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

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