We spoke on the phone between four and five today. I asked her a lot of questions starting with when she was born. This was what she told me.
Shirley was six years old when this picture was taken from Roby's Bar Mitzvah pictures.
She was born in 1931 at the Evangeline Booth Hospital in Boston. I asked her why she was born there and she said she didn't know. Ruthie was born in the N. E. Hospital for Women and Roby was born at home. After that, through high school graduation at the Jeremiah E. Burke high school she lived with Boby and Zaidy at 48 Harlem St. in Dorchester. Her comment about that time was "nobody talked to me".
After that for some reason, (eviction, rent increase ?) they moved to a room on Brunswick St., Boby, Zaidy and Shirley. Shortly after that they moved to the house next door to an attic apartment. She said it was a one bedroom with a small narrow living room. She was working as a clerk-typist at 1096 Boylston St. at a retail furniture store. Sometime in 1948-49. The best part of the job was the dress shop down the street where she bought some clothes, next door on Mass. Ave. Shirley had to sleep on the floor until Boby bought a sofa bed. There was an army cot but it was so uncomfortable she preferred the floor. She gave Boby $8.00/week "even though she didn't need the ****8 dollars but she took it anyway."
Moving along, Shirley became pregnant with me while living on Brunswick street, got married and moved in with my father Stanley Miller into his father's and step-mother's house. His step-mother was bed-ridden with Multiple Sclerosis. Shirley wanted her own apartment and they ended up living in a room in Mrs. Drutin's house, 55 Gooddale Road, Dorchester. They lived there for about a year and a
half. Enter Carol, stage right, September 17, 1950. (I will post more about how I happened to have this picture of Stanley Miller)
4 comments:
How interesting that your mother told you all that. I now have in my possession my father's WWII army dog tags, with the address "48 Harlem Street, Dorchester, Mass."
that's great ellen ! Please photograph them and email it to me;
i'll put them on the blog....i'm not really finished with everything she told me......so stay tuned :)
And in just a few weeks she will be 80! How neat to have these conversations and post the photos. Are you close enough to these addresses to go by and see the actual houses today?
hi molly ! wow, i can't blog fast enough to keep up with my audience LOL :) I will respond to your email today; As you can see, i have my hands full getting it all down right now ! :) It's wonderful to know you've been so interested in reading this blog. Thank you so much; i actually read your email to my mother yesterday ! She loved it.... Re. getting to the addresses today, I cant do that, but I am going to get a map of Dorchester and post that too.....and as soon as i can, I will take a ride over and see what I can find.....
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