Merry Christmas!
We begin these ramblings with a note of sadness mixed with joy. We are sad at the loss of our “other mother”, Win, but happy that she is now enjoying well earned eternal rest. She was a sister but to me another mother. I mentioned this to some one at the funeral and his or her immediate response was “She was to everyone!”
I arrived home after giving blood on Sunday, November 15th to be greeted by June. Her face could tell it all. She gave me the sad news that Win had died that morning. November 15th is the same day my mother died some 46 years ago. It was the day Win took on the job as my other mother and continued to do so even up to Saturday, November 7th, when she called to catch up on the news. We had been planning to leave St. Petersburg on the 18th but now we started packing and left on Monday morning. The funeral was on Friday. The church was full and the service a celebration. The eulogies by her sons, Frank and Jim, were outstanding in their warmth and humor. The tribute Frank paid to his sisters Beth and Winnie, who had cared for and lived with both Paul and Win, was most deserving. They practiced the love they learned so well from Win and Paul in their lifetime. She will be sorely missed by all that knew her. Reliving and recalling the joyous memories she gave to all of us in her lifetime is the only way to assuage our grief.
We spent a little more than two weeks in the Philly area. The highlight was the Thanksgiving Day dinner for 22 cooked by June. Her cooking the meal was a prerequisite for our visit! We had a day with my gang. It gave us a chance to see those we often don’t get to see because of the distance. We played with the sprouting twins, Aida and Alex, who are now able to say “Pop-pop” very clearly. We rejoiced in seeing Hannah with braces on her little legs running about like they were not there. I had the opportunity of carrying Colleen (“she’s something else”) on my shoulders as we walked around Mary’s Yardley neighborhood. We were houseguests of John and Mary Macdonald, June’s sister and brother-in-law, in Mayfair most of the time. We stayed the few days around Thanksgiving at Tracy’s and I had the special privilege of being Eric’s guest at his pre-school Pilgrim Feast. He was the Indian and I was the Pilgrim. The Indians performed and the Pilgrims just watched and applauded. I was one of two Grandparents present so I felt quite proud of my status. We went to the opera. It was the “Tales of Hoffman”. It was a first for June, and could have been considered my first, since the last one was in 1 970 in Munich with Jim, Pat, and Jim’s friend from Munich. I remember it was “Don Juan”, was nearly four hours long, in German, and Pat and I fell asleep. I am happy to report that our visit to the Academy for the ‘Tales” was much more entertaining and I stayed awake. They had the English translation of the singer’s words flashed on a screen over the top of the stage, so it made it even better for us monolingual spectators. We dined with Marge, Dan and Anne after the music at Philadelphia’s famous “Bookbinders”. It would have been a great meal but my temporary front teeth kept falling out! The fall out gave me an opportunity to visit my old friend and Dentist Gene Lewis. In fact we were on a daily basis there for a while since each day another decided to leave me. We did give him a break and not bother him on Thanksgiving weekend. I had with Bill King and the Wick twins, Frank and AI. We discussed cabbages and kings and all the important things. I did the same with Dick O’Donnell and John Malone on different days but at the same old haunt, Austrian Village.
On Monday after the feast, we waited anxiously to see what would happen since Mary was to have a Kidney stone removed. If the laser or ultra sound method were not able to do so she would go on to surgery. We had decided if that were the case that we would extend our stay. However it happily decided to leave on its own. When the X-rays were reviewed that morning they revealed that the stone had vanished. Thus we took off and arriving back in St. Pete’s on December 3rd.
While we were in Philadelphia I saw two names in the news that were part of my past, Tom Gola and Sam Dash. Tom was being honored by his Alma Mater, La Salle, by having the new Gymnasium named “The Tom Gola Gymnasium”. Sam is a lawyer-professor. I believe still attached to Georgetown Law School. He, the newspaper reported, resigned as Kenneth Starr’s “Ethic Adviser” due to Mr. Starr choosing to appear before the Judiciary Committee. He felt that an Independent Prosecutor should not appear as an advocate before a Committee that was considering the results of his investigation. Mr. Dash apparently served in the same capacity during the Nixon investigation in 1974.
Tom, as anyone reading these scratching(s) knows, was my opponent in the Legislative race in 1966. He won and went on to be City Controller. He did on one occasion pay me a public compliment. He was being interviewed on TV when he was running for mayor. He was asked a question like, “What’s a nice guy like you running for office?” He replied that he made some friends and met some good people doing so. He said two of those were Charles (Chuck) A. Peruto and Paul McSorley. I witnessed the interview while sitting in Rhulings Seafood Restaurant with the owner, who nodded skeptically before the interview when I said I had run for the Legislature against Tom. You can imagine his reaction when Tom mentioned my name. “You weren’t —-ing me, were you?” I have never had such a quick and unexpected confirmation of a statement in my entire life.
Sam, I met while I was a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps stationed at the Marine Barracks in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. I was the Legal Officer and in charge of a company managing the brig. It happened that three young jarheads (euphemism for Marine) went drinking on Locust Street in Philly. The bars closed and they still were seeking more beer. They were invited by two gentlemen to an apartment located in the area. After being given some beer, their host left to change into “something more comfortable”. They returned in bathrobes. One of the Marines suddenly realized they were being solicited and called them “Queers!” A fight ensued. It resulted in one of the gentlemen being struck severely on the head. He was down and out for a moment. The Marines exited. The host called the police and complained about an attempted robbery. They were driven around the neighborhood looking for the suspects. The police suggested to the guy hit on the head he visit a hospital. He refused. He died during the night. The next morning the surviving host called the police and told them the truth about picking up the three Marines. There was a lineup at the Barracks and the survivor picked out his three visitors. They were charged with homicide.
As the Legal Officer it was my job to get them local counsel. I had replaced a buddy and lawyer, Jean Green. In fact, thanks to my former employer, General Earnshaw, I got jean’s job and he had an early release. So I called Jean who went with the boys to the arraignment. Some time later it was learned that one of the boys came from a fairly well off Virginia family and they decided to hire more eminent counsel. So I got to meet Sam Dash. He was a former Asst. DA and was building a criminal practice with some success. Jean lost the other two also since one of the boy’s fathers was a friend of the city’s Republican Party Chairman. I remember too the admonishment Judge Vincent Carroll gave to the boys as he sentenced them on a manslaughter plea, “Never refer to a homosexual as a ‘queer’!” (I note parenthetically that now some 40 years, it is still good advice, but some later the gay communities have a magazine or a web page using that word in its title.) I learned from the article in the Inquirer on Sam Dash that he also served in same capacity as Ethic Adviser for some one during the Nixon investigation. He is, I believe, still on the faculty, maybe emeritus, of Georgetown Law School.
Once again I find I am running over my prescribed limit for these writings, so I’ll end here with a promise of a note to each of you.
December 21, 1998
Dear Ron and Mary,
Christmas will remind us of Alex and Aidan. Children at Christmas make it the day it is. Give them a hug from Pop-pop and you can have one each yourselves. We spent three days over at the theme Parks as a gift to ourselves with dinner reservations and tickets to shows. It went something like this:
We went around the world the other day,
Had Breakfast in St. Pete’s, lunch in Norway.
It’s easy to do when you know the right spot.
It’s the fantasyland known as “EPCOT”,
Between lunch and dinner (at Italy’s “Alfredo’s”)
We heard African drums and Celtic tremolos,
Some beats of Morocco filled up our ears,
A French mime “en-bubbled” did faces and leers!
We ended it all with carols by a choir
Composed of teens in altar attire,
Along with a symphonic orchestra,
All under the stars, in God’s great Basilica!
Love, Dad
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!