Pop goes the memories

 I am drinking a 7-Up and thinking of the Kennedys

    No, not the president, senator, or the faux Kennedy running a government office into the ground.

    I am thinking of the Kennedys I knew.

    Up until about sixth grade, we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment on the third floor of my grandmother's building.

I shared a bedroom with my brothers Carl and Dennis.  My parents had a Murphy bed in the front room.

    If you don't know what a Murphy bed is.....It lifted up and went into the wall.  Then you closed some doors and it looked like a cabinet.  I think they are pretty darn cool and a real plus for small apartments.

    Across the street from us was a family with Kennedy as  a last name.

    My parents were friends with them

    When Mr Kennedy died, the kids, all adults, decided to sell the house.  My parents bought it for $17,000.

    We all had our own bedrooms!

    Mr. Kennedy's funeral was in their house.  I remember (and it may be a false memory) looking down from our apartment into their living room and seeing him in a coffin along the wall my parents would later put a couch.

    Fast forward a few years.

    I had a newspaper route.  It was actually in a factory and I sold the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago American.

    But I also delivered a paper to Marion Kennedy, who moved from 1472 W. Belle Plaine to a house on Berteau, 2 blocks north.  

    Marion worked for the city of Chicago water department.  Her sister, Timothea, was an actual sister in a convent in Iowa.  Her brother Jack was a priest and her other brother Phil was a Monsignor.  I don't know exactly what that is, but my parents felt it was a pretty important position in the Catholic Church.

    Father Jack would often visit Marion.  If I delivered the paper while he was there, he would always insist on talking to me.  We talked about what I wanted to be in the future, how school was, what my day was like....stuff like that.  In fact, he even made me a bet on grades.  If I got an A, he would give me $1.  A B was worth 50 cents and a C got me nothing.  If I got a D I owed him 50 cents and an F would cost me a dollar. 

    I was always glad to show him my report card.

    So how does 7-Up fit in all this?

    Marion would always give me a bottle of cold, cold 7-Up to drink during those visits.  I remember how refreshing and great it tasted.  My parents didn't buy much pop, so it was a treat.

    They are all gone now.  

    I often wondered why Marion was the only child not to enter some type of service to her church.  I remember she was a faithful believer, unbelievably kind, soft spoken, and drank 7-Up.

    I have commission papers and photos of Captain Kennedy  from 1896.  They are another one of those items I don't know why I have, or what I should do with them.

    I have a FB friend from those days, and she lived next to the Marion on Berteau.  I wonder if she enjoyed 7-Up too.

    The house?  My mom sold it in 1978 or so for $57,000.  A few years ago it was listed for somewhere in the $800,000 territory.  But it did not look like  my boyhood home.

    Funny when memories pop up.  

Peace and Love

Sometimes Beth just wants to see what is going on from a different angle.