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Name: Jane K. Leary, 32 Acorn St.
Informant: Patrick J. Ryan, 152 Jackson Bt.
Assignment: The Shoe Machinery Worker of Lynn.
IF I COULD LIVE MY LIFE OVER AGIN.
July 7, 1939
nSettint here sa much, an' readint an' restinl,
I got lots a time ta think now. Utta be when I'd come
home from the shop at night, I'd be so tired that all /Id
want ta do wuz sleep. But now I got lots a time ta jest
think.
RAW I often wish, like, guess most men wish
sometime or other, that I could live my life all over
agin. Everybody thinks of how they like ta do some thin'
or other diffrunt. Ya know what I'd do?
"I'd get myself an education. Ya kin go further
in this world if ya got an education an' if ya got it all
set in your mind jest what ya want ta do, and the deter-
mination ta stick right ta that aim. Ya can't go this
way an' then that way ant aorta wish you'll get what ya
want. Ya gotta set your mind ta it and stick right on
the one path 'till ya get it.
"An' that's more true taday than it usta be too.
Fur jobs is hard ta get. But if I wUz a young man, I'd
first decide What I wanted ta do with my life, ant then
I'd go out and get the education ta help me get it.
Z44,,
TEEIR CHILDREN
"All my children's married but one an' she's got
a good job at the shoe machinery. Twenty two dollars a
week she earns, an' she don't save a cent. She gives 1113
seven dollars a week board an' the rest she spends.
"Most a her money she spends on clothes. Right up
to the latest she is. My wife said to me one day, 'Did
ya ever look in her closet?'
"'Yes' I said, 'and aint it a sin?' You shoulda
seen them dresses ant all the latest style. If somethin,
gets a little bit out, she gives it to her sister that's
married.
"She oughta be married ant wished she 'us. She
went with a fella fur a good many years ant be liked her
too, but be wuz a protestant. He was a fine fella though
a mighty fine fella and I wouldn't put up no objection to
her marryin' him. But she's a girl that mighty touchy
about her religion and one day he said somethin' she din't
like, an' I guess that ended it.
"I always think though that a fella ain't got no
right ta take up a girls best years if he don't plan ta
marry her, an, a girl's a fool ta let him. I was taikin'
ta a young lady once an' she said that if a fella cun't
make up his mind in a year er two she'd do the askin, ant
find out where she stood. I think that 1s right too.
"Ant I don't see why two young folks of diffrunt
religions can't get along if they wuz ta look at it right.
But if they fight about it before they get married, they
ought not ta take the step. 'Cause they'll sure fight
about it afterwards too if they do before.
"But you take my other daughter now. She's
married to a Protestant an a mighty decent chap too. But
he's a liberal minded fella. He'd go ta chUrch with her
any time she'd want him too. Ant they get along fine.
They got a little girl nineteen months now, and ain't she
the cutest thing? We wuz up there last Sunday. An' ta
see that little thing play with a little dog they got fur
hert Once she lay right down on the floor beside the dog
and put her head down on him. An' sometimes she pulls
his legs and his tail. He never even snaps at her. It's
funny how children get along with dogs sa well.
They live up near Newburyport, arunnint one of
them lunch cars. They make good at it too. Leastways
they make a good livint.
"We got two good sons too. The one is the baby a
the family, him that got the job at the shoe machinery
when they found out I cun't go back no more. He had the
best education of the bunch.
*Well, about a year ago he got married ant his
mother din't like it. She thought he aught ta stay home
a while ant try ta pay back some a the money we put out
fur his education. Besides be din't have a job fur five
years, before he got in at the shoe machinery.
"But I said, I don't blame him. He's got a
nice girl.' Besides that, the girl's mother put out
fifteen hundred dollars ta get them started on payint
fur a brand new house. A nice cottage it is too. Ant
besides all the relatives give tem the nicest kind a
furniture. I told my wife that I °unit blame them atall.
If Ilda good chance like that I wun't pass it up either
an' I don't blame him none either.
"Anyway, we'll get along. We don't havta have
any a the money that boy'll bring in. We don't need much
ant we can live on what we got. An' I'm glad he's married.
The time is cominl before long when me and his mother will
pass on into the beyond, and then we'll be glad to know
he's got a good companion fur life. And I glad we give
him that education.
"my other son's been married a long while. He's
got growed up children; one of them works in the five and
ten cents store and she's thinking about entering upon
what they call that blessed state a matrimoney too. Kinda
a shame, I think, in a way, 'cause she's so young, only
jest twenty. I think she should have a longer time ta
have a good time in. Young folks needa a fling before
they settle down, and then they don't feel so much like
they missed something.
"But she's a good sensible girl she is. Some one
asked her what she'd do if her boy friend changed his
mind. tWellot she said, 'He won't. For I got his money.
He gives it to me every week to put may for us botht.
And she mighty pretty too. But I hate to see her get
married so young.
41117•11
HIS CHARITY
"I do a iota reading. Often I set out here on
the porch after breakfast and I'm back a newspaper with
my cigar till first thing ya know I drop the paper, and
then I wake up ta find I'd took a nap, Then I'm all set
ta read some more.
"I change off ta diffrunt things. Besides the
paper I get a lotta poultry magazines ant magazines from
homes where they raise poor boys. There're'intristint
ya know, ta read about what they do far young fella's
that ain't got no home. Ant sometimes they show you
their pictures in the magazines.
"The way I get them is because once in a while
when I get a few extra dollars I send one to them homes,
Fur I believe in helpin' poor boys. Ant then they send
me the magazines. And ya know the other day I sure got
a surprise. I wuz lookin, through one a the magazines
ant I saw a picture of a half grown boy ant the name
beneath it wuz exactly the same as the name a my oldest
boy. I saved it ant when he come, I said ta him, 'Da ya
see that?' Well, sir, he took it home ta show ta his
children ant wife.
When Father's Day come, each a my children give ma
somethinl. Soma a 'em give me money an' I sent some, a that
to them homes. It's a good work ta help boys get a start
in life ant I believe in helpinl them that are doin, it all
I kin.
SMOKING
nI bin aamokint all my life, ant I think there's
nothin, like a good cigar ta drive your troubles away.
I usta smoke a pipe but that got too strong fur me ant
I took:up cigars. Ant I'm never without tem.
"I don't even havta buy tem. Every time my
children come ta see me, they bring me a box a cigars.
They give me some on Father's Day* them that didn't give
me that money I wuz tellin' ya about. Ant they give em
to me fur my birthday ant on Christmas. Why mosta the time
I got moreln I use ant I kin give some away. I like ta
give things away when I kin. It gives ya a good feelint
ta know you're doinl some small thing fur somebody else.
"An' when I get done with my magazines I always
try ta find some one else that tould like ta read tem.
I get some religious ones an' I give them ta a little
girl she's about sixteen or seventeen* that religiously
inclined. And the others I give ta folks that's intristed
in tem.
"A RATTLING GOOD TIME
"I often set here ant think how little stock we
take in the good things that's so near ta us. Take the
ocean now. I don't know when I bin down there.
"But take the people that's come almost clear
across the country ta get ta that convention in Boston.
(Kiwanis convention) 7A kin bet they wun't go home with.
out seem' the ocean. I seen by the paper this moral&
bow they come dawn ta Swampscott ant jest set there on the
rocks ta see the water. Some a lent had their pictures
took there. Ta them, that is a rattlin, (rattling) good
time ant we wun't think nothin, a it atall.
"Too easy ta get there, I guess, Mothint that's
easy is ever thought much of, I guess. 7a_havta.have
somethint almost auta your reach, I guess, bafore ya
think it's worth while.
"Why my wife said the other day, 'Pat, I'll bet
it's ten years since we went fur a hulleday ta the beach.
But ya see when I wuz workint I'd go to work at eight
o'clock ant havta leave here arouut seven thirty, ant I
wun't get home till after five, an' then there wuz the
garden ta take care of. I'd be tired when night come ant
wanta go ta bed. An' since I bin outa the shop, I bin
sick er my wife's bin sick. But we'll havta go down
there sometime soon. A pretty sight, the ocean.
"But my wife ant I are happy lust ta set here on
the porch ant read ant have our children ant grandchildren
come ta see us. We're homebodies, aorta contented like,
ant happy.