Evening, another beautiful, sunny day on the Vineyard, but I noticed that the days sunlight is getting shorter by the day, and I for one am not happy about it.. I love when its daylight from 5 AM to 8:30 PM.. thats my kind of day.. Tonight, I want to touch base on father... My memories of Pa are those of a man who was dedicated to one thing, and that was to take care of his family no matter what it took as far as doing what ever, if he had to work day and night, then he worked day and night... I spent a lot of my school years working in his shoe repair shop after school till closing, and all day on Saturdays.. He started his day at 6 in the morning, and ended his day at the shop at 6 at night, working in the shop, I got to see him, waiting on the customers when they came in, taking care of the register sales, then when he wasnt doing that he took care of the customers when they brought in the shoes to be repaired, stacked them up and went from the front of the store, to the back, doing the hard work of repairing, stitching the upperd, to pulling the soles and heels to replace them with the new bottoms, then going to the machine to shape and finish the shoes, my job was to dye the shoes and shine them and box them in the right slots.. but to see how hard his day was just to take care of the needs of the customer and have them leave happy was something to see.. after 12 hours a day every day except Wednesdays which was a half day, but then, he would take a duffle bag filled with shoes and work at home after a quick dinner and work till 10 or 11 oclock every night, was unreal.. besides all that, he did yard work, gardening, painting what needed to be painted, and when I look at at the actual time he took just to sit and relax I honestly cant see any, maybe on Sundays, when he walked to Mass, when we all sat down at noon to have our Sunday dinner, followed by a cup of expresso after that he would lay down on the couch and fall a sleep for an hour or so, and rest watching a little TV.. every other Sunday afternoon, would play bocce with some friends. This was my fathers life almost his entire life.. once a month we would have family come a and spend a few hours with Ma and Pa, or we as a family would walk to a bus stop, then take the train to Boston and visit them. but those days were rare.. Pa did all the banking, paid all the bills, sent a package of goodies to my grandparents, Mas father and mother, usually soaps, clothes, shoes etc, never any food items, because they would send us fresh cheeses, olive oil, and the dried meats, Salamis , Surpresatas etc.. which I remember were delicious.. Ive told you about Pa trapping pigeons, and squirrels for Sunday dinner, now and then. Pa loved to eat, and eat he did, he sat at the head of the table, was served first by Ma, and always, when we finished our meals, then it was Pa who sliced and peeled the apples or oranges, peaches, etc and then quarter them, and place a quarter of the fruit and put it in front of each of us, we would pick it up and eat it, when we had chicken, after the meal,Pa would get his handy knife, and cut every piece of chicken meat off the bone put it in a plate and Ma would use it to make chicken salad, ot chicken soup.. same the pork chops, or bone in steaks,, there would be absolutely nothing left on the bones, but bones.. Pa was a very serious man, very rarely laughed out loud, he was put on this earth to take care of his family, and that was it..and when he was forced to retire, it was like he had no reason to live any longer.. he just waited to die.. I remember him always saying, I feel like a stone or a piece of wood.. just useless.. and I can still hear him saying,, Frankie, I dont want to live any more.. It would break my heart to hear him say that...but there was nothing I could say to make him change his mind...when it came to his work ethic, it was what I wanted to do too, because of him.. I remember all of this tonight, like he was still here next to me and I see a tired man who loved his family and that was everything he wanted and needed.. Im done for tonight.. cant go on anymore... see you tomorrow night... God Bless...
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:31:07 +0000
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