When Tommy and I were very young we called them Woody and Betty, and Betty called us Ditchard and Tow-wow (say like bow-wow). I can remember when Woody got out of the Army, that he and Betty lived upstairs in the front room at Anna's. I can remember that one summer evening they took me down to the foot of Wallace Street to watch a baseball game. Sometimes mom and dad would go for a Sunday afternoon drive, and invite them along. I can remember sitting in the back seat, and Betty would sing the song "Sentimental Journey". She also liked to sing the Irish lullaby "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra". Now, this reminds me of something my mother used to talk about - that when they were kids, it was her and Betty's job to do the supper dishes, and as they did, they sometimes would sing in harmony the traditional folk song "Down in the Valley".Now for the Toilets and Bridges - one time Tommy and I were having a dish of ice cream, and as kids like to do, we'd stir it up. Betty saw us doing this and asked us what we were doing, "building toilets and bridges?" For years whenever she saw us, she'd asked about the Toilets and Bridges.
Addendum: Willie reminded me of the day that my dad and I and Willie and his friend Paul went over to the peninsula to see the USS Wolverine. It was the first iron-hulled warship and was launched in 1843. It sat on a sand bar in Misery Bay from 1927 to 1949 when it was cut up for scrap.
Guess that's it. So, as Betty always said when she was leaving, "We're off, like a herd of turtles".
P.S. The little girl is Nancy.
