|
Poor Joanie. Died too young.
In the picture with Kathleen & me, English setter Toby and Manx cat
Wenzl-Wenzl Pete.
As I recall, she was inspired in part by the name of the boss of
Agfa Ansco, Wenzel. His patron saint was the Bohemian King
Wenceslaus, who looked out on the feast of Stephen...
In the Joan-Kate-Joan-dog-cat-jp pic Joanie's sunken cheeks show the
symptoms of juvenile diabetes. --- Joanie was the most sociable,
most popular kid of the Maher brood...
In March 1958, I was finishing up at the US Army Language school
learning Serbo-Croatian for my future job on a Yugoslav desk of the US
Army CIC (Counter-Intelligence Corps: that's why my passion for
Yugoslavia.*
A couple weeks before graduation, I got a telegram from the Red Cross,
advising that Joanie was dying. I took my final exams early, hopped a
DC-3 from Monterey to San Francisco on 19 April 1959. A heart-breaker
was that TWA was going to start up transcontinental service with Boeing
707s the next day. So I had to "rough it" on a Super Constellation, to
Pittsburgh, then on to Binghamton. - Bill picked me up at the
airport.the day after that. Joanie had already died...
After the funeral I was on leave until early April. Off to Fort Dix NJ
(where some nice Albanian Muslims from Kosovo recently tried to deliver
bombs & pizza to GIs). A letter came from my uytre CO welcoming me to my
new duty station, Verona, city of Romeo & Juliet. Was I happy?.
I "siled" on the USS Geiger (not the G counter) from Brooklyn and
Rhode Island, taking 10 days to Rota, near Columbus's jumping off point
Cadiz, on the Atlantic. We dropped off Navy Seabees (construction
engineers) who were to build a base for the new Polaris missile.subs.
Then on through the straits of Gibraltar, around to Barcelona. People
stared at us aliens, in US dress uniforms, unlike today's sloppy pajama
fatigues... Then past Napoleon's little island of Elba, to Leghorn.
Strange English spelling for Livorno. (Limeys no haitch there). By
train to Bologna, then Verona, where my formidable skills came in
handy...
At the WC in the RR Station were signs -- SIGNORE -- SIGNORI.
1. The singular masculine noun SIGNORE has a plural SIGNORI....
2. The singular feminine noun SIGNORA is SIGNORE...
I led the platoon to No. 1. No Yanks were arrested that day for peeing
in the ladies' john.
Memories of Joanie accompanied me all the way, and still do.
Would have been fun to take such a trip with her.
pete
note
* It's not pleasant for all concerned, knowing a lot when those around
you don't
|
Joanie always got cheated out of presents, having a birthday the day
fter Christmas... All the relatives but a couple were tight wads.
BTW. Each Christmas morning, dark and early, Joanie would wake me up and
we'd attack the presents. The dining room table had a few crumbs left
over from the fruit cake and snacks that had been left out for Santa.
And a half-empty jug of Port wine.
1941: my belief in Santa was shattered. Joanie took me up into the
attic, where the presents were stashed, behind Wm F's portrait. --- --
NO Santa? Board games were big. We played Parcheesi and WAR, up in the
mysterious attic....
If memory serves, it was the first Christmas Eve, a sad one, with Billy
& Tommy not home...
-- We all said Billy & Tommy then; only later Bill & Tom. Sarge Tom
Watson and Mary Phelan Maher, however, never lost the old affectionate
names for them...
|
