"I don't remember anything from the 1920's" said my 96 1/2 year old mother as I sat and asked her about her very early years of life. Born on February 22, 1921, Evelyn was quite young during the 20's but she did start to recall her school days as I spoke with her on the balcony of the lovely assistant living facility where she has lived the past year and a half. Here we will begin sharing her life stories and take a look at her early school years and cover right through high school.
"We all walked together", she said about her elementary school day memories of walking to Kenyon Street School in Providence, RI. "And it was far", she pointed out. When I asked her about rides or buggy's she said, "What buggy? We all walked everywhere. You should have seen us walking... Today they are shooting...!" Oh dear! She jumped from nice thoughts of walking with schoolmates to thinking about recent news of shootings.
Back to the simple life, apparently my grandfather, Giovanni (John) Marzilli, owned a Model-T Ford. "I think it was a 1914 model", she said. Kept in a garage, taken out occasionally for special trips and at times they drove to the beach, but no rides to school! Too cute!
My mother also went to Grove Street Elementary School in Providence but doesn't remember why she went to two different schools. Maybe they had to transfer some students with so many people migrating into Federal Hill. What she does remember is walking to the store with fellow students and buying some ingredients for pancakes they were making in school. Sounds awfully cute to send the kids to walk to the local store but so different from today! Can't imagine students being sent out to a local store on a walk today and having the kids just pick out food ingredients with no allergy and sanitary concerns. Changes for the better today with safety concerns but life sure did seem very simple then.
Brigham Junior High, her next school, brings us to mid to late 1930's. From memories of pancakes, now to the showers taken in gym class and the gym suit she had to wear..... "The skinny gym teacher made sure we got in the shower and got our suit on" she continues "she died young. We were all happy. She was so strict". My mom does not remember the teacher's name, and I wouldn't have written it anyway! ;)
I do have some memories of my own gym experience in middle school too (ugh). So I can relate to my mom with this one! But I suppose they had their job cut out for them, of keeping a big group of girls in line!
On to high school, Ev (some of us in the family refer to her as Ev) attended Central High in Providence. The only sibling out of the five children that graduated high school, Ev recalls her three sisters, Theresa, Helen, and Angela going to school through about age 14. "Theresa and Helen, (being) the oldest sisters.....went right downtown to work at California Artificial. They had to help out my mother and father with money as soon as they could", she said.
When I asked her about her brother Anthony and she said, "He stopped right away"!! He went to Brigham Junior High and after one year in high school, he joined the working force. I think Ev remembers the importance of her brother working, more than exactly when!
Anthony began working with a plumbing company and the rest is history. He opened his own company when he was a bit older. Sounds like they all knew he was a good fit for manual labor and also, someone may have spotted his business charm and led him in that direction. But at first, the opportunity for her brother to help with the finances looked like the plan for him as well.
Evelyn, being the youngest girl in the family, managed to squeeze in completing high school, however, she did work right after she graduated in 1940. This brings us to the next section of early working years for her and her sisters, further working life for Ev, and her brother, well, he continued with his own, very successful business. I will also mention that my grandparents, John and Raffaela Marzilli, owned a six tenement house making them homeowners and landlords. John also owned his own barbershop. I may be biased, but pretty successful for Italian immigrants and their children who also lived through the depression years in America.
Stay tuned for Part 2: The working life, somebody's gotta do it!