Josephine Ellisa Acevedo

Being the youngest child I was very fortunate. I was seven years younger than my older brother Pete. I was the baby of the family. The boys (as they grew up) were looking to each other for fun and didn't need a little snot nosed kid hanging around. I felt bad then but I understand now. I ended up being Mom baby. As a grew up I would be the one to escort Mom and Zizi Louisa to the opera. I can't count the times I went with they to the Academy of Music in Brooklyn for an opera. I can't thank my Mom for introducing me to opera. I believe it was the foundation for my love of almost all kinds of music. I was also able to escort Mom to Italy. One of the great experiences of my life. I spent three months with the Italian family. We traveled a month with my uncle Carlo (Lu Professore)( "the Professor of college") and found him to be an absolutely fabulous person. We travelled to Naples and then did a northern trip starting at Rome and then going town by town to see points of interest. Our last stop was at Florence because Mom couldn't walk any more. Her feet had swollen to twice there size and she couldn't wear shoes, The doctors said the tremendous amount of walking and all the rich food was too much. So we headed back to Trivio. That's where I spent a lot of time with my Grandfather.

When we moved to the projects I would help Mom with her (illegal) home work to make extra money. I can't tell you how proud I was when Mom got me my own pair of scissors so that I would be able to help her. The job was to trim the silk from embrodered womans night gowns and slips and bras. (No Jokes Please). I remember that Mom was the disciplinarian. I would rather she smack me around than do what she did. I was pretty good and the bad thing that I did was that I wouldn't hear her when she called me from the window. Mind you we lived on the sixth floor of the projects in a building that had two enterances and we were allowed to play in the front of the houses and across the street between my school (PS67) and the hospital. Mom would call with a whistle whee whee wheeoo. Not loud but I must admit I would hear it. It was the days that I didn't come running that I suffered. Mom was a knitter and when I would get upstairs she would be knitting and waiting for me. Now the pain begins. She would turn the chair around and I would stand in front of her. She would only talk when she finished a row. She would ask me what happened. I would give an answer. There was small talk about my being late between rows. Then she would have me get Dads strap. I would stand in front of her with the strap and after she finished a row would tell me to "Adora" "Smell" the strap. I would have to do this for 3 or 4 rows. Then she would ask me if I liked the smell of the strap. Next row I would say no Next row she would say I must because I keep not hearing her when she calls. Smell again. This process may have taken 15 to 20 minutes. Then when she was at a good point in the knitting she would hand it to me and I would put the knitting on the table. Then I had to hand her the strap. That's when she placed an amount on what she was going to do. I could get one or two slaps on the open palm. If I pulled away it would be doubled. I never pulled away. When she finished, she would hand me the strap and I had to get her knitting and hand it back to her. I would wait until she told me to put the strap away. I would come back and she would have a few words on listening to her. The entire ordeal was painful (Not the strap). On a good day it would take 20 to 25 minutes at best. The standing there was a killer.

Mom was a saver of money. Note after she passed while we were looking through her box of letters we found cards she receiced when the boys were babies with bonuses that she had gotten from work. She had cards from the dime savings bank that she would fill with saved coins. I follow in her footsteps.

When Mom & Dad bought the house at 1160 Rogers Ave. Mom wanted a washing machine. ( I remenber this well) (She was very smart) Mom & Dad were talking at the table and she told Dad how hard it was to take the clothes to the laundry mart and that they would never come clean plus you washed your clothes after who knows who had there clothes in the machines plus you had to pay a dime to do that (Dad was a clean freak so this hit his HOT button) (He was caught -Hook-Line & Sinker) He said that if she could save the money she could buy one. Dad when inside to read the paper and Mom brought in a bunch of jars with change. She had the newspaper and knew how much a good Bendix Washing machine cost. Put a towel on the kitchen table and we began to stack and count the change. We stopped counting when we had enough, with installation. The next day we went out in the afternoon and bought the Washing machine. It wasn't easy because it had to be installed in the basement and some plumbing had to be done but no problem because we had the miracle man (Tio Floyd) and a call to him and it was done. The Bendix was so powerful that it was bolted to an 8inch platform. When it went into spin dry It sounded like it would take off. By the way No Dryer so we hung line in the basement between the lolley columns.

When the basement was finished Mom found the money to buy an RCA Victor Black & White TV. It was in the Basement (DEN) and we always had a Den full of friends. With the stove there it was easy to make Popcorn. My snack was a large bowl of corn flakes or one of the other cereals with three spoons of sugar and half a box of vanilla cookies or oreos soaked with a half qt. of milk. Wow that was great. Although there wasn't a refridarator downstairs Mom had the ingedients ready for me.