What’s that section of puzzle over there?That’s where the puzzle started, when I was born.
Yeah, those pieces are real faded, but I still smile when I look at those pieces I can still make out. That’s also where a lot of the pieces have come up missing.
Those pieces there are of the house in Swarthmore Pennsylvania. That’s where my mom, dad and older brother lived when I was born and where we all lived until I was about three.
Matt & I on dad’s train platform, Christmas Swarthmore 1952
[I'm the one standing]
I do remember a playhouse under the back steps… the large side yard with hedges and water pistols at ten paces with my brother Matt.
[Matt’s nickname was “Butch”… I didn’t have a nickname.]
I also remember the neighbor’s pet raccoon, my mom’s red dress with the carousel horses on it, that she’d twirl around and entertain us with.
And there was a new baby that I was told was my sister, Dianne.
[Dianne had a nickname too, Dee Dee.]
Mom told me that I would have to protect her and watch out for her.
I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to do that?
My mom was always surprised that I could remember those things.
That’s probably why you can still make out what’s on those pieces of the puzzle.
Those next pieces of puzzle are about 1952-54…
The five of us moved in with my mom’s parents in Clifton Heights Pennsylvania. Grandmom and Grandpop Osciak were neat!
They were of good, strong Ukrainian, Czechoslovakian and Russian stock, with hearts as big as all of outdoors; at least to my brother, sister and I.
My mom had one brother, my Uncle Ed and his wife, my Aunt Lee.
Grandmom would buy my brother and I water ice at Rosatti’s on the corner and Grandpop and I would sneak out into the garden with a saltshaker to pick and eat red ripe tomatoes, right off the vine.
They were good!
Grandmom always yelled at Grandpop for picking the tomatoes, but I know she didn’t mean it.
I remember that Grandmom had dark hair, pretty eyes and one of those laps you could always crawl up in, feel safe and fall asleep in as she hummed a lullaby. She also made pickled green tomatoes. They tasted funny.
Grandpop liked playing pool and drinking his beer. He would tease my brother and I by sticking out his false teeth at us. I was told Grandpop actually helped to get me to start walking, by bribing me with sips of beer.
Their house was a three-story row home with another house built right along side. There was an enclosed back porch and front porch… and a little storage shed under the back steps that I used as a fort.
All the furniture in the living room was covered in plastic, there was a big dinning room table I would play under and by the side back window was a telephone that you heard voices on and talked into. [The “MA” prefix stood for Madison]
There was a playground just a block up the street and relatives everywhere.
Aunt Anna, Aunt Josephine and Uncle Bud, Aunt Theresa, Aunt Millie, and Buddy Vickers… I don’t remember if he was a relative or just a guy with a car my mom and dad knew.
Grandpop worked at Kent Mills, where they wove wool material. He took me there once… Everything was big and noisy!
My dad worked at Westinghouse in Lester. Dad took us to Westinghouse once for an “Open House”… It was bigger the Grandpop’s place!
I really wish I could make out more of the images on these pieces of the puzzle…
I think that’s the pear tree that was in the backyard…
The garage, “You’re Not Allowed to Go Into”…
The room I shared with my brother Matt up in the attic…
The kitchen that always smelled so good!
The basement where the devil lived… but he was never home when my dad or Grandpop took me down there. That’s where the pool table was and the refrigerator with Grandpop’s beer in it.
Oh… the inflatable swimming pool… That’s where my sister Dianne drowned my bunny rabbit, a stuffed animal! He used to play a tune when you’d wind him up.
There’s the alley behind the garage, where all the bees were in the summertime…
Some of these pieces seem to be fading right before my eyes!
We might want to come back to this later once the light is better.
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