Does the Dust Ever Settle ?

Before Tony was married he had a little side business of his own. He owned about 150 laying hens in the large red barn. He had them on the first and second floor. He also owned about 75 pheasants. Once a year he sold most of them to the gun clubs.

Tony would gather the eggs and put them in wired baskets. Then he took them to me. He showed me how to clean them with sandpaper. It was not easy for me. My kitchen was always full of eggs and dust. When he went to the bank for the rose business, Tony would deliver his eggs. Some customers came to our place of business to buy them. The chickens and pheasants were Tony's project so he kept all the money.

We used all the cracked eggs. We had all the old chickens for soup, and we also made spaghetti sauce with them. I sometimes wonder how I ever did all that work, in addition to washing, ironing, cooking and keeping the big house clean. The girls helped me quite a bit. When Tony and Lorraine got married, the job of cleaning the eggs went to Lorraine. I helped her once in a while; I was glad I wasn't responsible for the eggs anymore.

Tony and Lorraine settled in their apartment and enjoyed it. They bought a color television; we had a black and white one. John and his sisters would ask if they could go and see their television. They had company quite often.

After a few months, Lorraine got a job as a telephone operator. That was good for her because she missed her parents and two brothers. In Closter she knew no one except Tony and Tony's family. I knew what she was going through because I had gone through the same thing when I first moved here. When Lorraine went to work she made friends. They would call her “bridey,” because she was a new bride. I thought that was cute. I washed their clothes until they bought a washing machine. I had them for dinner quite often, because Lorraine was working. We got along fine with a few misunderstandings.