Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Garfield-street of terror

Garfield street in Natrona and where I went to school through my freshmen year.  First, a little bit if the layout; if you turned of 1st avenue along the river, almost everything was on the right hand side of the street, except he Catholic mens club/organization called the Knights of Columbus.  anyway, right on the corner was Helsinki's drug store then a huge house that my relatives rented the end floor, up. Great Aunt Margie and her husband and son, who was Joe, Jr., but back then, he was called "Sonny." Two things I recall about him: first, he got polio and was put in an iron lung, a monstrosity that only let his neck and head stick out while the rest of his body was in this 2-3' diameter tube that forced his lungs in and out.  Eventually, he had a tracheotomy-hole in his neck so he could breath without the machine.  That, and he somehow got over the polio.  He was their only child.  In the attic was his train set, and I mean trains set.  He would start putting it all together on elevated sheets of plywood for Christmas by starting in August.  Great Aunt always wore hair hair tight and with a hairnet.  Her face always looked old and serious. All I remember of Great Uncle Joe was He smoked like there was no tomorrow and always was drinking beer when he was not working in the factory.  Husband and wife just didn't seem to get along very much.  She was one of two aunts of my mother who lived in Natrona;  the other was Anna and a few streets over in the middle, they had a grocery store.  Two sons I think and the one was about my age and always seemed brainy.  It wasn't til I was in my 30's that sonny(Joe, Jr.), who worked for the valley daily news, sent me a genealogy paper about 3' square, of my mother's maternal side, that I found out mom had about 12 aunts and uncles.  Mom was ten, her sister two, when her mother died of lockjaw-what my dad called it.  I do not know if the aunts helped raise the two sister's as my grandpap refused to remarry because he saw to many of the "wicked" stepmothers in town. Anyway we will continue down the street a little latter where we come to St. Joseph church and school, both forever gone, or at least the church; it burned down.

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