Category: Rich

Last updated March 7, 2020

Rusty and one or two of his friends once set traps for pigeons in East Park .  The put down a little corn and made a snare of string.  When the pigeons came to eat, they’d jerk the string and catch the pigeons.  Then came the fun part, the pigeons would be stuffed through the window of Anthony Schroeffel’s car and left overnight.

He and his friends would catch garter snakes, paint the snakes, and tack them to the doors of unsuspecting neighbors.

In the winter he would make  two mounds of snowballs, one was stacked on the roof of Staub’s soap factory, and the other at the top of the steps.  The steps from the street to the walkway had a landing at just about the roof of the factory.  He would wait in ambush on the factory roof, and pummel the other kids before they could start up the steps.  When he ran out of snowballs he would dash to the landing and up the steps.  That gave him the high ground again and he continued his onslaught.  When the snowballs were gone, he would run home.

Last updated March 12, 2020

During vacation time, when he was about 8 years old he would leave the house around 9 o’clock in the morning and head out for the day.  He would get in an old truck with Joe and Reggie Augulia and his father to be driven to the farmers market.  There Mr.Augulia would buy produce that was leftover from the Grocery Store buyers because it had a limited shelf life.  These were real farmers and he would get them to sell their leftovers for bargain prices. The boys would ride on the wheel wells in the back of the truck and  drive to various neighborhoods.  He’d go to the Hill District, Manchester  and other neighborhoods that he hadn’t been to in the past few days.  He’d send the boys with a brown basket with the produce of the day.  They had paper bags and a pencil.  The people would tell them what they wanted and write on the the order on the  nag.  They’d take the bag to Mr. Augulia who would fill the order bag, add the price and send the boys back with the groceries.

One thing Rusty learned working with the Augulias was that Mr. Augulia made his own wine.  Once a year, he and his boys would press a load of grapes purchased at the farmers’ market.  He then put them in a barrel in his cellar.  As the wine fermented, he would test the progress by putting a Pepsi bottle with his finger in the top into the barrel.  It was rumored that Rusty and the boys would sometimes sneak a Pepsi bottle of “Dago-Red” when they were in the cellar alone.

Last updated January 12, 2022

How Rich met Joan.  Rich was home on leave from the Air Force when one of his friends said that he and his girlfriend were going to play tennis.  The friend said he needed another man to join them in a doubles match. Joni was the other girl, they hit it off right away.  “Love” does not always mean zero in a tennis match.

School.   Rusty also walked the half mile to East Street School for kindergarten.  One of his memories is about the “Happy Tooth” sessions.

Pets.  Rusty had a dog that he named Kingfujiwuji.  He once took Kingfujiwuji to the  veterinarian where the  vet put a cone on the dog,   and didn’t expect Rusty to pay.  We did have another dog in the family named Pal.  He was some sort of mixed breed, but was well loved.  Unfortunately, one day when one of us boys was picking something up from Myeral’s Meat Market, Pal escaped his makeshift leash and took off running across East Street.  He was struck and killed by a car,  No amount of pleading with Mom would get us another dog.

Ouch!  Rusty once got his arm caught in the wash machine wringer.  There must be more to the story than we know.

Neighbors.  Rusty claims he remembers all the names of the residents of Bly Street.  Here’s my recollection:

Going left to right in the header picture Ritzer, Hirmer, Hartmann, Schroeffel, Sesky, Rossmueller, Straub, Straub, Zupsic, Saar, Hofenrecter, Hoffman, Hartmann, ??, Kaufman (I can’t remember those going down the hill except Braddock) and Ritzer.

Mary.  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.

Sneaking Out.  The attic was used as the boy’s bedroom.  There were two twin beds and  a double bed.  There were two windows, one overlooking the vacant lot between our house and one over the kitchen area (see picture on left).  Although it didn’t happen often, the window overlooking the vacant lot was used to avoid going all the way down to the cellar for a pee. The other window  was also used occasionally for another purpose.  It was possible for healthy boys who wanted to sneak out for a little night time adventure by climbing out onto the kitchen door’s roof, then down to the yard.  Climbing back in was a little more difficult, but with a little bit of a leg up using a chair from the front of the house.  A scramble first thing in the morning was needed to put the chair back in place.