[PRCo] Re: Seasonal thoughts

[Mark McGuire]

 My dad had already met my mom before he went off to the war. When he returned as I learned much to my father's dismay, that he and my mom concieved before they were married. My mom was a Perry High graduate who's mother(my grandmother who took me on my first trolley ride) was "right off the boat" from Italy. My dad went to Central Catholic. After they married, they moved to Castle Shannon on a street you all are familiar with called Kilarney Drive. I was just an infant when they bought a brand new home on Lovingston Dr. near the Dormont border. I was the only one of seven children that never went to a Catholic school. And I was glad of that after hearing the horror stories from mom and dad. Dad was left-handed and one particularly cruel nun used to whack him on his left hand with a yard stick to make him write right-handed. 
 My grandmother and I would walk down Biltmore Ave. and then up the other side to get to the trolley stop at Dormont Jct. My only regret is that seeing how much I enjoyed riding the trolleys, she never took me on a trolley ride to my uncle's house on Franklin Ave. in Wilkinsburg before the east end lines were abandoned. North Side lines were pretty much gone by the time I was 4 years old and taking my first trolley ride. 
 Ah, memories. Nobody can ever take them away from us can they? I wish I could remember more than I do. 

Just a small little joke about my 50-50 Irish-Italian blood.  I'm half Irish and half Italian. That means I get so drunk I want to beat the hell out of myself.

-- "Dennis F.  Cramer" <dfc1 at windstream.net> wrote:
My dad returned home in June of 1945, met my mother and they were married in 
the Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church in Washington in August.  Talk about 
getting along with your life.  My brother was born in 1950 when they lived 
in Versailles and I did not come along until 1953.   By that time our home 
was in Liberty Boro.

My father had a V-mail that his father had sent just before the end of the 
war where he stated he felt it was a mistake for us to let the Germans take 
Berlin and it would probably lead to problems.

Many young children (and dogs) do not take kindly to beards.  I have sported 
one since 1977 and have had varying results with the nieces and nephews.  I 
never had a child pull my beard when I was Santa at PTM.

What killed the trolley?  Cheap cars and cheap gas.  No collusions, no 
backroom politicking, just a desire for people to feel independent.

Yes John, we have several tunes in our quintet book from the 40's.  Beside 
the wedding stuff and the Christmas stuff, we also have a pretty broad range 
of popular music from the Civil War to the present.  Right now the folder 
has about 175 or so tunes.


Dennis F. Cramer
      Trombone

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