Volume One Issue 4 April 1997
My Mom said as a young girl she worked on a small farm,
milking, gardening, cooking, and the other usual early farm duties given as assignments to
children. She attended school until the third grade, when she left school due to a
pnuemonia epidemic that occurred. She never returned. She started working as a cook and
maid for several other farmers in the Hannastown area.
Granddad Zapf managed to obtain a job as a pipe fitter or plumber with Duquesne Light in
Rankin. It was then that they (the Zapf family) moved to Braddock. Mom did work for the
Nugents, a family in Swissvale for many years. She was well liked by this family. (To bad
I forgot her name or their name. I asked Evie and she said the Nugents.) The Nugents were
in Real Estate and were very wealthy. Mom was a beautiful woman and a good worker, she
became a "live-in" maid and spent many years away from her home, working for
Mrs. Nugent. Mrs. Nugent taught Mom many social amenities and the rudiments of being a
"good wife". She even taught her reading, writing and some arithmetic, which she
was lacking because of having only a third grade education.
Mom became a fine young lady at 16-20 years of age. She was well courted but in 1915 she met Dad through a friend of Dads, Danny McGirk who had dated Mom. Dad was dating Clara. Dad often said that Danny caused the meeting when he said to Dad, "If you think Clara is pretty you should se Carrie." and Dad did and they were married in 1916.
| They were married in St. Joseph's Church after Dad took
lessons to become a Catholic. During and after these lessons, because of pressure by
priests to make donations to the church and Mom's lack of ability to keep Dad properly
informed in the religion Mom become very religious and in some ways felt guilty that Dad
had fallen away from religion - at least the instruction of the "Church". This
affected Mom in many ways. She became so obsessed with Catholism because of her assumption
of guilt. Mom spent many hours working in the Church, cleaning pews, windows, altars,
floors etc. but she knew her first duty was to her family. She spent hour after hour
baking, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes and al the rigorous duties of a woman of he
time. She suffered with Dad through the Depression years and tried to find ways to extend food requirements. No other items except potatoes, bread, bread puddings, watered lemonade, beans and other basic foods. Importantly too was her consideration of beggars and less fortunate. She tried to help where she could. As i young boy, I tripped with her to the grocer, the butcher and the green vegetable man and later by myself from an apartment in Rankin. Mom was close to her brothers, John lived nearby and Al worked at Duquesne Light. Mom was within walking distance of her Mother (my grandma) and I (along with Al & Bill) became frquent visitors to Grandma's home. Grandpa had a nice vegetable garden and Grandma always had delicious dinners which everyone enjoyed. But Grandpa drank a lot and was a menace to deal with when he was in a "toot". Mom loved a good joke and she laughed a lot when she was young but over the years raising all of her children had its toll on her. |