MORE MAYWOOD ST. MEMORIES

Since this is the house that we lived in the longest, six years, most of my childhood memories take place there. I loved that house, and our street, and that big Catholic church on Blue Hill Ave., that faced Maywood St. It was St. John's church.

When Paul had his paper route, probably at around ten years of age, he would go down to the corner, across from the church on Sundays, at about the time for the service to be over, and got to sell a few papers to some of the men coming out of the church. The Sunday paper was 5 cents, while the daily edition went for 2 cents. His regular route was partly on our own street, and sometimes I would go with him.

When Anne took me into downtown Boston, she often went to a ladies apparel store, Lerner's, where she bought a lot of her wardrobe. There were times when she let me stay outside and look in at the live mannequin turning around in the center section of window. Think she was on a turntable, maybe. I would stare at her to see if she would blink or smile or something, anything, but that gal (or gals, if there was more than one) had such good control of her muscles ... amazing ! I was fascinated !! She sometimes had on a fur coat, real fur, because there weren't any animal activists in those days, that I ever heard about .

Mamma would take Paul and I down to Dudley St. I loved that area. there was one department store, Timothy Smith's, and, at Christmas time, We'd get to see Mother Goose, a woman with a black dress or robe and a pointed hat ( sort of the same outfit 'witches' wore, but I knew it was just Mother Goose, and she operated just like Santa. We kids would go up to her, and don't recall if she asked what we wanted for Christmas...don't think so, because that was Santa's job.

Anyway, whatever we talked about ended up in getting a present. That was so great !

Someone bought me a bright yellow dress there, very inexpensive, and that's the dress I wore on the church stage that time when I was 3, and was presented as 'The Duchess of Candyland' , and sang 'On the Good ship, Lollipop' .

Anne says she bought that dress for me, but when I was 3, she was only 11, so maybe she's mistaken on that one. Anyway, Mamma did buy me black, patent leather shoes at a shoe store close to our church, for $ 1.69 . I was told about it when I was older.

Dudley St. had other stores, a millinery, and a store called Beacon. We didn't shop there much. I forget what else was there, except the movie theater, right close to the church, called the Rivoli, and we kids sometimes got in free, because the manager liked Phyllis. This is when we were a little older.

Then there was the 'EL' station. We used to get on the train there to go almost anywhere . It went from Everett on one end, to Roxbury, at least on the other end, and maybe farther than that. We could get to Boston proper, or Revere Beach, or many other stops along the line. I loved the 'EL'.

There was an Irish family living in one of the houses across the street, forget their name, but the man had a paper route and drove to wherever he worked. I think he probably picked up the bundles at the newspaper office, then dropped them off at kids' homes for their individual routes,and at newspaper stands, too.

when that man died, his family had the coffin right there in the parlor (living room) . I went across to see him.

The same thing happened to the Grandmother of the Puleo family who lived on the floor under our flat. She died, and they had her coffin in the parlor, too. So we got to see her, also. I didn't particularly want to see her, but we really loved the Puleo's, so we did it for them, out of respect. The grandfather lived with them, too, and the kids called him 'Bumpy' .

The Puleo's. O, what nice people they were. Johnny was Italian, don't know if Dot was, but she cooked Italian food. Sometimes she would send or bring a plate of spaghetti for Mamma, and it smelled heavenly. I think Mamma shared some with us. Yummy !

I already mentioned that Johnny's cousin, who was a 'Little Person', had a band, called 'The

Harmonica Rascals' in an earlier post, but don't think I mentioned that this cousin was also

named Johnny Puleo. I really enjoyed that band when they were in movies. Think that's where I saw them. Never met them, though.

We liked them and they liked us, too. Their kids were, Jackie, a boy, Eleanor, Carolyn and Susie, in that order, from oldest to youngest.

Once, Susie had to be rushed to the hospital, because she had been running in the house with a toothbrush in her mouth, tripped and fell and the toothbrush went through the roof of her mouth. She turned out ok, but what a fright for her family !!

Many years, later, when I went back to Boston to attend my brother's funeral, I was happily surprised to see Dot Puleo there, and Jackie, and one or two of his sisters, also ! Hadn't seen them since we moved away, when I was 17, back in 1947 . It was wonderful to see them, and as it turns out, they and Paul and his wife, Muriel, had had contact with them for all those years !

Paul had never mentioned that to me ! I tried to contact them since, but, sadly, no luck.

Mamma would let us kids poke her chocolates when she received a box of them as a gift from someone . To this day, I still like to poke them to see what the filling is.

My sisters, Betty and Phyllis had friends who lived on our street. Betty's friend was Hazel DeWolfe, and her sister, Helen, or maybe it was Eleanor DeWolfe, who was Phyllis's friend.

Don't think they were real close friends, but one girl who lived someplace else, was Phyllis's best friend Renee, pronounced like teenie. Renee would come over and she and Phyllis would turn the radio on, and the two of them would jitterbug like crazy to the music. They both wore loafers, not sure if they were penny loafers or not, and, of course, skirts and blouses. No pants for girls in those days, as I've mentioned before.

Anne did buy and wear slacks when she was either an older teen, or a bit older, I forget which.

Seemed strange to see a girl in pants !

Well, stopping for now... more to come.

Enjoy, and be good to each other, and don't forget to always count your blessings, and smile.

I love you all.

D