My Memoirs: 1880-2006

By Anna Mae Clarke-Sullivan

People, in the new dawn of life a flower bud, small and energetic. We grow into a beautiful blossom, give joy to the world, and when we have done so, gradually fade away into our own time.

Sometimes we are remembered with gladness and hapiness, recalling a momentous occasion, sometimes we are remembered with sadness and melancholy. Always, there is a purpose in everything. Destiny shapes all the elements.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483601243

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Copyright © 2013 by Anna Mae Clarke-Sullivan. 126616-FOST

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4836-0123-6

Ebook 978-1-4836-0124-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/10/2013

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CONTENTS

1880

1890

1900

1917

1923

1930

1932

1937

1938

1939

1939

1940

1942

1943

1945

1947

1950

1951

1952

1954

1955

1956

1958

1962

1963

1969

1970

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1984

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1998

1999

2000

2004

2005

2006

It is the year of the Lord, 2006. Here I am in the golden years of my life with only memories to console me. I have loved and lost, laughed and cried, achieved much happiness and experienced despair. It is a typical circle of basic needs and highest delights.

I hereby dedicate this book to my beloved grandmother, Annie and my Aunt Kate, without whom none of the events in the early chapters would have a chance to exist. Due to their fortitude, strong character and loving guidance generations have come into being.

People, in the new dawn of life, begin like a flower bud, small and energetic. We grow into a beautiful blossom, give joy to the world, and when we have done so, gradually fade away into our own time.

Sometimes we are remembered with gladness and happiness, recalling a momentous occasion, sometimes we are remembered with sadness and melancholy. Always, there is a purpose in everything. Destiny shapes all the elements.

Read on dear readers and enjoy.

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Anna Mae Clarke-Sullivan

January 28, 1923

November 16, 2006

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The sounds of children laughing and playing are always a happy sound. Seven children playing tag, ring around the rosy, chasing one another, filled the bright sunny afternoon. Chickens scurried away from dancing feet, pecking for corn or worms. Grandpa and Grandma McNabolia rocked in their chairs of the Scolin homestead occasionally calling out to a highly excitable child, or soothing the feelings of a hurt one, or kissing a bruised knee away. It was a lovely household with all the usual frolicking and mishaps.

Mama Scolin was busy as usual in the kitchen preparing the huge evening meal; she glanced out the window at her lovely brood of youngsters while she sang an Irish ditty and made pies. Grandma was busy peeling the potatoes while Grandpa worried over mending a pair of shoes, cutting the leather for the sole, and then gluing it to the bottom. Everyone had his or her job to do to keep the farm productive. From the youngest to the oldest, each had his daily chore.

The lush green meadows and rolling hills bounded away as far as the eye could see. This was Ireland, the land of green, mossy, rolling countryside. Sheep grazed while the cows rolled their big beautiful eyes and swished their tales, and busy bees tasted the honey of the wild flowers in the fields.

A pretty young lassie by the name of Catherine Scolin sat outside her farm door, leaned against a tree and wondered how life would be on the other side of the hills. The sky was blue with white clouds here and there, the day was warm, and a mist overhung the nearby valley. She would often skip along the pebbles, enjoying the free spirit that was her heritage.

She eventually sailed to America to seek her fortune after selling her pet pig at the fair which she had fattened up all winter for market. She had made the long voyage alone, leaving behind her five sisters, two brothers and her parents on the potato farm along the River Shannon. Her grandparents, the McNabolia’s, also lived there. Kate had a gleam in her pretty big blue eyes as she looked to the land yonder to make a better life for herself. The priest who met her at the boat helped her to find employment with a German family as a cook. Here, Katie learned how to make many new dishes German style. She saved enough money to send for her sister Anna, and subsequently, her sister, Bridget. Annie met her future husband, Lawrence Berry at a Wexford Ball. He had graduated from the Wexford University, Wexford, Ireland, as a civil engineer, working in the United States Trust Company, Wall Street, Manhattan, New York. They led the Ball at a large Irish function decked out in all their finery. Annie loved red and that was the color she wore when they were married. They had eight children, five boys and three girls, raising six. Their names were Katherine, Nicholas, Joseph, Mary (Nanie), Francis, Anna, Thomas, and John Joseph. Later, John and Thomas passed away before they were grown.

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Annie Scolin

Bridget became ill and Kate took her home to Ireland, then she returned to America. Bridget died soon after. Kate’s family was unhappy with her blaming her for taking Bridget away from home and becoming ill in the new country. Kate married Patrick Murphy who she had met on the boat. They had one still-born. son, Patrick. It was very sad for Kate when she had no more children, especially as Annie was busy raising her brood.

Annie was very frugal. She and her husband were able to buy a little two-story wooden frame house in Brooklyn between 4th and 5th Avenues on 39th Street. Kathleen, Nicholas, Joseph, and Mary were born here. Kate and Pat lived in a two story house between 3rd and 4th Avenue on 39th Street so the two sisters settled very close to one another. Little white picket fences enclosed their little front green patch. The trolley car which used to run on 39th Street outside their front yards would shake the whole house when it rattled by. The trolley would run from the ferry at the foot of the street up to Church Ave alongside Evergreen Cemetery, located on 36th Street and 5th Ave. The ferry landing was off the Hudson River and would take travelers to the foot of Manhattan in one direction and Staten Island in the other direction.

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Lawrence Berry

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Four of the eight children were born to Annie and Lawrence on 39th street. When they outgrew this house, they bought another one, a brown stone three-story home with a black wrought iron fence and gate in front. A beautiful hydrangea bush was later planted in the center of the front yard. The back yard was a rolling lawn and had rambling climbing roses in front of the kitchen window. This new home was four blocks away at 418-43rd Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues just down from Sunset Park located on Fifth Avenue, not too far away from Kate. Steep steps built on a hill at the entrance to the park made quite an impressive facade. Annie, with little May holding her hand, walked to their new home. The neighbors admired this young spunky black-haired beauty walking up the street to their house towing four youngsters, pregnant with a 5th child and was young herself. Frank was the first to be born in the new house followed by Anna, Thomas and then John Joseph. Annie wouldn’t name any of her children after Lawrence because she didn’t want him to be called Larry. Mary (Nanie) was born in Oct. of 1894.

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Frank, Thomas, and John Berry

The children loved their new house and grew up in it lively and healthy. This happy home was filled with their joyous shrieks, childhood battles and harbored their sadness too. Katie had been dropped as a baby therefore lived to only twenty years of age. She never was very tall and was very jealous of Mary when she grew taller that her. Anna, a pretty little blonde lived to 15 months and Joseph to 3 ½ years. The children all attended the St. Michael’s School on the corner of 43rd Street and Fourth Avenue. Mary in later years was the last one of the family to graduate from the old school, asking people to buy a brick (10 cents) for the new school to be built. The new school would one day house Mary’s little girl, Anna Mae.

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Mary Berry Clark (Nanie)

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Nick (Nanie’s brother) became a policeman, marrying late to a divorced woman, Marie Wilson, who had one daughter, Margie by a previous marriage. Marie wasn’t liked very much by the family. She was a neat, stout woman. Nick didn’t marry her until after his mother died as she was a strict devout Catholic and she wouldn’t have tolerated her son marrying a divorcee. In those days children abided by their parent’s wishes. Nick lived with Marie away from home. They eventually bought a house in Seaford; Long Island, N.Y. with the money from Annie’s estate after it was sold.

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Nick Berry

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Nick, Marie and Margie

Mary was a spirited child. When she went to the store with a nickel, she would reach down into the bottom of the open pickle barrel for the biggest one she could find. She just loved pickles! She must of smelled good…. Mary would buy a new hat every week when she started working. Papa didn’t want her to work, saying, Stay home and help your mother, but Mary wanted to be able to get out of the house for a while. She’d reply, But Papa, there isn’t that much for me to do!

With all the family grown, there wasn’t that much for her to do. At work Mary folded handkerchiefs, it was easy and she enjoyed it. She also worked as a stock clerk at Abraham & Straus, a large department store downtown Brooklyn. Her salary was $2.00 a week and it was considered quite a sum.

One night, Papa didn’t want Mary to go out. She had her new hat on, one of which she bought every week, and she didn’t want to stay at home. She hopped the fence in the backyard and when Papa wasn’t looking, she slipped out the neighbor’s front yard and bounded up the street on. She felt that she was working all week and was entitled to go out. It must have been the new hat that made her do it!

Mary had been engaged to Peter Duffy and his brother John was engaged to Mary’s best friend Maizie. She went to a dance one night with a ticket her brother Tom had given her and she met a nice young handsome dashing blonde named Henry Clark. Pete had become rather bossy after five years keeping company and Mary liked Harry better. Pete would also play cards with her brothers and that always left her out. She wasn’t very happy. Maizie married her fiancé and Mary was her maid of honor. They had three sons John, Joseph and William. Maizie was saddened at the loss of her husband who was in an automobile accident and she never re-married.

As a young lady, Mary went by May Berry. It sounded nicer than Mary Berry. So from now on in this book Mary will be called May. She loved hats and she bought a new one every week! Whenever May had a date and they would bring her a two pound box of candy, her brothers would devour all of it but one piece which they left for her so she wouldn’t be mad. Frankie was the one who ran errands for Kate for white money. He wouldn’t take copper pennies as the other children accepted. Frankie was Aunt Kate’s pet. She wanted to adopt him from Annie claiming she had so many other children that she could give her one, but Annie wouldn’t part with any of her tender brood. In fact, it was Frankie who remained at home, never marrying, taking care of his mother, tending to the furnace, going to the stores, etc. He was the only offspring Annie had to take out of the parochial school and send to public school as he raised so much cane at St. Michaels, which was on the corner of 43rd Street and Fourth Avenue. He quit school in 4th grade and got a job. His full name was Francis George and if you called him George you were aching for bruises. May loved to tease him and would hold her aching arms after Frankie would pound on them.

One day when the horse and wagon came to Annie’s door selling ice, the boys, Frank and Joe being as mischievous as they were, climbed all over the wagon. The horse got excited and started to run away, dragging Frankie over the cobble stoned street. Except for a few bruises, he was none the worst for the experience. They were 15 months apart and very close.

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England was at war with Germany. The United States joined the conflict. Then Frank served in the U.S. Navy during World War I and served on the U .S. S. Mt. Vernon. During the war’s maneuvers, the ship was torpedoed and limped all the way back to France on its side. Frank had just finished his eight hour duty as a fireman and had to go down in the hole again at gunpoint for another duty as the first group was all killed.

Frankie had met a French girl while stationed in France and wanted to bring her home but Annie objected violently. The family later thought it would’ve been better if he had married his little French sweetheart, for in later years, he would be very much alone.

Tom and John Joseph (known as Joey) went on to graduate from St. John’s College in Brooklyn in 1917. Tom only lived to 34 from drinking too much. John Joseph died of Cancer at 27. If you asked Joey what he was going to be, he would say A Hobo.

May and Harry were married on a Sunday afternoon at St. Michael’s Church on May 5th, 1917. May wore a beautiful tucked overlay white lace wedding dress and large picture hat with a bouquet of carnations. Alice Campbell, her maid of honor, wore a lovely white lace dress with a pink sash and a large hat. Tommy was the best man. May’s mother, Annie, didn’t like Harry too well, mainly because his family wasn’t Catholic, but he had converted to marry May.

World War I was going on with Germany and anyone getting married during this time was called a slacker to get out of going into the service. May and Harry were young and wanted to get married so that didn’t deter them. As it turned out they were only married four months when Harry went into the U.S. Army and went away for training. He never had to go overseas as the war didn’t last that long.

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Henry Clark and May Berry Wedding 1917

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Harry Clark - Left May Berry Clark - Center Right

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For the next five years, May and Harry lived in Annie’s first home on 39th street. May had a little girl named Anna after her mother, and Mae after herself was born on a Sunday morning January 28 at 6:00 a.m. at home by lamplight and delivered by Dr. Smith. Joey had been by Mom’s side all night, finally trudging through the snow four blocks to Annie’s to tell her she had a new granddaughter. Annie bundled up against the cold and prevailing winds coming off the Hudson River three blocks away and held on to Joey’s arm tightly while they hurried back to 39th Street. Electricity had been invented by this time by Thomas Edison, but the little house wasn’t wired until later by Nick.

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Anna Mae 1923 8 months

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Anna Mae Clarke

I entered this world with a shock of black dark hair and blue eyes. Being that both Mom and Harry were blonde, everyone wondered how come the baby had such dark hair. Grandma Sibley, Harry’s mother, then said that all her children were born dark haired and then turned blonde. I was born in the same house, same room as my mother, back in the little house where Annie first lived when she married. Harry’s sisters, Edna and Florence, wanted the baby called Edna or Florence like they had named their girls, but Mom said, No, I’m naming the baby after my mother and myself. Annie was now called Nana by me and she was also the godmother and Joey was the godfather at my christening at St. Michaels’s on February 18th.

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Florence Ward, Anna Mae and Edna

Edna and Florrie were feuding. Edna a proud and regal lady took Florrie to court for custody of the girls as Edna felt Florrie wasn’t bring them up properly as she was drinking too much. Edna couldn’t prove anything so she lost the case.

Dr. Smith had told mom that she was not built for having babies and wouldn’t have any more and she didn’t. She had to be packed down with cotton to conceive and had a tipped uterus which tilted back again after she delivered. Mom and dad rented the house from mom’s parents. I would watch on tippy toes over the window sill at the trolley cars running up and down the street as they went by the house. I was fascinated by the pretty lights. The house was still lighted by kerosene lamps.

Years later when the house was sold, the whole corner was bought up by a man who built a huge restaurant on the property named after him, Feltman’s. It was eventually torn down. An inside balcony hung over the dining area held enough space for a live band to play while the diners relaxed in the lovely atmosphere. We always figured that the band was suspended just about in the area where the bedroom was that my mom and I were born. No wonder… music followed both of us all our lives.

Nana had a beautiful ornate carved upright mahogany piano that Mom used to play, and later me. Mom also played for all the parties. Nana used to send Nick at 10:00 pm to bring her home and of course no one wanted her to leave