LIFE BEFORE THE WAR

When we lived on Dewey St. there came a time that we had to move again,

Daddy loaded up all the boxes and what-not that he and Mamma had packed, into a wagon,

horse-drawn, for the move. It was to be just a short distance from there . Daddy was an excellent packer. He fit everything so neatly, in all the little cubby-holes between boxes. I don't recall if he had to make another trip, or not, to get all our stuff.

Anyway, he took Mamma with him to get there and start setting up housekeeping, as we kids

walked to the new house. I was nine, maybe, or close to it. Our new place was also on Maywood St. on the other end, 13 Maywood, another 6-family place. The flats in those days were nice and big, although I don't really have much in the way of memories about this flat. We stayed for maybe a year only .

The school my brother and I went to, was Julia Ward Howe elementary. It wasn't too far from a family friend's home, and we sometimes got to go over there. I forget if we went after school or

not, but I remember going there, by myself sometimes. I loved Nellie Lambert, whom we called 'Nana' Lambert. No relation, tho' . Her husband, George, looked like some guys on old TV shows... heavy-set, sitting around in an old-fashioned undershirt that sort-of looked something like tank tops that we have today, only they were thin and always white. We younger kids called him Grandpa Lambert. Don't recall if he drank beer, though . The TV guys always had a beer in their hands. Anyway, they were very good to us . They had a brown, smooth-haired dog named Peggy, and she got pregnant. Well, I, for one, maybe my sibs, was there the day she had her puppies, and I was thrilled to see that happen . No, we didn't get a puppy, in case you were wondering.

There was an A&P supermarket on the opposite corner across the street ( we lived in the last house on that end of Maywood ) , well, not exactly on the CORNER, but just around the corner, on Warren St. I sometimes was sent to the store, and I remember buying a bag of coffee for 24

cents ! It was a full pound, too . The bags were pre-packaged, we didn't grind our own in those days. I don't recall what else I would have to buy there, but the coffee has always stayed in my mind, probably because as I started getting older, I noticed the price climbing.

There was our local theater there on Warren St., and we kids got to go on Saturdays to a free matinee, where they gave us free Hoodsies, an ice-cream cup made by Hood Milk Company, and sometimes, we could have a second cup. these came with little, flat wooden spoons, and boy, were they good !! The movies in those days were double feature, and we saw at least one cartoon, coming attractions, the weekly serial. I think they saved the newsreels for the later audiences of adults. Kids were never seen during the evening shows. We had bedtimes, and we

didn't get to stay up past that time. We had strict rules back then. Didn't matter if it was still light outside, when it was time to go to bed, we went, no whining or arguing .

Actually, we went to the free matinees when we lived on Dewey St., also. I enjoyed those movies so much. We saw a lot of cowboy movies...Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Hop-a-long Cassidy, and the 'singing cowboy', Gene Autry . Roy and Dale sang, too, but it was Autry who was billed that way. Loved their horses, too. Roy had Trigger, Dale had Buttercup, but can't seem to recall the others. Oh, and we also saw the Lone Ranger, on his horse, Silver, with his faithful friend, Tonto.

I had a friend there at that house, named Cookie. Never did know her real name . she must have lived in the same building, I think . There was an older girl, Bertha, who lived on the top floor, and we lived , I think, on the first floor. She would sometimes, during the night, come in the bedroom window, that Betty, Phyllis and I shared, and sit and talk to my sisters. She was their friend . she must have left to go back to her own bedroom before it turned daylight.

My sisters shared a bed, while I, being such a tiny girl, still slept in a crib...no kidding !! I was really tiny. the doctors said I was malnourished, but I don't know if that was true or just a guess on their part, because of my being so petite. that didn't last long...once I hit puberty, I suddenly got heavier. That wasn't for too long a time, because by the time I was 14, I'd slimmed down.

So, ok, we lived there when I was 9, then when I was 10, we moved to 283A Blue Hill Ave. It

was above Kramer's Plumbing, and there was a drugstore on that corner, Finklestein's, and another drugstore kitty-corner to that, called Katz. Two drugstores so close together . We were close to the corner of Quincy St. and we went to Phillips Brooks elementary, right down on Quincy St. I think that, by that time, my sister, Phyllis was going to Jr. High. School. That was

Patrick T. Campbell Jr. High, on Lawrence Ave. I went there myself when time to enter 7th grade . Phyllis had a teacher there named Miss Purcell, who was pretty, with nice, pink cheeks.

She used to have Phyllis go to her home sometimes, to do little things or errands for her. Then, when Phyllis was paid, she would walk home and stop at the butcher shop, Schaffner's, I think

it was, and buy two pounds of hamburger for dinner, for 25 cents ! Two pounds !! I'm not sure if that was just before the war started, or just after. Kinda think it was before, so it was beef still.

anne was already in High School, Roxbury Memorial High School, located up on Warren St, and the side was on Quincy St. They had their own library, to which all three of we girls took full advantage when we went to school there. Betty never went to the same schools with us beyond the elementary grades. she was slow, and had a hearing problem, so she had to go to Horace Mann School for years. Paul didn't go to the same Jr. High or High School, because we moved from that area of Roxbury to a place in the South End, not a real nice area. It was a temporary move, though, because Phyllis and the man she married at 18 bought a duplex in Malden, in a nice location . Think she paid a pittance for it, a few thousand, but, at that time, 1947, or maybe 1948, that was a lot of money. They didn't pay cash, of course .

Back to our home on Blue Hill Ave. That's where we lived when I met the girl who became my best friend, Fay Sodekson. We went to school together, played together after school, sometimes got to go to the show together, at the theater there on Blue Hill Ave, quite a ways up the street, which was a main thoroughfare, as was Warren St. also. Anyway our movie house

was called the Shawmut theater.

Lots of places had that name there in Roxbury. The Shawmut Indian tribe lived there in Massachusetts many years ago.

So, Fay and I were pals for years, doing everything we could together. She had a brother, Popeye we called him. He was slow, too, and he developed a crush on Phyllis. He would bring her cigarettes to show that he cared for her. Remember, in those days no one knew the dangers of cigarette smoking . She was kind to him, but didn't have romantic feelings for him.

After living on B.H. Ave. for maybe a year and a half, we moved to 61 Maywood St. on the other end. A big Catholic church was on B.H.Ave, and it faced our street. We weren't Catholic, as already explained, but I loved that church, even though I went in it only once, with Barbara Hurley, and drank from the fountain. She saw that and gasped, telling me that I'd just drunk the Holy Water ! Guess that was a sin, but I didn't know. I was thirsty and there was a fountain...

I could sit at our bay window, and look down to the church and see the parishoners coming and going . I liked the little coverings the girls and women wore on their heads.

Well, I think this is enough for this posting. I'll add more tomorrow, maybe.

Hope you're enjoying all my little adventures. and there's more to tell, and I'll be skipping back and forth from one place we lived to another, as the memories come to me. Hope you won't mind that, but I keep remembering stuff after thinking I'd told all from each address, so hope you won't mind.

Until next time.

D