New Day, New Blog

The Intellectual side of a Dragon is always good to share. However, sometimes, even Mother Dragons do not want to be very intellectual. Sometimes we want to be just plain people with off-beat thoughts and ideas.
We even have a past, a present, and we hope for a future both for us and our offspring. (Sometimes, though, our offspring are just plain uncooperative with that future thing.) 

At the 'double nickle' stage of my life, my memories of yesterday are crystal clear while the memories of five minutes ago are often foggy. Yes - I can remember back to infancy but please do NOT ask what I had for breakfast today because if it wasn't coffee - I have no clue what it might have been! 
So, this new day, I am creating a new blog. For my first post, I would like to go back in time.... a very long way..............

Come with me now, back in time, to a 3-family house on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, CT. - where the Acme Plaza now stands. The house was owned by an older woman named Mrs. Baldino. She lived on the first floor and rented out the upper two floors. On the second floor lived a young, single mother with her two boys.

The third floor was rented by a newlywed couple who lived there with their first child. The handsome, young dark-haired man is an Army veteran who was using the education portion of the GI bill to obtain his BA in Accounting at Quinnipiac College. The fresh-faced, lovely, and even younger bride is not truly ready to be a mother but ready to fly her nest. In those days, there was only one acceptable way out of "the nest" for young ladies - and that was to marry. This is what she chose. Along with marriage, of course, comes motherhood. The baby, a girl, had been born on a Tuesday evening in late spring. She was an easy birth and welcomed on both maternal and paternal sides of the family as she was the first "grandbaby" offspring of both. 

This third floor walk-up apartment that was unbearably hot in the summer and frosty in the winter. It had a small yard with an almost hidden path in the back which led to a marsh. In the yard there was a swing set made of metal. Charles, the young husband, had an older blue-gray Peugeot Sedan that he used to travel to work and school. The wife, Dorothy, did not yet drive. Fortunately, just as many neighborhoods in those days, all she needed, grocery stores and the like, were within walking distance. 

A little bit about the families of Charles and Dorothy.......... Herbert, Charles' father, was in a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients. In those days, this was an incurable disease and sanitariums were as hospice's are today, places where folks were made as comfortable as possible until their spirits left their physical bodies. Charles' mother, Lillian, still lived in the family home in Westville - a section of New Haven, CT. Sadly, for many years, she was a very heavy drinker. Charles had one older sister - Joan.

Dorothy's family came from New Bedford, Massachusetts. Dorothy's mother, Margaret, was a very strong woman - life had made her so. As the oldest of 8, Margaret was responsible for all the younger siblings. In fact, she was more mother to the youngest, Helen, than sibling. 
Prior to Margaret Corcoran's birth, Father and Mother Corcoran emmigrated from Ireland to Boston, MA. Father Corcoran bought several properties around the Boston area and rented them out. Young Margaret was sent out to collect the rents as Father Corcoran was frequently too inebriated to collect them himself. Her mother worked as a seamstress to supplement the rental income. Father Corcoran was not a nice man when he imbibed - which he did often. Margaret grew very intolerant of inebriation after so many years of living with Father Corcoran. 

Eventually, Margaret met Thomas, a fine young man of Swedish descent who had served in the US Navy. Thomas Francis Anderson preferred to be called by the diminutive of his middle name - Frank. They married and set up housekeeping in New Bedford, MA.
Frank had not had an easy childhood any more than had Margaret. He was forced to leave school at 9 and work full time to keep the family financially afloat. As an adult, he eventually found permanent employment with "The News" company. Eventually, Frank was promoted and moved to another paper, The New Haven Register and the Journal Courier by name. This led him to move his family to the New Haven, Connecticut area where the offices of these papers were located.  Dorothy was the youngest of their family with two older siblings by the names of Edna and Eileen. 

On a hot June day in 1957, in the well-kept back yard of Margaret and Franks house in West Haven, CT,  Charles (Chuck) took Dorothy (Dot) to be his wife. Dot, despite being the youngest, was the first of the three Anderson girls to be wed. Chuck and Dot had a delightful time honeymooning on Cape Cod and in the spring of 1958, Dot presented Chuck with their first offspring - a baby girl that they named Elizabeth Ann. Truth be told, Dot did the naming. Had Chuck had his way,  Elizabeth would have been Deborah. 

Back to our third floor walk up, Dot cared for her infant daughter while Chuck worked and went to school. Chuck's handwriting was atrocious - so, they had invested in an Underwood Typewriter on which Dot typed Chucks thesis papers in between washing diapers by hand. In 1960, Chuck graduated from Quinnipiac College with a BA in Accounting and a minor in Computer Science. He found a wonderful job at US Electrical Motors in Milford, CT. 
Chuck and Dot eventually moved back to West Haven to Dot's parents home in West Haven  both to save wear and tear on Chucks older Peugeot and to save money for a home of their own. 
It was during this time of many people under one roof, the middle Anderson sister, met and married a wonderfully caring and quietly intelligent man by the name of Joseph Coppola. The reception was a small affair held in an adjunct room at the church. The family discovered, much to their chagrin, why it is not a good idea to have a child at a reception. The bride had a lovely 3 tiered wedding cake which was well and duly sampled (well, at least the frosting was) by the only child in attendance. The cake received a "two-thumbs-up" from the small sampler. 
 In June of 1961 - 2 days after their fourth wedding anniversary, Dot had her second child - a son. They named the new addition traditionally - after his father and grandfather.  Charles Herbert took his place in the crib in Chuck and Dot's room in the Anderson homestead. Elizabeth was moved to Eileen's bedroom as Eileen had moved with her husband to a home in North Haven, CT. In August of that same year, Eileen had her first, Patricia.
June of the following year saw the birth of Dot's third and last child. By this time, Elizabeth was a precocious 3-year old who had found her voice along with a vivid imagination. She was oft heard singing (loudly) the chorus to the song "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" or "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey". Sometimes, a little TOO precocious.......   While in the hospital after the birth of the third boy, Dot called home. After to speaking to her mother for awhile, she spoke with her daughter Elizabeth and told her that her new baby brother's name would be Donald. The 3 year old responded, "OH - you mean Donald Duck is my brother?".  Somehow, I can't imagine that was among ANY of the responses Dot might have imagined coming from her pronouncement. 

Elizabeth, or Beth, was a quiet sort of child most of the time. A loner who preferred the company of animals or her imagination over other children. She could create a story in her mind whose imaginary pages told a tale that lasted the entire day....... a story of Indian Princess's and their faithful horse or deer companions.  A deceased squirrel could (and did, much to Dot's dismay) become a napping pony, a branch became a spear or a bow and arrows.
The majority of the human company she spent time with were adults - they accepted her curious traits - and often encouraged them. She learned quickly - which pleased the adults, and could read and write the basic words of a grocery list before beginning kindergarten.  
When they had lived in the 3rd floor walk up, Beth had a walker which she learned how to propel quite speedily getting exactly where she wanted to.................... backward. Never forward. Only backwards ...... This too pleased the adults - in an odd way.