February 08th, 2012

Neil P Brady 's Memories

 

What I remember of my parents




I remember a few things my mom told me about her childhood. She would scoop the manure from the horses that used to draw the milkmanís cart. They would put it on the garden for the tomatoes. She told me as a young girl she would make soap out in the back yard. To this day other than the fact that it was lye soap, I donít have a clue how that was done. She loved to dance and that is how she was what she was doing the night she introduced to my dad. We got stuck one time in New Hampshire and spent a night at a motel. The Hotel next door had a ball room and I recall after dinner my parents dancing to the music of a man at the piano. It is still a wonderful memory of them all alone fox-trotting across the ball room floor. My mom told me she used to have her girl friends over when her mom was at work and she was in high school. What went on she did not say. She told me the milk in the old days would freeze in the cold of winter on the front steps of the house and all the cream would separate and float to the top making ice cream. We never had a milk man to experience this. It was before homogenized and pasteurized milk came in a carton at the store.

What I remember of my grandparents

My Grandfather on my motherís side was who I was named after. To the best of my knowledge he died from cirrhosis of the liver, a drinker. His wife Elsie my Grandmother raised her 4 daughters as best she could. My mom was the oldest of the girls. Elsie loved to plant tomatoes in her garden and lived with her brother Henry for all the late years of his life. She owned a summer trailer on the water at Brant Rock, MA. She lived there in her small trailer for the summer months. I remember plenty of time spending the night there in my tent outside or the small bed inside. I remember she never wanted us to go to the john at night. She said just pee in a pail. I don't recall any stories from her life that she shared with us kids. And Neil my grandfather was dead when my mom was 10. So I never knew him. About all I know about him was he came from Canada. I don't even recall ever seeing even a photo of him. My father's father Joseph was the grandfather I remember having. I donít remember anything about him now though I was much to young when he died. I was six or so. I remember going to his funeral as a boy. We had to dress up in white shirt and tie. I also had to go to school later that morning dressed as such. I did not like that idea. He died of a heart attack or 7, I should say. I remember my father saying that he had to work and he could not stop for his health. Someone had to feed the family, So it was done. And he did not cure the problem of feeding the family. My grandmother Alma his wife was a character. She hated every one and most of all her neighbors. I remember going to her home as a young boy and 5 or more small dogs, especially a tiny chiwawa were there to keep her company. They barked so much and I hated them and to this day I don't like small dogs. My grandmother had befriended a skunk in Bridgewater, MA on a small farm they owned for a time. It was wild and it was friendly with her. She never got sprayed. She loved animals more than people and when I was very young she had a reassess monkey. I remember walking into her home one time and it was out of the cage and it headed for the window and up the curtains it went. I also remember it scaring the heck out of me. Late in her life she took an interest in miniature horses. She lived in a small room on the second floor of her daughter my aunt Junieís house. She also had a 20 plus pound cat. I remember one day she called to talk to my dad. She had a zenith color TV that she wanted to give to him. He seemed all too happy with his black and white TV. So I told him if he did not want it I did. Letís go and get it. So he drove me down to get my new used TV. He never gave it back! It became his first color TV. I went off to college.