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!

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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.

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