ANGIONE
BULLETIN
September 1, 1947
Pub. in the kitchen:
Weather: Hotter than
Crestfallen Manor
Circulation: 47
339 Frost Ave.
Editor:
Genevieve
Rochester 8, N.Y.
Publisher:
Charles
Dear Subscribers:
Sandwiching this in between multitudinous jobs around here
sometimes gives this the small end of the loaf. But, here goes:
THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR: School opened its dear, sweet doors and my cross was
lightened by half. Whether this
house would have been standing in another three months with the male contingent
on 24-hour duty I wouldn’t care to state.
I’ve collected 1/2 ton of sand and gravel here and there, I know that;
the woodwork will just have to be painted - preferably a nice shade of black;
the doors may hang on a little longer now, and the grass is simply smiling to
itself - it stuck it out again! School
is a wonderful thing, believe me.
And yet, the amazing part of it is:
Dick and Howdie aren’t roughnecks by a long shot.
I’m beginning to understand how some of the yards around here are
hard-packed dirt and nothing more.
THE MANOR: This
month’s efforts don’t show and that is quite discouraging in this business.
Charles spent a lot of time and effort doing cement work in the cellar.
He made 18-inch-deep blocks to rest the jackposts on to push this place
back up into the atmosphere where it is drooping. And he put a new floor in the coalbin so that I won’t have
to re-dig the coal out of the holes all winter.
A few of the windows have their green trim and that is the
project under way now, just in case we don’t get the second coat on this fall.
Puttying windows took a lot of time, too, but had to be done.
IMPROVEMENTS: The
big news of the month is our new dining room lamp - that is, it’s new to us.
I found it while scouring the woods for a lawnmower.
It’s about 80 years old and, yes, you guessed, it’s an old hanging
oil lamp, all brass and glass and milk glass shade.
It’s simply gorgeous! The
shade is about 18 inches in diameter, with a brass filigree band to rest in and
a small one, like a crown, on top. The
brass bottom which holds the old pressed glass lamp is very nice but the lovely
part is this: all around the band
at the bottom of the shade hang 30 double prisms, a joined diamond cut one and a
long tear-drop. Oh, we love it!
Charles fixed it for electricity in his own fine style and we feel
elegant - all for $13, the result of my bargaining and a trade-in of a
gone-with-the-wind lamp which was given to me and which I didn’t like.
CULTURE: I’m
taking music lessons! No fooling.
“They laughed when I sat down at the piano” and believe me, they had
it coming. I’m doing baby stuff
all over again but I’ll learn to play it or else.
My kids are never going to say to me, “You can’t play it yourself.”
I’m also embarked on a tremendous undertaking - a lace
tablecloth. One of my nice
neighbors got another nice neighbor to show my how the little pieces are made
and I’m finishing my first 23 today. There
are only 1740 in the finished job, so pray for me!
-2-
The pattern would make a beautiful bottom for an alb.
And one of our pet kids went into the major seminary this week.
Maybe I’d better not spread myself too thin - I’ll think I will promise
him one
because that would give me several years to get the thing finished.
In fact, that’s a promise C.D. I’ll make the lace for the bottom of the alb in which you say your
first Mass. Mom can make B's if
them must be alike!
KIDS: I’ve
told you, I think, that when she’s in a pinch for a word with which to express
herself, Paulie (we call her Jones and that Paulie seems so funny) invents
words. This one is from Chris,
however. Stuck and excited, she
yelled at me, “Mummy, it’s all going crookwards!”
And trying to get on the bandwagon with a few remarks of her own the
other morning, Jones said, “You know what I did this mornin?
All of a sudden I just fall awake.”
Howdie capped them all, though with this after a warning I felt impelled
to give him. “Good Lord, woman!
Do you think I’ve lived with you for seven years without knowing better
than that?” I give up.
??????????
JOKES: Did all
of you please NOT hear my favorite story? A
gent got to heaven bright and early one dawning after a holiday and poor St.
Peter was simply up to here with work. Disgusted, he sent the new arrival out with a guide to look
around a while until he could get his papers ready. “I’ll show you the improvements,” the guide said.
“All things change and we’ve fixed this place up really swell.
Now over here we’ve put in a lovely grove of trees, picnic tables,
grills and everything for the Presbyterians.
They love church picnics, you know.
Then over here we have a new pool for the Baptists.
They love to slosh around in water and this will hold 1,000 of them at
once. And I’ll take you to see
the beautiful greens we put in for the Holy Rollers.
Right this way.” The
visitor noticed a high stone wall beside the path they took and said, “What on
earth do you have a wall like that in heaven for?”
“Oh, shush!” said the guide. “The
signs are still in the paint shop and I forgot to tell people not to talk over
here. The Catholics are behind the
wall and they think they are here all by themselves!”
FLOWERS: Just
skip the spelling but here’s most of ours:
Asters, aster-daisies, anemones, bluebells, baby breath, bachelor
buttons, blanket of snow; cosmos, crocus, coral bells, columbine,
chrysanthemums, carnations, coreopsis, candytufts, daffodils, delphinia,
dahlias, daisies, annual and perennial forget-me-nots, flags, fever few,
fool’s money, fall crocus; gladiolas, hyacinths, hardy sweet peas, hollyhocks,
Japanese lanterns, liverplant, day lilies, lilacs, marigolds, marguerites,
narcissus, Osark sunshine, pansies, phlox, primroses, petunias, peonies, purple
bells, pinks, roses, sweet peas, summer mums, stock, spider plant, tulips,
violets, zinnias. And most of them,
mind you, courtesy of gardening friends. Isn’t
that wonderful for a first year?
And now I must quit. My
mind isn’t working well. I washed
today and the result was three peach baskets full!
Could be I’m tired.
Our love to all.
-*-