Category: Relatives

Pint Family Secret

Last updated 5 August 2021

When we were young we noticed that the Pint sisters had a feud going on.  There seemed to be two different factions.  When we asked Mom about it, all we got was something like “I really don’t know” or “it happened a long time ago and we just don’t talk about it”

That didn’t deter us from brining the subject up again long after we left the nest.  We heard rumors .  One rumor centered around  Poppa (Mom’s father). The story goes: Poppa had been in the hospital for some reason  and upon discharge he contacted one of the people from the (non-Mom) faction for transportation home.   After some long wait, he finally decided to walk home.  Fortunately one of the husbands from the “good” faction saw him resting on someone’s front steps  and gave him a lift home.

Anna gave another, more credible story.  In 2018 Anna had had a couple of strokes and her filters were turned off.  According to her, the feud  started when two of the sisters worked in the same clothing store.  Anna was under-age and borrowed Honey’s (Elizabeth) identification.  To the employer, Anna was known as Betty.  All went well until the boss indicated he was about to give one of the Pint girls a promotion.  Of course Honey, who had worked at the store longer than Anna and was the older of the two expected that she was the chosen one.  When the boss announced that it was “Betty” Honey threw a “hissy fit” and apparently said some things about the boss that got her fired.

Schroeffel Stories

Last updated March 5, 2020

Felling a Tree  Anthony Schroeffel was cutting a tree down in his front yard.  He had taken care to tie the tree so that it would not fall onto the house.  He was sure that it would fall to the empty space between his house and ours.  He miscalculated while cutting the tree and, thanks to gravity, it fell before he had cut all the way through.  It didn’t fall on the house or where he intended it to but over the sidewalk and crashed through the railing.  Fortunately, all it did was break the railing and didn’t roll down the hill and hit a house on Royal Street.

Mary and Ozzie’s House Catches Fire

Last updated  March 4, 2020

Terri had the basement bedroom in the Merwood St house.  One night she was awakened by a pounding on the front door.  She went to wake up Mom, but Mom was sleeping so soundly that she couldn’t be aroused.  Because the pounding at the door wouldn’t stop, she went to the door and found Ozzie and  Mary.  When she opened the door, they told her that their house had burned down  She let them in and they tried to wake Mom, no luck!

Terri made the  coffee and calmed them down.  After they finally calmed down, they tried again to wake Mom. Mary and Ozzie bunked down in the living room.

Come morning, Mom woke up, went into the living room and was surprised to see them and asked what they were doing there.

Mary and Ozzie Reddy

Last updated March 4, 2020

“Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean…”

Mary was a little overweight, as you can see in the photo, and Ozzie was rather thin.  When Linda was planning her wedding, Linda and Judi had thought they would make Mary’s dress to wear to the wedding. Using a standard tape measure, they started taking measurements . When it came to measuring Mary’s bust, Judi stood in the front and Linda in the back.  The tape measure was not long enough! Both Linda and Judi were forced to suppress their laughter.   They gave up the plan to make the dress.

Ozzie was on the thin side, as can be seen in this picture of him between Dolores and Dad.  Both he and Mary drank a lot.  So far I haven’t come across any stories about Ozzie other that he had been in the Merchant Marines during the war.

Rusty tells this story about Mary.  Mary and Ozzie would occasionally be at the house playing 66 with Mom and Dad.  Mary would bring 2 bottles of gin in her purse.  When she came in the house she would give Rusty a big hug and a bottle of gin, while Ozzy went upstairs.  Then she would take the other upstairs.  She would start out by pouring herself a drink, and from time to time she would ask Rusty to fix her a drink.  Because he used the downstairs bottle,  Mary made it look like she wasn’t drinking too heavily because her upstairs bottle was still half full.

Visit to the Beck’s Farm in Indiana

Last updated January 7, 2020

When Aunt Anne and Joe Beck lived in Indiana,  Joe Beck was working at the Studebaker Plant in South Bend at the time.  Dad drove the whole family at the time in the 1950(?) Ford to visit them.  It was a really crowded drive, and we made the trip without an overnight stop.  The visit lasted only three  days because dad had to get back to work.  What I remember about the trip was that Aunt Anne Uncle Joe owned two Studebakers, they had a working hand pumped water well in the backyard and they invited me to stay over when the rest of the family returned home.  My stay was about a week, and I don’t remember how I get back home.

Anna Disher: Billy’s favorite babysitter

Last updated December 19, 2019

In a recent visit with Aunt Anna, we learned that Anna was more than an occasional visitor to the house.  She would often be Billy’s babysitter.  She would  take me places, by walking  or on the streetcar just to get me out of the house when Rose needed a break.  Apparently she would take me downtown or to East or West Park.  I still remember her saying that I could read the advertising signs above the seats on the streetcars.  When we last talked to her, she said “Bill, you used to be so handsome, what happened”