Ida by Olympia Simonetti Normandy -8-
I worked like a horse. Jack's father, Michael, believed that all the men who worked for him had to come to our house for lunch every day. My hands could really talk. I used to go to Savignano's and buy all the greens to make big pots of soup. I worked like a dog. There wasn't much love in that whole house.
When Jean was around four, my mother-in-law and Uncle Sam and Aunt Jennie Tuorto were going to Italy and Giovannina (Jennie) really wanted to take my Jean with her. Fortunately, it didn't happen because UncleSam didn't want to be bothered to have a baby along.
Jean was always crying for her grandma. She loved her so much. When Jean started kindergarten that was around the time they went to Europe and when I started to get the love of my own daughter. When they returned, they had so many gifts for Jean, jewelry and stuff. Only then Jean didn't want to go and stay with her grandma any more. She loved her but it wasn't like it was before. So that's how I got the love of my daughter. Maybe that's why we are so, so close today. Jean was a baby when we moved out of Bath Beach. Then we lived on Conselyea Street a long time.
Buddy, my son, (Michael) was born there on a day when it snowed so badly that the doctor wouldn't come out of his house. Noli had to take a rock and break the doctor's window to get him to come out. Then they had to shovel his walk so he could get out. He lived in a nice section where all the doctors lived. He had a big stoop all covered with snow, that February in 1926.Now when Jean was born it poured like matches coming down. The doctor really couldn't come out. That was in April.
When Priscilla was born God forgot about the heat. It was August of 1935 and the hottest day of the year. When I was seven months pregnant I went into labor every day with false alarms. I should have been in the hospital and probably they would have taken the baby. When my time came, my sister, Jennie, just couldn't stand it any more. She couldn't hold me down any more. Margaret wasn't good in an emergency, but Jennie was like me, she could do anything. It was so hot that no one could stay in the room with me. Not liketoday. Who had air conditioning? It wasn't even invented then.
I got very fat with Jean and Buddy, but not so much when I carried Priscilla. 1 had a dressmaker who made Jean's clothes because my husband was in business with his father and did pretty good. When he got plenty of money, he would share it with me and I'd have maternity clothes made. They made wrap-around dresses then. As you got bigger, you just moved them over a little. I think that's why I always liked wrap-arounds. This dressmaker was called "Italia" and she would charge me a dollar to make a dress.
I was lucky I didn't have to go out to work after my children were born. Once in awhile I went to work on my own. When my cousin Antoinette Simonetti had a flower business on Lorimer Street, we all got the idea of going to work there. We did more damage than anything else! The artificial flowers wouldn't stick together so we'd throw them on the side. The poor thing, they lost that business. They lived at 538 Lorimer Street in the house that my father didn't want. The flower factory was across the street where Dege and Marie lived later, only it was in the rear building.
When Priscilla was born, the whole world went upside-down. After Jean, Dr. Donza told me I would never be pregnant again. Then Buddy came after four years. Then I was told I wouldn't have any more babies. Then one day I was very dizzy and sick when Jean was 13 years old. I told her to call Donza because something was wrong. When he examined me, he said, "Do you know you are going to have another baby?" "Me? I thought you told me it couldn't happen any more."
I told Jean I didn't want another baby. She said, "Oh, Ma, I'd be so happy if we had another baby." She was so happy and I was mad because they told me I'd never be a mother again. And she really was happy. She loved Priscilla like she was her own baby. She was a doll. After Priscilla was born, you should have seen the clothes I made for her, pretty little madiera dresses. Her brother, Michael, who we called Buddy, made paper hangers for all her pretty little clothes. My husband, Jack, was so happy when Priscilla was born.
Jack made a big change around that time because he met Anne. Anne was Mary Normandy's very good friend from Westbury, Long Island. I met Anne through Mary.. We knew each other for quite a few years. I loved her. I didn't know what else to do for her when she came over I was so good to her. Never did I know. When we lived on Devoe Street after Priscilla was a baby, Anne would come over and she started to like the baby a lot. Now my husband got to love the baby so much as if it was born to him and Anne. I never, never dreamed anything was going on. I was so stupid.
Mr. Diglio was the boss of the house where we had three little rooms. We never knew where our three kids had. to sleep. Anyway, Mr. Diglio said to me one day, "You let your husband take that beautiful girl home every time she comes over?" I said, "Why?" He said, "You're too young. You should be careful. Don't let your husband take her home."
Anne lived on Eastern Parkway. She used to work for millionaires, you know. In fact, she used to bring us candy and cakes and a lot of stuff. I never, never dreamed of anything, as God is my witness. In fact, until she died I didn't even know about her and my husband's affair.
Anne loved Priscilla so much she ended up being her godmother. She didn't know what else to get for the baby. She bought a hat and coat, the best. She had very good taste because she lived with millionaires. She must have spent $25 or $30 on that hat and coat. In 1935. Imagine! Now even Georgie and Mary Normandy never surmised anything otherwise they would have told me. Although maybe not. He might have thought he should mind his own business because Jack was his brother.
I did notice when Jack had to go out he was a little more fussy. He used to wear his blue pants and white shoes, stiff shirts that I always had to starch. I wondered why he was getting so excited all of sudden. It still never dawned on me. He used to take Priscilla so proudly in her pink carriage for walks to the park with Anne. They would take turns pushing the baby and go to the park. And me, jackass, never knew what was going on.
I was really dumb. I was so dumb that when I was ready to have my Jean, my first baby, we lived way up stairs and my mother was sitting downstairs on the stoop. My labor pains started and my mother said, "You better go home. By the time you go up all those stairs--you'd better go or you'll have that baby in the street." I said, "Momma, I'm so afraid, I'm so afraid." She said, "Why?" I said, "Because they have to cut my belly open."
To the very end my mother wouldn't tell me how babies were born. She said, "What? You dope, where does your husband put it, in the belly?" See how stupid I was? "Oh no, Momma, how could it come out? It's so small there." That was my whole sex education right there.
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My Buddy
Words by Gus Kahn
Now Playing: "My Buddy"
Nights are long since you went away,
I think about you all thru the day,
My Buddy, my Buddy,
No Buddy quite so true
Miss your voice, the touch of your hand,
Just long to know that you understand,
My Buddy, my Buddy,
Your Buddy misses you.
Copyright 1997-2013 Priscilla Normandy Greenwood