BY Rosemary (Sis) Scott Kotchey
February 28, 2000
Of course, Mom and Dad lived most of their lives in
Lawrenceville. Little bit in
Morningside. Our Mom lived on 54th Street and Dad lived on Holmes Street. They met on the
streets. They walked the streets with
their friends. Mom would go with her
sister, Mary Elizabeth, and they would go up to 56th Street to call on Mary Mullen, and then up to 57th and
Butler Streets to call on Mildred Carrigan.
(Is that an Irish name or what?)
Then the four of them would walk the streets of Lawrenceville every
evening – just to be together. Now the
guys in the neighborhood did the same thing. They would meet with their friends
on Butler Street. Now these four girls,
Rose, Mary Elizabeth, Mary and Mildred, they were all beauties! And that is what they did … walk around …
and be together. They would sometimes go
and get an ice cream or soda at the soda shoppe. Well Dad was watching all this, you see. (By the way, Dad is the one that told me this
and that.) Out of the four beauties, he
picked our Mom. He said she was his
“girlfriend” --- before he even met her.
And… not only that … he called her “My Rose.” So that’s about the half of it.
A few months after this, Rose and Vince (Mom and Dad) began to
say ‘hello, la la la’ to each other. Now
here’s the part I like the best … Ok, pretty soon, Dad was going to 54th Street to call on “his Rose.”
And they would go out to the local dance hall, or the soda shoppe down
there at the Greek’s (we used to go there too), and that’s about what they
did. They were with their friends a lot,
and did a lot of walking on Butler Street and walked the hills of Lawrenceville. Now… here’s really the part I like … It’s about our
Mom’s dad. Mr. Quinn. Now Mr. Quinn was blind, but he could hear
EVERYTHING. And, you know Dad … he was
not quiet. All seemed to be going well
with the courting … but it wasn’t. Dad
liked to go and bang on the Quinn’s piano and sing away, while picking out a tune. Then, Mr. Quinn, Patrick Quinn, one day
decided he had had enough of our Dad and his noise. One day Mr. Quinn yelled so loud – you could
hear him all through their house. He
said: “Hey you black sheep downstairs, stop that racket.” Dad told me all about the “black sheep” and I
would laugh and laugh and laugh, and ask him to tell me it all over again the
next day. We can end this story pretty
soon now.
…. So Rose and Vince continued to see each other, and Mom
would not let him go near that piano.
They still had their friends, his and her’s, and eventually they got
married and lived happily every after.
Ha Ha Ha.
……. And then --- this is what Aunt Mary told me years
later. I asked Aunt Mary about the part
“hey you black sheep.” She laughed and
said “yes indeed.” “Your Dad was crazy
about your mom. He came to the house
every Saturday with flowers or something. A romantic guy. He was well mannered, well dressed, and
always said hello to Mr. Quinn, and Mr. Quinn always grumbled. One day, your Dad asked your grandpa’s
permission to marry your mother. He
grumbled ‘yes’ and grumbled again … and so they were married.” And that’s the end.
