Happy Birthday Daddy

Today is my dad's 101st Birthday.

He was the 6th child born to Irish immigrants on Feb 27, 1906, on the southside of Chicago. Delivered at home by a midwife who wrote his name on the birth certificate as Nicholas McGraw. Just think, he might have been called Nick. But instead he was known as Bob McGrath.

Following are a few photos our family has of him before he became "The Dad".

I think the above photo is the only photo we have of our dad with hair! This is the Knights of Columbus Basketball Team. The photo was probably taken around 1926, I'm guessing. I love the names....

at the top: Fitzgerald, McGrath(my dad), Hanley, O'Malley, Lenihan(his cousin)

bottom McCambridge, Coyle, Murphy, and Sweeney (I think a cousin too).

Apparently in the 1930's and 40's heading over to the other side of Lake Michigan to the state of Michigan by ferry or by train was the thing to do (that's where he met my mother). It's where he'd go fishing with the guys.

In the above photo that's my dad with the x above his head. That's my dad standing in the middle with a drink in his hand.
Here's another photo of my dad with his fishing buddies, and probably many of his cousins too. He's standing in the very center of the photo. I can't get over how much he looks like my brother Robert, or should I say, my brother looks like my dad.

In 1942, my dad was drafted into the U.S. Army during WWII. He was 36 years old, still single and living at home with his parents and brothers, working for the city of Chicago. He'd already lost his hair. Can you imagine being drafted at that age!

He was stationed in California as an M.P. (Military Police). He and my mother corresponded during the 3 years he was away. I sure do wish I could talk to him about where he was and what he did. We have one letter that he wrote to my mother, and these photos. He's the soldier in the middle of the above photo, posture just like both of my brothers.

The back of the above photo says in his handwriting, "Myself and Fort Ord" at least I think that what it says, it's hard to read his handwriting. It also says "California 1943". My dad is on the right.

The back of the above photo says in his handwriting, "The entrance to our barracks".



The back of the above photo says in his handwriting, "Just me Sept 1943 Burbank Cal"

My dad is on the right. I don't have the original so don't know what was written on the back. Cool photo of them marching isn't it?

The back of the above photo is very interesting, in his handwriting it says, " A fellow in our tent took some pictures and they were not any good so he threw them away. I got this one from another lad and it didn't turn out very good either. They said it was the fellow faults (sic) who develope them in Camp San Luis Obispo. I will have some taken here and send them home."

While my dad was stationed in California one of the things the Army had him and the fellows in his unit do was work as "extras" in the war movies that were being produced. The above photo is a movie set! That's my dad in the middle.

Here is another "movie" shot. My dad is the guy in the back looking up.

According to our Family Lore, my mom Rita bought a house with her mother at 7347 South Champlain on her 29th birthday, Dec 9, 1944. The day they moved into the house my dad helped them by getting city trucks. My mom said to my dad that day, "Well, what are we going to do? Get married or not?" My dad had gotten out of the Army in Oct of 1944, and wasn't working yet. When he left the Army he had 6 to $8000 dollars in his pocket. He had blown it all. He mom was very upset with him so when my mom asked him about getting married he started back to work in January and they married on June 2, 1945.The above photo is my dad and mom, Bob and Rita, December 1944, not too soon after getting engaged. I'll save their wedding photos for a later post.After WWII was over my dad and his buddies opened a Veteran's Club at 55th & Halsted. During 1948 through 1951 my dad worked as a bartender there on weekends for $50.00. This is how my dad and mom saved money for their first house. My dad and mom are on the far left of the above photo.
The above photo was taken in 1949, probably at Maple Lake where my mom's family had family reunions each summer. My dad always wore a light colored straw hat in the summer, and a darker wool hat in the winter like in the last two photos.

Great Discovery!

March 6, 1955 is the date I was baptised. This is my Aunt Molly, who was really my dad's cousin Molly McCarthy, but we always called her Aunt Molly. She was the best God-mother because she always gave me a gift for Christmas and my birthday. She was from Ireland but lived at my grandfather's house when she was living in the States. Aunt Molly died when I was 6 years old. One day not too long after she died we visited at my grandfather's house, my Aunt Shirley said there was something for me. She pulled out a wrapped box from behind the couch. It was a birthday present from Aunt Molly. A blue sweater that was very soft. I was amazed that I could still get presents from Aunt Molly even though she died.
Above is my Grandfather, John McGrath. He came to America from Ireland in the late 1800's. Doesn't he look like a good ole' Irish Grandpa! I think he was 89 or 90 when he died in 1959, a very old age in those days considering he probably lived a very harsh life.

Holding me is my cousin Mary Lou.

Mary Lou grew up in my grandfather's house where her parents lived.

My grandfather's house was a typical Irish family, lots of people living there and our family faithfully visited every Sunday at least until my grandfather died, and then after but not as often. The women took care of babies and cooked, while the men played cards.

Everyone got dressed up too!

Here's another photos of my Aunt Molly holding me again. Notice the ash tray right nearby! Those were the days!


This is my sister Geri, my Aunt Molly, and My Aunt Mary Jane who was my mother's sister. Oh! Notice Molly has an apron on, I thought that gave a wonderful clue that she was helping my mom in the kitchen. These photos were taken at the house I grew up in by the way. (Notice the burning cigarette in the ash tray, and the man in the chair behind my Aunt Mary Jane, undoubtedly playing cards. He's sitting at the dining room table.)

I love the slip covers on the furniture, I wonder if my sister Mary can tell me what color they were?

Above is a photo of my siblings and I. Robert, Mary, Geri, and me. Notice the baby crib in the background. And see the corner cabinet in the background, my mom used it in several parts of the house...for awhile it was in the bathroom with towels on it, and later, in the 1960's my mom painted it turqouise blue and cut it up to make little corner shelves to hang on the walls.

**

I have most of the above original photos in my possession but I always wondered why there were pictures of me posed with different relatives at my christening party but no photos of me with my mom and dad. I always wondered what they looked like when I was born.

**

Now, here's the important part. Go back to the photo above. Notice the table next to the kids with the open purse.

**

On the back of the following picture it says "Geri's Christening Day, 1951" (mom's handwriting)

BUT LOOK AT THE LITTLE TABLE WITH THE PURSE ON IT! SO IT'S REALLY ME WITH MY PARENTS ON MY CHRISTENING DAY WHEN I WAS ONE MONTH OLD! All these years I thought it was Geri!

Cool Discovery!

My dad was 49 years old, my mom was 39 years old. She gave birth to my brother 9 months after this photo was taken! (He was 2 months premature.)

The Dad

I love this photo of my parents, especially of my dad. The baby is my brother Robert Emmet Jr, who was born in 1949. Doesn't my dad look like the Proud Papa.

I didn't know my dad very well, he died when I was 13. But some of the things I remember is that he loved the White Sox (we do carry on that tradition!) He had a lot of funny sayings, like "Itchy Boom Ba Uh Oh!" and "Da Do Da Do". He always signed a birthday card, "The Dad". He smelled like Old Spice and beer. He made breakfast on the weekends....bacon and eggs like I've never had since he died. He helped my mom with housework. He worked for the city of Chicago.

I remember when Michael and I were little tiny kids we'd each sit on a knee while he sat at the dining room table reading his paper and drinking beer...warm Meister Brau...he'd bounce us while we sipped beer out of little glasses (the kind of glasses that shimp came in). My dad slept downstairs off the living room, on the weekends my mother would send Michael and I downstairs to get into bed with him in the early morning hours, we'd run cars up and down his arm and giggle until he'd make us go back to sleep.

My dad was drafted into WWII at age 36. He was an MP and was stationed in California to "protect the coast". My dad and mom met at a dance hall in Michigan (even though both of them lived on the southside of Chicago) a week before he was to leave for the service. His family threw a going away party which my mom attended, the family fell in love with her and so did my dad. My parents got to know each other during WWII via air mail letters.

My dad was 39 when they got married, by age 50 he had 5 children under the age of 10.

My oldest sister Mary got married when she was 19, my dad walked her down the aisle. Not too soon after that he was diagnosed with cancer and for the following two years he spent most of the time in the Veteran's Hospital in downtown Chicago. Our family would go twice a week to visit him. Michael and I were not allowed to go up to see him because we were under 14 years of age (yes, there were rules like that back then), so we'd sit in the lobby of the hospital for hours waiting for our mom to come back down.

He was able to come home from the hospital on holidays and for a couple of weeks during the summer. He called it a furlow. When I was in 7th and 8th grade I would come home from school at lunchtime to make lunch for Michael and I, and then I'd clean and change his bandages from skin grafting I think. That's what it looked like to me because the wounds were big squares. He never complained.

The last time I saw him was on my sister Mary's 22nd birthday, Sept 9, 1968, he had been home for a few days but was in a lot of pain. Every day my mom kept asking him if he wanted to go back to the hospital but he kept saying no. I think he knew it would the last time.

The pain must have been too much because then he asked to go back to the hospital. I was sitting on the front porch when he came out and with the help of someone (maybe my brother or my mom) he walked down the front steps while crying. I just watched as he got into the car. I can't remember if I ran up to the car to say good-bye but I'd like to think I did. He died in October.

The following February, Mary gave birth to my dad's first grandchild Scott.

Great Chicago Blizzard of 1967

Exerts and two photos from an article written by Jim Allsopp, Warning Coordination Meteorologist
40th Anniversary of the January 1967 Blizzard

Greatest snowfall in a calendar day - 16.4 inches on January 26, 1967. (this was surpassed when 18.6 inches fell on January 2, 1999.)

Greatest snowfall in a 24 hour period - 19.8 inches January 26-27, 1967

Greatest snowfall from a storm - 23.0 inches January 26-27, 1967

Greatest snow dept - additional snows brought the snow depth to 27 inches by February 6, 1967. (this was surpassed when 29 inches covered the ground January 14, 1979.) A total of 36.5 inches of snow fell on the city during the 11 day period from January 26 through February 5, 1967, which is close to normal snowfall for an entire season! Snow covered the ground until March 10.

Greatest snowfall for a season - The winter of 1966-1967 set the record for Chicago with a total of 68.4 inches. (The record was surpasses in 1969-1970, 1977-1978, and 1978-1979.)

Moe Wrote: Mary! What ever happened to your car? Did it end up getting towed?

I remember you called to say you were stuck/broken down.....did you run out of gas?

We all hopped into the car and took THREE hours to get to where the car was (from Ashland to just east of Kedzie east of the viaduct on 79th). You were gone of course by then so Michael and I ran up to an apartment building and knocked, we asked if you'd been there but you were not.

There was another apartment building across the street had a HUGE snow drift in front of it and we figured there was no way you could have gone in that place....but actually that is where you'd been but the drift formed after you left there! I think the people at the apartment let mom call your house and you were home by then so then we turned around and went home.

I know Robert was driving, Mommy was with us, me and Mike, but I don't remember if Geri was there too, were you Ger?

That day we had been let out of school early (I was in 6th grade), we had so much FUN!!

Shoveling tunnels and playing playing playing in the snow every day, all weekend.

It was so much FUN! That weekend Mrs Walsh told us that she'd make hot chocolate for us if we shoveled her sidewalk so me, Mike, and Eddy spent hours shoveling, then it turned out she had NO MILK....she had a plan didn't she?

So we went to the store for milk. We walked down the middle of 79th street...no cars in sight... to every store...High-Low, Shoplo, Crosstown, National....no milk, so then we walked down Ashland, right down the middle, no cars!! No buses!!

Finally at Kroger we found milk, went back to Eddy's and had hot cocoa. Yum.

I also remember Robert dove off the back porch, head first into the snow....he wouldn't let anyone else in the yard first, then we all dove. It was too much fun. As a kid the Blizzard of 1967 was a blast!

Geri Wrote: In 1967 I was a sophomore is High School. I happened to be off of school that Thursday . Maybe report card or something. I had stayed overnight at Mary's Wed night.( Mary would pick me up on the corner of 79th Paulina at a certain time..possibly 5pm from work , and that is how I would get to her house.) The reason I went to her house was because I had no boots. I had worked and saved my money to buy some boots. Mary was going to take me shopping at Korvettes, across the street from the apartment. We were going to go that Thursday night.

I sat all day watching the snow by myself. Mary had called me at 3pm to say she was leaving early because of the snow. She was doing great until she came to 79 and the viaduct. She called me and was trying to get a ride home or something. When she got home at 9:30pm..There was a faint knock at the door. I opened it and Mary was hysterical crying. She was covered in snow..and seemed like icicles. She went in the bathroom to change her clothes and get warm. Mary cried hysterical in the towel that was hanging in the bathroom. I just held her and cried too. We were so thankful that she got home safe. Mary thumbed a ride..Lol

She will have to tell you all about that! I never did get the boots then. The next day Mary was a wreck about their car, like someone towing stealing it etc. So we decided to walk there...all the way down Southwest Hwy..in the middle of the street..it was so weird. We had stopped at a friends house. She just make pizza with hamburger on it. It was the first time I had it..it was delicious. We were cold and hungry. Finally made it to her car and it was just fine along with hundreds of other cars! Glad I was there with Mary..but always wished I was home to see the excitement in the neighborhood!!!

Forgot to add that I wore Jimmy's boots..too big..all the way to her car and back..

1964

We went to a small Catholic school called Sacred Heart on the Southside of Chicago. So small that when I was in 3th grade and Michael was in 2nd grade we were in the same classroom together. The following school year was the first time we were going to have school photos taken, it was a very exciting day.

We didn't have to wear our uniforms to school that day so I wore a skirt, white blouse, and my favorite orange sweater. Michael and I were late for school as usual (our family was late for church every Sunday, my mother would march all of us kids up the center aisle to the our pew, the first pew in the front of the church).

Michael and I were running up our tree lined block, no other kids were around, 7 more blocks to run...we were really late...when suddenly a bird crapped right smack in the middle of Michael's freshly combed head!

He stopped and let out a yell!! I carefully surveyed the top of his head, I was taller so I had no problem seeing a really gross milky white gooey glob of bird crap. He began to wail really loudly. He wanted to go home to wash it out but we were late so I convinced him to hold still while I.............

spit in his hair and cleaned up the mess with my recently ironed white hanky. I can still remember standing there spitting and carefully wiping to it out of his hair while my heart was pounding knowing that the nuns were going to kill us for being late!

Here is a photo of (me) Maureen, age 9,

on that fateful day. Notice the orange sweater.

Oh! Notice my goofy bangs, the nun was just as nervous about photo day as we were. She had a comb in her hand so as we stood quietly in single file line she combed each kid's hair. My bangs were straight bangs, why she combed them to the side I'll never know, but of course I was scared to death to change what she had done so my bangs will live on in infamy, combed to the side.

Following is a photo of Michael but not from that same day, darn it, we can't find that picture!

He was 10 in the photo below.

This photo was taken at a different school after we moved in 1966.

Irish Twins

Irish Twins

Moe was born Feb 6, 1955. Mike was born Dec 20, 1955.

Mary was 9 that year, Rob was 7, and Geri was 4.

Our mother celebrated her 40th birthday that year,

and our father celebrated his 49th birthday that year.

Were they nuts.... or just Catholic!

Moe and Mike, 1959
Moe and Mike, Easter Approx 1958
Mike and Moe, Valentine's Day, Approx 1959

Mike and Moe, 2005

Fifty Years Old

March 1955

Rob, Mary, Geri, and baby Maureen

Piggy Bar

Mike Wrote: Who the h*ll is Peggy Bar?

Rob replied: THAT'S ME

Moe wrote: Yes Michael I remember..you were so adorable when you were little saying "Piggy Bar"..we have had fun with it.

Mary wrote: It is Piggy Bar

When Michael was mad at Robert, he would say, "you, you, PIGGY BAR". Michael couldn't say Robert.

So we started calling Robert Piggy Bar and when Robert Scott was born he was Piggy Bar ll

Moe wrote: BTW, that's my handwriting on the back of Robert's photo. It is an 'i' not an 'e' in Piggy.

Mary Wrote: and isn't Robert adorable!!!