MORE EARLY MEMORIES

The big hurricane of 1938 hit when we lived on Dewey St.

I was 8 at the time, and about 2 months before my 9th birthday. It struck on September 21st that year. It made landfall first on Long Island, New York. That's right next to Connecticut, and those areas sustained a lot of damage. We were hit nearly as hard . I don't really remember much about this storm , but, knowing me, I'm sure I was scared silly . It was devastating, and around 600 lives in total, were lost. This is info I just looked up. That must have been shortly before we moved to 13 Maywood St.

Sometime during the maybe 3 years we on Dewey, something terrible happened ! My father was using a butcher knife to carve a turkey, when the knife slipped and hit an artery in his forearm.

The blood shot out of his arm and hit the ceiling, it came out with such force ! We couldn't call for help, because we didn't have a telephone, and wouldn't have been able to pay for an ambulance, anyway.

It just so happened that that family friend who sometimes came to stay with us was there, but had had an accident and was on crutches, but the other friend, whom I've mentioned before, Louie West, was visiting us, and he came running into the kitchen when he heard Daddy's yell and grabbed Daddy and took him out to his car, and drove Daddy to the hospital. We have always been grateful to him for saving Daddy's life !

This man, Louie West, belonged to a Service organization known as the UAV, United American Veterans. This group put on a party for under-privileged kids every Christmas. Louie always took us younger kids to those parties. They had candy and ice cream and cookies, and a Santa Claus who handed out presents to all of us. Louie and Jenny West's kids also were there, and we all had such a good time. Christmas carols were sung while someone played them on the piano .

After the party was over, Louie would bring us back home again. We got to go to several of those Christmas parties, thanks to Louie, bless his heart. We sure loved that man. His wife was ok, but we didn't see her much. We played with some of his kids, the 3 girls, but not Junior, their only son. didn't like him much, for some reason I don't remember.

I do remember the song the UAV members sang, and the Post number, 241. The song was the same tune as one of the college songs, think it was Notre Dame , their Fighting song. The UAV made up their own words, and the Post number was in the words .

The UAV marched in parades. We had several in Boston. One was the Bunker Hill parade, don't remember if that was the one they had on April 19th every year, or a different one, but we seemed to have a lot of parades. I was taken to them, and most of the time it was that old family friend who took me, and, since I was so little, he would put me on his shoulders so I could see everything. I loved parades, and to this day, watch every one I can on TV. Always loved the marching music, and the drums.

The UAV, I think, sponsored a girl's Precision Drill Team, and I was too young for that, but Phyllis was in it, and I loved watching her learning to do all the different exercises . I think she marched in some of those parades with the rest of the Drill Team . I wasn't in it, as I said, but I was allowed to march in one of the parades. Only lasted a short time, though, because I got too tired, and went back to Mamma, who was there, watching it.

I don't think that veterans organization is still in existence. Too bad. It was great.

On Dewey St. there was a little store about half-way up the street, where we could go and get a grab-bag full of candy for a nickel. We hardly ever saw a nickel, so didn't get the grab-bags often. Never knew what kind of candy was in there, so it was fun anticipating . They also had sherbet, served in little, soft, white paper cups that had pleats all around .The sherbet was really good, and only cost 1 or 2 cents . I would lick mine, my favorite being lime, but I sometimes got the orange. It was good, too. I'd lick it down to where I'd have to sorta squeeze the cup to make it rise to the top, so I could lick some more, and that went on until the last of it, then I'd turn the cup inside-out and lick it to get every speck.

A couple of streets away from Dewey was called Ingleside St. There was a local store there named Mary's. It was pretty small, guess it could be called a Mom and Pop store. Mamma would send us there sometimes to get a few things, and I'd go alone sometimes to put a penny in the gum-ball machine, not only for a gum-ball, but to see if I could get one of the winning gum-balls, which were colored yellow with a red curvy stripe on it. I can't remember for the life of me, what we would win with one of those, but all us neighborhood kids tried to get one. Maybe it was a 5 cent candy bar, because to us, that would have been a BIG prize, since we seldom had a nickel to buy one for ourselves. But, even so, we could get a lot for a penny. There were bolsters, a candy bar much like the TWIX bars of today, and they were 2 for a penny. That was sister Phyllis's favorite, or several Tootsie Rolls, and Sugar Babies, several of those for a penny, so, even without the nickels for a big candy bar, we were happy with our penny's worth.

Well, on that sweet note, think I'll stop for tonight, and pick it up again tomorrow.

Hope you are enjoying seeing some of the things that went on in the lives of not only me, but the other members of my family.

D