grandchildren at the time. I know this was a very mournful year for the family. My mother was only twenty years old and my youngest Aunt barely a teenager. My Uncles were young and anticipating other children and awaiting milestones.
Still the family lost this beautiful, witty, hardworking, loving woman at such a young age.
Never, would I give up longing to meet my Grandmother Rosemary and have her wrap her arms around me with her love.
Grandmother Rosemary
Rosemary
While gathering some stories together, I asked one of my family members some questions of my Grandmother Rosemary. I was honored to hear how much she impacted lives.
Rosemary, or as Pop’s called her, Ace. Was a good lady, raised 5 kids, and dealt with their everyday issues- 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year… with little help.
She loved Coca Cola, Charlie Chips, and Bingo. Of course her Salem cigarettes that probably killed her, but that is what she liked.
She somehow managed to give her children what they wanted and needed, on that $20 that Whiskey John gave her every week.
How did she do it?
She was also a caring person, who would always be willing to help out people on the block. If someone was sick, or died, she would make a cake, or a dish and bring it to them.
She didn’t work until all her kids were in school, then she worked as a janitor and cleaned house for a lady named Mrs. Crowell.
She was a pretty lady, and in her younger days, her and Pop’s wouldn’t go out very often, but when there was a wedding or a holiday party, she would get her hair all done, and get all dolled up.
She would be very attractive, she was funny… zany, kind of like Lucy from the Lucille Ball TV Show.
She could love ya one moment and smack the crap out of you the next!
Her kids use to press her buttons all the time, and they paid for it. She loved to play Bingo, and when she won, she would always bring pizza home or something for her kids.
As far as being in the kitchen, Ace would cook hot and fast, and although she made great sauce, meatballs, and lasagna, this pissed off Whiskey’s sisters.
There were many things she did not cook good, because she cooked them too fast- my one Uncle says.
But she made the best Chocolate Chips that you’d ever had, she made some killer fudge.
A great hot dog sliced down the middle, a slice of American cheese and then wrapped in bacon and cooked it in the oven.
They shared some of the best nights, around the dinning room table playing, Michigan Rummy, with a couple of her friends from the neighborhood and the kids.
Boy did she hate losing, especially to the kids.
Pop-Pop didn’t like her playing, damn bingo, but he knew it kept her sane. She wasn’t the best with bills or money, but she did what she had to do.
As one of her boys got older and got a job, he would lend her money when she needed it, and if he was broke she would always find a few bucks for him.
She loved being a Grandma when the first grandson arrived, she was in her glory, and when her son bought the house on South Cook, she would be over all the time.
It was a blessing and a curse, but more of a blessing.
She would take Jon all the time to the mall on the bus.
When her twin grand-daughters and other grandson were born, that added to her joy, but didn’t get much time.
Many of us miss her… she was taken far too soon from us.
But as my Uncle would say…
I am sure that she is smiling down on all of us, maybe even from that big Bingo hall… in the sky!”
Whiskey John
Whiskey John
As for my Pop’s, he was given the nickname- Whiskey John.
Pop’s was in the marines, they say he was just a private, a foot soldier, a grunt. It’s assumed infantry. He fought in the South Pacific against the Japs.
Some are pretty sure he took some type of wound to his head, and was sent back to the states.
He had a nice scar on one side of his head, and from the stories he use to tell us, he could not see for awhile, due to the wounds.
His children would sit at the kitchen table with him, when he would come home with a couple shots in him and he would cook up some crazy stuff that always smelled really good.
He would make them try some, and he would say that about 89% of the time it tasted great!
He would never tell him what it was, until after he ate it, probably a smart thing to do. But he would be cooking and eating and he would tell his stories whether it be about the Marines or his day on the job. He’d tell you the truth. Many were not sure if it was the truth or not, but some always believed, because no matter how many times he’d tell the story- it never changed.
As for the story of the scar on his head, he always said that he was on patrol, and a mortar hit and killed a lot of the guys in his squad. That he was lucky, and only got head injury because he was short and away from the initial blast. So the shrapnel from the mortar got him, but he lived.
One of his many sayings that you’d hear him say many, many times was,
“JC- you didn’t get me then…”
Some say he never changed, that he was a good man, never heard a bad word about him.
Even to this very day many of my family come across people, and
