Document text
Name: :Atte K. Leary
t
section
Informants John Healy
114
Subject The Irish Shoemaker of Lynn
c)(
Catherine Healy,
wife of above.
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45,11•-eireppet-ine_ itervegriesnintgisider.enewtnerr.,
Piref4ai.,S7e/v
"Them," 0494 said, "are a pair Jimmie Murray gilt when
"1 A
he was pall bearera;Ifor_ The number a times
that man's been pall bearer I couldn't count. Every time
I clean house, I find some of them gloves. They used ta
give Ick ones but now they get gray. Don't look sa much
A
like pall bearer 4 gloves.
"We went to a funeral the other day arid wuz it coldo
:at thelicemetery4 Jimmie Murray said that the next time he
went to a funeral in the winter time that he wuz goinl ta
have a pint a whiskey n his hip pocket. It wuz that cold
at the cemetery that we all sure needed it."
—Neither Aunt Mary or Uncle Jimmie ever drink. They
-mere-simply expressing the feet that it was cold at the
-eemeterrr—
Aunt Mary makes wine every fall though. She does not
drink it herself but usually ties red ribbon around the
bottles and gives them away to her friends at Christmas.
woman friend, worn to the edge of nervous prostration by
household dutieswill be sure to be remembered.
"Now you take this and put it away jest fur younelf.
Nothin, like a bit a home made wine fur a pickup when
A
1^
"Yettr4"'rerler5*-4'ee--bila44--wr4eeeP—SekIrre•-1-t--emel--'
.trkea'e-Ler—se•ukt-fr"44bt—oead—atAif4--tvi--t-trea''
n e -f-irler A wit marl), nor Uhc le 7-1.1-0-Yn(e e-ve I<
Except for funerals, family dinners, and weddings, 4Fftele-
A +Ile*
-J-Isnwi-e-etrtel---Attfrt--iferyt,geldom go out together. He goes to a
club house every afternoon and plays cards with cronies; she
goes to public card and beano parties about three or four
nights a week. Oft other evenings shs divides among friends
at whose homes she always finds an exceedingly warm welcome.
Ske-
-414h7iter-m+41 always =me- a "bit to eat." It may be a pie,
Or
some spiced cabbage, some cake, some cookies for the
childreno
f_lamersimIrlotert-N54....ter.tme...emest..14r, -4- 441e.4411144AmJA6m.m.0.1r-
"Get me the potatoes and I'll peel 'em fur I'm goin' ta
earn my supper." So out she comes to the kitchen while the
meal is cooking. While the skins are coming off the
potatoes her hostess usually hears about her activities of
-tite-tveelf-1,
"I said to Jimmie murray,
gut r
tottelAtuits--userixuele--Vlitentev
that him and I wuz
gettin, far too old to be trapsin' around the way we do.
But I till him too that I guessed we'd never stop long's we
lived. TA can't teach an old dog new tricks.
"I have a good life,(79.--16new. Ever since my youngest
started ta school, I been playin' cards. Takes my mind
off my troubles so much that I forget I ever had any. EerY-_
1 body needs something. I Øt cards and beano and books.-.\
3.
for I read every night 'fore I go ta sleep. Jinmie Murray,
he's got books and cards too and he's got the radio. That
things agoin' from the time he gets up 'till he goes ta
61,d6
my friends keep ask/ill me what I'm goin' ta do with
all them prizes I won from the card games. Aliiee my house
is full of tem. Enough lamps to start a store. -1Mmi---
-44w4r.444,---emel-yet-ougtrt"Ciee the-113273memwt-ammaks....-,
"Well, fur one thing they make dang good Christmas
presents and every little while I find some one that has
a need for somethin, I got and don't need. So I give it
to tem. If ya got too much a somethinl ya don't ever
appreciate i
"Jimmie Murray is most often in bed when I get home
and don't I get mad at him. 'Cause I can't get him ta
look the front door. He jest goes off ta bed and sleeps
sound enough ta have the house carried away, but he won't
lock the door. Don't see no use in it, he says.
"After I get in, my son Joe comes in, and no matter
how late 'tis he always sits on the edge a the bed and
talks fur awhile. I have ta hear all the things goinl
on down town. Sometimes too, I get up and we have a bit
to eat for ourselves. Might be 2 o'clock...7,
CT'sleep late the next mornini. Nothin, ta get up
for now all my children is grown.up. Timo wuz that I
couldn't do that- -but I ean-new-, and. hew I -ele-ee-je5g-wiyeel-f--.
4.
Sometimes I stop and think though. All this good
life can't go on forever. I'm gettinl up in years now,
and I can't expect ta have svch a good time forever. But
I says to myself. I might jest as well have it while I
kin."
The conversation switched to two young people who
had recently married.
"I'm glad ta see them two young people had the sense
not ta have a lotta blow and blather about their weddinf.
How often ya see a big weddinl turn out bad with either a
divorce or no happiness in it. 'Taint the show of the
weddinl that makes ya happy. It's who ya get for a
husband or wife."
A glance out of the window revealed that a peddler was
(2.61446
comindovvvw4 Lock the door ant keep quiet," gialetante4ed
Aunt Mary. /'As a rule themls a bad lot and ya can't depend
(Wm c•AA-'
on what they say. 7)
Althy only las, week one knocked at my door. He wuz
asellinl a package that had aspirin, iodine, adhesive, and
other stuff good ta have in the house time a sickness or
accident. A first aid kit he called it. Told me I could
buy it fur a quarter and that for another cent I could get
another like it with a slip held give me, at a drug store
down town. :7
(-4(He toll me the woman downstairs bought two. Said they
wuz worth seventy—five cents.
5.
-71 o
fwA4, 1.3,ut ya oughta see how plite Jimmie Murray treats fem.
01,6ove I get so mad at him. He's tol, easy with folks that's
trying to do him."
"'Well', said I, 'then I won't need none fur I kin
borrow from her. Now show.'
"And show he did. lAnl I found out afterwards that ---7
'what he said about gettin, a second package from the drug
store fur a penny wusn't true attall. Shows ya how them
peddlers I'll lie ta make ya buy. Don't trust fem.
Children came bounding into the room, and as usual,
Aunt Mary called upon her resources of entertainment.
monkey, monkey, making. beer
How many monks have we here?
One two, three,
Out goes you."
The meal over, the children put to bed, Aunt Mary and
her hatess spent the evening playing "Forty Five."
The radio interrupted the card game now and then. Aunt
Mary listened intently to, "I'm taking Nellie Home."
"How often my mother used ta sing that. That an'
Silver Threads Among the Gold."