Nan's Alphabet

 In 1920 Nan's father (Joe) started betting on the Kentucky Derby. He made it a family tradition by putting all of the names of his children, his cousins and his wife's cousins. It was a simple bet that you pay the winner 10 cents. It was a fun way to gather everyone around the dining room table and put up 10 cents. The next day the Philadelphia paper would have the winner of the Kentucky Derby. It was exciting to see who would win all of the dimes. Because there were 20 horses the winner would go away with $2.00. That was a lot of money in 1920. It was equivalent of about $100 today. Last year 2020, was the first time in 157 years of the Kentucky Derby race that the horses did not win. They tried to change the date to October 2020 but the COVID pandemic would not have the race run in public. The horses ran but people could not attend the race in person. Every year the morning of the race Nan would start making finger foods for the people coming over to watch the race. A favori...

 I know you have heard this story a hundred times but my brother, sister and myself walked to school 1 1/2 miles each way. Nan had three children under 5 at home and no car. All three of us went to Catholic elementary school. This was in the northeastern United States. It was cold in the winter. How long does it take a 8 year old to walk 1 1/2 miles? We never cared because along the way other kids would join us and we would carry on the entire way. Throwing snowballs, running along train tracks when the bars were coming down with the lights flashing we always had fun. Running is not a problem when you are 9,8,7 years old respectively.  My brother did not want to walk with his sisters so he would always be blocks ahead. If we were catching up he would just pick up the pace. We never carried umbrellas, but Nan would make us wear goulashes so we would not get our only pair of school shoes wet. We had a rain coat, Barbie lunch pail, my brother had Hop-Along-Cassidy lunch pail, and...