Mom: I think probably in the late 70s.  

Tim: So Matt Murphy was going to have a swearing in?  

Mom: And I got sick on New Year's Day. I was so sick, I laid on that sofa and crawled to the bathroom. I couldn't, I was dying. I never got to the inauguration party.  

Tim: That would have been, uh, January of 76, I think. I think he got, no, well, he got elected in in even numbered years, so it might have been 75, probably the election of 74. Remember there was a big turnover there in 74. Uh, when, uh, what the hell, I can't remember now, 74. Rockefeller left? Rockefeller became vice president because of Ford becoming president. Oh yeah. , but there was a big change that year. A lot of Democrats won.

That's when John LaFalce went to Congress and a big change in the Erie County legislature. And locally. That must've been, that's when Matt got elected. 74, because I started working for him, working for him the end of the next year.  

Mom: So, well, you had to be working for her when I went. Yeah. Or didn't go Jesus.

But that was my sickest I've ever been in my life.  

Tim: Were you throwing up?  

Mom: Oh, I don't think it was that. It was internal. Intestinal, I mean.  

Tim: You crawled from this couch here to the bed?  

Mom: I said it was intestinal. You don't throw up. You just go to the bathroom.  

Tim: Oh. So it wasn't respiratory, like lungs or sore throat and that?

Mom: All I know is I was dying. All by myself.  

Tim: What do you mean all by yourself? Colleen wasn't home? Oh, Colleen wasn't home then, was she? Yeah, she might have been. She'd be 15 or 16. So it wasn't, I mean, there wasn't a crowd around. No. Did you go to the doctor? No. No? How long were you laid low?  

Mom: Oh, I was probably on two weeks vacation. I used to take between Christmas and New Year's. Mm hmm. And...  

Tim: That's a heck of a way to spend a vacation.  

Mom: Well, I was at Motor Vehicles then. I can't remember it all. I just know I missed that inauguration. And I've had no flu since.  

Tim: Good for you. You haven't had the shot since either, have you? Nope.

Mom: And I just heard it the other day on the television that if you've had a serious flu infection, the possibility of you getting any flu is minimal.  

Tim: Really? It builds up an immunity?  

Mom: Yes. Probably

that's why you don't have it.  

Tim: Well, I told my doctor at my physical in May of 2019, He said, did you have your flu shot for the flu season? I said, no, he said, you're out of your mind. Get your flu shot. So I did and then I, well I didn't, it was May, so I got it this year. He said, don't, don't miss a flu shot again.

At my age, so, I'm, I'm, you did the opposite, you had an immunity. You don't figure you're going to get the flu, obviously.  

Mom: That's why I don't think I even get a cold or anything.  

Tim: I don't really get a stuffed nose, do you? Stuffed up? What was there, do you remember which child being sick where it was of deep concern?

I don't. With what? I don't remember any of us kids being so sick that...  

Mom: Only with measles or mumps. Mumps was the worst. I can see Maureen. Oh, God. Really? She used Dad's hanger to hold her up.  

Tim: The mumps were like expanding her jaw? Oh, she was immense. I don't remember that. I wish I could. Did every one of us have the mumps?

Yes. At the same time?  

Mom: Yes. Oh, my. It was the same time that Herbie was putting that knotty pine uh, wood up in the kitchen. Really? Yes.  

Tim: I don't remember that. What are the accompanying symptoms other than the swelling? Is it a sore throat and fever? For what? Mumps. Do you remember?  

Mom: Oh, God. I think the glands swell up.

Tim: They must have a vaccine for it now. Yeah. Geez.  

Mom: That was back in the 50s probably.  

Tim: Imagine so, yeah. I bet Colleen didn't have it. She probably had a vaccine. Probably had the vaccine. Born in 59. Mumps strikes when you're, well I guess it's not anymore, but I don't remember having it. Maybe I was 10 or 7, 6. I remember the measles.

I don't remember anybody, I don't ever remember anybody being sick enough that We were worried, like, oh, Dennis is sick, you know, he's got to go  

Mom: You were the only one, when you were about six months old, Dr. Selzer came here. He did? You had some kind of a, oh God, influenza or something, and that's when the doctors came to the house, and he came here.

Tim: What did he do? I don't know. Put me in ice water?  

Mom: They probably had some kind of a shot.  

Tim: Really? Gee, six months old, you had to be... That was probably concerning then, with the high temperature or whatever. Obviously I don't remember that. Maybe that explains my personality, or my... Or no, my behavior, I don't know.

Maybe I lost something during that sickness. Some brain cells.  

Mom: You're full of shit.  

Tim: But I, it's so funny, you know. Parents now, everybody's got the monitors on kids and...  

Mom: Overdo it. Over done.  

Tim: You think so? Yes. I remember when we were in Albany with Kee... uh Megan, she was a baby. After, well, she was probably, she was over one.

Get your hands off! Oh, I won't touch my face, yeah. We, we were so worried about her, she had a fever. We took her to the doctor, the St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. Doctor said, she's got 101 fever, she'll be fine. I said, we're going to put her in an ice bath or something. He said, settle down, you're young parents.

Something like that. She survived, obviously. But, I don't remember any of my kids being sick, where I worried about it. And the kids, they don't get the measles. They don't get the mumps. I can remember worrying about scarlet fever. Somebody put the fear in us that you can get scarlet fever.  

Mom: Infantile paralysis.

That was the thing that Brian had it over and over again.  

Tim: That's polio. Yeah. Yeah. What do you mean he had it over and over? He believed he did. Did he, did he get unable to walk? Was he going... He worried about it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I remember the TV commercials. They worried. People were in iron lungs.  

Mom: Well, it's like they're worrying now about the corona.

Yeah. Either you get it or you don't.  

Tim: Well, you don't want it. No. And there's some, there's some argument about the mortality rate that it's very high for, for... For old people.  

Mom: Yeah. But they, you're an old people.  

Tim: I qualify, absolutely. I've qualified for seven or eight years. I don't know, 62 can be characterized as old.

Fifty five for AARP. Maybe, I think AARP is down to fifty. I double qualify. Do you think you'd get extra benefits for that?  

Mom: I don't know. Something's been looking out for me.  

Tim: Did you see all the cars parked here yesterday along the street?  

Mom: Margy said there was something going on up at Café Antica.

Tim: Candidate for Sheriff, that Greer guy from Lockport had a, he's a retired deputy, he had all his deputy friends there. He won't win, but he had a big party. Probably raised... Who is he? Ah, he's a, he was a deputy sheriff. He's got a landscaping business now. He's running in the Democratic primary against Mike, uh, Felicetti.

Did you hire Mike Felicetti? I can't remember. Lewiston Police, then he became... They sort of hired themselves. Yeah, they just, did they just come to you and say, well, I'm... Well, we're hiring a new guy?  

Mom: Well, usually it'd be the chief would recommend. Yeah. And then you don't have any idea anyway.  

Tim: Did you interview them?

No. You didn't? How about DPW? Did you interview DPW? No. Oh, Ernie had his own little...  

Mom: They just follow one down. Yeah. Like Larry Wills who's been here forever, but he mowed my lawn a couple summers. Then he got a job at the village. Did you recommend him? Ernie did. Oh, Ernie did. And, uh, who's the guy that died down on First Street, Tuscarora?

Uh.  

Tim: A village worker? Yes. One of the Pipers?  

Mom: I want to say, John.

He's got a couple sons. He was married to, uh, Hick....  

Tim: Crew. Is it crew? No. No. Hmm. I don't know.  

Mom: Oh, you do. Anyway.  

Tim: You hired him? Amstel. Oh, Amstel. George Amstel. Yeah. He turned down the job when Ernie died. He didn't want to be director. Right. No brains. He's dead now. His wife, his ex wife lives there. Was she a Hickey?

Mom: Yes. Oh, man. That's Larry Will's mother.  

Tim: Oh, she had a prior, before she married George? Yes. Ah, okay. She's a nice gal. I've met her a few times. I did some, I did a...  

Mom: All the Hickeys were nice. Were they? Remember Denise was our babysitter?  

Tim: Yes, she was.. Mike wasn't nice he hit me over the head with a golf club. That was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

That's probably screwed me up. That, and that, and that, whatever I had at six months old. I can still remember that. What do we have a golf club in the backyard for? It was a wood. My memory is it was the size of one of those newfangled drivers that did 400 centimeters or something. 500. That's why I got a bump on my head.

Oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't your fault.  

Mom: Well, you just said we had a golf club in the backyard.  

Tim: Yeah, well, we did. Or maybe he carried it up. Maybe he found it somewhere. He didn't do it on purpose, I don't think. He might have. He was he the only boy in that family? Oh, God. Was his father... They had six kids. Was his father Bernard?

Yes. He was a mailman. Yes. But not in Lewiston, right? Niagara Falls. I don't know where he was. Didn't Denise go to work for the post office?  

Mom: No. But her mother did.  

Tim: Oh, did she? So both of the parents worked for the post office? Yeah. Hmm. That's funny. I didn't realize that. It's the only two in that family I remember, Denise and Mike.

 Me too. Yeah.

 A lot of Hickeys, though. Funny name. It's kind of an Irish name, I guess, huh? You think it's an Irish name, Hickey?  

Mom: Canadian. Canadian? English. Was it? Yes. He was from Canada. Really? Yes.  

Tim: Hmm. Like Mr. Fitzpatrick. Remember him? Ann Welch's father. He was from Canada. He told me once that he walked across the bridge And walked into the railroad yard and asked if he could have a job and they said yes.

He never went back. He settled here somehow. Immigration was pretty easy then, I guess. Was Anne's mother a Canadian too, or a Lewistonian? I  

Mom: think she was a Lewistonian. Lois. Oh God, what was her maiden name? Lois.

Tim: It's hard to remember maiden names.

Mom: Yeah, but I'm trying to think of them. If you're not thinking of them, they come to you.  

Tim: That's the weirdest thing, isn't it? I was trying to think of a contractor I know yesterday, and I couldn't think of it. This morning I saw a truck go by me, it said Lamparelli. I said, oh, that's the guy I was trying to think of yesterday.

Mom: Paint. Or something.

Tim: I haven't heard the fire whistle in a while, have you?  

Mom: Doesn't blow anymore. Hasn't in years.  

Tim: Are you kidding? No. What do they do? They have like alerts, like email and text? Phones. No wonder I haven't heard it. Are you kidding? They don't blow the whistle anymore? Oh man, what if we have an air raid?  

Mom: They'll call you.