June 29, 2014
So here is Uncle Johnny with his arm around Dad, at a 4th of July picnic - must be late 50's.
We were all so sad to lose my Godfather Uncle Johnny to heaven this past week It was a memorable memorial service with Navy ceremony, at our church.
Jim offers some observations about this photo, which Joanne sent us.
I can SEE the barn and i think, the Tree house...
i'm noticing something in the distance between Dad and (Wally)
. can that be one of our forts??
i recall One, back in that area of plank wood from US Plywood on 22.
I'm pretty sure we mixed
cement , and had a concrete floor in that one.
The images here of Grandpa and Uncle Johnny are Perfect.
and uncle richie wearing that St. Christopher medal....very good.
any IDEAS...anyone ?? of why they'd appear to be pouring beer on
Uncle Bob??
Looks like the gazebo,,, early on.
Just a canvas "ceiling on it.." I was THERe when the Eaton-Kelly truck
arrived, carrying that thing... The way it was sticking Up on the
flatbed....
I was trying to figure out.. " Why would dad be bringing Home, a
Drive in Theater Screen "??
it took a dozen of us to move it around....
So, from left it's Grandpa James Vincenzo, (Jim's namesake) always with a white shirt and this time a cigar, not his pipe with Liberty Tobacco. Everyone is standing on his lawn.
Noonock is next from down the street. I have the Mary in the Tub that Noonock gave Vincenzo. The Statue was preformed, but grotto (tub) built by Noonock's cousin I recall.
Behind them is the house before the new room was built, the big tree now cut, regular and kids picnic table, round grill, Uncle John and Aunt Angie's car, the gazebo Jim describes, one of two giant willow trees before being cut, tree house in existing maple behind the willow that Jim observes, the white barn, pickup with maybe Noonock's name and Sons Rich and Bob for their masonry business before R & R, cow pasture that extended to the road, previously for horses and now again an equestrian center, no white shed yesterday that I dismantled on Friday night after the funeral mass and stuffed into the 30 yard dumpster, along with old construction debris we cleaned up last week, and the dirt driveway now paved to Joanne's house built 40 years later to the right of the picture. This is the very spot where Tom and Samantha will be married in a few weeks, the first marriage on the grounds since Auntie Annie and Uncle Bob and before them Auntie Rose and Uncle Anthony were married here in the 1940's.
Continuing with the gentlemen, Uncle John had the big football player body that today is common weight. Dad with a cigar instead of his Camel cigarettes back then. Wally owned the ready mix concrete company Brewster Transit back then, and Joanne has two photos of the old orange truck #16 that we are having digitized for publishing on Best emails soon, and that I will also send to Greg O as promised at a garden party yesterday, since his company now owns BT. Wally was the tallest and remains active in Georgia. "Uncle" Richie is also healthy and happy in Florida. I don't think they really waste precious beer on Uncle Bob's head, but are clearly hamming it up for the photographer. Uncle Bob's face is obscured by cigar smoke, and I recall working with them shirtless as they laid blocks and bricks. Absent from the photo are: Uncle Joe, also in the building business as Dad's partner then, Uncle Justin, younger and back from the service for this picture I would think, and "Unc" Carl working for New York State Electric and Gas as Uncle Justin would too.
While no 4th of July party is planned this year due to Uncle John and Mom's health, the 4th remains a family favorite tradition. Further comments and observations would be appreciated, and I will add them to this page as email received.
Uncle John will be missed. His family here and the rest of us saw him laid to rest at mass with proper Catholic dignity. I told my nephew James Peter during the sign of peace that I have now lost my godfather, but I still have him as my godson.
Lou, Carol, Marisa, John, Jane and Frank earlier this year.
Peter John