My Home Town!

While looking around You Tube I stumbled upon an advertisement for "Girard, the heart of the valley." I guess they mean the Mahoning Valley of Ohio-named after the Mahoning River which became so polluted that rumors circulated that if you fell into it, well, life would be very short. There were also rumors of it catching fire, but I was not able to confirm this. This was all is in the Ohio valley area. The town is tiny. When I grew up it was nice with two movie theatres, a couple of clothing stores, a five and dime, a candy store (which also sold ice cream and which was great to go to for a sundae after the movies.) a couple of pizza parlours (large Italian pop.) If you look carefully, although there were a number of churches in the area, the video shows only St. Rose, the church where I was baptised and where I attended and attended school from 1-8. Also, you'll see the high school which was on my street, but because I was so brainwashed, I chose to ride a bus for 45 minutes twice a day to attend the Catholic H.S. I'm not bitter. Actually I had some nice times in Girard, Oh. It was very pretty where I lived, and when you got into the surrounding countryside-which was very close, quite beautiful. Actually I was able to appreciate it best after my parents passed away. Does this sound strange. We're having a 90th birthday party there for my aunt this August and I hope to take BL to the landmarks of my youth. I made the border of the video the color of the sky at night from the blast furnaces of the steel mills. The sky was always red at night, then.

Mothers and daughter

My Aunt Julie who will be celebrating her 90th birthday this August. We're planning a big party in Girard Ohio or nearby. She was like a second mother to me. We lived on a family compound and shared backyards and had an orchard and lots of space to play outside. Cherry trees with beautiful white cherries to pick and eat off the trees, Mulberries, peaches, quince, apples, Italian prune plums on and on. My aunt is the and always has been the peacemaker. She still drives well!



My real mother who passed away in 1988 She was an enthusiastic smoker and died of lung cancer, although her father who only smoked a pipe also suffered the same fate. My mother worked her whole life, taking over the family store, shown below with her sister shown above, when my grandfather passed away cutting meat, and delivering to the neighboring farms. (this was pre-supermarkets.) My cousin Judy and I would sometimes go along sitting in the spare tire which served as the passenger seat 'smoking' candy cigarettes and playing. 
During the war, she worked in a muntions factory. First making bullets-she always said "keep your powder dry." But then taking a 'promotion' to secretary which paid less. Women's work.

My mother was intelligent although she never went to college, She was politically astute. She had a quick temper.



Me in front of the family store. We had huge snowstorms in Girard, Ohio which was in the lee of Lake Erie. Lake effect snow (or is it the windward side?) They closed the store when I was seven. After fits and starts I seem to have turned out ok.