot water bottle when we had stomach aches at night. (I think she means cramps. She also said he'd heat a cake pan for them. G'pa was a car inspector. He worked from 3PM to 11PM. It sounds like they often waited up for him.)

M: Angie was always crying and so people told her she was a cry baby. She'd even say, "I a kie baby," (in a whiny, cryish voice).

Mary says John would watch out for what kind of boys the girls (Mary and Anna) hung out with. Sometimes boys would come over once and then they'd never see them again--implying the Johnny had had a word with them. She says they loved to dance and always had a crowd over on Saturday and Sunday nights. They played records on the Victrola and danced waltzes and the foxtrot.

Mary tells about G'pa putting up a bar along the top of the fence where there was a gap, so the girls could hang from it and play. Bill was home once from the Marines and had a fit because the girls were showing their bloomers when they hung upside down. He made them take the bar down.

M: I remember one time when Bill come home and he shaved our underarms.

When Mary and Bill Vincent were going out (ca. 1932), Bill bought Mary a pair of heels to match a spiffy dress she had. G'ma and G'pa were scandalized.

Mary worked at the soda fountain at Woolworth's. Bill Vincent would come in and wouldn't let anyone but Mary wait on him. That's how they met. I think he was a cab driver at that time.

Ethel Silverman says she and Uncle Vince were madly in love but couldn't do anything about it cause she was Jewish.

They called Uncle John the "Little Jew" because of the way he looked and how he could sell anything to anyone. They say they put a deck of cards under his hat in his hands in his casket.

Whenever I smell Coke and Bourbon I think of Uncle Preacher. I think he had a Highball every evening.

Mary says G'ma thought the world of Bill and often said he could have been President if he'd wanted to. The aunts all get a good laugh out of that.

M: Uncle Frank was 104 when he died.

M: Daddy danced on the stage of the Buckingham Theater. I don't know where that was.

M: Mother was witty. So was Daddy. I guess she got it from him.

M: We was so embarrassed when we found out that Mother was going to have another baby. The day she was gonna have your mother [Serena], she begged us to stay home with her. She knew the baby was comin', you know. But we went off to the park. We were gone all day and when we came back, Mother had had the baby. We didn't want her, but onct she come, we just loved your mother. She was the cutest baby! We just spoiled her rotten.

Angie said Uncle George died coughing. I'm not sure what he died of. He had a glass eye and looked like Col. Sanders.

Mary told me this about when Xavier died: A bird flew into the window and they knew (G'pa had said) it was an omen. Xavier died that day. They say he was very smart and ran around a lot. He had lots of energy. When Xavier was about 2 or 3 years old, Vince was getting him dressed and put him on the ironing board. Vince turned around to get something for him, and Xavier fell off and was sick after that. He rolled around in the bed all night. (That was the first of his spells.) Vince took him down to the railroad where G'pa was working. Xavier vomited on G'pa, so G'pa said to take him home because he was sick. Apparently, Xavier had epileptic fits after that. (At first he'd stand and stare and in a short while it'd be gone. He got so we could hardly handle him.) Vince suffered a lot thinking it was his fault. They called it Saint Vitus Dance. They would chloroform him to get him to come out of the spells. The last time he didn't come out. Daddy was in the back bedrooms upstairs. Two or three birds worked to get into the window. Xavier loved the boxcars. He wanted to draw. Anyway, he would go over there. I don't know if someone took him over.

James died when he was six months old. He couldn't nurse and he died of malnutrition. His belly got bigger and bigger.

Jessie Stiles gave them the itch. Bill was so mad--he was home from service. She come in and sit on the bed, you know. That's not her, though. It was Quiggons (sp?) in the back. They had a house full. They were all smaller than we were. They got bed bugs. Mother nearly died. We knew cause one of em told us, if I'm not mistaken, that they had bed bugs. Mother cam in and turned on the light and the bugs went running. I was real restless and that's what made her come in to turn the light on. They ran everywhere. During the day they stay hidden under the mattress. They put lids full of coal oil under the legs of the bed. (Coal oil was used in lamps.) The Quiggons lived caticorner behind us, not straight back. The little girl or boy came over and I took em upstairs. Mother was so mad. It wasn't anytime before we had them. When you got the itch you would scratch till you broke the skin. We used to get into the bath tub and we would take our hands and rub the salt on us. Boy, we worked at it! We had to.

I don't' remember when they built the bathroom, but I remember when we first used it. It was wonderful!

Mother made awfully good cakes and pies. Yes, indeed! Mother was a very good cook. She used to make just an ordinary cake. It was lard and butter, I think, she mixed. A cup of sugar. Beat that. A couple of eggs, flour, milk... We always had good eats.

Sunday's dinner was always delicious. We had a roast, mashed potatoes, always, gravy, slaw, and a vegetable. Mostly, the sweet and sour slaw. You chop your cabbage up. Salt, pepper, a little vinegar. Fry the bacon and pour it with the hot grease on the slaw. And a little sugar. Not too sweet. Mother never made anything too sweet.

[To be continued...]