Reminiscing about Stanley Street The first and only time I walked in my sleep was the evening before I received my First Holy Communion. I was so excited I was found holding my hands as if I was going to the altar rail.
I am reminiscing today, May 1, 2006 about my sister Florence who died a short while before I was born from diptheria which killed many many people at that time in the early 1900s. I have a locket in my possession which my parents had made containing a picture of Florence. The outside of the gold locket has a small diamond in the center and on the other side the name of Florence. My mother wore the locket which shows Florence as a lovely young child and my handsome father.
5.09.2006 After the war my dear wife Mary and I met again and began living on two acres of land on route 9 in Loundonville, NY. Loudonville is a very historic place where many homes are listed on the state and national register. The Loudonville area was used by American Indians to hunt and later many troops went through the area I believe during the French and Indian and subsequent wars. It was settled around 1800 as part of the Van Rensselaer Manor.
The Plaza Hotel was a nice residential hotel. When I walked down the hall with Uncle J. D. after dinner to get a pint of hand packed vanilla ice cream the tiles creaked because they were loose. He used to say always buy vanilla ice cream. In chocolate, they can use older milk.
When Great Grandfather Spencer's wife died, he had a daughter Rosetta. Then, he remarried someone we know as Aunt Jose. She had a younger brother, my Grandfather, Frank Edward Bracewell. I don't know how old Frank was when his sister married my great grandfather (Spencer). But, it is possible he was early teen and he and Aunt Jose raised them in one household. Anyway, he married Rosetta when she was sixteen and he wasn't much older. When Grandfather Spencer married Aunt Jose that made his sister, Aunt Jose, his mother in law.
At Paris Island we went through the usual tough training the marine corps is noted for, i.e. over high obstacles, crawling over ground under live wire while live ammunition is fired over your body, going into a gas chamber and then having to take off the gas mask so that we would understand what it was like to be gassed, climbing up rope ladders, jumping off the high board into a deep pool, how to fight with a bayonet, learn judo, many days at the rifle range, and many hours of class work.
5-7-2006 When we were sick in the 1920’s and 30’s when we were young, we were sick for a good two weeks as they didn’t have the medicines that they have now. It was very boring lying on the couch in the living room. I stuck pins in the hot water bottle and cut the tassels off the comforter.
While we were living in Canton, St. Lawrence County, NY, St. Lawrence University was building a new building on their campus. A sturdy wood structure had been built as an office for the contractor and the Clerk of Works. When the university building was completed, I noticed an ad in the local paper indicating that the wood structure that had been used as offices for the contractor was up for sale. The man advertising it was the Clerk of the Works, Roy Saucier, who had just moved onto our street, Pearl Street. I did not know him at the time.
After transfer from the Portsmouth navel base to the Fleet Marine force 5th Division at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, CA, we trained for future battles. We lived in tents there, four to a tent, and began forming the 5th Marine Division. I remember one morning almost stepping on a scorpion in my shoe but luckily saw the bug first. A short while I was sent to transport quartermaster school at San Diego harbor and was one of many marines training to load a ship for combat, mostly where to put the ammunition so it would be readily obtained.
When Joe was a a baby he never cried. One day I had him propped up in the corner of his playpen. Norbert and Frank had left to take the bus to Taylor Park, a beach on the Grasse River.