Grandma’s Story - Part 3

Question # 3 - What was the first movie 🎥 that you saw in the Movie Theater ? I actually don’t remember the very first movie 🎥 that I saw in a movie theater although I do have many wonderful memories surrounding the first several movies I saw in theaters as a young child. My Aunt Anne O’Donnell, who was one my mother’s younger sisters, was single and she lived with her parents in an apartment a couple of blocks from Broadway. She loved going to the movies and she very generously shared her love ❤️ of the movies with my cousin, Sharon O’Donnell, and me. Aunt Anne would walk us to one of the two major theaters on Broadway in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Some times we would go to the RKO Bushwick theater and other times we went to the Loew’s Gates. Both theaters were beautiful as far as I was concerned. We entered the theater and settled into our seats. Sometimes the movie was already in progress, but we’d stay until the movie reached the same point where we first entered. Other times, when we arrived before the movie started, the lights in the theater were lowered and the curtains opened revealing the massive screen in front of us. I remember the feeling of excitement when the MGM Lion let out a loud roar while the exciting, dramatic music played in the background. Even now, at 78 years of age, whenever the introduction of a movie comes onto the screen, I remember Aunt Anne and Sharon and our wonderful trips to the movies together. Some of the movies I remember seeing all those many years ago were “ The Seven Little Foyes”, “Come Back Little Sheba”, “ Singing in the Rain”, “Dial M for Murder”. Several of the movie plots were beyond my years and understanding but nonetheless I enjoyed them. Back when I was a young child, the theater would show a double feature (two movies for one admission price) and they’d even show a cartoon between the two main features. When we left the theater, Aunt Anne would take us out to eat. On some occasions we’d go to the local Chinese restaurant which required a walk up a flight of stairs as the restaurant was on the second floor. Aunt Anne loved Chinese food and I enjoyed my first real introduction to Chinese food. My Mom did make a chicken chow mein meal on occasion but that was the extend of my knowledge of Chinese cuisine until Aunt Anne introduced me to other Chinese dishes at this authentic Chinese restaurant. On other occasions we went to a local Ice Cream Parlor and we’d sit in a booth and I would order a hamburger and French fries as well as the most delicious malted milk shake I’ve ever had in all my life. It was served with a glass and a very large frosty metal container that seemed endless. It felt like heaven to me! These outings to the Movie Theater typically ended with a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Anne O’Donnell’s second floor railroad flat apartment. These early movie theater memories are some of the favorite memories of my childhood. Thank you, Aunt Anne!!

Let There Be Light

There was a knock on the door a few minutes after all the lights went out. Our company stood waiting to be admitted for my celebratory birthday dinner. I had planned everything absolutely perfectly so that everything would go flawlessly. Bob and I had just put the baked potatoes and a most gorgeous Prime Rib of Beef into the oven set at 450 degrees, turned on the overhead exhaust fan, and set out the hors d’oeuvres. The salad and rolls were already on the dining room table, the fresh string beans and gravy ready to heat up on the stovetop burners. Our first two guests had already arrived and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of three other friends. Time to have cocktails and relax! Just then the lights and everything thing else electrical-including the oven and stovetop went dark. “ Oh no!” we all said in unison. We thought possibly turning on the exhaust fan blew the fuse. Bob went to investigate only to discover our entire neighborhood was in the dark. “ How in God’s holy name, are we going to cook our dinner?!!” And, besides the cooking, it’s way too hot and humid and the A/C is not working. Soon it will be getting dark and we have no lights. Luckily we also have a lanai with another large table and enough chairs for our guests. Thank goodness I have plenty of hors d’oeuvres to hold us over until we can decide what the hell we’re going to do with the main course! I try my best not to loose my festive mood and I tell myself “remain calm”. We remember that there is a gas grill in the garage - this beautiful rental is well stocked - and so we collect the potatoes and the Prime Rib and escort them out to the grill in the front driveway. We had researched how to cook our “beautiful”roast in the oven but honestly we have no idea how to cook it on a grill. We’ll “wing it” with decide as we’re too harried for another “ Google recipe search “. The pot of string beans and the gravy won’t fit on the grill and the stovetop is electric therefore I sadly give up on serving them. Fortunately, the Caesar Salad is plentiful and ready to be served so I fill the salad plates on the dining table and distribute them to my congenial friends on the lanai. Napkins and silverware are also transported outside. Everyone seems relaxed and comfortable, so that makes me happy. All of a sudden one of our guests goes into the house and lets out a joyful sound. The lights are back on!! I’m able to heat up my gravy and mushrooms on the stovetop as we serve our potatoes and rare Prime Rib (actually the exact way I like it). We play a couple of rounds of “ Who am I?” before my dear friends sing the “ Happy Birthday 🎂 song” and we finally get to sit at our dining table inside for our yummy chocolate cake and key lime pie. Later as our guests are leaving we see that the electric company’s truck is parked down the street and the workers are feverishly working on restoring electricity to our neighbors. Bob attributes our early restoration of power to the fact that when he called “Florida Power and Light 💡 “ he mentioned that it was his wife’s 79th birthday and we were trying to make a special dinner to celebrate with our friends. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but think that it had something to do with the theme of today’s homily at the 3PM Mass at St. Francis of Assisi - Day Light Savings Time and how Light and Truth overcomes the darkness. And, yes, Rose 🌹, the potatoes came out fine in spite of it all.

Grandma’s Story - Part 3

I never got to this particular question in my previous Blog entitled Grandma's story Part 2 and 3. The Part 3 question "What was the first movie I saw in a theater?" awakens many wonderful memories that have stayed with me throughout my these many decades of my life. I actually can't remember my very first movie in the movie theater, but I remember several movies that I saw in the theater with my Aunt Anne O'Donnell and my cousin, Sharon O'Donnell. Aunt Anne was one of my mother's younger sisters and since she wasn't married she lived with her parents in an apartment that was a couple of blocks off of Broadway in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. lost this above section and started again- Question # 3 - What was the first movie 🎥 that you saw in the Movie Theater? I actually don’t remember the very first movie 🎥 that I saw in a movie theater although I do have many wonderful memories surrounding the first several movies I saw in theaters as a young child. My Aunt Anne O’Donnell, who was one my mother’s younger sisters, was single and she lived with her parents in an apartment a couple of blocks from Broadway. She loved going to the movies and she very generously shared her love ❤️ of the movies with my cousin, Sharon O’Donnell, and me. Aunt Anne would walk us to one of the two major theaters on Broadway in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Some times we would go to the RKO Bushwick theater and other times we went to the Loew’s Gates. Both theaters were beautiful as far as I was concerned. We entered the theater and settled into our seats. Sometimes the movie was already in progress, but we’d stay until the movie reached the same point where we first entered. Other times, when we arrived before the movie started, the lights in the theater were lowered and the curtains opened revealing the massive screen in front of us. I remember the feeling of excitement when the MGM Lion let out a loud roar while the exciting, dramatic music played in the background. Even now, at 78 years of age, whenever the introduction of movie comes onto the screen, I remember Aunt Anne and Sharon and our wonderful trips to the movies together. Some of the movies I remember seeing all those many years ago were “ The Seven Little Foyes”, “Come Back Little Sheba”, “ Singing in the Rain”, “Dial M for Murder”. Several of the movie plots were beyond my years and understanding but nonetheless I enjoyed them. Back when I was a young child, the theater would show a double feature (two movies for one admission price) and they’d even show a cartoon between the two main features. When we left the theater, Aunt Anne would take us out to eat. On some occasions we’d go to the local Chinese restaurant which required a walk up a flight of stairs as the restaurant was on the second floor. Aunt loved Chinese food and I enjoyed my first real introduction to Chinese food. My Mom did make a chicken chow mein meal on occasion but that was the extend of my knowledge of Chinese cuisine until Aunt Anne introduced me to other Chinese dishes at this authentic Chinese restaurant. On other occasions we went to a local Ice Cream Parlor and we’d sit in a booth and I would order a hamburger and French fries as well as the most delicious malted milk shake I’ve ever had in all my life. It was served with a glass and a very large frosty metal container that seemed endless. It felt like heaven to me! These outings to the Movie Theater typically ended with a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Anne O’Donnell’s second floor railroad flat apartment. These early movie theater memories are some of the favorite memories of my childhood. Thank you, Aunt Anne!!

Grandma’s Story 2 and 3

1. What was my favorite TV show as a child ? 2. What was the First movie 🎥 I saw in the theater ? 1. One of my favorite weekly shows when I was a child was a half hour show entitled, " I Remember Mama". I'm not sure what exactly drew me to this show but I looked forward to watching it every week. I think it was on TV every Saturday night and I believe the whole family watched it with me. Possibly that was part of the reason I enjoyed it as much as I did because it was comforting to be sitting together relaxing as a family. My very favorite episode was something that impressed me and always gives me a warm and wonderful feeling. It was shown at Christma time and it was about a Christmas Eve where the animals in the barn actually talked. It sounds a bit silly to even write this now, but as a child I remember feeling the tingling sensation that such a thing could really happen. That feeling was awesome and it stayed with me over these many decades. I guess as a child I accepted the fact that this type of miracle was possible and it touched me deeply. I wish I could see this episode again but possibly it might ruin the feeling of delight that my initial experience gave me. Sort of like the lyrics of a song from Babes in Toyland/The March of the Wooden Soldiers, "Toyland, Toyland, wonderful, mystical joyland, once you pass its borders, you can never return again. There were other shows I remember watching togeher as a family and I also remember the feeling of safety snd being loved as I sat in my father's lap as a young child as we watched shows such as "The Hit Parade" (where singers would perform the top 10 songs of the week). I remember, " How much is that Doggy in the Window"?; " The Green Door"; and other popular songs of the 1950's. We watched Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners and the Ed Sullivan Show and Milton Beryl and The Texaco Hour. We were the first house on the street where I lived to own a TV set and a lot of the neighborhood kids came over to our house to see this exciting new invention. An early favorite kiddy show was the Howdy Doody

Show with characters Buffalo Bill and Clarabelle.

Grandma’s Story-1

My grandson, Connor Patrick Buchner, gave me a little book for Christmas. It contains questions for me to answer so when I leave this earth, he can have a bit of my life story. First, I'd like to say, our grandson is very special to me and my hushand, Bob Buchner. We don't share a drop of blood or any genetics, but we couldn't love him more. He came into our lives rather unexpectedly in 2005 - 05-05-05 - to be exact and he has brought us nothing but joy and love ever since. So if he cares enough to want to know about my life story, I must oblige. The first question in this little book, is rather simple and basic- 1. When and where were you born? I was born on March 9th, 1945 at, I believe, 1:20pm in the afternoon at the Midwood Hospital, a rather small local community hospital in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Our family Doctor, Dr. William Carrington, was affiliated with this hospital, and since he was the one who was scheduled to deliver, your grandmother, Rita Mary O'Donnell Fries' second child, this was where your greatgrandfather, Charles A. Fries, Sr. ( you knew and loved him as your Poppi )drove her when her labor began. I'll have to locate my Baby Book to give you my birth weight and lenghth as I don't remember it right off the top of my head. I know I was basically an average size baby - not too big and not too small. I believe I was well received as my mother gave birth 2 years earlier to her firstborn son, Charles A. Fries, Jr. so itvwas nice to balance things off with a girl. One little story my mother told me about her birth experince with me was a bit " insulting". At the time of my birth, ie, 1945, women mostly gave birth in hospitals (especilly women who lived in or near cities) and they also usually remained in the hospital for several days or more after giving birth. Also, diring this period of history, babies were typically kept in a nearby nursery under the watchful eyes of nurses. They would be brought to the mother's bed when it was time for them to be fed. The Mom wore a bracelet that had her name on it and her baby had a braclet or anklet with his or her name on it to insure that each mother was given the correct baby. The first time the nurse brought me to my Mom, I was screaming my head off (I've never liked to go hungry and in my own defence I was probably starving!). My mother told me my face was as red as a beet and all contorted and scrunched up and frankly, she thought I was a bit too ugly to be her beautiful newborn baby girl. The nurse quickly grabbed the baby back out of my mother's arm believing she handed my mother the wrong baby!! She checked my anklet and then informed my Mom that I was indeed her little baby. Once I was given my bottle and settled down, my Mom realized that I was indeed her beautiful little daughter! Thank God ( Another historical fact - formula and bottle feeding became a favored method before the tremendous benefits of breast feeding became wildly publicized.

My Father’s High School Graduation

My Father 👨‍🎓 graduates from Bushwick High School in 1933. Here he poses with his Mom and Dad on the side of his house at 8 Vermont Avenue ( eventually 64 Interboro Parkway and now Jackie Robinson Parkway. My Dad’s High School “ History” is an interesting one. It was strongly recommended that he go to seminary pre-school up in Garrison, New York to become an OFM Capuchin Friar (a Catholic Priest) to basically replace his Uncle Charlie who died of a flu pneumonia (the infamous flu of 1918 )a couple of months before he was to be ordained! At the start of his Junior year, when he arrived at the seminary in Garrison, he told the uncle that escorted him all the way up from Brooklyn, that he didn’t want to stay. He came back home from upstate and his Dad had to frantically search for a school so he could continue his High School education. He entered Bushwick HS where he met the 1st of his two lifelong friends, Joe Mule. Joe Mule encouraged my Dad to go to Brooklyn College with him after HS where he met his 2nd lifelong friend, Nick Pascarelli. My Dad said by Junior year he knew he wanted girls in his life and decided a celebrate priesthood was not for him!! Good for me I guess

My Fries Grandparents Purchase Their First Set of Wheels

My grandparents are very proud with their purchase of the family’s first car in the early 1930s. Their sons, Charlie and Joe, share in the day, albeit, looking rather serious. My Dad always joked that he still had and wore the suit he got in High School - I found out later it wasn’t far from the truth