To and Fro, 4th of July

John and Rosemarie also outgrew their home which was in Closter. John built a split level home in Northvale, N.J. It had seven rooms: three bedrooms, a kitchen, dining and living rooms, two bathrooms, a recreation room, a hall, and a garage. They bought some new furniture to fill the house up. Rosemarie and John are very neat. Between them they keep their place spotless. When they moved, their daughter Joanne was six years old, son John four years old, and son Steven a newborn baby.

Our family is so big that there is always someone moving from one place to another. There is always something going on, such as christenings, first communions, confirmations, birthdays and graduations. The families are close knit.

I remember when we celebrated the Fourth of July in 1965 at our place. It was a big party. Carmela made a red, white and blue cake. We cooked hamburgers, sausage, peppers and onions with tomato sauce and put them in hard rolls. We had potato salad, coleslaw and macaroni salad. We also had wine, beer, soda and coffee.

All the children had flags and they marched all around the house. Some of the granddaughters took dancing lessons. They put their dancing costumes on and went on our large porch to entertain us. We sat on the lawn and watched. Our granddaughter Joanne sang a song. They took pictures of all this, so we can see them now. They also took movies. It gives us great joy to look at them after so many years have passed.

Rosemarie, our daughter-in-law, has her birthday on July 7. We used to celebrate her birthday on July 4. We also invited her parents to join us. Rose was very pleased. She received many lovely birthday gifts.