Memories of my cousins from when I was a child

[Dorothy Joan (Waples) Parvis]

Some memories I have when your parents/aunts and uncles were younger: I remember Mae and Walt getting married - not the actual wedding as they were married in the priest's house at St. Timothy's. But the party/celebration at your grandparents house - Mae and Dan Casey - afterwards. The next memory I have of them was probably the summer of 1947 (? - thereabouts) when my parents and I visited them in Washington DC. They had us stay with them in their apartment. The only part of the apartment I remember is the living room. First because I slept on the sofa with chairs from the table pushed up against the sofa so I wouldn't fall off. Second because I had a loose tooth which I refused to pull out or let anyone else pull out. Walt had me sit on a chair from the table close to the front door of the apartment. He tied a string around the tooth and the other end around the handle of the open front door. He had me close my eyes and not look and then had me count to ten, slowly. When I got to ten, the tooth would be out. Well, I started - one, two, three - and before I got to three he had quietly closed the door, the tooth came out and I never realized I had been hoodwinked! It worked, I never felt the tooth come out (I was busy concentrating on counting to the number 10, never expecting him to pull it out sooner!). I remember hearing about Walt's trip to Japan when he was stationed there for was it three years(?) and how Mae and the children had to travel by boat to meet him there and all the baby paraphernalia she had to take be sure got there - the high chair, and a playpen, and toys, etc. Mae bought back tea sets for Aunt Ruth, Aunt Marion, and my mother. While I don't know what happened to the tea set when my mother died, but I know she enjoyed using it and also enjoyed the memories it bought with it. Kitty Waples and I each received a lovely authentic kimono which I would wear around the house in the evening every so often til I outgrew it. It then lived in my cedar chest. I also remember when my first husband, Harry, was applying for a job with NSA going to Mae and Walt's house by bus and Walt meeting us at the bus stop and going to their house for dinner. They then took us back to our hotel afterwards. And when Harry and I were buying our first house in New Carrollton, they came over to look out the house and give us an opinion of whether it was a good buy. They thought it was and we were glad we bought it - it was a good house at a good price. It was just comforting to have someone with experience check it out with us. I don't have so many memories of Honey and Bill, I do remember they were both very quiet and gentle people. What I do remember is Honey taking me up to her parent's bedroom one Saturday evening and showing me her wedding gown and being the right age to think all brides were fairy princesses, I was hugely impressed. Honey had wanted my cousin Kit and I to be Jr. bridesmaids, but my mother knew me well and said "no, thanks." She knew I would never be able to walk down the aisle, even with Kitty next to me and she was right. St. Tim's was a very imposing church especially to a little kid who was already shy and self-conscious. When we went to the reception, Honey threw her bouquet and Kitty caught it. I was so upset that Cass, one of the bridesmaids, gave me her bouquet. To this day, mums are my favorite flowers! I remember the wonderful dancing couple Tom and Cass were - they could jitterbug like no one else - like I would see couples jitterbugging in the movies. I was so impressed. I was probably the biggest pest to Cass, I tended to hang around her all the time, maybe because she put up with me and because Mae wasn't around on Saturday nights and Honey was busy with others. I remember Tom in his Navy uniform, very striking and handsome. Danny had a friend from his high school days who worked at a TV studio in downtown Philadelphia and he ran one of the cameras for Band Stand. This was when it was a local Philadelphia show only seen in Philly and Camden area of New Jersey. Two men were the hosts and they ran it about a season or two and then ran into so scandal (not associated with the show but did not look good for them to be hosting teenagers). That's when Dick Clark took over. It was a small studio and a small live group of kids from local high schools dancing to records that Dick Clark would play. Some were by request of the kids in the studio. There would also be local talent, usually singers just breaking into the recording business, who were often Italian, from South Philly and many of them went on to make it big with their singing and song writing. I would run home after school to watch (along with just about every other teenager in town) and look for any of my classmates who might have gone and made it onto the dance floor. The studio was so small they only took in a few to dance. Some of them became regulars as they were really good dancers. But getting back to your Uncle Danny, I was so impressed that he knew someone who worked on Band Stand!!! I remember his and Linda's wedding and reception. I had just graduated from 8th grade and my mother allowed me to buy a dress which was on the expensive side. My father was not pleased with my mother or with me. I promised I would wear it again the following year for 9th grade graduation (and I did - he didn't believe I would do so). I loved that dress not only did I wear it to both graduations but for Easter two years in a row and to Dan and Linda's wedding and reception! Do you know why your grandmother held the auctions on New Year's Eve? Do you remember the time she "auctioned" off a "special" gift for Uncle Dan and Uncle Bill? She auctioned off their army duffel bags as she was tired of storing them in the closet in the basement. She began those auctions because of Dan's asthma and the money she raised went to the American Asthma Association. One year she explained about the auction and the reason for it and she received a citation from the Association. She had it framed and hung it on the wall in the basement to remind us why we were doing the auction. Dan had signed up for the Army during the Korean War and got as far as Texas and basic training when they discovered he had asthma too bad to be able to stay in the service. He received an honorable, medical discharge. Since Danny worked for Uncle Bill Waples (more on that later) I would always look forward to seeing him any time my mother and I would go to Uncle Bill's store. Bill is the one who taught me how to "dance." He would put on a record and let me stand on his feet and would dance around the room with me that way. When he was stationed in Germany, my mother and I would bake, from scratch no less, chocolate chip cookies on a Friday night about once a month. When they cooled, we would wrap them for mailing and on Saturday my father would take them to work and mail them for us. I still have a Christmas card he sent one year from Germany. One New Year's Eve, my mother was upstairs right before midnight and the phone rang. With all the noise of celebration from downstairs, no one heard the phone ring but my mother did. She ran into your grandparent's bedroom and picked up the phone and it was Bill calling long distance from Germany to wish everyone a Happy New Year. My mother was so excited that when the operator asked if she would accept the charges, she didn't hesitate for an instant - never mind it wasn't her phone bill! She sent me downstairs to get your grandparents to the phone. I don't know how many of the family got to say hello and Happy New Year but I'll bet everyone thought it was the best money ever spent! We really missed him. The Saturday he came home from being discharged from the service, I was out selling Girl Scout Cookies. Mae had said to come up to her neighborhood as they didn't have any Girl Scouts in her neighborhood. My father drove me up and we went into the Magee St. house and who was there but Bill, just home from Germany! It was to be a surprise for everyone that night that he had come home - his parents never said anything to anyone about it. Everyone was so surprised and excited to see him - especially your Aunt Queen! They were married shortly after that and I remember going to their wedding and reception. Although what I really remember is that between the wedding in the morning and the reception later in the day was going to Aunt Ruth's house with her and Uncle Ed and laying down for an hour or so - it was a really hot June day and there was no air conditioning then. Laying down with an electric fan blowing was a way to keep cool. When we each got up to get ready to go to the reception my hair was all mussed up and Aunt Ruth had a terrible time trying to comb it and "style" it - she only had sons to raise, she said and so didn't know how to comb a little girl's hair. Larry was the one who taught me to type. He would bring his Underwood typewriter down from his bedroom, put it on the coffee table and let me play with it. He taught me how to not strike two keys at the same time and why not and if I made a mistake and did so, how to untangle the keys. He was so patient with me with it and had I messed up, it would have been costly to repair. He had black caps over the keys so he could learn where the letters were and learn to type by touch and not looking at the keys. How far we have come since those days! And your poor Uncle Ed, how he must have wished I weren't around. I'm sure I was the biggest pest he ever met! When we would go to Ocean City in the summer and go to the penny arcade on the boardwalk, he had to ride the little kids rides with me. I was only about 3 and too young to go on the rides myself. Ed was the only one small enough to get in the cars or boats with me so he was elected. I don't really remember it but I'm told he hated having to do it as he was too big for such kiddy rides! But to his credit, he did it and never complained or turned down my mother's request for his help with me. Fortunately about the time he really was too big to fit in the kiddy rides, I was old enough to go on them by myself. I also remember the year Ed got a duckling for Easter. It grew up as ducklings do and I remember him walking the duck on a "leash" made of clothesline up and down the driveway out back of the house. Don't know whatever happened to the duck. When I was a kid, houses on Magee Street had open fields behind them. You could sit on the back porch and catch a breeze on a hot summer evening. It was open fields all the way down to the street where St. Tim's was located. Some of the neighbors grew vegetables and others grew flowers on small patches of the field behind their individual houses. Your grandparents had a duck pen on their patch of field. I'll have to try to remember to ask Ed or Larry what ever happened to the duck. I remember when Tommy and Linda were old enough to play how we would run through the house from the upstairs, down the stairs, through the living room and into the basement. Hide and seek and just chasing each other. While I am older than them, there is not so much age difference. And how at the end of the evening your grandmother would have "grab bags" in the kitchen drawer for us to choose from. They might contain a lollypop, a nickel, a cookie, etc. Not much, maybe, but the excitement of not knowing what would be in the brown bag tied with string made the gift a real treasure. The best was when it was a marble. What is the fascination for marbles for kids?

[Dorothy Joan (Waples) Parvis]

I'm so glad to know you read and enjoyed the stories. It can be difficult to picture one's parents or aunts and uncles when they were a child. I have some stories from Magee St. and from the shore and will try to get around to posting them one of these days. Hope your cousins get to read these stories and also enjoy them. Will enjoy hearing what your mom has to say about them and if she remembers Walt's wonderful idea of how to get me to have my loose tooth pulled. It really worked! It didn't hurt and I didn't have time to be scared because he did it so much ahead of what I was expecting. Smart cookie, your dad.

[Joyce Day Meuse]

Thanks for the wonderful memories. I laughed at the tooth story with my dad. That is so classic. And the memories of all the aunts and uncles. It was a wonderful era.

[Maureen Day Campbell]

Joannie, What wonderful stories. You win the prize for the best stories. I can't wait to show this to my Mom.
Thats so neat about Dick Clark and the dancing. I watched that on tv for years. And the duck story. We posted a picture of Uncle Larry with the duck. My Mom told that story also. Anyhow, keep posting any family memories that you have. I have not heard most of those stories, about my Mom and Dad. I miss my Dad so much, I love hearing about him. I know everyone else will enjoy them also.