When Chris was a babe in arms, we moved to 607 [Mansell Drive]. Here is my recollection of the distribution at that time.

Barbara and Dave Roberts lived at 135 New York Avenue, in a house I remember for its back stoop. I can remember Aunt Barbara sitting on that back stoop shelling peas. I must have been seven or eight years old. The front porch had a pole in the middle of it. I suppose it might have been a support for an awning, but I cannot be sure. I remember two of their neighbors, the Ash family and the Judge family.

Dorothy and Bob Schell lived at 81 Saranac, They were right down the street from the Elm Beverage Shop, on Elm Street near Saranac. Grandpa used to go there, and the proprietor was named Jack Daley. Jack had a container of pretzels on the counter, and whenever I went in there with grandpa, Jack gave me two pretzel rods. I believe Jack was killed in a robbery. [Ed Note: Jack Daley owner of Elm Beverage, was lucky enough to die a natural death.] One year someone in the Schell family got a small peep at Easter time. Now they are mostly dead or given away in a week or two, but not this one. By the end of the summer it was huge. I don’t recall what happened to it. Across the street from the Schells lived Sally Lowry, who was in my class every year at St. Ed’s, it seems. We were not related but she ended up working a couple summers at the custard shop.

Ruth and Joe Callahan lived on Madison, between Bryson (Ursuline) and Elm Street (fire station, which was the main fire station until they built the one downtown in (I vaguely recall) the early 1960’s. Uncle Joe worked on the railroad. After Ruthie and Joe (two children, each one named after a parent) moved out, Ruth and Joe moved to Elm Street, between Tod Lane and Benita.

Virginia and Johnny Naples lived on Florencedale, I think not far off Thornton, toward the north. They then moved to Fifth Avenue, two houses (when they moved, but soon three houses) north of Mansell Drive. They had a dog named Mickey, and the Eidelmans, who lived next door toward Mansell, had a dog named Prince, and Mickey and Prince fought occasionally but not always. Sylvan Eidelman, Jackie and Jimmy Naples and I used to sit around and discuss the Untouchables, with Robert Stack as Eliot Ness. It was on at 10:00 on Wednesday nights and took some maneuvering to watch because it was late on a school night. We were eventually joined by Jeff and Jay Martin whose family moved into the house next to Eidelmans, next to the corner of Mansell Drive. Jimmy Naples was a year older than I was. Jeff Martin was his age and Jay was a year younger than I was, the year between Pat and me. On the northwest corner of Mansell and Fifth lived the Gross family. Each year they walked to the synagogue on Yom Kippur.

The Sullivans, of course, lived in Cleveland. I do not recall where, except that it was Christ the King parish. For decades, whenever I saw anyone wear a Calvin Klein cap, I wondered if they were from the Sullivans’ parish. When we would go to baseball games in Cleveland (it was rare; because of Daddy Groc and Uncle Dickie, Pittsburgh was a more frequent destination for baseball), I always begged to be able to stay for a couple days at the Sullivan house. The answer was usually no, but it occasionally became yes once I was old enough to have Uncle Bob put me on the train from Cleveland to Youngstown in a form of captivity known as “conductor’s care.”

Uncle Dick got out of the army and went back to live with Mother and Daddy Groc on Elm Street, just south of Bissell Avenue, near the park. Daddy Groc used to love to walk in Wick Park, every day, and always in a white shirt and tie, even after he retired. After Louise stole Dick’s heart, Mother and Daddy Groc moved to Cordova, just across from Harding and Rayen. Mother Groc hated to stay alone, so after Daddy Groc died (April 1967) the families took a week at a time sending someone to stay. There was a roll-away cot in the living room. You would just be getting off to sleep when you would be doused with a splash of holy water–Mother Groc blessing the four corners of the room.

Source:
Charles Lowry, Brooklyn, New York, [e-mail for private use], to Lowry Family e-mail, 27 Nov 2014, “My Forgetful Self: A Geography of the North Side,” Local Folders: Genealogy : Bloggable!; privately held by Joe Lowry, [e-mail &address for private use], Sterling, VA, 20165.