Cheaper than Therapy

Vanessa, Julie, Kelli and Lahoma

Centre College

Longer ago than I would like to believe

     It's a "Girls' Weekend" weekend - and just in time too.  Earlier this week I didn't think I was going to be able to make the trip to Lexington, but my sweet husband sensed that I was about to wade into the deep end of the crazy pool and kindly suggested that I pack my bag and get in the car tomorrow morning and drive north so that he could enjoy a day or two of peace and quiet I could get away from life for awhile and have a relaxing afternoon and evening with my girls.  Friends are definitely the chocolate chips in the great cookie of life. 

New Deal Notes

Eleanor Roosevelt, Aunt Eileen and Grampa Maguire

Brooklyn, New York

1940

     My dad left home at the age of seventeen to join the Air Force.  By the time he returned home to New York, his family had moved to California . . . without him. He jokes about arriving home to surprise everyone only to have their neighbor, Mrs. Dioga, tell him that the whole family had moved away. Given that, it's not surprising that my father doesn't have a lot in the way of photographs or memorabelia from his childhood.  Among the few photos that he does have is this one of his younger sister, Eileen, and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.  It was taken at the dedication of the housing project where his family lived in Brooklyn.

    When I was in the sixth grade he let me take this picture to school as part of a WWII project.  He wrote this note to go along with the photo because for most of my childhood he worked as the evening coordinator at a business college which meant he left for work before I got home from school in the afternoons and he was still sleeping when I left for school each morning. He wrote me lots of notes like this - it was how we communicated in the days before emails and text messages. I'm pretty sure that most of the notes I left for him said things like "Hi Daddy.  I need money.  I love you! - Julie" 

Corona

107th Street

Corona, New York

1950s

     There was a time when my dad was a little boy that he lived on 107th Street in Corona, New York.  My father and his family lived at 34-60 107th Street, which was right next door to the home of Louis Armstrong and his wife, Lucille. I have always been fascinated by the fact that Louis Armstrong was my dad's neighbor.  My dad has great memories of Mrs. Armstrong and he said that kids were always welcome to hang out on their front steps.  The house that my dad lived in was torn down at some point and today part of the Louis Armstrong museum sits on the lot. During a trip to Canada in 1993 my parents and I were supposed to stop in New York for a few days but a severe heat wave and my mother's then undiagnosed MS changed our plans.  One of the things on my life to do list is visit this street where my dad lived for a time when he was young.

Also in Corona:

Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church
Corona, NY

     According to the website forgotten-ny.com, Our Lady of Sorrows was the first Roman Catholic Church to minister in Corona.  Opened in 1872, the original wooden structure was replaced with this brick one in 1900.  The church is on 37th Avenue at 104th Street .  My dad  attended elementary school here in the 1950s.