There was a time when all ages of children were permitted to go into Buttonwood School during the late afternoon and evening. I don’t remember exactly why or for how long this took place. It seems to me that it was a community project to keep children busy, to have a bit of social activities, or to keep the children busy when surplus foods were distributed. Parents couldn’t afford to hire baby-sitters for certain appointments.
An adult was writing on the blackboard, and putting on the words to the popular song “Oh, You Beautiful Doll”. We were taught how to sing that song, and perhaps other songs, too. [I just listened to it on YouTube, and it is so pretty.] Since I was a little girl, I have often thought of that song then sang it.
Oh, you beautiful doll, you great big beautiful doll.
Let me put my arms about you, I don't want to live without you.
Oh,you beautiful doll, you great big beautiful doll.
If you ever leave me, how my heart would ache.
I want to hug you, but I fear you'd break.
Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, you beautiful doll......
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh, you beautiful doll.
There were also hand-outs of foods. I remember our having large cans of grapefruit juice, canned milk, and other surplus foods which were given to parents in the Buttonwood School. Perhaps the school was used as a central place to do this, and we children may have been kept busy while the surplus foods were distributed to the parents.
There was also a project in the community to make baby layettes for distribution to the needy parents. My mom had made a few sets of these baby clothes, and I insisted that she was making them for our new baby. I was told that these clothes were for other new babies, but I still insisted they were for OUR baby, although my mother was not expecting a baby…
It may have been when I was very young that I decided I wanted to be a mommy when I grew up. My mother told me that is all I wanted to be.
I remember seeing the 1936 floodwaters from our neighborhood on Buttonwood Street and farther up on higher land. We could see from this vantage point, the floodwaters on the other side of the river into Wilkes-Barre and Lynnwood.
The Victory Gardens were plots of land that people could use in the flats area near the Susquehanna River between Plymouth and South Wilkes-Barre. I remember going in the car with my Dad to do some garden work. Each family had a certain amount of land to grow vegetables. As we were driving to and from the garden plots, I would be singing. I remember one day that I sang “You Are My Sunshine” over and over, because I loved it so much. I still like it very much.
When we all went on little trips to visit my maternal grandparents or a few other relatives, my baby sister Regina would sing her little heart out as she stood up on the front seat between my Dad and my Mom. Dad would drive the car and Mom would make sure that little Regina wouldn’t fall over as the car stopped at stop signs. My brother Joe and I would be sitting in the back seat.
There was a lovely song that became so popular – it was “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” and little Regina would sing it to her heart’s content: Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, ... and that is all she knew of the song, so she sang the first part over and over and over and over until Mom or Dad would distract her to think of something else.
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, how you can love
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, heavens above!
You make my sad heart jump with joy
And when you’re near
I just can’t sit still a minute, I’m so
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny,
Please tell me, dear,
What makes me love you so
You’re not handsome, it‘s true,
But when I look at you
I just "oh", Johnny, oh, Johnny, oh...
You’re not handsome, it‘s true
But when I look at you
Oh, Johnny
Oh, Johnny
Oh, Johnny
Oh...!
Do you remember falling asleep in your parents’ car, because of the ‘lullaby’ of their voices in quiet conversation? We would want to stay awake to watch the road, or look at houses along the way, but it was almost always in the evening when it became dark, and we got tired, and slowly the ‘lullaby’ of the quiet conversation and the hum of the car motor would put us to sleep. It is so peaceful to go to sleep that way. Then at our destination, our Dad and Mom had to pick us up and take us into the house, to our beds. So, G’Night…
I’ll see you at the Corner Post…
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