Boy, the good old days of 1920. My mother Delvina Jalbert Guay made pea
soup.
She bought pig’s feet at the butcher shop and had him chop off the pig’s
toes because she did not want to see toes in the soup, and she always used peas
not split peas. Boy that was good! If she used the pig’s head, she’d have
the teeth knocked off because could not stand teeth in the soup.
If my mother baked a leg of lamb, she’d always cook a pig’s tenderloin
with it to give it taste and color. Boy, I’m getting hungry. We ended up
making ragout with the leftover, nothing went to waste. We would
buy live
chickens at Walker Market at the corner of Montaup and Slade Streets and take
them home and put them in the cellar on Friday night. On Saturday morning it was
my job to wash the stairs with a pail of hot water, soap and a stiff brush and
they came out white. Then I had to chop the chicken’s head off and let them
run until they drop and put them in hot water and pluck the feathers and used
tweezers to take off the pin feathers.
When that was done I had forty papers to deliver. "The Herald News"
and
thirty french papers "The Independent". Then we had supper and
listened to the radio with "Here’s Phoebe" to WCS Chicago at 8 to 9,
and then to bed because Sunday we’d all go to Saint Anne’s Church at 7 and
on the way home pick up the pot of beans I left at Welcome
Bakery at East Main
and Globe Streets for Sunday morning and a big loaf of brown bread with plenty
of raisins. We always ate good.
Christmas was the kid’s party but New Year’s was for
old folks.
We would leave my house at 1152 Slade Street and walk to my uncle Thomas on
Murray Street up North (next to Braga
Bridge today), and wish everybody a Happy
New Year! We got a nip of whiskey from everyone we met on the street. Then we
walked to my uncle Joseph in the Flint (Flint is the eastern business and
residence area of Fall River, MA) where there was my cousin Ernest Guay my
cousin, and sister Bina and Oscar my cousin who now lives in Tiverton, RI. We
also visited my uncle Joe Jalbert on Palmer Street and wife, my father’s
sister Albertine (Engilva) and daughters Ernestine and Aldea. Aldea was married
to Odillion Ouellette, and Ernestine to Desjardin. She now lives at Charlton
Memorial home.Odillion Ouellette had a daughter, Sister Therese
Ouellette on South Main Street in Fall River Mass. Her grandfather was Joseph
Jalbert, my mother’s brother. He ran a grocery market on Palmer street, across
the road from Wilbur Street, Berube’s Bakery now known as Gold Medal Bakery or
Skippy Bread.
Have fun!
Uncle Armel
(If you can read this you’re good for the job because at 81,
lucky I can still scribble).
pea
soup.
She bought pig’s feet at the butcher shop and had him chop off the pig’s
toes because she did not want to see toes in the soup, and she always used peas
not split peas. Boy that was good! If she used the pig’s head, she’d have
the teeth knocked off because could not stand teeth in the soup.
to give it taste and color. Boy, I’m getting hungry. We ended up
making ragout with the leftover, nothing went to waste. We would
buy live
chickens at Walker Market at the corner of Montaup and Slade Streets and take
them home and put them in the cellar on Friday night. On Saturday morning it was
my job to wash the stairs with a pail of hot water, soap and a stiff brush and
they came out white. Then I had to chop the chicken’s head off and let them
run until they drop and put them in hot water and pluck the feathers and used
tweezers to take off the pin feathers.
thirty french papers "The Independent". Then we had supper and
listened to the radio with "Here’s Phoebe" to WCS Chicago at 8 to 9,
and then to bed because Sunday we’d all go to Saint Anne’s Church at 7 and
on the way home pick up the pot of beans I left at Welcome
Bakery at East Main
and Globe Streets for Sunday morning and a big loaf of brown bread with plenty
of raisins. We always ate good.
Bridge today), and wish everybody a Happy
New Year! We got a nip of whiskey from everyone we met on the street. Then we
walked to my uncle Joseph in the Flint (Flint is the eastern business and
residence area of Fall River, MA) where there was my cousin Ernest Guay my
cousin, and sister Bina and Oscar my cousin who now lives in Tiverton, RI. We
also visited my uncle Joe Jalbert on Palmer Street and wife, my father’s
sister Albertine (Engilva) and daughters Ernestine and Aldea. Aldea was married
to Odillion Ouellette, and Ernestine to Desjardin. She now lives at Charlton
Memorial home. Odillion Ouellette had a daughter, Sister Therese
Ouellette on South Main Street in Fall River Mass. Her grandfather was Joseph
Jalbert, my mother’s brother. He ran a grocery market on Palmer street, across
the road from Wilbur Street, Berube’s Bakery now known as Gold Medal Bakery or
Skippy Bread.