Some of her Bradlees salary helped to pay for most of our
Catholic school tuition. She probably talked Dad into getting us braces. I doubt that he
wanted to spend his money on that. He had no problem giving it to his family
though.
In the fall she
would rake the leaves into low piles to make a house for us – these would
divide the rooms of it.
She always made
sure that she got us nice presents for Christmas and birthdays. There was a
board game under the tree nearly every year. We still have some of these,
including Hangman, Battleship and Connect Four.
We’ve had good
times at flea markets and Chinese Auctions (which are now called tricky trays
or gift auctions to be politically correct, I suppose). Some of both types of
these events were at Roselle Catholic.
Kathy and her mom
Helen came with us most of the time. I got my Fred frog stuffed animal in a
grab bag at a Chinese Auction in Mother Seton high school. Mike said that our
grade school had one but I hadn’t remembered this until he mentioned it.
Some of the outdoor
flea markets that we liked going to were Columbus (near Aunt Ann’s house),
Englishtown, Westfield, and Woodbridge. I think that we went to Collingswood a
couple of times too. US 1 Indoor Flea Market was our family’s favorite.
Mom and I used to
enjoy watching classic films together. Our favorites include Gaslight, Rebecca, Rear Window, The
Uninvited, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Great Escape, The Adventures of Robin
Hood, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Sometimes Mike would watch them with us.
1979
