Living on Kathleen began a new chapter in our lives. On St. Louis people were moving and old friends were taking on new friends, new boyhood dreams, and fun began to develop which caused us to move on to new friends and experience, too.
This was the living room during Christmas at 1708 Kathleen. Even then, I would become so excited on Christmas Eve, I could never sleep. It was probably late in my teens before I had a restful night at Christmas. As I have mentioned before about the television sets, you can see the rounded tube.
As things changed in West Tampa, partly due to the building of Interstate 4, so did the population of the area. Many people were upset due to the fact that the interstate was considered a huge dividing line to the city. Due to it running down the middle of the area, many people were displaced. As people were forced out of their homes, many would settle in other areas nearby. Our neighborhood was changing and our parents thought it was the time to move even though we all loved the home where we had grown up. I believe for the first time in my life, I was experiencing what progress was all about. At the time I felt it was good, but now realize there will be different views about progress (some good some bad), there will always be a change in the environment, and with people and cultures. Our home on St. Louis was considered modern and served us well, but due to the changing community a decision was made and it was placed on the market. Our Mom had many connections from working in her store and was able to sell the house herself. The people that purchased the home were able to afford it because of her skills of offering to carry the mortgage for a time. Once they established credit, she sold the mortgage to a bank in order to assure total payment of the house.
Our parents held the mortgage for some time and then realized it would be better to get out from it and ended up selling the mortgage to the bank because she knew someone at Columbia Bank in Ybor City. Since he was a customer, at the store he helped her to sell the mortgage to them.
In the meantime, Mom still wanted to be close to the store on Columbus Drive, as she did not drive and never really had a desire to learn; even though Dad tried to teach her.
The opportunity came up to purchase the home on 1708 Kathleen Street, which was a small wood house, with a painted brick front with three small bedrooms. Although the house was smaller than the one that was sold, we were able to fit and live there and never had a problem even sharing one bathroom. Our house on St. Louis (even though larger), had one bath like our grandparents’ home. In fact, anything beyond one bath was rare or unheard of during that time. No matter if there were five or more in a family, I don’t think I ever heard anyone complain about the use of the bathroom. The house on Kathleen had a detached one car garage, so the washer and dryer were placed in there. This was typical of the time as washers and dryers were newer appliances and were not considered to be part of many of the homes. Most when purchased were placed in an outside area, including garages or places where there were overhangs; so they could be used from out of the weather.
Like our first house, there was no air condition, but we had an attic fan. The house was not very well insulated; so there were plenty of cold winter days and hot summer nights. Eventually dual function air condition units with heat were placed in our home and we were comfortable. One was placed in the dining room and one in Dad’s bedroom. They seemed to cool down the house although; it was not insulated.
Ray and I shared a room and Bobby shared the bedroom with our Mom for a while (our father slept in another room).
Cora, who was still our maid, continued working for us and this is the house where Bobby and perhaps Ray (I believe more Bobby) would lock Cora in the bedroom closet in our Mom’s bedroom where she would ask him to please let her out. She was so meek and never really complained. Her voice was soft and I can still hear her in my mind asking them to, “Let me out.” She never complained and rarely spoke, but we could feel her comfort with us, as she stayed with us for many years. She eventually became older and was no longer able to continue; so many times I look back and wonder if she ever realized how much she was appreciated.
There was a large back yard and several shade trees which made it a nice place to relax and play. I really enjoyed our new neighborhood, since I gained the friendship of many new friends, such as Tommy Watson, Michael Chamoun, Barry Knipple, Glenn Sudbury, Richard Terri, John Gallo, and Anthony Scaglione. These became the new friends for my teenage years and many fine memories still exist today, with all that we did from the time we got together.
We all got along very well and used some of our time to skateboard, build wagons to race with, take them to the park in back of where Bobby lives, and spend days by the river exploring and sharing stories.
The Park appears very much as it did when we were kids. Bobby now lives a block away from the park and walks his dogs there frequently. (You can see Bobby in the right picture).
We would spend time swimming in the river, climbing trees, visiting each other’s houses during the week and of course going downtown on Saturdays to the movies at Tampa Theater, or The Palace Theater. Also, we attended Scout meetings for a while. While at the theaters, we would become very feisty and throw things down from the balconies. One of the times while working at the store, one of the customers who lived behind the store told our mother of the inconsiderate kids in the balcony, who threw things down. It was the first time I realized that we needed to be more considerate. We were very loud on the bus when we would return and one of the times people applauded when we were getting off. We had an allowance that was supposed to be used to purchase something to eat and keep enough to ride the bus back home. One day, we spent all of our money purchasing candy while watching the movie at the Park Theatre. We did not budget well that time and ended up walking home. It was nighttime before we returned and of course during those times there were no cell phones to call home to let our parents know where we were. I ended up in trouble and always from then on had to be back on time. I don’t think we ever walked back again, at least not at night. We enjoyed the walk back, at that time and age as we felt like it was an adventure (just like you might see on a television show). We did not realize danger at that age, and of course, we did not think our parents would be worried about us. The movies were fun, but the experience of traveling downtown and watching a show together as kids was even more exciting!
We were very resourceful as kids who were now in our teen years and were able to make toys such as skateboards from old iron skates and a 2×4 piece of wood. Then we would skate down a hill in the neighborhood. We had many weeks of fun doing this! The interstate was still being added to in the 1960’s and where the interchange is located (also known as mal-function junction) we would take our skateboards and go down hills. There was no traffic at the time, since they were not complete. We would usually hang out at my parents’ home or on the dock of the Scaglione’s, which was about the middle of the neighborhood and centrally located for most of us.
This is the hill in which we would skate down. It was not steep, but it gave us hours of fun going down, talking, and trying new tricks. It was just below the home of Glenn Sudbury.
There was a place on the Hillsborough River where the neighborhood “gang” swam on summer days, or used it for sports (such as baseball or football). Mom organized parties with her friends near the picture located on the top left. The top right picture (near Johnny Gallo’s house) was the field where we played baseball.
This creek ran in the neighborhood and before the bars were added; we would spend time riding our bikes across the bridge to see if we could make it across without falling off. It was a bridge that led to a wooded area in which we could play. Before moving there, Wayne Floyd and I went there to play and were chased off by a man with a rifle!
About that time, Skippy Burdick, a great friend who lived behind us, had his father (Albert) build what is called a slot car track. He built it in his work area and mounted it on top of his work table. The cars were small, but the fun part of it was that you built what you wanted and used tires, motors, and other items that made your car unique. I had a 1965 Mustang model, which is now stored in a small toolbox, the same way it was stored back then. We would spend hours racing, as well as hours repairing and building. It was a very inexpensive hobby and thanks to Skippy’s dad, Al, we all had fun racing our cars!
Many times, we would watch the Alfred Hitchcock Show on school nights and later on the Dean Martin Show. It was a time when entertainment was clean and family oriented. Dean would have so many guests on his show along with some regulars, but you knew that the show would always be funny, have lots of dancing and singing; along with all the regulars and special guest appearances each week. It was one of my all-time favorite shows growing up!
The Dean Martin Variety Show first aired in 1965, quickly became a blockbuster for almost 10 years, and still remains a one-of-kind in the history of television. Dean never rehearsed, smoked non-stop, and always had a drink in hand…and people loved it!
As the years moved on into high school, I was fortunate enough to have my first car, which was a 1959 Ford XL. It was white and had an automatic transmission, but when I was driving I would pretend it was stick and sometimes even place an old phone handset in the front seat pretending there was a phone……..of course, this was well before the invention of cell phones. Everyone that rode along with me fell into the same routine as for us it was fun and games, and a friendly imagination for all of us to enjoy.
On Friday nights or Saturday nights (after work), we would usually go to Big Boys, a drive-in restaurant or sometimes go to the Colonnade, on the other side of town. On a good night, we would sometimes frequent both of them multiple times. Everyone always contributed to gas. When a dollar’s worth was put in (usually around five gallons was enough), sometimes only fifty cents or so was added.
On Sundays, we began a tradition of attending wedding receptions, some of them we were invited and some of them we just knew about. It was our culture then and many people (not just us) crashed the weddings. It became a Sunday night outing in which food and entertainment were provided and all we had to do was show up. I sometimes wonder if I should ever feel guilty about it, but due to so many people doing the same thing and because so many people were related, or knew the family that was getting married (one way or the other), it just did not seem wrong.
Picture of the Colonnade as it appeared from the 50’s to the 70’s. It was unique and the phase would be “Cruisin at The Nade”. We would go for a coke with an olive in it or sometimes buy a hamburger and a coke. Many times, we just drove around without purchasing anything just to see or to be seen. The other location was at Frisch’s Big Boys, all the way in North Tampa.
Sample picture of Frisch’s Big Boys during the times we drove from place to place.
We did that over the course of two summers and after high school it began changing so we did not continue and most the people we knew by then were married.
Michael Chamoun and I were close in school and took some of the same courses while attending the receptions. We also had a physiology teacher that was excellent and we would always compete to see who would get the highest ”A” average. At one of the receptions we noticed that our teacher was there and we spoke to him.
The next day during class both of us were feeling a little sick due to the amount of “food and drinks” we had consumed, so we asked him if we could be excused from class that day in order to stay near the restroom until we felt better. Mr.Castellano knowing we were both good students agreed and we were able to leave the room without consequences. We thought at the time that was so good of him……..I do have to say, he did tell us he wished he could leave the room that day as well. We all thought it was funny and it never happened again.
We learned much from his lectures, assignments, and dissecting we were able to do in lab. My appreciations go to Mr. Castellano, as I felt he was probably the finest teacher I had in middle and high school.
While still living on Kathleen St,, I was fortunate enough in My (my last year of high school) to have my parents purchase my first new car. It was ordered through Bill Currie Ford on Florida Ave. and was a Silver-Blue 289 hardtop. I put on fake white walls, as I did not want to have my parents spend $35.00 extra for them and added spoke hubcaps for the wheels. It was a three speed stick with a two barrel carburetor and I loved to drive it!
As time went on (as most boys), I wanted to make the car “my own”, so I began a series of changes which included: adding dual exhausts that were made for a GT, which I installed myself while living on Kathleen St. We had a cement section on the side of the garage and I would get under the car and using a hack saw cut off the old pipes to install the new exhaust pipes. This ended up with me having iron filings in my eyes and I had to go to a doctor where he tweezed them out.
I also added a chrome decoration on the roof top to make it appear as a two tone car, along with head-rests. When we moved to Rome Ave. the process did not stop. I was working at Wards at the time and purchased large tires for the car, added block in the springs to allow the tires to fit, bought a used four-speed transmission changing it out myself (which led to gear problems), added a Thunderbird four barrel carburetor, and a suspension bar in the engine compartment for more stability. I did add seven inch slicks in the back, but they were borrowed and I did not keep them long. The car proved to be fast and was fun to drive. I added two speakers in the back to give the radio a little more sound (although keeping the stock radio). I eventually had the car painted by someone two blocks away to a midnight blue on the bottom and white on the top. It did look nice, but looking back, I now realize the car was fine just as it was, but then many people would make changes as a hobby. I bought spoke hubcaps for the car and that really finished it off. The problem with spoke hubcaps while in high school was they were popular and easy to steal. They were stolen from me several times! Insurance paid, but the second time they began giving me a hard time about it. At one point, I was going to purchase Keystone “mags” for the wheels and placed a deposit with the company for two, but they never came in and I finally cancelled the order. I decided to have air conditioning installed as it was a factory option, but could be added at any time while having the car. My final change was removing the Mustang emblem and bar grill from the front to give it more the GT look.
In the late 1960’s, I was hit on the side by a drunk driver which ruined the car! I ended up trading it for a 1966 used Ford Fairlane convertible without air conditioning and drove it throughout the remainder of my college years. The car served me well and I enjoyed a larger car. Even though it was not new, it did not give me trouble. Being an automatic, it was much easier to drive and at that point I was done trying to upgrade cars, as it was such a great expense. As I look back, I realize how fortunate I was to have at that time a brand new car ordered for me after graduation. I used a 1964 ½ Ford Mustang for my prom, as Bill Currie Ford was nice enough to loan it to me to use, since my car had not arrived in time for the prom. I did not date much during high school (as I have mentioned) and was able to take a girl that was one year my junior. Her name was Sandra Provenzano and she was a very nice person. We dated for only a couple of months, but only friends. My friend, Michael Chamoun, started dating Sandra as they began “hanging out” together. I was really thrilled, as both of them were very nice people and I thought in my mind they would make a great couple. It is a shame that we really never saw much of each, other as college caused us to go in many different directions. I did see Michael a couple of times, but for only a few moments. In October 2012, I found out by accident that she had passed away about a year ago. Although, we never saw each other since high school or even thought about the prom, it was so sad to hear of her passing. I heard that Michael and Sandra had a wonderful marriage and I was very happy to hear that. I guess for the first time, death now meant something different to me.
Living on St. Louis was such a wonderful experience and with so many friendships, adventures, and excitement! But living on Kathleen St. proved to be just as wonderful with new friends, new adventures, with as much love as a family could have and provide. It is difficult to look back at my childhood and wonder how fast the time went, how much unity there was, how much sharing and crying we did, yet know that it was only a blink in time and that no matter how much I would want to re-visit those days; they can never be reproduced!
I feel the same for our parents, as with each move they loved and cared for each place whether it was the building of St. Louis and enjoying all the family close by, or when living on Kathleen with remodeling and the cooking Mom did on a wood stove each Sunday for many years; as well as the Christmas parties and other social events. When we moved on Rome Ave., where they built their dream home and still had all three sons with them to watch them grow up. Living
with your family and having a family that encouraged independence, but never the thought of leaving until you were ready. Although it was never said, we realized they never really thought of the day we would move out. Even though we remained close by, it must have been difficult for them to know that their children had grown up in such a short time.
As you go through life, there will be times that seem to be just so perfect and there are the trying times as well. In life know the good, and know the bad, so you can experience the great! The relationships you experience with family and friends (as well as pets), make memories that last a life time!
My advice is to live each day, enjoy not only the good, but learn from the bad, and teach those around you how to use all the skills you acquired in each and every precious moment. As I have learned, the clock only moves forward, does not stand still, does not go back. You can make corrections to the clock as you live day to day, but never have a second chance. Make every moment and person in your life understand you love them! Enjoy every moment in time and share every waking moment knowing that the day is a “present”. You will gain experiences from stories, from friends, from parents, from each other, and there will be times in your life when those experiences will benefit you or others around you. If you fail to learn, life will become difficult and can become lonely. Fill you heart with kindness, no matter what! Mom has said time and time again the following quotes:
“After the rain, the sun always shines!”
Another of her sayings was, “You can catch more flies with honey.”
These are sayings that will mean something to you, once you experience the actions that are associated with them. She also spoke many times of knowing that your children “As they are young are under your feet, and as they become older, they are under your heart!”
“Life is full of ingredients, and it takes a complete mixture to cook the sausage.” DS