1984
🏫 Our Lady of Sacred Heart (OLSH) – Springfield, MA
I was excited to start going to school at olsh because I knew my grandfather worked there and my cousins went there as well michael and Stephen and Jeremy. My sister Katherine was born in September I remember getting Optimus Prime that year at Toys R Us and my brother got shockwave. I got sent to the office a lot in first grade, for talking back too much, because I couldn't sit still. The priest would yank me by my ears, shoved me, pull me by my arms, they'd grab my neck and yank me around and I was thrown down those granite steps in the front a couple of times. The priest would push me up against the wall with their fists digging their knuckles into my chest telling me that I needed to sit still and stop talking. first grade teacher sister Miriam
Well I remember my dad used to force me to eat peas and I hated them and I would almost throw up. Like that at all now I think it was because they were canned and had a funny taste. It was around this time I remember we got an Atari started playing video games and we had our family picnics and trips to New York to Fern Lake and maybe even Batavia to see my grandfather
Optimus Prime first toy remember playing with after Kathy was born
First Grade (circa 1984–85)
You started first grade at Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Springfield, MA, at the old school building all part 2 no pics.
Your first-grade teacher was Sister Mariam all part 2 no pics.
Memories and Incidents
You described yourself as a hyper, curious kid, always asking questions, talking, and having trouble sitting still all part 2 no pics.
You got in a lot of trouble that year, especially for:
Melting crayons on the big metal steam radiators
Doodling all over your homework
Pulling a chair out from under another kid, who fell on the floor (which you acknowledged wasn’t great, but definitely stuck with you)
And the pictures above where my grandpa Landers, My brother and sister and I and in a lower picture by great grandparents, the Johnson’s, That was grandpa Landers’s mother and the stepfather.
All I have is positive memories of the visits with my mother’s father and grandparents, Though from what I’ve been able to get out of my mother, her grandmother, my great grandmother was not a very pleasant woman, and neither was her father/my grandmother grandfather.
I remember playing in the parking lot next-door to their house in Buffalo, New York and going to Niagara Falls and being super excited. But if you look at the pictures, my grandfather looks like a crabby ass, whiny baby and all of them. I remember after my daughter was born, calling him and being all excited and wanting to visit him he wanted nothing to do with family. I’m pretty sure that those last time I talked to him as well.
This is the same year that we got that PUCH Moped that was made October 1978, I thought that was the greatest thing as a child and we kept that until I think 2019 or 2020, when my dad nagged me about it while we were living in Warren and I allowed someone to take it.
The diary came home with us when I cleared out my grandfather’s house after he had passed away and I didn’t read it until 2025,
This diary is pretty short, and sloppy so I thought I should read the text because AI will never be able to use OCR on it. It starts with:
Name, Harold Wolf Johnson
Residence 80 Main St.
Phone don’t believe in em
Business address same as #3
My weight is 111 pounds- height 5 feet inches
color of hair, white hair, eyes, baby blue
In case of emergency, please notify: Wolves and nearest undertaker.
Lodges or clubs- Definitely moose also wolves
Auto license: Blank
Car number: Blankety Motor number: Blank
Valuable papers are at: Dudies Grill
(There’s some chicken scratch here that I’m gonna have to try to translate)
January 1: Oh what the hell, Jen and I went out riding again and left Marion home
January 4: Went down to see Midge in Rochester today. Boy she is nice..
January 5: Marion is getting wise about Rochester and I can’t keep this Sydney trouble up forever. I think I will have to start exercising horses again.
January 8: Marion thinks I am all through with BS(Sinclair) Ha ha, what she don’t know won’t hurt her.
January 10: These 6 AM Sunday morning ride sure are cold these days. Guess I will have to change horses.
January 12: The doctors told me I won’t last much longer. Oh well, I’ll play all three of my women.
January 14: Looked up the word “ unik” Today sure sounds bad.
January 15: Riding with these women share keeps a fellow cutting hair.
January 16: If I Bought a wooden horse, Marion wood like me better.
January 17: Last Sunday morning, Marion kept yelling, horses, horses horses. I think I will have another fight.
January 19: I think I’ll go after store next Sunday( I’ll have to reread this)
January 20: I wonder who that, babe is that thinks I’m so nice and keeps calling me up but it B.S.?
January 22: Ask Marion, How she like something on a Sunday morning, of course you were in bed at that time OK?
January 23: Went out to the Eagles and got a pick up, not bad
*****
That was the final entry in my step great-grandfather’s diary. There are zero ways to dig deeper into this person and this diary doesn’t tell you anything about him, it feels weird talking about someone and knowing they existed, but not being able to explain anything about them. I should have a family history album or some sort of record to share all of this information with the world, but for some reason, we don’t have it.
No comments:
Post a Comment