The year ended, more or less, with a “Ball” instead of a “Bang”. We went to a Debutante’s Coming-Out Ball! It was first for us. We were properly attired for a ball. I dressed in a tuxedo and June in a lovely gown. The Ball was held at St. Petersburg’s Coliseum. This was a first for us too since we have never been in the Coliseum before. It is as the name implies an enormous hall. There were thirteen young ladies making their social debut. At the center of the stage there were steps running to the dance floor. As the young ladies’ names were announced they came out to walk down the steps. Before they were announced their father was introduced and he came to stand at the bottom of the steps. Then they announced the name of an escort who was a young man selected by the lady. The young ladies all wore white gowns and carried a bouquet of a dozen (at least) long stem roses. When the young lady reached the floor their dads took their arm and escorted them around the coliseum. They ended at the table where her family, friends, and escort waited. Then they courtesies to their mom. The escort then took her to a seat on either side of the stairs. When all were so seated they then announced that the debutantes would now dance with their fathers. Following that dance they danced with their escort. All of the music as I recall, up to that point, was by piano. A band that had been assembling as the escorts and debutantes danced and then they began their music. We had hoped to have a dance but the music played was not the kind to which we could really do so. We did also at this point in the evening enjoy much finger food. We tried to sit a chat with the many friends at the table but the music made that too difficult. We were the guests of John and Sallie Bussey friends for many years. Their daughter Virginia was coming out. It was a different evening for us! I tried to recall when was the last time I wore a tuxedo. June came up almost immediately with the answer: At my daughter Mary’s wedding to Ron Yake on November 12,1994 – thirteen years ago. Our good friends the Doto’s came by early on the night of the ball to take our picture. We had the picture session and then we were off. They said later that they felt like parents sending their children off to the Prom!
On December 28th I received a phone call that brought back memories. The caller asked if I was Paul McSorley, if I was a lawyer from Philadelphia, and did I represent Tony Perpiglia many years ago. My answer was ‘yes’ to all the inquiries. The woman caller then identified her self as Jean Carey, Tony’s daughter! It was quite a surprise since I never knew Tony had any children. She went on to say that he died 41 years ago (1966) today. She said that she had seen him two days before. She further explained that she had made a search on the net under the name ‘Perpiglia” and found my Jottings of ’06 and ’07 in which I had mentioned Tony Perpiglia. My son-in-law Tom Baker has been posting my jottings since the middle of 2000 on the mcsorley.org web page. So this is how she learned that a ‘Paul McSorley’ had represented her dad. How she found me in Florida and my phone number I never did learn.
She then told me that Tony also had a son, her brother and that she was 61 years old and he was 62. Now I believe that Tony had served some 17 to 20 years in prison so it made it tough to accept the fact. Later she noted that he was very young when she and her brother were born. She thanked me for my comments in the Jottings and asked me about any other writings I had about him. I had written a memoir of him in 1992 and revised in 1998. She asked me to send that to her which I did. She still lives in South Philadelphia. She sent me an email telling me she was attending the New Year’s Day parade in Philly since it was a South Philadelphia tradition. I haven’t heard from her since that last email. It still was a bit of a shock that Tony never mentioned his children. I heard he had a girl friend and I met his mother but no references were made to children.
The story I wrote about Tony was done in February of 1992. It was not a ‘jotting’ then just some thoughts on ‘Tony’ as it was entitled. Her request made me dig out the file I had of 1992 and my writings then. They had various titles and some none at all. Some of the titles were “Memories” (March,’92),”Paul’s Ponderings”(April ’92), “Paul’s Perambulations in June” (Which incidentally was, with much spacing between lines, 11 pages long!) and then in July we began to call them “Jottings”. In 1998 when I revised “Tony” I did mail it out to some 26 members of my family and friends Bill King, Tony Durkin, Paul Keeley, and my secretary Judy Higgens. No emails were sent then. This year begins my sixteenth year of sending these thoughts to family and friends. The list is up to 44 emails and 12 snail mails. Looking at the mailing list of 1998 I am reminded sadly that nine of them have gone to their reward.
I remember someone asking why I write and send these writings. I suppose, as I told the inquirer, it comes from my writing most of my life. My profession required it as did preparing for it. I think another reason is that my Father, also a lawyer, sent a weekly epistle to his absent children. Most of my brothers and sister after high school were away to seminaries or convents, Those who did remain for college soon got called to serve in the World War II so they too were away. My dad would dictate a lengthy a report of the events happening at home and then add a personal note to each letter. I spent two years at a seminary school in Newburgh, N. Y. so I was for a time a recipient of his letters. So in part I imitated him by sending these thoughts to family and then friends, with a personal note attached.
During the Christmas season we receive many emailed stories of children performing in Nativity pageants or shows. I received among them one, which I liked, the best and it goes like this: A mother had three children all performing in the Nativity show. Her five-year-old was a shepherd, her four-year-old was Mary, and another son was one of the three Kings. She reports that the Shepherd had practices his lines of “We found a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes”—but due to nervousness before the audience said, “The baby was wrapped in wrinkled clothes” He was corrected by his sister who said, “That’s not wrinkled clothes, silly..that’s dirty rotten clothes. Mom slouched in her seat when Mary dropped the doll representing Baby Jesus and it bounced down the aisle crying “Mama-Mama!” Mary grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and held it tightly as the wise men arrived. The wise man, son, stepped forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown, knelt at the manger and announced: “We are the three wise men, and we are bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur (emphasis added)” The audience watching the performance dissolved into laughter and the pageant got a standing ovation.
Another pageant story I liked was in a book we read for Advent “The Miracle of Christmas” What happens is Joey a nine year old gets a part in the pageant as the Angel who told Mary the news of her bearing a child. He was to say, “Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy” But Joey had never heard the words “Behold” or “glad tidings” before so he struggled with memorizing it. His teacher told him “Joey, simple imagine that you have just heard the most wonderful news and you run to tell your friends all about it. That’s what ‘Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy means” He finally mastered the line. He was ready but then the curtain went up and he saw all those people out there. Then the bright spotlights were shining directly in his face. Joey got the classic case of stage fright and his mind went blank. For the life of him he couldn’t remember his line. But he did remember what his teachers had told him about running to his friends to tell them some wonderful news. So instead of saying “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy!” Joey blurted out, “Boy oh boy, do I have good news for you!” The audience laughed loudly and gave Joey a standing ovation.
A New Year is a new beginning. Four of our grandchildren, Kelly, Linda, Matt, and Kate will be ending a phase of their formal education. Kelly graduates from College, and the others from High School. When I graduated from high school sixty-one years ago, it was not a normal thing for college to be the next step. In my family however there was no thought of doing otherwise. But today with the rising cost it has made it more difficult to do so. We hopefully will be there when the ’08 graduates take that step and join in celebrating the occasion. Until next time, Pax Tecum!