65th Wedding Anniversary...

Today, March 31, would have been Virginia and Mike's 65th wedding anniversary.

As I think about my parents on this day, I recall little vignettes of that day as told to me by my parents.

It was during World War II, and the 'rules' for getting married to a serviceman were liberal. No waiting period was required, and this was before the days of the Pre Cana marriage counseling. Basically, a couple could get married whenever the military person made it home. I believe Dad was stationed in Texas (how ironic!) at that time, and was scheduled to arrive in Erie by train. When my mother knew his arrival was imminent, she called St. Patrick's (Fr. Hastings, I believe) to schedule the wedding.

When Dad came home, he went to the jewelry store to buy my mother's ring. It was a narrow white gold band with orange blossom engravings on it. It cost the princely sum of $10.00. My mother never had that ring off her finger, and was buried with it at my Dad's request.

The Crotty clan then called the 'family'.....aunts, uncles, and cousins to attend the ceremony. They were married at 5:00 on a Wednesday afternoon...Julia and Harry were their attendants. If I remember the telling of this information correctly,they had a family dinner at the Antlers Club.

Dad always like to joke that they almost got married on April Fools Day...and he wondered aloud that if they DID get married on April Fools day, would the marriage
be valid or not??

I have the newspaper clipping and will add it to this posting.

Ya got to love Mike's sense of humor. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!!

In my Easter Bonnet; Easter Sunday in the 1950's...

As Easter Sunday approaches, I remember back to my childhood. I always had a new outfit for Easter Sunday...didn't we all?

One time when Kevin was little, he and I were looking through the album of pictures from when I was a kid.

There is a picture of me taken on Easter Sunday in our backyard on Eagle Point, Anna by my side. I was happy and grinning in my new clothes. This would have been around 1955, and I would have been about 9. I had a dress (with a crinoline underneath), patent leather shoes, white anklets, and a short white jacket that was called a topper. To cap off the ensemble, I had a hat on my head that looked like a dinner plate with a flower on top!! My hair was kinda fuzzy (permanent from Lucille??).

When Kevin saw the picture (he was around 5 at the time) he looked at it very carefully, then looked up at me with a very solemn look, and said, "Mommy, were you poor when you were little? " In his mind, I looked like an urchin!! At that time,1955, I thought I looked gorgeous. Now when I look at it, I see only the happy little girl that day.

I laughed so hard, tears were coming to my eyes. Out of the mouths of babes...

St Patrick's School, Erie, PA

During Lent at St Pat's the kids were given a little cardboard box about the size of an individual serving cereal box. It was our 'miter box', and during Lent our mission was to fill it with coins - pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and possibly fifty-cent pieces. At the end of Lent we brought our miter boxes to school, and the nun and some of the kids counted the money. I think that for each $25 the class collected, we could buy a 'pagan baby'. The class also got to name the 'pagan baby'. Each student would write a name on a slip of paper and put it in a box. I remember one year Pat and I got the idea that we should get a 'good' name. We came up with Casper, and got a few of the other boys to also submit Casper. As the names were pulled from the box, they were announced and totaled. Casper got a chuckle the first time it was read. At the end, Casper was the winning name. The nun tried to get us to select another name, but the class united, and Casper it was.

A few notes:
St. Patrick's Day was always a 'no school' day, as was St. Joseph's Day (March 19).
It seems that we also had March 18th off (why go to school for 1 day?).
Whatever we gave up for Lent we were allowed to have on St. Patrick's Day.
Sr. Marie Sylvia was the principal.

My Teachers:
1st grade - Sr. Mercedes
2nd grade - Miss Burgoyne
3rd grade - Sr. Genevieve
4th grade - Sr. Mary Edmund
5th grade - Sr. Teresita
6th grade - Sr. Leonie
7th grade - Sr. Leonie
8th grade - Sr. Genevieve

The Class: