Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Neighbors and Various People

The Mettimanos, The Waganasts, The Saunders, The Jahraus's, Mrs. Rose (the lady that slept in her car and told mom that Monte wasn't normal because he used to hit a tennis ball against the house with a hockey stick?) 
Beth

Not to be macabre but I remember waking up to a news report on CKXL of the car accident on Memorial Drive and Edmonton Trail (do I have this correct?) when Oscar Weganast died of internal injuries. What a tragedy for their family. 
Gillan

The day Gudrun and Mario came to live for a while. The Vietnamese father and son who we sponsored who cooked BBQ chicken in our oven by mixing catsup and mustard. They asked if they could live permanently in our garage. The foster Indian children who were shy, one of the boys being quite an artist who drew eagles. 
Gillan

Yes Brother Cow and his sons Martin and Augustine lived with us.  He and I share the kitchen…..they ate their food and we ate ours……he would have cooked for us all…..what was I thinking?
Mom

Mr and Mrs. Saunders(?) I am probably way off on the name. 2 doors west. They had a real tiger or cheetah skin rug with the head on. They had a skunk as a pet. Mom detested the guy. 
Gillan

The neighbor’s with Dobermans that could jump their fence – having to go down the alley to get home from school to avoid them.
Marji

The nutso woman that slept in her car was Mrs. Ross.
Grandma Rose lived across the street in between Mr. Hall and ??
And did anyone else get the irony in the neighbor across the street who was blind but his name was Mr. Seeright?
Lori

How about Mr. MacDonnel telling mother that he thought that we had good kids in spite of what the neighbors thought, He meant it as a compliment.
Dad

The Mettamanos were the best neighbors we ever had.  We have kept in touch with them over the years.  Frankie and Julio were good friends to Marsh.
When  they  moved  in  Silvio  offered  Dad  a  gift  bottle  of  wine ...to  forestall  any  awkwardness  in  the  future Dad  shook  his head  no  thanks  and  tried  to  explain  in  sign  language (Silvio's  English  wasn't  any  better  than  Dad's  Italian)that  we  didn't  drink  wine...all  to  no  avail...Silvio  turned  away  hurt  and  confused.  Not  wanting to  hurt  our  new  neighbors  we  got  Nick Machere  to  go  over  to  the  Mettamanos   with  Dad  ....fortunately Nick  came  from  the  same  region  in  Italy as  the  M's  did.   When  he  explained (in  Italian) our  situation  they  all  burst out  laughing  shook  and  shook  Dad's  and  Nick's  hands  offered  them  Gingerale  and  all  was  well.  Marsh  often got  asked  to  eat  supper  there (how  I  wished  they  would ask  me)  and  Grandma  always  said  no  wine,  in  the  food  to  reassure  me.  I  cried  the  day  they  moved  away.
Mom

Did you ever think about the number of kids in our neighborhood that lived with their grandparents? I came up with 5.
Lori

It has been mentioned I detested Mr. Saunders…..I don’t think anyone was really crazy about him…..but yes he was a burr under my saddle for sure.  He was the self-appointed Street Monitor and he wasn’t shy about telling us what we were doing wrong from the get go.  He had embarrassed me and made fun of something I did and I felt very angry with him.  I had some wicked feelings toward him and when we went to Education Days and had a class on asking forgiveness I took it seriously and went over to Mr. Saunders and asked him to forgive me for thinking bad things about him……he didn’t know what I was talking about (I think it was Happy Hour) but I felt better.
Mom

Oscar Weganast’s pigeons and hence pigeon eggs.  Lots of event came out of that cache of ammunition. 
Gillan



Anyone recall Oscar Weganast's (we used to call he and Kenny "the Wigglebums"- get it?) little metal and wood open- top trailer his dad built him to be pulled behind his bike?  He used it for his papers I think and to haul kids around. 
Gillan




Who was the German couple whose wife joined the church just a few doors east of our house?  Her name starts with a B I think.
Gillan

There was a little bush in the Jarus' yard near the sidewalk in the corner of the yard that produced some funky little flowers that were pinkish/whitish and had several little parts to them and went along with a story of some kind.  Honey suckle blossoms in the neighborhood also come to mind.
Gillan



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