A review is in order since a new year is nearly upon us. It reveals that I have been jotting since 1992 and reveries or memories of things past seem to please my captive audience, more than thoughts of things present. This being the case I will continue in the same vein (or is vain, more appropriate?)
On a brisk walk the other day I was musing about how “E-Mail” is similar to a thought or feeling. It seems so in its instantaneousness. I think of you and I express a few words on a screen and boom!! It’s in your possession! I still enjoy the old face-to-face expression of thoughts and feelings, but when the one “thought-about” is far away, it feels great to know you can reach them immediately as a thought. This Sunday’s Times (1/7/96) ran an article about E-Mail J! This was after I had written the above.
It reads: “One of the unexpected marvels of this era is the revival of correspondence, not in handwritten letters on water marked stationery, but in the swelling torrent of hastily banged out electronic computer missives. E-mail has such a reputation for speed that technophiles have long sneered at the inefficient “snail mail” delivered by the Postal Service. But while E-mail zips along at nearly the speed of light, sometimes the snail mail gets there first” The Article then goes one to explain some of the problems slowing down E-mail…from one net to another with examples of some taking days to cross the city of New York! It ends with the assurance that like the USPO or snail mail the solutions are coming with competition as the catalysis making it happen.
A footnote to the trip to Lewisburg: As I was writing it I had a feeling or inclination that someone was with me when I went to Lewisburg. I could not recall whom. Later I was talking with Suzie and for some reason mentioned the story of the trip would be in the Jottings. Bang! She says, “I remember that, because I went with you!”
Mystery solved. She believed it was a visit to a mass murderer or someone as criminally involved… I didn’t reveal (on the phone) who and why he was in prison, like any storyteller I said, “You’ll have to read about it in the Jottings!”
Along memory lane we received a new surprise. Tony Durkin, my Administrator when I served as Commissioner of Records, sent me two pages photocopied from a book entitled “Long Day’s Journey” (pp. 499&500). The chapter is entitled “Hour 39”. It appears, from the reading, to be a summary of events taking place on or around the day of the Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941) bombing. One section talks of what “Tojo” is and was doing as the news of the bombing circles the world.
The next paragraph begins: “Father Gordon was up, he thought, before the others at Notre Dame Academy in Midsayap. Looking out his window in the darkness, he saw a fire across the road in the yard of the girls’ dormitory. It was only five o’clock but the boys were cooking breakfast. Fr. [Frank] McSorley said the Mass and gave a fine sermon on our Blessed Mother.”
I don’t want to type the whole excerpt but will send it along later. What happens next is that they hear over the radio that the Japanese has bombed Pear Harbor and Davao. Davao is in the same province as they are, Cotabato, a mere 150 miles away.
Tony received the clippings from another employee of the Records Department, Bob McAdams. He assures me Bob will see that I get to read the book. It has something to do with events in America 50 years ago (published in 1991).
The year has begun, 1996 is with us. We celebrated its arrival with a dinner of friends. Bill & Bunny King, Betty and Jerry Hopkins, Paul and Marie Keeley, John and Mary MacDonald, and Dan and Marge Walsh. We include even relatives as “friends” in that my sister Marge and June’s sister Mary MacDonald celebrated with us. It was grand meal and a great simple but fulfilling way to start a new year. No pun was intended but it was fulfilling in both ways…in the company and the food.
A review of the past Jottings indicates that I last tried to answer Meaghan’s Questions to Grandpa in October. I promised to return so…as my one new year’s resolution. I’ll try once again. Her next group of questions concern “Growing Up” In which she asks: Grandpa did you ever go to the hospital? Did you ever have stitches or broken bones? What type of transportation did you have? Do you remember any Long trips? What were your favorite outdoor activities? What pets did you have and what were their names? Who was your best friend? Tell me about him?
The questions boggle the memory. I find it tougher and tougher to go back. The one advantage I do have is that only part of my audience, my brothers and sisters, can corroborate my recollections.
So let me begin: My best friend from 1st grade right through high school and beyond was Jerry Connell. He was the nephew of a classmate, or friend, of Winnie’s, Rita Scanlon (?). I flunked first grade (the excuse was I started too young…) Sr. Saint Arthur, I.H.M. advised Mom, I believe, that I should repeat the grade. It was the only time I was ever left back in the next 19 years of schooling! The happy good fortune was that Jerry started in First grade in my second time around. He lived at 4537 Larchwood Avenue, which was on the way to high school, West Catholic. While we were attending there we met almost every morning. I have just vague recollections of our getting together before then. I was a Scout and so was he. Troop 96…0ur scoutmaster at one time was Ed Crippen. We met in the basement of a Protestant (I think Methodist) Church. The Romans had no such organization, nor would they allow one in those days. Jerry and I were not in the same homeroom in H. S. but we both had an interest in Track. He ran I think the hurdles and the dashes. He made some of the relay teams. Somewhere in 2nd or 3rd year he stopped running. However, he kept in by managing. So we were track enthusiasts and players right through H. S. He and I both kept that interest. In 1994 he was a timer at the Penn Relays 20 K. He showed me a medal he received for going out west to help with the Summer Olympics (’92?).
I have to smile J! I start out answering one question and then run on and on all around the memory. June says I should just answer the question: “Who was your best friend? Tell me about him?” Answer: “Jerry Connell, we went to school together”. Now where in the world would you find a lawyer who would answer the question like that??!!
I am amazed however, at some of the specifics you recall, like Jerry’s house number and who the scoutmaster was and yet have difficulty recalling any meetings with the scouts or Jerry and I in grade school. Lady memory certainly is fickle, no? For example in mentioning Sister St. Arthur, reminds me that she taught all seven McSorley boys at St Francis deSales Grammar School. It would cover from 1919 to 1936. She made the point of telling anyone who cared to listen. It is probably why I still remember it!!
The Blizzard of ’96 has descended. It is now Monday the 8th day of January. I need not give any statistics regarding the storm since the press, TV, and radio will be awash with them. I did get out early on Sunday Morning to obtain the Times and Inquirer, mail some bills, and pick up a head of cabbage for the Vegetable Soup about to be made.
Since then I’ve been out only to get more wood. June even took over that task today. So I am pleasuring in reading, writing, especially E-Mail responses, and adding to these pages. Hopefully it can be said that this “ill wind” has blown some good!
Meaghan asks: Did I ever go to the hospital? Yes, to have my tonsils removed. Rosemary, my sister and your aunt, and I did it together. I suppose I was 11 or 12 at the time. I particularly remember liking it because when I came home we HAD to eat ice cream and cold drinks! So the sore throat was compensated for royally. I don’t remember being stitched for any injury. It is likely that I just don’t remember it because if it happened it was probably done when I was where I shouldn’t have been.
Transportation…mostly walking. We used the trolleys a great deal and the elevated trains. But we walked to school, including H. S. I even remember coming home for lunch every day in grammar school. It was at 47th street and we lived between 41st and 42nd…so it was about 5 blocks or so. Unlike Bill Cosby we didn’t need to walk uphill in a roaring snowstorm to and from school. I also recall having to carry my big brother’s books on occasion. It was the price you paid for being the youngest boy.
Any long trips? Well, a trip to the shore in those days could sometimes qualify as a long trip. I remember going to Washington, D.C. to see my brother Frank ordained in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1939. Not so much the ordination but a big breakfast or meal afterwards in a large fancy restaurant. I also have a vague recollection of two day or more trips up Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, NY to see I think Jim and Pat, but it could also have been Frank and Dick…since one was an OMI house (Newburgh) and the other was a Jesuit house (Poughkeepsie). The memory is so mixed up with trips to these places later and my own stay in Newburgh that I cannot be sure of it. I just came across a saying that belies the above. It is “Memory is more indelible than ink” (Loos) In this case the ink wins since I have no indelible imprints of the “long trips”. (And a lot of other things).
What outdoor activities? We had a basketball board attached onto the roof of our garage. The garage was the end of a small street. So we had a court of sorts. The out of bounds were the fences on either side of the street, both wooden. We also had to avoid the curbing that ran parallel to the fencing. The street was brick. It made for some interesting dribbling and very physical games. I also remember sledding in Clark’s Park, playing touch and tackle football in the same. We spent the summer in Sea Isle City so we got to swim in the ocean and once a summer had a treat (usually on Dad’s birthday weekend, July 15th) by going over to Flander’s Pool, at the Flanders Hotel, in Ocean City, N.J. Scouting also brought some outdoor activity in hiking and overnight camping.
Meaghan, I can’t recall ever having a pet, like Pokey, when we lived at 4116 Baltimore Ave. Nor did we have one at the shore. So I’ll have to pass on that one.
I think now I have covered all the questions for this session. I’ll try to handle some in our next outing!
This will be it for a while. I am going to try sending this via E-Mail to my GOL. For the uninitiated are the “Gang On Line” which includes all of my gang except Mary and Ron, and includes the twins and Dan and Marge Walsh.
A new year and new beginnings reminded me of the following quote, “Its never too late in fiction or in life – to revise.” (Thayer)