Ted Piscitelli

This wonderful set of memories is from Dad's sister Jeanne Hanson. Greetings to all. Thanks for including me in memories of Ted. Some of you have written eloquently memories I have enjoyed reading. They have been helpful for me to know him better through his adult years. Thoughts have been running my mind daily. I will put a few on paper. My first memory is a brother entering my life on North Franklin Street in Springfield, IL. He was born at home with a DR in attendance. Dad and I were in the living room. Details left me long ago. We lived in a little three room house with an enclosed porch. The bathroom was an outhouse. The cemetery was two houses away. It provided a place to pick wild flowers we shared with neighbors. Within four years the family moved to 638 Garfield where the plan was to bring our Grandfather, Serafino (Sam) to live with us. He died before the move was made. It provided each of us our own room. The bathroom (off the kitchen) did not have a tub. Saturday nights a wash tub set next to the heat register appeared for real baths. Soon Dad, (Ted) built basement steps, dug out a basement including washing machine area and a shower. Gina, do you remember visiting the house at 638 Garfield? Later when the house was on the market I went to an open house there. I informed the owners the reason for my visit. I was pleased with love and care they provided to the house. The first question I was asked was, "How tall was your dad?" They had heard he had dug out the basement which to them explained the reason for a shallow ceiling height. Bud and I grew up in the Garfield house, attended Ridgely Grade School and Lanphier HS. The explanation for the name Bud, that sticks with family, came from Liz. Bud and I spent most week ends of our early years, probably till upper grade years at Grandma Kish's house. ( This house was also served by an outhouse for many years.) Liz and Willie lived behind the main house in what was the summer kitchen until a fire destroyed it. They built a little house next door to Grandma. It became known as The Shanty. Weekends Bud tagged after Liz most of the time. She named him "my little Buddy." Bud and I enjoyed have space to run, be with Grandma, share popping corn, listening to Cardinals baseball games with Grandma. She was a true fan. Grandma sat on a chair in the middle of the living room to listen to Harry Carey broadcast the play by play. She knew stats, scores and names of the Cardinals. Most Sundays we shared dinner with some of the family- our immediate family, Liz and Willie, Grandma, some of the cousins, sometimes Uncle Alex. Early years homegrown sweet corn was on the table. It must of have been this first time there was an unlimited supply. Guess who ate more than his stomach could handle-the story was six ears. A treat was going to an ice cream store with Grandma and Liz or the first Drive in Movie. Adults in the front seat and as many cousins were at the house sat in the back. There were five cousins, Cindy came along much later. Liz offered milk shakes. Grandma had one, cousins shared milkshakes, Liz drank a coke. The sharing and coke was done to save money. Of course, we did not understand the sharing as we argued about flavors. I never realized the cousins felt Bud was favored over four female cousins and me. That fact was mentioned while we were divided Liz's and Willie's belongings. Numbers were drawn to choose from different groups. Bud drew number one. Someone mentioned, of course, "he was always number one here." Growing up Bud and I would disagree (fight). I remember I had bruised arms from his punches. Of course, I was the angel and did nothing to him. When someone else spoke ill of each other we stuck up for our sibling. Back to the Garfield house. Bud and I walked to school about three blocks away. Lots of kids of all ages lived in the neighborhood. Bicycles, playing ball in the street, Trick or Treating several nights, going to State Fair, learning to drive in the State Fairgrounds, first jobs (Bud's was delivering and the dreaded collecting the weekly paper) going to HS are among memories. Ted became the name at school for Bud as there were three others who went by that name. Two of Ted's close friends lived within two blocks. Memories of the Garfield kitchen include listening to radio weekly shows, playing pinochle- maybe weekend evenings. We never went out to eat. Mom always had a meal ready about 5:00 when Dad arrived home from working in a nearby coal mine. The noon whistle from the mine always helped keep everyone's clock on time. A sad memory was when Ted, a friend, Dick and Dick's dad went hunting. Ted came home crying. My imagination went wild. ( I thought someone was shot.) Dick's dad died of heart attack on the hunting day. Uncle Willie shared that "Bud" and his buddies went to the river cabin Uncle Willie rented. They apparently had a super good time. The next day or two the boys replaced things they had destroyed. Nothing was ever said to parents or anyone else until Uncle Willie told me this story a few years before his death. Ted played football one year in HS. One summer money called him to start a job at neighborhood grocery. Football became a thing of the past. Once or twice a year the male member grocery owner became incapacitated by "the bottle". Ted learned to butcher quickly. The grocery business was in his blood by the time you moved to Centralia. From the Garfield house Ted went to Bradley perhaps for one semester. He later transferred to SIU (Carbondale as I think there was not an SIUE.) Soon after Pat and Ted were married. They lived in Carterville then Centralia. While working for Proctor and Gamble Ted had the opportunity to buy Elm Street Market in Centralia. Liz and Willie enjoyed visiting the Centralia store where "Bud" ordered seed potatoes or onions for their garden a few times. They always came back with stories of "Mr. Ted" as customers tagged Ted. My immediate family visited your family once in Carterville, a couple of times in Centralia. Unfortunately we did not spend much of our adult lives together. I have rambled long enough. It has been good to reach into this old brain to drag up things from the past. Love, Jean 1-1-21