No matter whether we grew up privileged or in poverty, we seem to recall our
childhood as carefree and uncomplicated. In
the months spent preparing this book, we
heard countless stories of picnics, lamb roasts,
baptisms, family gatherings, and Greek School
mischief. No one was on hand with a camera
to record the mischief, so we have no pictures
to document those stories. The sources, how
ever, are very reliable and told of instances of
being bodily thrown out of Greek School, or
sneaking out a window only to be grabbed by
a surprised parent outside and dragged back
in by the ear. We won't name names, but
there was an instance where handle grips were
stolen off a new bike parked behind the
church. The victim soon realized he had been
ripped off and marched back into Greek
School class demanding justice. The priest
narrowed it down to three suspects. While he
landed blows to their backs with a book, they
were quickly passing the handle grips back and
forth under cover of their desks, none wanting
to be caught with the evidence. No, these
boys did not go into a life of crime-they are
solid citizens today!
Many remember a location of billboards around a pit area near High and
Naghten Streets. The billboards were brightly
lit at night, and the vacant pit provided a great
place to meet for football games. The boys
often snuck home long after hours, carefully
avoiding passing by the still open restaurants
of their fathers.
The Greek men centered their attention primarily on running their businesses and
supporting families. Often, the wives assisted
them, and the children also did odd jobs to
help out around the family-owned businesses.
By and large, the women were traditional<
homemakers and mothers. The families did a
lot of visiting back and forth. Card playing,
