Pug Mahone!


 
 Please read the title in your best Irish accent possible...and to that add 'top o' the mornin' and 'erin go braugh'...these were favorite sayings of my great-uncle Ed.  He was Irish through and through and very proud of his heritage.  St. Patrick's Day always reminds me of him.  

One may ask, 'what does pug mahone mean?'...not quite sure we ever really got a definite answer, but I do believe the definition is somewhere along the lines of 'kiss my ass'...That was Uncle Ed.  Uncle Leddy, as we called him when we were little.  He was a great man...more of a grandfather to my siblings and I, than a great-uncle.  He and Aunt Marie - Aunt Aree...

The two of them were truly the only 'grandparents' any of us truly knew...my last grandparent died when I was only 6 months old, so I never knew them.  Aunt Marie and Uncle Ed filled the bill, perfectly.  Whenever they would visit, Aunt Aree would have boxes, or bags, of Chicklets in her purse...the first to find them got to hand out the bunch - whoever was first to the purse, was in control!  If you didn't like a certain sibling, they didn't get their Chicklets till last...!  Poor Aunt Marie...sometimes we were more excited about the darned Chicklets, than we were to see her!   And every Christmas there would be Santa sleighs on the Christmas tree...each of us would get a sleigh with five silver dollars inside.  

Uncle Ed fell in love with Aunt Marie the first moment he ever saw her.  He was on a bus, she was on the street...He told his traveling buddy 'that's the girl I'm going to marry'...They were married as close to 50 years as possible without actually celebrating the day.  Aunt Marie was buried on or about their 50th wedding anniversary.  They lived in the same apartment for those 50 years; the magical apartment that held many mysteries for my siblings and I.  The closets, the hallways, the incinerator, their bedroom, Uncle Ed's desk...the elevator!   And every time we would visit, we would knock on the door, and Uncle Ed would stand behind the levered door and say 'who's there'?  We would all say 'Uncle Leddy, it's us!'...

Memories that are rich and full of love.  So, on this St. Patty's Day, I raise a toast to the greatest 'grandparents' who ever lived - to Aunt Aree and Uncle Leddy - top o' the mornin' to ye!   


Comments

  1. Thanks for the memories....Oh my what sweet memories you brought back...thanks kris for thinking and writing about Uncleddy and Auntaree...just remembering the scary hallway to the garage and the incinerator and him peeping through the door and how we always looked forward to visiting them. Don't forget about the plastic furniture coverings and the big nut cracker that always sat on his desk top along with the desk clock...oh what memories their apartment held and still does...xoxo Jo

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