HUMBLE ABODES IN CHICAGO PART TEIR

   Hello again !!  I know it has been awhile since my last post but dealing with cancer can easily become a full time job, especially for the caregiver. Back and forth with hubby for doctor visits, radiation treatments three times a week, doing all the chores now is quite time consuming not to say exhausting. What a rude awakening i have been experiencing after taking over the chores he used to help with, all I can say is  "WOW" !   He is still struggling and fighting this ongoing battle with perseverance and waning strength, it is getting to be a struggle for him, but God bless him, he keeps fighting.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    We moved from the abode on 50th & Carpenter to 5732 S Union ave. where  I began 1st grade at Visitation Grammar School, I did start the first grade at ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST school, but transferred to Vis probably 4 months after starting there. Vis, what can i say besides some of the meanest women I knew. The Sisters and I just did not get along and never would throughout my 8 years with them. I just could not and would not conform to their ways of thinking, later in my life I would relate to it as a form of brainwashing. Call me stubborn or foolish or whatever,  it just went against my grain, rubbed me the wrong way, as an adult I still have and probably always will carry the scars of that time in my life.                                                                                                                          We lived on the 3rd. floor in a 3 story building, the 1st floor was occupied by a Chicago fireman and his family of 3 kids, the 2nd floor was occupied by my friend Maxine, her mom and dad whom could not speak very good english and her 2 older brothers who worked at the stockyards with their dad. I can remember on hot summer nights going across the street to the store and getting her brothers quarts of ice cream, I was just so astounded that they would each eat 2 of these at one sitting, me and my sisters and brother had to always share a quart of ice cream. The brothers always bought an extra quart for Maxine and I to share, our reward for going to the store to get this for them.   Maxine always had nice stuff, clothes, toys, games I guess because she was the only girl, she had her own room which was so pretty and frilly, we would spend hours there playing with her fancy dolls, as a matter of fact she was the first kid i knew who had  " BARBIE", one of many she would collect.  The only dolls I ever wanted were  "THUMBELINA" and "CHATTY CATHY". I never did have my own as a child but Maxine was always kind enough to share hers with me, sometimes she would even let them have a sleep over at my house. I only had 2 other close friends in my neighborhood growing up, Diane and Jeannie. I will talk more about them later.                                                                                 On our first day in our new abode sister and I met Wally and Ronnie two brothers that lived in the last house on the block as we used to say they "lived on the alley". They wanted to see where we lived, our house had an enclosed stairway going to the basement, we went down there to explore the basement only to realize you needed a key to unlock the door, sister and I came to find out they were mean and nasty boys, Jeez ! at 7 years old I did not want to show them what I owned and I sure as heck did not want to see what they owned either, we ran away from them boys and pretty much stayed away from them as long as we lived there.                                                                                            I pretty much enjoyed living here, except for all those stairs we had to climb, but really as a kid you did not notice these things,  playing hide and go seek with all the neighborhood kids, catching lightning bugs and keeping them in a jar, playing hopscotch, having jump rope contests, our first encounter with the infamous  "HULA-HOOP" came here too, we learned to conquer that thing pretty good. Getting our hair rolled up with the new "SPOOLIES" little rubber do-dads for curling your hair. On summer nights sometimes mom would let us sit on the porch into the late evening watching the teenagers  dance the night away, back then couples danced together, I loved watching them do the "JITTERBUG" all kinds of different dances most of which i never knew the names of but I sure did enjoy it !                                                                                                                                                           I even had my first job here when I was about 8, moms friend Margie lived on the next block and I would go over there and fold her baskets of clothes for a nickel a basket, she always had lots of clothes to fold having 7 kids. I can remember ironing day at our house too, I would get to sprinkle the clothes with the pepsi bottle filled with water and a sprinkler attachment on it, I would then fold the clothes up into a towel and put them in the fridge waiting to be ironed by mom, I can remember on hot days before mom would iron how she would send me to the store for the "coldest bottle of pepsi in the cooler" for her, that was her cool down while we enjoyed koolaid. We always had chores to do before we could go out and "play" during the summer, sometimes Maxine would yell up the back stairs  " YO ! Kathie, can u come out and play" always a no until my chores were done,                                   Since I was the oldest I was in charge of bringing our landlord who lived two houses down the rent money once a month. Mom would give me the envelope with $35.00 all sealed up in there. Think about it now, a 3 bedroom apartment, a living room, huge kitchen, bathroom with a clawfoot tub, and our secret room, all that for $35 a month, mind you we did have all those stairs to climb, oh and i forgot there was an enclosed back porch too !  We did not use that room too much, there was a huge downward angle to that porch you could not even stand up straight ! It did have four big windows which were all screens no glass, mom was always afraid we were going to fall out the windows so we really weren't allowed out there too much. Getting back to our secret room, it was just a long narrow closet with a door the entrance was from the living room, it did have a window which we kids could not even reach, we used it mostly on rainy and cold winter days to play in, all our toys were stored there, that was a fun room, something nice to escape too when you needed to.                                                  I can remember being in school one day and being called down to the principal's office. OMG the principal's office, that always meant BIG TROUBLE to a kid. What did I do? My aunt Lou was there mom's sister,  UH-OH, Dad got hurt at work and we had to come home immediately. Auntie Lou took me and sister out of school and brought us home. At that time dad worked as an ironworker, he was at work and fell 60 feet off of the building. Almost all of his bones were broken, he was at Macneal Memorial Hospital in Berwyn. Dad was in the hospital for almost a whole month, an eternity to me. We could not even go visit him at that time, it was not allowed. We did get to talk to him on the phone, what a horrid time in my life back then, mine daddy as i have always called him, lying in a bed all broken up. At that time there were no benefits to be had, we had to rely on family and friends for food and money, I can remember every Friday dads coworkers would come by with bags of groceries and an envelope with money for our family. Family, friends, neighbors all helped our family during this crisis of our lives, our landlord even reduced our rent " till we could get back on our feet" Dad finally came home in a wheelchair of course, I can remember how we had to play quietly so dad could recover, saturday mornings though we would get up and have wheelchair races down the long hallway, didn't last long way too much noise for dad. After the longest time dad seemed to recover, although he never really would, months later is when dad started having a problem, that is when i discovered he was an alcoholic, as young as i was i did not grasp the meaning of this, all i knew was sometimes I could not bring friends in the house, dad wasn't feeling well  (drunk), sometimes fridays would come along and we kids would be going to different relatives for the weekend ( payday was friday and dad would not return home until monday after work with no money) the times when he and mom would fight and we kids would be cowering together so afraid of both of them at the time. The time he was so drunk he had mom on the floor actually strangling her and sister took the cast iron skillet and hit him on the head and knocked him out, the neighbors called the police that time, of course at that time in the 50's no charges were made and mom was told to let him sleep it off. So many bad memories but there were also good ones. They endured, stayed together for close to 60 years till dad's death, We were lucky dad did go "cold turkey" and quit drinking when I was eleven years old, he had several setbacks but he made it, he was alcohol free till the day he died. Dad did suffer in other ways, he became a cripple, disabled and in a wheelchair most of the time when he reached the ripe old age of 55, however he did live till he was 83. He was a loving, caring and kind father when he could be.                                                                                                                    I can remember my first encounter with "prejudice" it  happened here when i was 8, moms favorite aunt kate and her husband uncle dutch lived down the street from us, they lived in a fancy brick building on the corner, a 4 unit building with a courtyard in the center. They were older and had no kids so they kinda spoiled mom and us kids. A bit further down the street from them (north) was the Dewey Public School, here is where the black kids that lived on the other side of the viaduct down the street further from us (south) attended school. Mom had made some cookies and I was bringing some to aunt kate they were in a brown paper lunch bag, the black children were walking home from school and a group of them yelled at me  "hey white girl, what you doin' on our side of the street" needless to say i did not know what she meant until I was being shoved into some sticker bushes in front of a neighbors house, they were shoving me and pushing me into the bushes repeatedly yelling at me that I did not belong on their side of the street, the lady who lived there came out and started yelling at them and they all started running away, I was crying on the sidewalk I was all scratched up and bleeding, the kind lady helped me up and cleaned me up before she took me home. The bag of cookies were taken and I was pretty shaken up, mom thanked the kind lady for helping me. The next day several of the moms were waiting for the kids, cursing, yelling and for the first time i heard the "N" word,  mom was not involved in this " mom intervention" but she explained to me about the word that was used and how she didn't think the things that were said should have been said, she said the kids were wrong but i survived with no damage and it should not have happened. She also said let this be a big lesson in your life, it was your first time dealing with racism  but it will not be your last, boy was she right or what !                                                                                    One of the tough things about living here was the long walk to school, especially in the winter, those God awful snowsuits we used to have to wear, Jeez it took half an hour to put that straight jacket on  just to get all sweated up in that thing and then go out in the cold !  Trying to walk in that get up was bad enough, then getting to school and disrobing again,  AH ! the tortures of childhood !! I use to feel sorry for the crossing guard being out there in that frigid Chicago winter air !  Come to think of it every humble abode we lived in meant a long walk to school, the closest I came to Vis was when we lived on 55th & Aberdeen.                                                                                                                  I can remember our first car, it was either a '59 chevy bel-air or an Impala, the color was salmon, not pink or coral or even peach but salmon. Dad was so proud the first one in our big family on both sides to own a new car, it was a pretty looking car, Dad came to regret buying that car though everyone in the family suddenly thought he was a "taxi driver" as he put it, it seemed the phone was always ringing asking dad to take them here or there. Pretty soon the calls became fewer and fewer, I guess dad finally learned to say "NO"!                                                                                                                 At the age of 9 while we lived here I became ill, Rheumatic Fever. I can remember waking up one night feeling sick and my legs hurt really bad, I could not bend my knees, the pain was excruciating, mom and dad put me in a tub of hot water to see if that would ease the pain, it didn't, dad said it was growing pains after all i was getting older. Fever, chills, sore throat, going to the doctor the next day.  DR. JEROME GREEN, what a guy! He was my doctor throughout this sickness that would stay with me for over a year, hospital stays, weekly blood draws, poor mom having to carry me up 3 flights of stairs, not being able to walk, go outside and play, being with my friends, by this time my friend Maxine moved away, Diane and Jeannie would come over and play board games with me my fav being "Parcheesi" they did not stay long, could you blame them?  I can remember having to go to the Christopher School for special kids, a bus ride for this one, I did have home schooling but when I could finally walk again this is where I had to go. I did perform in a school play while attending here, ( well almost)  I was to be the lead singer, on my own, and I was terrified, the song was "Santa Lucia", I learned all the words, memorized them to be honest, and was all ready to go, on the day of my solo performance I was ill with strep throat and my stand-in took over the part. Well there went my 15 minutes of fame. The teachers here were nice, kids were friendly but I wanted to be with my old classmates, I did not miss the nuns, just the kids.                                                                  During my illness my friend Jeannie was hit by a car, she was hospitalized for awhile but soon came home, she would come to "play" at my house and I would go see her at hers. It seemed strange to us here we were playing games while our sisters, brothers and friends were at school, sometimes it was fun, other times boring. Thank goodness we both recovered and got back to our old mischievous selves.                                                                                                                                                                 My other friend Diane used to have the best birthday parties, what a luxurious soiree they were. Sister recalls how Diane would have a big fancy decorated cake and cupcakes too. Those cupcakes really impressed Sister, I can remember how we would get all dressed up in our best dresses, fancy socks and sunday shoes to attend these parties, the table settings were all fancy and beautiful, we were even served Punch !  WOW !  She had big parties too, at least 10 girls in their sunday best attended. We all got presents right along with Diane, fancy little cups filled with candy, streamers, horn blowers, Pin The Tail on the Donkey game and other games were played too, fancy prizes for the winners, just something Sister and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing that Diane was the only friend who had these fancy doings !                                                                                                                             This humble abode was the longest residence we resided at during my childhood, I recall moving here at the age of 7 and leaving here at the age of 11. My grandparents, moms mom and dad would move in here when we left, they having good and bad times here also, another story, another time. Leaving here was hard, so many memories and friends to leave behind along with me. From here we moved to the  "Mouse House" again to be continued.  That's all for now my "SPECIAL READERS".   Ta-Ta for now !!