February 2020 – Memories

Rusty’s Days as a Huckster

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.

Bill and Judi Meet

Last updated February 17, 2020

During his summer vacations, Bill, Bob “Squeaky” Myers, Bob “Bugsy” Texter, Charlie “Butchy” Saar , and other boys would often walk to Harry Babbitt’s ice cream store. The store not only sold ice cream and sodas, but was a comic book haven. Babbitt’s had all the latest comic book, and was their comic book library. It was the custom that whoever had money would pay for the ice cream.

During the summer between his senior year in high school and his freshman year in college Bill had a job . He worked in the shipping department of Caslon Press, a printing company. Thus, at Harry Babbitt’s , because he could afford it and was the only one with money, Bill often footed the bill.

Ruth Puccinelli and Judi Hinderliter were also customers of the ice cream shop. One evening when the boys were in the shop, eating ice cream and perusing the literature, Judi and Ruth came into the shop. They talked to the boys for a short time, went to the counter and ordered ice cream, then told Harry that Bill was paying. Just as they were leaving, Bill learned of the ruse and stopped the girls. After some discussion, he agreed to pay, and the girls stayed around until it was getting dark.

Ruth would have to walk up East Street from the store to get home, the same direction as the boys. Judi lived in the opposite direction. Because the pole lights were coming on, the girls wanted an escort home. The boys walked Ruth home, and Bill was chosen to walk with Judi. After all, he was going to be a priest. This was the start of friendship based on walking. Bill and Judi were not boyfriend and girlfriend, just friends.

This walking friendship continued after Bill returned from the seminary. For a long time the were just walking buddies who liked one another and walked all over the North Side. Who knew it would turn into love?

Tidbits about Bill

Last updated February 28, 2021

This Post contains short bits of information that can be added to whenever a new rememberance pops into your mind. Some of the things you read here would be unheard of today.

Judi. Bill was in the Air Force when he and Judi married and they moved to New York to finish out his language school. When school was over, Bill was assigned to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas for what was supposed a four to six weeks of training followed by an assignment to Germany. Because the training was to be of short duration, Judi stayed behind. Because of a bureaucratic problem, after about 6 weeks, the short tour was converted to an “indefinite” tour. Judi then joined Bill in Texas. During that six week interim Judi would visit the Hartmann house on the weekend for a visit. Among other things, she would put rollers in Mom’s hair. She and Linda also spread the outrageous rumor that Judi gave Linda a bath in the sink. Linda was 12 at the time.

School. Billy, like his older siblings, was given the privilege to walk the half mile to East Street School to go to kindergarten. He found out later that he had the same teacher, Mrs Meers, as his wife Judi had at Schiller School.

In the tradition of his father and his older brothers he went to St. Boniface School for grades one through eight. He also had Sister Otillia as one of his teachers. Yes, she was one of dad’s teachers as well. When the boys who went to St. Boniface were in the sixth(?)grade, they were enrolled in a once-a-week afternoon shop class at Latimer high school. As w look back on his elementary school years, he was both smart and gullible. He was susceptible to the suggestion that he was destined to be a priest. At 13 he knew what his future was going to be! Thus, he applied and was accepted to the seminary at St. Vincent Scholasticate in Latrobe. Some 45 miles from home. He boarded there except for major holidays and summer vacation. He graduated from high school in June of 1957 and started college in September. How that ended is in another post.

From the 1957 Chimes Yearbook

The page below lists all the high school students in the Scholasticate for the 1956-57 school year. Like most other activities, all skillies had to participate,

The photo below shows all the honor students from the class of ’57

Social Activities.There was the standard unsupervised kid stuff, such as playing ball in the school yard, riding bicycles, and just hanging around with the neighborhood kids. In the summer he would ride his bike and sometimes hitchhike the eleven miles to go swimming in the North Park pool.

Sarah Heinz House and the Salvation Army both had after school and weekend activities at their respective club houses in which Billy participated. Although Sarah Heinz house flooded a field in winter for ice skating, because he had no skates, he watched but did not participate.

During several of the summer vacations he and his brothers were able to attend a boys’ camp sponsored by the Pittsburgh diocese. Camp O’Connell was either free or very cheap and lasted 10 days.

Billy was a Boy Scout for about two or three years. He earned a number of merit badges and reached First Class Scout. His Scouting career ended when he went off to St. Vincent.

Work. Like his brothers before him, he had summer jobs when he was in highschool. He was a clerk in Isaly’s dairy when he was 16, and worked for a printing company, the Caslon Press, as a helper in the shipping department when he was 17.

Bill’s first job after the seminary was at Crandall, McKenzie and Henderson rug cleaning company. He had two basic functions: rolling and wrapping paper around cleaned rugs and nailing rugs to the floor in the drying room so that they could be starched.

The next job was working at Washington Trust Bank as the mail teller and courier. Everyday he walked the cancelled checks from the previous day to the Federal Reserve Bank about a mile away. He was also on call to deliver pocket cash to certain big depositors.

But Dad found him a job in J&L’s galvanizing plant, earning $2.65 an hour, up from his $1.00 per hour in the bank. The probationary job lasted 59 days, one day short of becoming a permanent union employee. He was working the min shift and was responsible for putting steel bands around stacks of steel plates that were delivered by crane. He had 15 minutes or more of down time from the time the crane came to take away the lift and returned with a fresh stack. He decided to take a book with him to read during the down time. The foreman saw him and had him terminated.

Then came a few weeks of unemployment and single day jobs. He made a wise choice and joined the Air Force.