July 30th, 2010

Joseph Agustus Brady 's Story

Birth Year: 1929




Table of Contents






    A History/Genealogy: 1730-1999 of the Ancestors and Descendants of the Neil Paul Jameson and Elsie Sophie (Meyer) Jameson Family


    This is an excerpt of the book I published compiling the ancestors of my wifes family.


    Information needed for a History/Genealogy?


    People have asked me, "What type of information is needed for a History/Genealogy and where can that information be acquired"? Here is my answer: ASK QUESTIONS!


    1- From your Grandparents, Parents, Yourself, Spouse/ex-spouse and children, as applicable. Or from Public Records, as follows, If you know where they are?


    2- From Birth/Marriage/Divorce/Death/Adotion Records/Certificates.


    3- From Military Service Records/Discharge's.


    4- From Educational Diploma's/Degree's.


    5- Drom Professional Licences/Awards/Certifications.


    6- From Census Records - at least one hundred years old, by law.


    7- From The Court - Wills and Real Estate Transactons Records.


    8- From Grave Stones - A few paragraphs telling your/their personal story would be very helpful and highly desireable. what you would want somebody, in the future, to know about. A personal Resume - if you will.


    My two youngest children were born while we lived in North Reading, MA. You can only find their Birth Certificates in Boston, for Carol, and in Melrose for Tom. That's where the Hospitals were located, where they were born. Carol was married in Bossier City, LA, Tom was married in Memphis, TN. How would you know where to get a copy of their Marriage Certificates? They are Public Records. In fact my son Neil was married in Costa Rica. How's that for making things complicated?


    Simple, isn't it? It has taken me thirty years, off and on, a great deal of time and effort and yes money to acquire the information that I have Published in History/ Genealogy's recently. Surely they are incomplete. After all the History/Genealogy is only a snapshot in time, from the day of Publication - to the past. Time marches on so that what is Published is only information on which to build.


    Is the information published an INVASION OF PRIVACY?


    PERHAPS - However it is all in the Public Records, if you know where to go and you wish to learn it. AH! But how helpful it might be, to your Descendants - in the future. Maybe your Great Grandchild would like to learn of their heritage. They might want to know about you, their Great Grandparent. Don't you think they would be THANKFUL that you were far sighted enough to provide them your own Personal History- for their review?


    It is absolutely amazing how much information an individual has, concerning their Heritage, however, if it is not recorded or organized so that on their passing, the information is lost to History. THINK - How much do you know about any one of your Great Grandparents? I suspect, very little - what a shame - you could solve this problem easily by Documenting your Personal Pedigree in a History/Genealogy, for the Future use of your Descendants. Please give it a try, I have.


    I personally knew many relatives who were born in the 1800's. They could have answered many questions that can no longer be answered. I have regretted my immaturity, for years. Had I been more interested, I could have saved myself un-told frustration. The information is no longer retrieveable, what a loss!


    I have been and amateur Genealogist for in excess of thirty years. I have been researching the Brady, Tweed, Jameson and Meyer Families, during this time. Claire and I have visited Ireland, Germany, Nova Scotia and throughout New England, partly for this purpose, trying to develop information, with some success.


    I started on the endeavor in the late 1960's. One of my Grand Aunt's died and left my mother a copy of a History/Genealogy which was pertinent to my Mother. That book had been published in 1900. My Mother could not understand its content and so she came to me for explanation. It meant I had to study its content, in so doing, I was hooked. This book provided me with the opportunity to unlock the past of my Mother's Family and Heritage. Because of this one book, I have now acquired a number of Genealogies, Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Certificates, Diploma's, Degree's, Certifications, Discharged Wills and many Photographs of Grave Stones. The search goes on.


    I thank God for the efforts of that Authoress. She provided me with the beginning of the search for my Heritage. She is gone now, having been born May 3, 1836 but what a legacy she has left for those, who like me, can find their Ancestors in that book. Perhaps someone will say the same for me, in the future.


    After a History/Genealogy is published, the Author always hears from people who want to know why they were not included or why pertainent information was left out. To be perfectly frank - it's because they did not choose to provide it, in the first place or were not aware that a History/ Genealogy was about to be published that they could have volunteered information for.


    Although a major effort was made, to find out where some people were, so that information could be obtained, the effort was unsuccessful. The results are apparent in the latter part of this book, upon examination of the content. The only solution is a future Revised Edition. I do not know who might provide it.


    The Author can only use the information that is currently at hand, even though that information may be years old. One has to stop somewhere, at the age of Seventy, that point has been reached  for me. I no longer have the option of delaying the publication of this History/Genealogy. If I don't, the information will be lost.


    I am computer illiterate and a long way from being a professional typist, therefore, please excuse any typographical errors, however, if you come across any major errors, in content, or wish to provide additional data. I would appreciate it if you could send me a marked-up copy so that I might modify the original copy.


    After reading this book, I hope you have learned something about your Heritage, I have, In compiling it. To my Grand Children - Your parents should have a copy of this book and others for the other side of the family. Contact them, if they are still alive.


    Brief History


    I Joseph A. Brady [Pic] was named in honor of my father [Pic], [Pic] Joseph Augustus Brady and Grand Father [Pic], Joseph A. Brady (Augustus, was also his middle name)The first born of the Fourth Generation.


    Until my marriage I "Sonny" lived primarily with the Third Generation Brady Family at 81/81A Bowdoin Ave., Dorchester, MA. [Pic], although I attended Elementary School from my parents home address. At the age of 5 [Pic] until I graduated high school I personally lived with my grandmother Dora (Hogan) Brady. The home of my mother changed annually so that for nine years, I attended a different Elementary School. I graduated from Boston Trade High School [Pic], Roxbury, Ma,. Aircraft Service Course in 1946. In 1942-3 I worked part time with my Aunt Rena at the H/P. Hood Dairy Stores in Dorchester and Jamaica Plain, MA. IN 1943-6 I worked my way through High School at Arnold's Delicatessen, Washington Street, Dorchester, MA. as a Short Order Cook/Dishwasher. In the summer of 1945 I worked for Northeast Airlines as an Aircraft Mechanic.


    I enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corp. on May 18, 1946 (SN-RA-1157943) and served in Texas [Pic], North Carolina, Mississippi, in Fassberg, Germany [Pic], The English Sector, during the "Berlin Airlift" as an Aircraft Mechanic/Ground Crew Chief of C-54 Aircraft. I was Discharged Honorably from the U.S. Air Force on June 30, 1949 and the Air Force Reserve on February 23, 1953 and February 23, 1956.


    On July 4th 1954 I married Claire Elsie Jameson [Pic], Born August 18, 1931, the oldest daughter of Neil Paul Jameson [Pic] and Elsie Sofie (Meyer) Jameson [Pic] of Roslindale, MA. IN 1957 I graduated from Lincoln Technical Institute with an Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering (AME) Nights. In 1959 I graduated from Northeastern University [Pic] with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Engineering and Management (BBA) and in 1964 I graduated from Northeastern University [Pic][Pic] with a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) all at nights in Boston, MA.


    My first of three children were born while living on the second floor in the Brady Family Home at 308 Talbot Ave. Dorchester, MA. Arthur, Dilda and Milly lived on the first floor while Rena and Dick Leen Lived on the top floor.


    In 1959, I moved my family and we reestablished it at 20 Winter St. North Reading MA., all the children grew-up, graduated from school and eventually left home. For their own careers. On December 31, 1988 I retired from RCA. Burlington, MA as a Senior Project Member.  My wife Claire and I built our retirement home at 1123 Riverbend Dr. LaBelle, FL. where we have since sold and moved to McMinnville, TN to be closer to my son Tom.


    Although I held many positions in more than fifteen different industries, including owning an Educational Franchise and being a Management Consultant, I served on the Industrial Development Commission for the Town of North Reading, MA. 1960-65, Chairman 1962-65. I was licensed as a National Association of Security Dealers (NASD) Registered Representative 1969-76 and licensed as a life, Accident and Health Insurance Broker in the State of MA. 1972-1980. Commissioned as a Notary Public for the State of MA. 1972-84. And most recently served as a Director for the Riverbend Homeowners Association. Inc.


    I have also Published and Authored the History/Genealogy of my family.


    My Heritage


    The Brady's


    Patrick Brady [Pic] was born in Ireland. He lived in Ireland until he was probably 20 years old or so. As I recall supposedly he left Ireland I believe it was Dublin on a ship named Columbus. I think, in 1846 at the beginning of the Potatoe Famine is when he left. He arrived in Boston and as he was starting out the employment situation at that time was absolutely miserable because all the businesses said "NO IRISH NEED APPLY".


    As a result, his first job as a laborer was with a pick and shovel. Where and doing what, I have no idea. He must have done well and saved some money because the next time I have information on him he was referred to as a teamster. He had a wagon and horses that he probably rented and he was what we would call a rag man, which doesn't exist any longer. So he went around Boston collecting rags, junk and stuff like that, so that in time he became successful, which didn't mean that much, that he probably started in the junk business were I'm guessing he ended up having a salvage yard.


    Later on he was someone who collected metals. What he did with this was the stepping stone until later on he started collecting and purchasing houses. Towards the end of his life or by the time he died he must have owned 100 or more triple deckers (houses with 3 apartments one per floor.)and in those days he rented them out. You collected the rent weekly in those days and if you didn't pay the rent the sheriff put you out in the street just like that. So he and his children spent their time collecting the rents in addition to running a salvage yard. He was very successful and he owned all the property under the D Street Housing Project as it is known today in South Boston. He owned properties in and around Bowden Avenue where my Grandfather and Grandmother lived. He died I think about 1905. (The correct info is in my History/Genealogy books.) None of the children worked except for my other Uncle Thomas Brady.


    Thomas Brady: I never knew him to work because I only knew him as a retiree. But in the information I do have he was listed as an Iron Worker.But that is all I knew about him.


    The Women: None of them ever worked except to go help collect the rents. Now that is what my Grandfather did initially. They lived off the rents and they were slum lords if you want to call it that and they were quite wealthy. The last one of his generation died in 1939 and that was one of my Great Aunts and she left an estate. My Father and all his Sisters, my Aunts and Uncles were the beneficiaries of my Grandmother Brady. Now the correct beneficiary of this estate was already dead.


    They split up the estate with the cash that was available in banks. Because the original Beneficiary was dead the new Beneficiaries had to deal with what was, an open estate. They had to go to court to settle it. In those days 1939 they all got what was maybe the total of 3 years salary and they all got 1 seventh of the house as ownership. So they all turned the house over to my Grandmother Dora.


    My Great Grandfather Patrick had used a legal firm, they took care of everything. I am quite sure that the attorneys that were handling the estate only provide what they had to and they kept the rest. Because there was no other housing available exept the house my grandmother lived in. The rest of it was all gone. My Aunts and Uncles when they needed money during the Depression they would sell property. It would appear the they sold all the property by the time 1939 rolled around which is inconceivalbe to me. I believe that where there was money that was not recorded anywhere the attorneys kept that along with the property. So my Uncle for years after the estate was settled was suing but was never successful and then the attorney died, and that settled everything, so we were all screwed.


    You have to realize too that the Potatoe Famine in Ireland only affected the peasants, because most of the farms were owned by the English people, Earls and such. So during the famine Ireland exported a great deal of potatoes, but those were the good potatoes and what was left was for the peasants.


    My Great Grandfather Patrick realized that the only way he could bet ahead was with real estate. Now as a peasant in Ireland you could not own real estate because it was all owned by the royalty or some other thing. But he discoved that in America he could own real estate, so that's what he did and he became a Real Estate Barron if you want to call it that.


    So after my Grandfather's sister died each person got one seventh of the estate and it was not worth divided what it was worth as a whole. So it was all gone and the family went back to poverty again. So it took one generation to go to wealth and just one generation to return to poverty.


    Now Joseph A. Brady I [Pic] (The "I" is to signify the order, There is not a number with his legal name.) was Patrick's son and my Grandfather. He was the last son or the Baby of the family. I can't recall right now. In the late 1800's there was a financial panic. Prior to this I believe Patrick sent Joseph down to Providence Rhode Island to start doing the same thing, buying up properties tri-levels and that kind of thing to rent them out. But because of the panic he failed. So he came back to the City of Boston. But by this time he had met my Grandmother [Pic]. I don't know where they married, RI or MA. I can't find out. and I can't get any information from CT because they won't give it to you unless you are a Registered Genealogist. You cannot get anything out of Connecticut. I don't know what he did during that time when he came back. But he was also known as a Professional Piano Tuner. Now how much income he got from that I have no idea. I understand he was a hell of a good piano player too.


    During the Depression my Grandmother Dora lived in the house at 80 Bowden Ave. Dorchester, MA. But by this time it had been turned into a two family house. Before her husband (Joseph) died in 1921 it was a single family house. It was also a historical home. It was featured in the 1930 Tri-Centennial of the City of Boston. The Brady Family moved out of the house in this time because they were poor. They used to go live from house to house. They would live in it for 3 months and not pay the rent then get evicted and go to another house. It was normal in those days because nobody had any money.


    What Joseph A. Brady I did during the years he came back form Rhode Island. I don't know but when he died he was a Civil Servant for the City of Boston working as a Drawbridge Tender on the Neponset River. How long he had done that I have no idea.


    My Father would go down during the daytime and go swimming in the Neponset River.


    The Tweed's


    On the Tweed side of my family my Grandmother, my Mother's Mother committed suicide. From what my mother said she was institutionalized at Mattapan State Hospital and I know that for a fact. My Mother said she committed suicide by cutting off her hair and hanging herself with it over a door. My Aunt Mildred Louise Brady, [Pic] we called her Millie had a different story. She said they did not know what happened. Millie knew her and she was unstable.  There was no question about that. They lived on School Street which was about 3 streets away from Bowden Ave.


    So when my Mother who was born in 1911 and Father who was born in 1905 got married my Mother's Mother came and lived with my Father's Mother for some period of time before she was institutionalized. Millie used to say she was a little woman and my mother used to say she was a big woman. My Mother said she had long hair and Millie said she had short hair. All of this took place at 101 Bowden Ave. where I was born. (That house doesn't exist anymore.) Millie said she used to get totally nude and dance in front of the open windows and she would spin around in circles continuously. So she was out of it!


    The fact is she did commit suicide and my Great Great Grandmother (her mother) was a Socialite. She was not the peasant type. Her husband had already died at that time so she took the Tweed Family completely out of her will. The Tweeds and my mother to her no longer existed! And yet my Mother was supposidly married in her house. I knew and had a very little contact with my Mother's family the Tweed's during my entire life.


    I knew my Grandfather William Harrison Tweed. I met him a couple of times. He got my Father a job at Fort Devens. He had two sisters, one whose name was Bessie and the other Mary. But they called her Mammie, I knew them. I had pneumonia when I was in the first grade. They sent me down to Randolph where they lived on West Street to recuperate. The highway went behind them and behind that there was a cottage. It was all their property and in that cottage is where my Mother and Father spent their honeymoon.


    I knew Bessie and she worked for Jordan Marsh in Boston. She worked for 40-50 years with them. It is now Federated Department Stores, I believe. She got a job for my Aunt Alvida May Brady, whom we called Dilda, wrapping packages there back during the Depression. Mammie, I don't know what the hell she did.


    My Parents


    My Father Joseph A. Brady II ( like his father the number is significant only to order) was born in 1905. We called him "Buster".


    He and my Mother were not only married in her mother's home at 47 Fairmount St. Dorchester. But according to my Mother they also were married in a Church. But what is possible is they got married in the Church and then had the reception at my Mother's Mother's house. I am not sure. This was a marriage of necessity as I was on the way by about 4-5 months. (I was the first Child).


    My Mother Alma Gibson Brady (Tweed) was born in 1911


    Ma was only at the age of 16 and my Father was 22 at the time I was conceived. She was 17 when they married. I was born in my Grandmother Dora's house. I was not born in a hospital. All my brothers and sisters were born in a hospital, not me. From what Millie said, it was with lots and lots of screaming! It was normal in those days. Nobody had spinal taps and drugs. What a way to be greeted into the world. I don't begrudge someone who happens to be in pain.


    My Mother was a housewife. She never worked a day in her life; I believe. Well she had a couple of part time jobs working in two shoe factories. But she would very quickly get fired. She eventually moved to Pond St. in Randolph where she spent the better part of her later years. But before this there was a home in Bridgewater where they live. My sisters had horses there.


    My Brother William when he returned from Japan with his wife Sue and the kids lived there with them. The garbage and the baby food waste was put outside under the back stairs after it would pile up then my Father would take it down the back and bury it. But there was a skunk that used to come to eat there. One day he got his head stuck in a baby food jar. My Mother went out to save its life and I don't know what she used maybe a hammer. but she broke the jar so it could breath. But unfortuately the ring at the top of the jar was still around the skunk's neck. So the skunk who had different thoughts didn't like the idea, so he sprayed her. She then jumped into the swimming pool that was filled up out the back. But that is the story there. She never did get that jagged ring of glass off the skunk's neck.


    My Mother had a number of sisters and brothers. Some of them I knew though not very well, only one that I knew quite well and that was Ruthie who was her youngest sister.


    When I was very young my parents moved into the projects in South Boston. They were in a big building with apartments in it. They did have single family buildings which my Aunt Ruthie got a hold of. Ruthie is the one that convinced my Mother and Father to move down to Old Colony. So we lived there and I was in the fourth grade at the time. This was where they lived at the beginning of the Second World War, or just prior to it in the 30's. Moving into that housing developement at that time was really a rise in status. This was because you have cabinets in the kitchens, and new stoves and all this sort of thing. You have to recognize that at the time my Grandmother Dora had a black stove which ran on kerosene and she had a soapstone sink which was probably about 3-4 feet long which of course was common for families. But when they moved into the Government Projects they had all white stoves, sinks and refrigerators. It was just public housing. this was a big step up for the people who lived there.


    They also had activities for the people. My Mother used to go out and roller skate with the other housewives in the area. The Project had their own power house to provide their own power. It was oonce or twice a week I don't remember now, but they would go down to the basement of the power house and they would show movies. These were all non-talkies. The silent movies of the time with Buster Keaton and Charlie Caplin and all those things. I used to enjoy going to that! We only lived here for a year or two and they we moved out. My Mother finally made enemies. That was her main function. to move into a place make enemies and then move out. Start all over, make enemies and move out again. CRAZY!


    My Mother was a pet fanatic. She had cats and dogs and a monkey. She had the monkey for 3-4 years. It wasn't a reisis monkey. It came from South America. I can't remember the type now. It was a little bigger than a squirrel. She got it because she always wanted one.


    She would tell anyone who was helping out financially that she was in trouble and the next thing you know she would have another dog, or a new bedroom set, another cat etc. I never gave her money because I knew it would be gone. So I would put money aside for her and when like in the fall or early winter time I would buy something I knew she could use like some new quality blankets. I bought at Sears the first refrigerator she ever had. That's the way I paid board. Now by the same token I never owed her board because there was very little time I ever spent at her house. There was a time I did spend with my Mother, Father, Brothers and Sisters, but not much. But most of the time I spent with my Grandmother and her family.


    Things I Had, or Not


    I never had a bed!  My Mother had bunk beds for my Brother and I, but I was rarely there. But that was the only time I actually had a bed, when I stayed with my mother because I was in the bunk bed. I didn't have a bed at my Grandmother's. I slept on the floor. My Aunts and my Grandmother all stayed upstairs. There were two bedrooms up there. Millie and Gertrude Irene Brady whom we called Rena were in one room and Dora, and Alvida May Brady, whom we called Dilda were in the other. In the living room is where my Uncle Arthur slept. They had in those days what was called a studio couch. It was a bed with two big cushions that you put against the wall. So Arthur would stay in there and I would put the cushions under the dining room table. I would sleep under the dinning room table on those cushions and the table was there, so no one would walk on me. The first bed I ever had was when I got married. Now they did have a little bed that I used when I was just a very little boy. But after that I didn't have one until I got married. Also, I never owned a bicycle until my wife and I moved to Florida.


    Now I had things that a lot of kids my age never had. Because when my Aunts would come home they would bring me things like cardboard houses. You could collect the different ones and have a whole village. I would put them all over the floor. They probably cost a nickel or dime at the time. They were stamped out and printed on one side. You could put them up and take them down. They had different types like a chateau, a ranch house or gas station, and I had a lot of those things when I was 4, 5, and 6 years old. In those days you could have firecrackers and I did have a BB gun.


    I never saw as BB gun like the one that I had. It was a single shot. To pump it you broke it in half and when you brought it up you would put in your BB. What I would do was put a wooden match in the chamber and when you shot that against the wall it would explode!


    I also had a lot of lead soldiers. Other boys had cowboys. But I had the soldiers and they were all First World War soldiers. They had the tin type hats and those were spring loaded. They were built from the top down so the head had a hole in it that held a spring and the cap went on top of that. In the summer around the Fourth of July Santo Scibilia (my best friend at that time) and I used to take out all our lead soldiers and take off the hat put in a firecracker and blow them up. Those things would be worth a small fortune today. I had more than he did because I had people bringing them home to me to play with where he didn't.


    My Brothers and Sisters


     My parents had 6 children. I was the oldest, and I was born on January 6, 1929. My Brother William Harrison Brady I "Brother" came next in 1930. June Marie Brady "Junie" 1933, Louise Alma Brady "WeeZee" in 1936 and the "Twins" [Pic] Paula Anne and Paul Lee Brady. They came along in 1943.


    My Friends


    [Pic]


    I have a few friends left now that are still alive. We were all within a year in age of each other. Santo had five older brothers. He was Italian not part of the marfia. But he has a large extended family. My other friend, Bunny Kerwin's father was a cop in the City of Boston. And his Grandfather was the immigrant. He did a little genealogy on his family. But it is only 3 generations deep. He was the only boy in a family with five sisters half of them are already dead. Santo is the only surviving member of his family I think. All his brothers have died, though the sister in laws might still be alive. Vinnie Civita was born on January 18th the same day as my mother, but in 1929 the same year as me. When Santo moved up to Bowden Ave, he was about 4 years old at that time. He and I were the only kids in our age bracket.


    Tommy Currivan was probably my best friend when I got out of the service up until the time I got married. Santo was my best friend in my earlier life. Santo is a confirmed bachelor and a roaring Democrat and only too willing to have other people spend his money. And there was Bob Alliota who was my friend about some time after my trade school (high school) years. He worked for the Post Office his whole life so he would have a pension and retirement. He died a few months after he retired.


    Of these people three of them did very well in life and are as wealthy as I am. Bunny is retired from the Boston Gas Company which doesn't exist any longer. Santo retired from a TV station in the City of Boston. He was a cameraman for the hockey games. Bunny would go to the games for free, up with Santo the camera booth, so he could watch the games. And Vinnie worked as a TV repairman with his Brother Tony. They owned the buisness. Vinnie sold the business out to Tony and retired. In fact the Civita Building is still there in Randolph. They built the building and their buisness was located in it.


    The Currivan's Joe and Tommy. Tommy Currivan died mysteriously oh, about 15 years ago. He was in trouble with the mafia, with loan sharks.


    He asked me years ago if I could loan him some money and I said "yah I could do that."


    What had happened was; that very day I got a refund check from the IRS the very day he called. So I asked Claire if I could loan him 300 bucks. She said "Ya go ahead".


    So I did. But like everything else, when I did that, I never heard from him again, until just prior to when he died. He came up to the house and said he would like to repay his debts and that is what he was doing and he gave me 300 bucks. But of course there was no interest and that was problably after 20 years had gone by. And I had told him years before just forget about it.


    Tommy got married before Claire and I got married and we used to have parties [Pic] at his home in Randolph. I don't know what he was doing at the time he came to me. But he had been working for the railroad in Hingham. Oh yah, He was working for a candy company in Cambridge. but anyway it was shortly after that he called on me. He was a drunkard, no question about that and he was a very good friend and very funny. It was a short time after that he died and no one can tell me how or, nobody will?


    Wherever he was living in NH is where he saw his end. I know he wanted to get rid of all his debts. He was married to a girl named Gloria it lasted only a couple of years. She was a lovely girl and she divorced him and she remarried and had 6 kids with her new husband. He remarried also and she was a hooker. He asked me about that and I told him I wouldn't. But he did! She had some kids that he really doted on, but they were not his. I went to his home a couple of times and she was very upset with him and I don't blame her. He would have been a very difficult person to have as a husband. But as a friend, Fantastic!


    My Mother's Later Years


    Alma [Pic] died in 1994 and my Father, Joe died in 1964. They are buried in Bluehill's Cemetery in Randolph, MA.


    Just before she died I spoke with Junie and she told me she couldn't take it any longer. I had been telling her for years to put her in a senior citizen home. Bo my sister finally arranged for my Mother to have her own place in a senior citizen community. Now my Mother said she had to have this, that and the other thing. So George, Junie's husband went down and repainted the entire apartment, bought funiture and pictures and every other thing.


    They got her moved in and the very same day Junie gets a phone call, "I don't like this, I can't live here"!


    She was only there for a few weeks and Junie had to take her back.


    Eventually she was put into a nursing home just before she died. One time I went down to visit with her. All she could do was cry. She wouldn't even talk with me. So I said, "OK Ma, you just want to cry, see you later".


    My Father's Earlier Years


    Now my Father left home when his dad died to reduce the household expenses. He joined the Merchant Marines. He traveled all over the North and South Atlantic and the Mediterranean. He started out as a Cabin Boy and wrapped up his career as a Seaman. When he left the ships he joined the Army. But I don't know dates. I assume an enlistment in the Army at that time was three or four years. So I suspect that it was about 1922 that he went into the Army.


    When he got out of the Army there was a meat store or more like a miniature market down the street from where we lived on Bowden Ave. And he used to be a truck driver for them. It was the Faneuil Hall Market but this is not the Faneuil Hall in the Center of Boston. This was before the Depression in the late 1920's. He is the man that was in the Calvary out West. He was stationed in Cheyenne, WY. He was the Captain's chauffer. They had horses at the time but he would drive the model T's or whatever they had at that time.


    When the Depression came along he lost the job as the truck driver and he became a painter and also did wallpapering. In those days this was the only work he could get. But he did this on the side. He worked also at Camp Devens before the Second World War as a Carpenter. He got this job because he Father in Law. My Mother's Father was working there as an Electrician. He was up there too. This was all contract work. He was not the contractor, but, just one of the employees. With this he also brought Arthur up there to work. Just before the war broke out or at the time he got a job at the Charlestown Navy Yard as a Rigger. I don't know how he got that job to begin with because it involved all kinds of angle mathematics and that kind of crap. But he eventually became one of the First Class Riggers. As a result of that he also brought Arthur his brother in to the Navy Yard. But Arthur went out to the South Boston Annex. Not the Charlestown Navy Yard. Now Arthur was a Rigger there also. My Father moved stuff around but he was not the crane operator.


    This job entailed supervising how to lift stuff off the docks. Mostly big metal plates for the submarines and that sort of crap. One of his other duties was, when a plate fell on somebody, there was nothing left and he would have to shovel it up. So if the plates were to fall he was responsible for the rigging that picked it up in the first place. I know that this happened more than a few times and I know that they were building submarines at the yard. How many they built I do not know. They also built destroyers. The aircraft carriers Hornet and Wasp were built at Four Rivers in Weymouth. While working here he moonlighted doing the painting and wallpapering.


    Now when the estate I mentioned was settled. My Father, Arthur and his sister Rena bought the store on the corner of Bowden Ave. and Washington Street. They started a novelty place and it was ultimately unsuccessful. The Brady Shoppe lasted about 2-3 years. The store is still there and the people who my Father bought it from may be dead but the family is still there. What it was, was a three decker house owned by the Maspero's. Elizabeth Maspero was Rena's and Millie's best friend. Her Mother and Father ran a soda shop in the store with the old type fountain. At that time it was a prominent place of meeting, in the 20's and 30's before the Depression. So my Father bought the place from the Maspero's and it still had the fountain in there but it was not put into use.


    They sold all kinds of novelty crap, firecrackers and cigarette lighters. They were not like what you might know today. What they were was a little thing about the size of a match box. It had a flint on the side. You filled it up with lighter fluid. They had a wand inside that had a metal piece that came out and then there was a wick around it. So you had the wand inside and it had the fluid in it. You took it out and scratched it down the side and it lit like a match of today. Now if you had one and you had it in your pocket you would burn the skin on your legs and everything. So he had things in the Shop like that.


    Now I have a photo [Pic] of a large hook and ladder fire truck that is in front of The Brady Shoppe. The truck got called to a fire during a snowstorm and as it tried to negotiate the corner it got stuck. So the truck was there for about 3 days. You can see me up on the truck. I am the one with the leather aviator's hat on. I don't recognize anyone else in that picture now. But that was 60-65 years ago or so.


    I started working with my Father and Arthur when I was 8 years old as a painter. I did this for an entire summer and my job was painting the spindles on the railings because that was time consuming work. I did this for a whole summer so they could get me a bicycle. But they never bought me a bike. So the first bicycle I ever owned was down in Labelle, FL. I was around 60 and up to that time I never had a bicycle.


    My father had a heart condition and they let him go at the Navy Yard. this was after the Korean War or in the middle of the Korean war. They were downgrading and everything else so they got rid of him. He didn't get any benefits or anything. They just canned him! But that was the way things were done in those days. He tried unsuccessfully to get jobs over at the Four Rivers Ship Yard, but , NO Luck. They got rid of Arthur too because the yards were going down hill. So they went back into business for themselves doing the painting and wallpaper and small remodeling jobs.


    After the Korean War, people were buying larger cars. The problem with the larger cars was garages of the time were too small. They wern't long enough for the cars. So they would extend it out at the back. But this was one of the major types of jobs they did. Mostly they did much smaller work or handyman type jobs.


    This is what I did to start work, but acturally I started working before that. In the third grade there was a local store and they deliverd milk. So I deliverd the milk. The milk was in quart jars, not in gallons and they were glass. They had a metal carrier for the milk. I don't remember if it was 6-8 quarts. But I used to have to deliver that milk to the store's cusomers. I also delivered  papers and got a salary of one dollar a week and that went to my Mother not to me.


    I only did that for 6-8 months and my family moved again and I lost my job.


    I was living at 101 Bowden Ave. in Dorchester, MA and my family got an apartment down the street on Washington street. That is the earliest place I can remember living with my family. I grew up with my Grandmother Dora because my parents had 6 children and it was too many. The reason They moved to Washington Street was my father was a truck driver at that time for Young's Novelty. The owner of that company owned that entire block on Washington St. So he gave them someplace to rent.


    Education and Night School


    I really don't know what ever possessed me to go to night school!


    When I was younger there was not a sole I knew that had graduated from college. Nobody went to college in those days. You were lucky if you even graduated High School. My father only made it though the seventh grade. My mother went to the eleventh grade and that was it. I assume that is because she was pregnant.


    My parents did not go to school together. I don't know how they met. But at the time her Father lived on School St. right outside the Junior High School where I am pretty sure my Father went to Jr. High. But at the time she was problaby in Elementary School so I don't know how they met. There is a 6 year difference in their ages.


    I guess at the time I realized that I was going no where with what I was doing. It was in the 1940's, I guess, I was working for a blowtorch factory at the time I started going to school. And when I started to go to school I had to go to prep school for two years because they wouldn't accept a tech school graduate. So I went to prep school and took the same courses I took in the trade school. but that was only a money maker for the school and that's all they were about anyway.


    Then after the prep school I started to go to Lincoln Technical which as an Institute associated with North Eastern. And I went in there and the guy said, "what do you want to do"?


    I said, "I am just going to go through this program".


    And he said, "No, don't do that, sign up as if you are going to go on to a Masters Degree at least. Because you will likely have less problems later on if you change your mind".


    So I said, "OK"


    So finally I took the 4 year program that gave me an Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering. And then when I went on to the Bachelor of Business Administration. Now in those days you could not get a Bachelor of Science going to night school at least not at North Eastern. I had friends that were going to Suffolk University and they had no mechanical courses at all, but they got Bachelor of Science Degrees. So anyway I did do that and took that program and graduated and thought; I might as well go on and the Masters Degree.


    So you had to have an interview with the Dean. Our's was brand new, and I met with him and he told me, I was going to have to take some refresher courses.


    And I said, "Why, I took the Pre-Masters Degree Program. I actually graduated with it!"


    And he said, "No you have to take 2 courses."


    Well, that's what I think he said.


    So I took them, I had to and it turns out that the courses are the same ones I took previously only with a different names. So I went on with the Masters Degree Program and graduated with a Masters of Business Administration, (MBA). The only reason I did that was I had always wanted to be an executive in a big company. But I was the wrong type of personallity to do that. You have to have connections and I had no connections.