My Great Grandma Callaghan

Great-grandmother Callaghan (photo stolen from my sister) 

My dad's mom came over from a stop in England, they were originally from Ireland. This is her mom, who came over with her. The Callaghan's set up in Chicago. There were some Callaghans who stopped by Ottawa and I wonder if some of my family were there for a short while. This looks like a Chicago neighborhood to me and the American flag shows that they are here.  

My dad was the oldest in the family and would sometimes travel to the cemetery with his grandmother, Holy Sepulchre out west on 111th Street from his neighborhood on the south side. My dad was a favorite of women--not a romancer, but you just knew there was something kind about him and he was always interested in what anyone he was conversing with had to say. Women liked a good listener and he was usually cheerful and polite.  I think like most men, when his temper bubbled up or he was moody, it was usually at home with my mother. She was tough enough to dish it back at him, if she was so inclined. They were a great match. 

My Dad 

My dad was a favorite of his grandmother. My grandmother looked a lot like her mother above--she was tiny though and she always wore her hair in a bun. She just seemed like an older lady for as long as I knew her. Today, I suppose she'd be out getting her veins fixed and her hair tinted. 

My dad never played the Irish card, although he always lamented that had he taken his mother's name, he might have done better on the Chicago Police force.  When my dad was a cop, things were not that great--the salary was very low during the first Daley era. My dad always had 2 jobs and sometime three. His dad was a Norris, a name that has English roots, but does go back in some places in Ireland a few hundred years. His father started out with a horse and wagon delivery service--vegetables, furniture and ice. He moved up and became a Teamster. But he didn't touch a drop of liquor, never swore, and went to Mass regularly.  My sense is he was honest,but he died a few years before I was born. Being an officer in the Teamsters at the time, he did a lot of Alderman type things for his members.  Going to jail to bail people out when they got drunk and disorderly. Pulling them out of bars when called--whatever it took to make sure they stayed employed and worked for their families. 

My grandfather and grandmother "adopted" a young boy who was by himself in the neighborhood. Like all of his brothers, he had some rough spots, but they loved him and in some ways he was my grandmother's favorite--the youngest.  But after they took him in, their luck changed and my grandfather moved up on the socio-economic ladder. It might not have been much of a change, but my grandfather could buy a new car every couple years and had bought some suits. My grandmother was eventually able to stock her pantry and sometimes invite my dad over to take some food back to his young family. That was what happen in those days when your folks were doing well--there was no trust funds or big inheritance, but you could stop by and help yourself to some extra groceries. 

I hope my readers have good thoughts about their parents, their ancestors today. We all have some bad memories and some have a lot of bad memories, but maybe today you can recall some good. I also hope can say a prayer for those families members who have died. I am old sinner, but it doesn't take a saint to be a good pray-or. God Bless, you. 

Larry Norris is the author of The Brown and White a fictionalized memoir that tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School. 

For Crying Out Loud, Picking Chicken Can be a Hassle

Old Fashioned Values Have Value

Someone I know works at a local grocery store in the deli. The store has a special cheap chicken deal one day a week when you can buy a certain pre-selected mix of chicken for a couple dollars off the regular price. It is a big deal. They sell a lot of chicken on those days. At the same time, the margins are low, the deal is the deal--no substitutes! 

My friend was packing up those orders for chicken lovers, but she was constantly getting requests from people to mix up the pieces according to their liking. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you just go pick the pieces willy nilly, the cheap chicken deal falls on its face for several reasons. It could be that people are requesting the larger more expensive pieces so that the store loses money. Or the planning that goes into the cooking fails and they run out of pieces so that the folks who are willing to play by the rules can't get the chicken they want.

But it doesn't stop people from belittling workers at the counter and insisting they fill the orders according to their individual wants.

It's one of those head-shaking complications that you see in our world today. People want they want even when it hurts the other person, even when it can cause the other person to lose their job. Even when it is unfair. 

In years past, I suppose I would have found something of humor in the situation, but I know the woman who has to deal with these customers and I am not amused. 

Lawrence Norris is the author of  Callaghan Goes to St. Cajetan and The Brown and White in paperback and on Kindle. He has not written a book on working in the deli.