Ida by Olympia Simonetti Normandy -9-
Once in a while, maybe once or twice a year, Jack would take us all for a walk over the Williamsburg Bridge. It was a big treat to go to have those big sandwiches at Katz Deli. It was a treat for my Jean and Buddy. We pushed the baby, Priscilla, in the carriage.
Finally, this girl Anne got very sick and died and that did everything. I found out everything afterwards because Jack told me himself that he really loved Anne. I cried for days. In fact, I can't find the words even now. They are glued to my heart. When she died, he cried like anything. He didn't know what to do. Later I found out that during the time that Jack was going out with Anne, even his best friend was going out with her. Anne never got married. In fact, when Anne's mother couldn't pay the mortgage on her house in Westbury, my husband's best friend paid it. He was falling in love with Anne, too.
Anne had a girlfriend named Mary who used to come around once in a while. She was the one that actually told me my husband and Anne were in love. I was never happy again after that. Mary stopped coming around. I think she was afraid the same thing would happen to her because Jack had a way to get around you. He was no dumbbell. Well, at least he gave me three beautiful children. That's all I have to show.
Jack would have been a rich man if he didn't drink. God, the money he handled in his lifetime. But he always drank. He always worked as a painter. That was his trade and he was one of the best. I used to make him repaint our house every six months. That was the only thing I got out of him.
I didn't care for anything any more after Anne died and I found out their secret. I didn't worry about anything. That's why I never used to be home. I used to cook and have everything ready and go to my mother's house. We would usually be back in time because my mother used to say, "It's four o'clock. You'd better hurry up and go home before your husband comes home." I told her I did all the cooking before I went out.
My parents knew what had happened. My father used to say, "You made your bed, now you have to lie in it." How many times at ten or eleven o'clock at night I used to walk over to Maujer St. My father used to open the door and say, "You're back here again? Get home. You gotta go home. Your husband is gonna be home and he won't find you and the baby." I would cry, "I don't care. I don't want to go home. I want to leave him."
I had been wanting to leave him since my baby, Priscilla, was born but everybody was against me so it didn't work out. I think that until today, my son has something deep down, a little hate for me because I finally left him years later. In fact, someone made a remark once that I got married for better or worse. But I thought, "How would you like to sleep with a drunk that comes home every night?" You never know what life is going to bring you. You never know.
Looking back, I just remembered by very first job. My father wanted me to be an operator making straw hats out of hemp. It's very fine straw and you use a little machine. My father had to pay them to teach me and if I learned and took to it, they would give me a job. It never happened. I couldn't stand it! Every time I put the damn straw underneath the machine, it would fall off. I didn't have any patience for it at all. I don't think I lasted two weeks. It must have cost my father about twenty dollars in those days.
Then I went into shirts. We were making army shirts during World War I. I was a cuff maker and collar maker. I stayed there about a year. I was so clumsy and made lots of mistakes. Everything was made in khaki! The next job was fooling around with artificial flowers when my cousins owned the shop. We got paid, but very little. But then things were better, not like before with those very small pays. Antoinette and Gene, my cousins, couldn't make a go of the business. I only lasted a couple of months there.
I worked a little in embroidery and beading with Mary Pica. She taught us how to do beautiful embroidery for big factories in New York. You used to go and get homework and bring it home to do. Mary had to teach us at her house. It was nice, but very tedious. You couldn't make mistakes there either. I didn't like that at all.
Once I worked in Hearns Department Store on 14th Street as a spotter. I had to spot pickpockets. I caught a lot of people stealing. I would give a code to the manager who would then wait until the thief got outside the store with the goods and then he would nab him. I didn't last there too long. My father didn't want to me go to New York down in the subways and all. I always wanted to be a saleslady, but they asked me how good I was in spotting people and I told them I was great. I loved people and told them I would watch them very closely.
I always longed to be a saleslady, though. After many years, when I was divorced and living alone in Mrs. Riccio's house, my daughter, Jean, found me a job in the paper. It was close by where I was living on Jefferson Street. It was called Dean's. I had walked up and down Broadway looking for a job when I walked into this store. I was around fifty-seven.
I asked this man, Jack, if he needed any help as a saleslady. He wanted to know where I had worked and I told him, "Hearn's." Of course, that was many, many years ago. It wasn't like today where you have to bring all kinds of affidavits and resumes. Jack looked me over and told me they didn't need anyone but to keep checking back. I said, "Oh, no, that's what they all say." He said, "No, I honestly mean it. You look like a very nice woman. I tell you what, hang around and come back. My partner will be back at one o'clock."
When I went back, Jack said, "I tell you what, I told my partner about you and he said it was okay. Come tomorrow at nine o'clock." That was a job I kept for years, ten or eleven years until I retired.
That job, I tell you the truth, was wonderful. I didn't care how many hours I worked. The boss used to take me home to the door to make sure I got home safe. The neighborhood was getting bad and I had told them I just couldn't work the late night shift. I was scared, but they promised to always take me home. It was only one block, from Broadway to Nostrand Avenue. They would wait until I unlocked my door and was inside before driving off.
I got to be good friends with the bosses, Jack and Bernie. They got to like me so much that they wanted me to stay in their homes, watch their children when they went on vacations. That job really started me off in life. That's when I started saving and getting ahead. It also was the job that got me my Social Security. It wasn't a hell of a lot at first, under $100 a month.
There was a colored man, the cashier at the store, that was such a doll. He used to do all my papers to help me. He was so good to me. I even gave him a present when he got married. I knew his wife. We corresponded for a long time after I retired.
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Now Playing: "A Fool Such As I"
A Fool Such As INext Page | Previous Page | Go Higher |Family Album| Return to Mystic PlanetPardon me, if I’m sentimental
When we say goodbye
Don't be angry with me should I cry
When you're gone, yet I’ll dream
A little dream as years go by
Now and then there's a fool such as INow and then there's a fool such as I am over you
You taught me how to love
And now you say that we are through
I'm a fool, but I’ll love you dear
Until the day I die
Now and then there's a fool such as INow and then there's a fool such as I am over you
You taught me how to love
And now you say that we are through
I'm a fool, but I’ll love you dear
Until the day I die
Now and then there's a fool such as I
Now and then there's a fool such as I
Now and then there's a fool such as IWords and Mysic by Trader
Copyright 1997-2013 Priscilla Normandy Greenwood