From whence I came...

My mother Loretta and my father George met on their street in the West End. Chartiers Avenue, I believe. My mother had a fun loving family. Pap Pap played the drums and they had friends that played instruments. They all would get together and play music at my Maw and Pap Pap's house. With the three sisters living in the house, there was never a dull moment...lots of action, noise and music...They had a man living with them, for whatever reason!! Whether he was homeless, or a friend of my grandfathers, I don't know...His name was Johnny Lapey. My mother seemed to think he was like a helper and helped to do chores around the house. Especially when my grandfather got sick, Johnny lived out back in a little shed like room. My Pap died of a heart attack right before I was born, January 1946. but before that the house rocked with excitment...They had an ice man, a vegtable/fruit huckster,and a baker all came around and sold goods... plus lots of friends and family. They pulled taffy, and sang songs around the piano until 11:00 and that is when my Pap Pap would come out and wind the clock...This was the sign that anyone who didn't not live there was to depart!!!...Next door to my mother lived my father and his family. One sister, named Alice and a very quiet and calm household. When my father was a bit of a boy, around six, he told me how his father, a coal miner, named Brooks Curry came home every night and beat him with a slipper or belt...He never did anything to be beaten, but his father used to tell him it was for thinking of doing something bad..My father HATED his father...He said, could have killed him, there never was any love!! Looking back to what I was told, I believe both my grandmother and grandfather...were drinkers!! Anyway, my father was enthrolled about the excitement next door and all the action and fun he saw. He watched for my mother to walk past his porch and then he used to "wolf whistle" at her...She was apolled and thought he was queer. He wore riding pants..and had a mustache..My mom went to Langley High School until the 11th grade...then quit. My father was the valadictorian of Oliver and the president of the senior class, so not much more needed to be said about him!! Eventually, after long evenings of music, and waving good night from the bedroom windows, they fell in love and got married..on June 23, 1936. It was my Dad's birthday..and their wedding day. With just a small ceremony in the preachers study and a little dinner shared among the families they now begin a new...a new life, a next generation..My generation!!