The Year 1959-My Dog Tippy

Life kept on rolling along. We lived the best we could I guess. My father was working at least! He worked for a company in Utica that moved houses. They actually uplifted homes and took them down the road to a new location. My parents had their usual fights every time my father stayed out and got drunk. Then we'd lie in our beds and listen to it all. Sometimes it could get real violent. My mother threw things at him at times. I remember when I came down in the morning one time, there was this brown stuff all over the living room wall. Turned out to be gravy that had been on the stove in a frying pan. I think my mother threw that at my father. Lots of times my mom would have bruises all over her from the night before. I never could understand why they stayed together. Us kids were afraid of our father. He was too mean and he'd use the belt on us when he wanted to. He had one of those belts that were cut into strips. Boy, that hurt. But he didn't always use a belt. Sometimes he'd use anything that was handy, like a broom stick or something. My brother, Steve, seemed to get hit the most. Steve was more of a hyper kid and would seem to get in trouble for the least little thing.
I graduated from sixth grade and was in Junior High now. When you are in seventh grade you are the low man on the totem pole in high school. I enjoyed school. It was better than being at home sometimes and with me being the oldest, I always had to help with all the smaller kids.
I had Charlie Lang for my Home Room teacher. He was a handsome man but not a good man because he always fooled around with the girls in the higher grades. It was a well known fact. he taught math. My favorite subject all through high school. That and English.
I could see my cousins now and then too, so that was nice. We could leave at lunch time and we'd walk downtown to the local soda shop and hang around or we'd stay in school and eat at the cafeteria.
My mom and us older kids would go to The Methodist Church on Sundays. We had done that when we lived in town too. I started in that church when I was in third grade. It was a very nice church and I liked being in Sunday School. I got a bible with my name engraved when I was in third grade. I always have cherished that bible. Reverend VanOrnum and his wife lived right there on church property in a nice house. That guy was so nice to everyone. They built a gym onto the side of the church and we'd go there one night a week and play basketball. That was fun! I don't ever recall my father going except for when he and Debby got baptized.
The church would have outings now and then and I'd always go. One time the church group was going for a seven mile hike through the Ilion Gorge. At the end of the seven miles there was a farm that we stopped at and that's where we ate out lunch. I always remember that day because I got a puppy!
On the way back through the gorge, there was this old barn that was quite near to the road. We saw a German Shepard just inside and the farmer was in there also. He let us come inside to see the puppies. Then he said if any one of us wanted one, we could take it right then and there! I loved puppies! So of course I took one an so did the girl that lived next door to me. I was thrilled and when I got home. My mother and father said I could keep it as long as I paid for the food etc. Which I did with my babysitting money.
I loved that dog! I named him Tippy. The girl next door had to give her puppy back. Her parents would not let her keep it. I felt sorry for her.
Tippy grew fast and he was a good looking dog. but my father had a bad habit of kicking him sometimes if he barked too much. I had him tied right outside on the clothes line. I hated my father when he was mean to my dog. I was so scared he'd kill him some night when he came home drunk. We had already seen my father take a mother cat and all her kittens and put them into a burlap bag and walk over the tracks and throw it in the canal. So he was capable of killing animals. The funny thing that happened with the cat though, is the mother cat came back home. She had gotten out of that bag somehow and swam to shore. The babies died though of course. My father let that cat stay after that and said it was an omen and he couldn't hurt it any more.
But that didn't stop him from kicking Tippy now and then.
One day when my father was out drinking, the neighbors next door had company. They came over to look at Tippy and then they asked me if they could buy him. Tippy was about 6 months old. I didn't want to part with him but every time I thought about my father hurting him, I thought he'd be much safer and happier with these people. So I sold him for seven dollars. That covered the license cost that I paid. This couple lived in Utica, about 15 miles away. I cried when they took him but I was glad that he'd have a much better home. Those people promised me that he'd have the best of care and food.
When my father came home around three in the morning, he must have walked out back and saw that Tippy was missing. He must have asked my mother where the dog was because all of a sudden he came storming into my bedroom, waking me up, and demanding to know where "his" dog was. So now it was "his" dog. He was a raving maniac that night. he got my mother and me out of bed and marched us out of the house and over next door to the neighbor's and banged on their door. When they opened it, he was yelling at them to tell him where the dog was. They told him it was gone to a friend's and would have a good home. Boy, was he pissed. He marched us back into our house and threw me around and hit me and my mother before he let me go back to my room. What a bastard he was. I never forgot that day and never will till the day I die. He never said another word to me about the dog after that. When he sobered up he must have thought about it. He knew it was my dog and that I was taking care of it's needs, and not him.
About six months later those people came down to visit next door and they brought Tippy with them so I could see him. I could not believe how beautiful he had grown! And he looked so healthy and shiny. I was so happy for him. He seemed happy to see me too, wagging his tail and licking my hand. I think he was saying thank you.

North Street School-1958-North Ilion

When we moved I had to change grade schools. I was in the sixth grade. Mrs. Keeler was my teacher. I liked her. Most of the kids were nice and I had a good time there. When you are in sixth grade it feels like you are on top of the world. I remember we had to learn dancing. That was fun, except for the Polka. I couldn't do that one. But learning to "Fox Trot" or "Waltz" was fun. Oh yes! And the "Cha Cha"....Ha! In the warmer weather we'd have Gym class outside in a field and sometimes they'd play Softball. I couldn't run so they'd have someone run for me and I'd still get to bat the ball. I was pretty good with my arms.
I liked one boy in class. His name was Gary. But he liked another girl better. They ended up getting married years later. And divorced. That's the way it goes. I also liked a boy that lived up the road. His name was Steve. Steve would come down to our house at dusk to play hide and seek with us. He was the first boy I ever really kissed. One time we were all playing up in the hills behind our house and I was sitting with Steve and he kissed me and my sister, Chris, was watching and pouting. So I told Steve to go kiss her too. Ha! I can't believe I did that. Sure wouldn't think of doing that as I got older.. One day at school he handed me this pink pearl bracelet. It was a gift he said. It was real pretty. I put it in a special little box when I got home. Years later I found out he had taken it from one of his sisters. Steve went on to be a little womanizer and had lots of girls after he got in Junior High. I never really talked to him much after sixth grade anyway, even though we rode the same bus. It's funny. I saved that bracelet all these years. I always kept things. I was going through my old "memory" box about ten years ago and when I came across that bracelet, I laughed. I put it in a mailing envelope along with a note and sent it to his sister. I told her the circumstances on how I had gotten it. She wrote me a note and said she and her other sister got a good laugh over that. But when they asked Steve about it, all he could say is he didn't remember giving it to me. Ha! Ha! Typical.
That year wasn't too bad. Got to know all the people that lived up the road in our little neighborhood they called North Ilion. There were a few strange families on that road but there were a lot of nice people also. I loved sitting on the porch and watching all the traffic go by. Back then I could name every car and the year and model. Got used to the noisy trains going by too. After a while the noise just puts you to sleep.
On the other side of our house was a nice two-family house. Next to that was a gas station. That's where us kids would go to buy candy every time we got any money. Orange NEHI soda was my favorite. The people that ran the gas station lived up over it. Up in back, in the hills, they had dumped a lot of junk cars. We'd go up there and play in them sometimes. The hills were our get away from reality. There were lots of apple trees and pear trees up there. So at least we had fruit when it was in season. And lots of berries too. A farmer down the road had these awesome grape vines growing behind their house. We'd sneak down there at times and take some. Those big dark purple grapes. They tasted so good!
Another family raised Peacocks and they'd have them out in the front yard in cages. I thought that was so neat!
In the house on the other side of us, where the wild family lived, was another apartment that an elderly lady lived in. Mrs. Rose. She was a nice lady but she had this weird brother that had a bedroom upstairs and he'd be in his room mostly naked. Never pulled his shade down. He must have been in his 60's or 70's. I think he was a little off. These people were related somehow to the other family.
Anytime my mother baked bread, she'd always save a loaf for Mrs. Rose. Sometimes she'd take it over herself and sometimes one of us kids would. My mother always shared her bread, even when we didn't have that much to share.

I put this "Google Earth" photo of North Ilion in here just so you can get an idea of where North Ilion was and Mackin's Hill and where we lived. We lived in the area where that loop was built in the road. All the houses were torn down in the early 70's to build that. We were long gone by then.

Moving Again-1958

We moved from Montgomery Street to North Ilion, which was a little area across the tracks from the main area of the little village of Ilion, NY. I hated moving. I was leaving all my friends behind that I really enjoyed playing with. But my father had found a whole house for us to live in. An old cement block type house. We had to move. And it must have been hard to find a place with seven children. There was no hot water and the bathroom didn't work. There was an old wood furnace in the cellar for heat. I hated throwing the wood into the cellar window and then having to go down in the cellar and stack it. That cellar was spooky. I hate cellars with little dark windows. And scary spaces. When my parents were out for the night, I'd have to go down there and put wood in the furnace. I'd have to walk out the kitchen door and there was a tiny hallway with another door that led to the upstairs. We never used that. And there was a door that went to the outside. It was only locked with a hook. Then there was the door to the cellar. I was so scared when I had to go down there alone late at night after all the other kids were sleeping.
My father wasn't any help. He used to sneak up those back stairs sometimes at night when we were all sleeping and make noises and scare the living crap out of us. Talk about sadistic!
The neighbors were strange. There were four girls and one boy. They were being brought up by their Aunt because their mother couldn't handle them anymore I guess. They came from a family of sixteen kids! Two of the girls were close to my age. The other two were a few years older. They were wild, even though their mother (Aunt, but they called her mother) was very strict. They'd tie sheets together and climb out their window at night. Ha! We'd watch them from our window in amazement. The oldest girl would walk up the road and get truck drivers to stop and take her for a ride. They say she never wore underwear and raised her skirt to them..Ha! Ha! We lived on a main highway so there was a lot of traffic going by.
Their mother was a real big, heavy woman. We'd see her come out of the back door sometimes and stand over in the corner and just pee right there! This was at night. I'd watch out my window a lot at night just to see what was going on next door. So weird. Quite a difference from our nice neighborhood up on the hill in town. God I hated living there.
My sister, Debby, was born in 1958. Now there were eight kids. In the photos above, we are outside our house and behind us is a nice two-family house and beyond that is the gas station. In the other one is my mother and father and baby Debby. My father got baptized that day also. Guess he had never been before. I thought that was odd, being a grown man getting baptized..Ha! I am really surprised that my father did that. He never went to church otherwise.

Alexander-Spatol-Miller Reunion-1957

In 1957 my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Joe Spatol hosted a family reunion at their house. They lived in a small house behind Joe's parents. His parents ran a big strawberry farm. I picked strawberries there a few times for 4 or 5 cents a quart. And eat all I wanted too. Ha! Aunt Ruth did not have a toilet at that time. Only an outhouse. Later on when their oldest daughter got her first job, she bought them a bathroom.
It was a fun reunion that day. My mother's siblings were all there. I think it's the last time we ever were all together like that. I had my first camera and I was always taking pictures. It's a good thing because most of the photos I have from the 50's and 60's were from my camera. I first used an old Brownie Camera, then my Aunt Dorothy bought me a brand new one. It was light green. Aunt Dorothy was the oldest in my mother's family. She was a secretary for The Shell Oil Company for 35 years and always had new cars and nice little apartments. She had married once but it only lasted ten years. She had no children. She'd come down to visit and always bring something, like ice cream etc. Or she'd take us all out to get ice cream in the summer. She'd have to take us in shifts though..Ha! Ha! Then we'd all fight over who was going to go when mom did. Aunt Dorothy liked her convertibles. Then there was Uncle Neil and his wife, Helen and their three kids. They were sort of "high class" acting people and we never were close to them. Uncle Neil worked at The Remington Arms Factory here in Ilion, NY. Aunt Ruth had four children. One of them had "Downs" syndrome. We called it something else back then though. Uncle Joe worked in construction as a heavy equipment operator. Then there was Uncle Don and his wife, Helen and their three children. I always liked Uncle Don. He never lived close though. He had a Government job that took him other places. My mother, Betty, was the youngest. She was only 13 years old when her mother died from Kidney problems. Her father, Alex, ended up moving out of Ilion, to Rochester and my mother didn't want to go so she ended up living with a friend, who turned out to be our Aunt Mary.
These are a few photos from that day in 1957 at Aunt Ruth's.

Photos From The Grandparent's Place-1950-56

An older photo showing the porch and family around 1948. My Grandfather playing with a bunny.
My Grandmother on the porch. A view across from their porch in the 50's. My mother holding my brother, Jimmy. My sister, Christine on one side and my brother, Steve on the other.

Family Gatherings At Grandparent's

During my younger years we still had one set of Grandparents on my father's side. It seems all the families gathered there a lot in the summer, on Sundays. It was fun playing with all my cousins. I had a lot of them. Two families had just as many kids as we did. My Grandparents lived in an old farm house up on Casey Road
outside of Mohawk. They had no running water or toilet. The water was brought in by buckets from the well out back. I liked pumping it and getting water. But now I cringe at the thought that we all drank out of the same long-handled ladle..Ha! Yikes! Talk about spreading germs!! Grandma was always baking something and her kitchen always smelled good. Grandpa, it seems, was always out in the barn. They didn't have cows but had lots of sheep. At least I can't recall any cows. Maybe they had a few just for milk. Us kids liked to watch Grandpa shear the sheep. I'd always worry he was going to cut them. Grandpa seemed drunk when he was inside and he had a cot behind the kitchen stove that he laid on. It's odd that I can't remember the living room at all. And I only remember going into my youngest Aunt's bedroom with her and brushing my hair at her vanity. My youngest Aunt, my father's sister, is only eight years older than I am. She was a late baby. There was at least ten years between her and my other Aunt. All the others were married so it was just Grandma and Grandpa and Beverly.
There was a huge tree in the front that had a tire on it. And another tree over to the other side of the house. I loved swinging. I felt free! We had to use the old stinky outhouses and old catalogs for paper. By 1957 we really didn't go there any more. The grandparents were getting old and my Grandfather was sick and he died in 1958. My Grandmother had Diabetes and was put into a nursing home for the next several years. The house was left abandoned and it finally fell in. One Aunt uses that property for a camp now and several cousins bought land up on that road and live there. So it's still called "The old homestead". Fond memories up there on the hill.

My Father Returns-1956-57

I did not like my father returning. Our life was going along smoothly and now it would be disrupted again with fighting and beatings. It was his drinking that caused it all. He was working at the Drop Forge. I think that was the name of the factory. It was down on Clark Place or the street next to it. He could walk there easily. We never had a car in all the years I was growing up.
I couldn't believe my mother went on a trip to New York City with my Aunt Dorothy during that time. My father never liked my mother's sister. But he let her go. I recall my father taking all of us kids to Frankfort to some farm, so that this woman could babysit us all while he went out. This woman had a few kids of her own. Her name was Gloria. I think we went by cab. I can't remember what went on after we returned home and my mother came back from the city. I'm sure there was a fight.
I'm surprised the Ferguson's let us stay there after dad came back. They had about 5 kids of their own at that time. Diane was the oldest and in my class at school. She was real smart but used to have temper tantrums or something. I recall her throwing a pencil at the teacher. When I turned ten years old, Diane's mother had a birthday party and sleepover for me downstairs. That was a fun night. It was really nice of her to do that for me.
Don Ferguson, the father, was a strange bird at times too. He had this room that was just his and it was full of posters of the "Genny Girl". We used to sneak in there when he was gone and look at all that stuff. He had dirty books in there and we'd laugh about them. I recall Mr. Ferguson running to the TV when the Genny Girl was on..Ha! Ha! He was obsessed!!
My brother, Ricky, was born in April of 1957. He used to cry a lot and one night my father came home drunk and he didn't like the baby crying. He and my mother were arguing and fighting again. No wonder Ricky was crying! My father went to the crib and picked that baby up in the air and actually threw him back down on the mattress real hard. The people downstairs called the cops that night. They knocked on the door. My father answered it and somehow talked his way out of everything and they went away. I was so hoping that they'd take him away again but it didn't happen. So life went on as usual. Quiet when dad wasn't drinking and hell when he was. He had a bad habit of throwing us kids around too. He beat me up one time because I punched my sister, Jeanne, in the stomach and she fainted. I was crying as he was hitting me and saying, " I faint all the time and no one ever cares!" "Jeanne faints once and I get beat up for it!" It didn't stop him. He kept hitting me with the belt. He had a belt that was cut into strips, to hit us kids with.
I used to faint a lot when I was young. I might have had low blood sugar but didn't know it . I fainted every time I was in study hall it seemed, or in a room that had a lot of people in it. Panic attacks maybe? Ha! I'd get taken to the nurse's station and they'd stick that smelling salts under my nose. After resting for a few minutes I'd go back to my class room. It was embarrassing all through my school years. That and having my corset's steel bands sticking out from my blouse were my most embarrassing things in school. I did stop using my crutches by the time I was out of third grade though. But had to keep wearing that old corset. And it was getting old and tattered too.
I had Mrs. Hick's in fifth grade but when I was supposed to go on to sixth grade I got the bad news that I would be held back to repeat fifth grade. I was so mad about that. And sad because my class mates were going ahead of me. I repeated the grade and had a man named Mr. Davis . 
It was my best time in my life I think, living in that area. We had the swimming pool down the street and we'd walk downtown to church or the library. We'd play in back of the Backman's house, which connected to the houses on Barringer Road. Dick Green lived on Barringer and he was always out there too. Ronnie Decker lived on the corner and we'd go down to his house sometimes. My sister, Chris, was his age. He had an older sister, Barb. The mother was a very thin woman. I think their father had died because there was never a man around. The Bluett's lived next door in the cellar of the house they were building. The neighborhood behind us was starting to be built up with all new homes at that time. I remember we used to sell Lemonade to the workers back there. Lucy White lived down around the corner. She had an Antique Shop right in her house. She had a daughter who was a couple years older than I. I can recall going there but can't remember her name. The Nawacki's lived in a nice home and they had a swimming pool. We never went there but used to peek over the fence. They had a daughter, Nancy, who was older and a son, Steve, who was a year younger than me I think. I could go on and on about the neighbors. It was just a very nice place to grow up .
An elderly couple lived next door in trailer. They had a daughter but I don't think she lived there. It might have been their granddaughter. She was older than all of us. We caught her having sex with a guy under the boat out back. Ha! That was funny to us. Then there was another older lady that lived alone across the street. We used to shovel her driveway in the winter and she'd give us a dollar! That was a lot in those days! Us kids would argue over who was going to shovel though..Ha! ha!
My cousins would come and visit now and then and stay overnight. I and my sister, Jeanne would go to our cousin's house now and then to stay over. My Aunt Mary had a lot of kids too and we would trade . One of them would come stay at our house and one of us would go to theirs.
My cousin, Gloria, was my age and her sister, Barbie, was Christine's age. I'd always have a blast when I stayed over at their house. They lived on a hill and we'd play "Kick-The-can" out there in the road. They had a player piano too that we loved to play. There were two older boys in that family. Larry and Jack. And younger kids too. I'd say they were our closest cousins. Maybe it was because my mother lived with their mother, Mary, when she was thirteen years old, after my Grandmother died. My mother and Mary both graduated in 1941 from Ilion High School and ended up marrying brothers.
Anyway, I got through the fourth grade again and moved on to fifth. Had a man for a teacher then. His name was Mr. Davis. My original class mates were in sixth grade by now.
I got through that grade okay. Then in the summer we had to move from Montgomery Street. The Ferguson family was enlarging and they needed the room. And there were seven children in our family now. That apartment just wasn't big enough for us all. And little Ricky was growing fast.

Living On Montgomery Street In Ilion, NY

We got moved in and I liked the apartment very much! A lot nicer than what we were used to. We even had hot water!! A nice bathroom and tub! Only two bedrooms that I can remember though. Maybe three. The front bedroom was huge so there were at least two big beds and us girls all slept in one bed I think. The boys might have slept in the other. I can't remember.
It was a nice neighborhood. We met a lot of nice kids and made a lot of new friends. It was quite a change from living in the country.
I could walk to school again, even though I had to use my crutches. We'd walk down Montgomery Street to Shull Street and then down Prospect Street. I'd go down Division Street most of the time because Carol Henry lived at the corner of Division and Prospect. Then we'd walk to school together. It was the East Frankfort School. I was in the third grade. My teacher was Mrs. Smith I think.
The Backman family lived across the street from us. Their oldest daughter, Sharon, became my friend too but she was a little older than I. She was always my bad influence and Carol was my good..Ha! Sharon taught me how to steal candy and other stuff from a little grocery store over on Second Street. I think it was called Steele's Market. I'll never forget the day she told me to take a six pack of soda on my way out the door. I still laugh when I think about that day. She had a can opener all ready. I did take it and when we got a couple blocks away, she said, "let's have a bottle of soda now." But to our surprise I had grabbed a six pack of Tonic Water instead of the Cream Soda! Yuck! That tasted terrible! We left it in the bushes and continued on home.
Sharon and I used to sneak down in her cellar and she'd smoke a cigarette and get a bottle of her mom's canned fruit off the shelf and we'd eat it.
One day we were walking by Vickie Baker's house and there was this box sitting at the curb with the garbage. It said Girl Scouts on it. We looked in it and it was full of unopened boxes of Girl Scout cookies. So we took the box to Sharon's house and hid it down in her cellar. We ate cookies for quite a while..ha ha ! I still wonder to this day why those cookies were out there. Doesn't seem as if they'd be thrown out. Even if they couldn't get sold and were stale, they could still be given to someone. But we enjoyed them!
I used to get into some bad fights with Sharon too. I still don't know why but they could get real nasty sometimes. She had a real dirty fight with one of my cousins one time and ripped my cousin's blouse right off her. In front of the whole neighborhood! Seemed everyone was watching. Can't believe kids could fight like that... She'd be hitting me sometimes and I'd want to hit her with my fist in her face so bad but I could never bring myself to do it. She'd always get the best of me. She was a real toughie!
Sharon ended up running away from home because of her step-father. He never treated her very well and used to beat her a lot. I saw it because I was always at her house. I remember she came home one time with her hair all dyed black and straight. She was living in Greenwich Village in New York City and was what they called a"Beatnik". I never saw her after that one time until years and years later when her brother, Gary, brought her into my bar in Herkimer.

Carol Henry was just the opposite of Sharon. She only had one brother (Jim) and her parents were such nice, polite people. I spent a lot of time down to her house, playing Monopoly or other board games. They had a very nice home. Carol would have birthday parties and I remember playing "Spin The Bottle" and having to kiss whatever boy it pointed to. Ha! Ha!
All the neighborhood kids would get together at dusk and play "Hide And Seek" till it was time to go in for the night. We'd go way down to the end of Montgomery and Clark Place to play sometimes. There was this one boy that lived on Clark Place. His name was Guenter Reider. Carol and I both had a crush on him. I kissed him on the cheek a couple times and Carol did also.
Guenter would come up our back stairs and knock on our door and ask if I could come out and play. I have an old blurry picture of him and I in the back yard. Wish it wasn't blurry. I did have one of him and Carol too but it disappeared over the years somehow.
One summer I was invited to go with Carol and her family to a camp they had rented on Seventh Lake for two weeks. I had so much fun up there, swimming and playing. I only had one incident that scared me. Carol's other neighbor's, the Stark family, came up to spend the day. Their son Tommy was swimming with us and he got to rough housing and he held my head under water too long and I panicked, thinking I was going to drown. He was just being mean. I never liked him after that.
I saw my first baby toads that summer. They were so cute! I had never seen any before. I still get excited when I see them. I like to study and photograph them. I really appreciated Carol and her family taking me along that summer. Was the last time I'd ever do anything like that.
I really enjoyed those days on Montgomery Street.
I did not like it when my father appeared at the door though. All I could think of was, " Oh no, here goes more fighting." It was 1956. He was out of jail again.

Moving Again-1954

Not sure who helped us move from the farm but we ended up on Vickerman Hill outside of Mohawk. The little area was called Getman's Corners. It was an old little house. It was pretty run down. I remember an old pot-belly stove in the middle of the little living room. It was our only heat source. The upstairs was horrendous! There were holes in the floor and we had to be very careful where we walked. There was an old dirt crawl space and some guy brought his dog and we babysat it. That is where it stayed. How weird. It should have been outdoors.
I'm not sure who owned that house. There were neighbors across the road that we talked to. I remember the older girl was very nice. They had a picnic table for their kitchen table. I thought that was neat. There were two houses over there. One belonged to the Wollaber family and the other one was a relative of theirs. They had a son named Philip. He was a real strange kid and used to try and scare us kids if we were outside playing. We were up in back on the hill one day picking berries and he came along and told us we'd better run very fast because there was a bear on the other side of the bushes. I never ran so hard in my life! I made it all the way without falling too. Philip used to shoot his Beebe gun at us all the time too.
Down a little road, that was across the street, lived a woman with the last name of Bala. She was related to the Wollabers somehow. Well, one day we had all gone with our Aunt Ruth to do some shopping. When we returned home, someone had stolen all kinds of things from our house. Even the curtains! We saw those curtains on the Bala's windows after that. All my mother's best dresses were taken and what hurt me the most is my little red polka-dotted change purse was taken. I cried and cried over that. My Aunt Ruth had given it to me and it was full of pennies. I had put it in the sewing machine drawer. My mother was so mad over that and when she saw her curtains in that woman's windows, she wanted to go confront her but I don't think she ever did. We were poor enough and then to have that happen. What a shame. And we were only there for four weeks!!!
Somehow my mother must have talked to Donald Ferguson or Aunt Ruthy did because he and his wife Gladys let my mother rent their upstairs apartment on Montgomery Street in Ilion. My mother and all six of us! Don came with a pick up truck and moved us. Aunt Ruth helped also. I think she had a station wagon at that time.
My mother and Don Ferguson grew up together and his sister, Shirley, was one of my mother's best friends. I imagine that is how we ended up there. Don and Gladys had a few kids of their own. I loved living there! It was the best time of my childhood really.

My Father, The Drunk

This is the only photo I have of my father when we lived there. He's holding Jane. Christine and Jeanne are next to him. When he wasn't drinking he could be okay but when he drank he turned into a very mean person. He beat my mother a lot. It's a good thing I don't remember too much at this stage in my life. One night he scared the living daylights out of my mother and she almost shot him. He came home real late from drinking in town I guess, and was trying to sneak in the window. The door might have been locked. My mom thought it was a burglar. I wonder how things would have turned out if she had shot him?
Then one day he just never came home from one of his drinking binges. He wasn't working for Farmer Wagner any more so we were forced to move out. I learned later he was in jail for non-support. We were always told it was for non-support. Not sure if my mother had him put in jail or how he got there. I recall my Aunt's saying we had no food in the house after he left. They say we ate popcorn for a week. Ha! Ha! Not sure if that was all true. I'm sure old Emma Wagner would have given my mother meat and surely old Bessie and Ray down the road would have. Heck. I still love popcorn!
When we moved we had to leave the dog behind. I guess it wasn't really our dog but hung around our house all the time. I gathered that much from an old letter that Bessie wrote to my mother after we moved.

Photos From Indian Castle 1953-54

Teacher's name was Vivian Kraft
Second Grade-St. Johnsville School

Living In Indian Castle

We moved again. This time to a little area called Indian Castle. Down past Little Falls, on Route 5-S. My father went to work for a farmer named Paul Wagner. We lived in the "farmer's helper" house, down the road a piece from the big farm. I liked living there for the most part. We had lots of room to play and we seemed to have lots of fun there. We even had a telephone but only for incoming calls. My mother could not call out. There was a nice yard with a Pear tree in it too! And there was room for a big garden out back, which my mother used. We helped plant the seeds.
There was an old barn on the property which old Paul Wagner used to butcher his cows. We used to watch him and he would give my mother the heart and tongue. Sometimes he'd put that heart onto my little brother, Steve's hand, all dripping with warm blood and tell him to take it into the house to my mother. Yuck! But at least we had meat all the time and I liked cow's tongue. Wouldn't eat it now though!
The NYS Thruway was just being built at that time and it was right behind our house. Dad used to take us across the dirt roadway to the canal to watch the boats go through. He'd fish sometimes and there was a small pond nearby and I'd catch polliwogs and frogs. I brought twelve frogs back to the house one time. I'd put them in the old rinse tub that was outside to catch rain water. My mom asked me what I was going to do with them. Eventually, after I got done studying them close up, I'd take them back to the pond. I'd keep a few Polliwogs sometimes and watch them grow legs. That was neat! I kept them in a container inside the house.
I got a pet turtle one time and had him in his turtle pond. One day I came home from school and he was missing. We found him later on all dried up. Poor thing. I cried over that and buried him outside. in a little grave. It was one of those little dime turtles that you could buy at Woolworth's. Not sure who bought it for me. I presume my Aunt Dorothy did. One Easter, she brought us all an Easter present. A baby chick for each one of us. Since we lived in the country it was okay to have them. But eventually they grew up to be big Chickens and my parents killed them for meals. I lucked out. My chick turned out to be a Rooster! Ha! He was given to the Wagner's when we moved.
There was this wild cat that would come around now and then. She only had three legs. We could never get near her. She eventually had a little of kittens in the old barn. We'd go out there and watch and play with them and we ended up keeping them. The mother cat got used to us and would always hang around for food. I guess she had plenty with all the slaughtering going on in that barn.
I remember dropping one of the kittens on the cement porch and crying and crying. It lived though.
We were all out in the barn one day playing. There was this beam up over our heads and my cat and Christine's cat were walking along it. My cat jumped down and landed right on Chris's head and either scratched her or bit her. Well, my mother got so nervous, thinking the cat might have had Rabies. After my incident at two years old, she was always afraid of Rabies. So she walked up to the Wagner's house and old Emma, the farmer's wife, let her use the phone to call the State Troopers. They showed up and said they had to shoot the cat. This was my cat they wanted to shoot. And the cat would not come near them and was way out in the garden. My mother made me go get him by luring him with a pan of food. The cat would always come to me. It came right away because it trusted me. Then I had to carry it to the front yard and put it down. The trooper shot it right in front of me. Boy! Did I cry and cry. I always blamed that on my sister because she had been teasing my cat before that incident happened. But of course it wasn't really her fault. Things just happen sometimes that we have no control over.
They took the cat away and when they got the results back it did not have rabies, which I knew it wouldn't.
It was my mother's birthday. I was seven years old. She was very sick and lying down in the other room. I told her I wanted to bake her a birthday cake. So she let me. She called out from the other room just what to put into the bowl and how much. That cake came out so good. I was real proud of myself that day. I never forgot it.
My mother always baked her own bread and would make plenty of loaves. She'd always save one special for the lady down the road. Her name was Bessie. So while the bread was still warm out of the oven, us little girls would walk down the road to give it to her. She and her husband, Ray, ran a little gas station outside their barn. A one pumper. They were very nice people. We'd always sit on her lawn swing or glider. Not sure what they called them back then. She'd give us lemonade and chat with us.
Wherever we lived, my mother would always have an extra loaf of bread for an elderly neighbor. There is nothing that beats the aroma of home made bread!
Sometimes our father would let us go up to the Wagner's barn with him to watch him milk the cows. He'd always squirt that milk in our faces. It tasted good though. We always had fresh milk.
Old Emma Wagner would sometimes let one of us girls sleep over night at their house. It was so nice and comfortable in that feather bed. And in the morning she'd make a huge breakfast. It always smelled so good. It was a treat for me!
There was always this old man around it seemed. I think he must have worked for some farm around there or maybe he worked for Bessie and Ray. I don't remember. But he was always drunk and dirty looking. Sometimes we'd see him sleeping in the ditch along the side of that road. He'd come visit dad now and then and I'll never forget my sister, Chris. She'd sit right up on his lap, not caring how he smelled or looked. We laughed about that for years. Ha! Ha! My sister, Jeanne and I couldn't stand him. We'd stand far away. But Chris didn't care.
We had to ride the bus to the St. Johnsville School every day. There was an old bridge that we'd have to cross. It wasn't very safe so the bus driver would stop and tell all the kids to get out and walk across. He'd pick them up on the other side. Well, because I had crutches, he'd tell me I could stay in the bus and ride with him. I really always wanted to get out with the other kids. I knew if the bus crashed through I'd go with it. But we always made it safely and continued on our way.
I was in second grade at that time. I'll always remember the nice principal. His name was Mr. Fransisco. We'd have a milk and cookie break each day and that nice looking man would come to the door of our class room and get me and we'd walk down to the cafeteria before the other kids. I always think of that. He must have been a very nice and thoughtful man. I'll never forget him.
While we lived at that place, I learned how to ride that bike that was given to me by the waitresses at the March of Dimes Dinner. My cousin, Jack, took off the training wheels and pushed me down the driveway till I finally went on my own. That was so neat! I never had to have those training wheels on again!
I also learned there was really no Santa Claus while living there. All of us kids were upstairs, all excited because it was Christmas Eve. We were peeking through the grates in the floor when we saw someone bringing our presents in the house. It was Bessie and her husband bringing in this beautiful doll cradle with a doll in it. I guess I was disappointed to learn there was really no Santa but we all have to grow up sometime.. I always wished I had never peeked through that grate that night. It was like losing a part of your childhood that you'd never have again.
I also found out there was no Tooth Fairy that year. I caught my mother putting a nickle under my pillow.
We never had a TV in those days but we sure had a lot of fun listening to the radio! We'd huddle around that tall piece of furniture every Saturday night to listen to the shows. They were great! Our imaginations could take us anywhere. I loved "Our Miss Brooks" and "Only The Shadow Knows" and "Dragnet" and so many others. I can't recall all of them.
My little sister, Jane, was born while we lived there. She was the only one that wasn't born in Ilion Hospital. She was born in The Little Falls Hospital. Now there were six of us kids.

The Year 1952-Moving Etc

I'm not quite sure about this year with all the moving we did. I think my brother Jimmy was born while we were still in Mohawk but I'm not sure. He was born in September of 1951. We had moved off Church Street in Mohawk and that might have been when we moved up in the country to Pett's Farm. That was on Ward Road outside of Mohawk so I'd still be going to Mohawk school. We lived in a little white house with chicken coops behind it. I remember catching the bus at the end of the driveway. Dad worked down the road for Farmer Pett. We were not there long. We moved to Columbia Center for a short time also. We lived upstairs over an old store. I remember those stairs being real steep. There was a little candy store across the street. We'd go in there to buy penny candy. I think we moved to Frankfort after these places. I know I was in first grade in Frankfort and second grade in St. Johnsville School when we moved down to Indian Castle, outside of Little Falls.

A newspaper article from 1952-Mohawk District

There were a lot of benefits for the March Of Dimes back in those days. This is just one of them. From Mohawk, NY

A distant relative who had Polio also-Joyce Kane

Little Joyce wasn't so lucky. She had to live in this Iron Lung. She died at the age of seven. I remember visiting and talking to her at the hospital.

My Cousin Gordon

This is my cousin, Gordy, who got Polio around the same time as I did. He spent a lot of time in Shriner's Hospital and had many operations on his leg as he grew up. This was him in the Children's Hospital when he first went in and a little later. He was the Poster Boy back then.

More Photos From the Dinner In 1952

I look scared..Ha! Ha! That Doctor Heller was in Herkimer for lots of years. I wrote to him once about that old film. Thought maybe he had it or knew how to get it but he was too sick to respond and then he passed away. The waitresses from the Prospect Inn donated their tips to buy me a nice two-wheeled bike with training wheels. I loved that bike!

The March Of Dimes Dinner-1952

Photos from the March Of Dimes Dinner. The invitation .

Moving To Frankfort, NY-1952

My father didn't want to stay in Mohawk I guess and so we were on the move again. This time to Frankfort, NY. Not sure why he would want to live there but we did for a very short time in 1952. I was in First grade by then. The school was right down the street, so I didn't have far to walk. We lived in a two family side by side house on Orchard Street. I do remember playing with the neighborhood kids back then. One family's last name was Fresco. I think they lived around the corner in an upstairs apartment. I can't recall who lived next door though..Ha!
It was when we lived in Frankfort that I got invited to a March Of Dimes Dinner and Benefit at The Prospect Inn in Herkimer. I was the first one in Herkimer County to get Polio that year and I guess that is why they invited me. I was the only child there. A man came and picked me up and brought me home. My mother didn't go. Must be she had to stay home with the younger children. Not sure why. Never thought to ask her. I am adding a bunch of photos from that dinner.

My First Day Of School in Mohawk-1951

I started school in Mohawk and this was my photo as I was ready to go. I wasn't far from the school. I think I walked. There wouldn't have been any other way to get there. We never had a car. And while in Kindergarten we visited a farm. I must have loved that after being away from one so long.

Photos From Mohawk, NY-1950

A few more photos from when we lived in Mohawk. These are before I got Polio.

Mohawk NY-Our Home-1951

As you can see by this photo, my father was back in the picture. He had gotten out of prison and moved back in with my mother. My mother had moved off the farm when they split up before I got Polio, and moved into town so she could get to places easier, since she depended on her sister or sister-in-laws to take her places. She had no car. She took the bus a lot and was close to the bus line in Mohawk where we lived. We lived on Church Street. I liked it there. Nice neighbors.

I had one friend across the street but when I came home her mother didn't want her to cross the street to play with me. Folks were really scared of Polio back then. I guess some thought it could still be passed from one person to the next.

Coming Home-June 10 1951

I don't recall much of that year in the hospital. I remember my mother coming to visit but my father never came once. I guess he was in prison for non-support, or so I was always told. I remember one Great Aunt that came, only because she had this real Fox fur around her neck with a real fox head on it. I will never forget that. Ha! Ha!
I came home on June 10, 1951. I had to be in a bed with sides on it and wear leg braces to bed. I hated that. But I guess it was to keep my legs straight so they would not be knock kneed. I don't think I knew my sisters any more and I had never seen my little brother yet. My sisters never came to the hospital. I don't recall much about that time. When I look at photos I seem to recall when the photos were taken though. One of my Aunts took them. This is the day I came home.

Before Polio Photo And Hospital Photos

A few photos. My sisters and I just before I got Polio. Me in the hospital and with a nurse. I was in the newspaper a few times back then. A celebrity! Ha! Ha! This is the letter my father got while I was in the hospital. I wish I knew where that film was now. It would be very interesting to see. I'd love to have a copy of it. I'm sure it's long gone by now.