Tim: What do you, what did you give Brian?  

Mom: Some, some of the lilacs.  

Tim: Did he plant them in Ohio?  

Mom: Yeah, but I don't think they survived.  

Tim: So, you got four or five lilac bushes right there, Mom, see?  

Mom: The one on the end was an old one.  

Tim: Yeah, that's 30 feet high, I never noticed. I'm gonna pick a couple lilacs, take them inside.

You think they're going to bloom? Help yourself. Yeah. So, uh, Janine had those dead birch trees taken down, that's good. Remember? Yes. A couple weeks ago. What is that plant there on the, at the end of the driveway? The purple, the purple tree. Probably a weed. No, no, the tree there with the beautiful blossoms on it.

Mom: Oh, that, I don't know. You don't know what that is? No. Thought you knew. It's not a crabapple.  

Tim: Too bad that doesn't last that long.  

Mom: Crabapples out here, that's a shrub.  

Tim: It's a nice looking shrub. Those other flowers in front of it are starting to bloom. See that? Yeah. Those tulips? Down low? Yeah, they're not tulips.

Tulips are out, finished already, aren't they? No.  

Mom: My spirea, are there any blossoms on that? Here, these big white things? Not yet, no. I don't think they'll blossom. I think they all got killed. The cold.  

Tim: I don't know. Remember last year they were Flying, they were all over the place. It was a banner year. Your hedges got springtime in them really quick.

Eventually, didn't they? Looked good.  

Mom: Dizzy probably drive by and looks to see how soon he will need to come.  

Tim: He's got a few weeks, a month or so maybe.

Remember that tree? Was there a tree out here that Dad was trying to take a branch off and he broke his ankle or something?  

Mom: Those were those. English Walnuts. We had two. Remember there was a clothesline between them.  

Tim: You used the trees for a clothesline? You hung a clothesline? I forgot that. I didn't know that.

Right. So you didn't have clothesline posts? You had a tree?

Mom: No, we used a tree.  

Tim: But wasn't there a tree just about right where  

Mom: They were probably here and there. Yeah. Two up here. But what Nuts falling all over.  

Tim: You didn't like them?  

Mom: No. Shells and stuff. Squirrels. Yeah. Messy.  

Tim: There's still one black walnut in front of that house there.

Yeah. Are these black walnut in the back of that house?  

Mom: No, those Johnsons put in those maples.  

Tim: Those aren't maple trees. Mom, what are they? They're too big. They gotta be oak trees. Oak. Yeah, they're oak. Look at the size of them. Maple trees don't get that big, right? That's a tangle of trees back there. Look at it.

It looks like a jungle.  

Mom: I think they put in five trees or so.  

Tim: Don't see the other ones on the other side of that lawn there. They're in a different yard, aren't they? I think so. What did the Johnsons plant those trees for? They didn't want their kids playing in the backyard, I guess. I don't know. But tell me, remember, Dad, was he trying to break a branch off or something that was partially  

off?

I forget.  

Mom: I think that he fell down, did he?

Tim: I think he broke his ankle and didn't go let it heal on his own.  

Mom: I think the branch broke and he snapped down. Yeah. He fell down, right.  

Tim: I was about ten then. That would have been in 1957. Maybe I was nine. But as I recall, at least family lore, is he didn't go to the hospital.

Had a broken ankle and never, never got a cast or set or even a brace or anything. Is that true?  

Mom: I can't remember. I don't remember him being in a cast. No.  

Tim: Fifty seven, did he still have the restaurant? No. He was at the dairy?  

Mom: He quit. Right after 55 when we lost the baby,  

Tim: Gerald. Was that a factor in him quitting?

Yes.  

Mom: He walked out the door after,

after that morning and said, I'm gonna quit that damn restaurant. Slammed the door.  

Tim: Was he mad at himself?  

Mom: I don't know. He was mad at anything, I guess.  

Tim: Where did he go when he slammed the door? I don't know. Did he go to Snyder's or something? He left you?  

Mom: Is that the day you saw him driving fast?  

Tim: Maybe that was it.

Maybe I was, I got myself confused. Driving west on Onondaga.  

Mom: Well he might have been going to the restaurant.  

Tim: Did he close it like right away? Oh yes. Within a week or so?  

Mom: It wasn't That was in June, July. June, right around my birthday, when Gerald died. Do you remember the day  

Tim: in June, by any chance?  

Mom: Oh, he was born June 8th, and he was 17 days old.

Tim: The 25th, the day after  

Mom: your birthday. The day after my  

Tim: birthday, right. You hadn't suspected anything about him, he was a normal child, right?  

Mom: Except he was very white. I'll never forget that.  

Tim: You told me it'd be last month when we talked about that. I forgot. Well, we're a white family. I mean, was he unusually white?

Babies are pink. Yeah.

But wasn't the cause of death at Sid's? Sudden infant death? Yes. And maybe I mean, that isn't something you can detect by the look of a child. But he might have had some weakness, huh? Respiratory. It's a respiratory condition. Right.

Where'd you get that mirror thing? Is that from Colleen or one of her kids?  

Mom: No, I think I bought it. Yeah? Maureen gave me the bird house, or the butterfly house, but there's no bottom in that. But it's held up.  

Tim: Yeah. What happened to your bird feeder over here?  

Mom: Kevin's. Threw 'em. I think . Really?  

Tim: You wanna put a bird feeder on your tree here?

I can't. Oh, we can keep this seed in it.

It's nice out here, isn't it, mom?  

Mom: Yes. The sun's hot. Too hot. No, I'll soak it up.  

Tim: Don't get sunburn. You gotta watch your skin

This tree is healthy. What is that called? A linden. Is this a Linden tree? No. Was that tree there when Colleen got married? Probably. Once she got married in 81? Probably. Because we had a tent right over there, remember?  

Mom: All along there, right? Poured rain. The tent. People would go around pushing up the  

Tim: Getting the water off  

Mom: the Getting the water off the gutters.

Tim: Or the What did we have to eat at that wedding, do you remember? We had a barbecue.  

Mom: Oh, the guy from Jed's.  

Tim: Remember? Yeah, the place next door. Yeah, your caterer. Yes.  

Mom: He had it set up there. Was it Walt? Was his name  

Tim: Walt? Yes. I remember. Did he do a good job, would you say?  

Mom: Oh, he was good.  

Tim: Were any of Rolf's brothers at that wedding?

No. Just his, were his parents? Yes. Okay, I thought so. But no brothers, huh?

Mom: Well, if they were, I can't remember.  

Tim: I don't remember. I remember the Maloney's. I remember, uh, Megan and Crews. Crews. Megan and Maureen singing. Yes. That was fun.

Colleen, let's see. Where was Colleen working then?  

Probably Buffalo and Canisius. No,  

not then. She didn't work at Canisius until later.  

Mom: No, I mean, this is, she was doing theater. She produced plays before she started teaching.  

Tim: Right. Do you know what year she graduated from college?  

Mom: No, because she graduated after she moved in with Rolfe.

One year. And she didn't graduate.  

Tim: Right away? No. She eventually did. Yes. She got a diploma. I've seen it.

You know, there's still people at Canisius College. Margie met somebody recently who was a Canisius College graduate from the 80s. He said, are you related to Colleen? Margie said, yeah. That woman was such a great teacher. She helped me start the theater program at Canisius College. It's still in existence.

They didn't have much of a theater program. Well, I guess they had theater arts, but they didn't put on productions where the public could come. He named a couple of plays that she put on that they sold tickets to and people came to see. One of them might have been Twelve Angry Men or something like that, I forget.

Margie will remember. And then, you know I remember the guy at Nichols, after they built that Flickinger Theater, at the dedication of the theater, he said, he said, this should be called the Colleen Toohey Porter Theater. She redesigned it from this famous architect. And all these chairs should be This angle should be this, and the stage needs to be a little wider here.

These halls are a little too small. He said it was amazing. That was what she studied, right? Yes. She knew she had some natural growing up here. Must have been the Lewiston influence, huh?

Mom: She started, uh, in second grade in theater. I didn't know that. Really?  

Tim: So did you, did you? Well, I did a couple things. I was enlisted.

I won an award.  

Mom: Being a lawyer isn't it? Being an actor?  

Tim: To some extent. I was, uh, A guy got sick in my senior year. Craig Hosmer, I think. And they had a play called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Remember? Yes. And they, Mrs. Thorne, Went out and got a tuxedo or something and Told me to go home and learn the lines For the dress rehearsal, which was the next day.

But they gave me an award at graduation for the some kind of Drama Award. Had a party afterwards. One of the girls kissed me. I can't remember which one. I mean, it was like a serious pick up kiss. Ann Gillis was her name. Little Ann. Had a nice party.

Dianne Kyle was in that play, remember Dianne?  

Mom: Yeah, well the Gillicks were so damn famous. They didn't have any, any one of them didn't turn out as good as my four, six Tooheys.  

Tim: You think the Gillicks thought of themselves as famous? Yes. I don't think they were famous, they thought of themselves as famous. Oh, that is The Gillicks, it was another Another family like that.

Gillicks and, uh, Well, the Wepners were a little more, uh, down to earth. They didn't have that. Like Colleen's friend. What was her name, that Wepner girl? Bobo? That was one of them. Yeah, they weren't that way, but there was another family, Gillicks, I think. Yeah, all those Gillicks, both families, the Ned and the William.

Mom: They thought they were top so whites.  

Tim: Yeah. Your parents must have given them that. Well, you knew Ned pretty well, didn't you? Not very well, no. No. His wife, his wife's dad crazy. She did, she went nuts on, uh, yes. Uh, what's that TV where you call, you buy things in tv. Consumer, consumer, uh, you know, call this home shopping network.

She'd have 10 deliveries a day. Her kids would have to go to the house and. Take them back and return them. Day after day. Lamps, couches. Curtains, dresses, handbags. There were a couple years that went on like that. So, yeah, she went nuts. And then Ned was out drinking all the time, supposed to be the doctor, even before he retired.

Is it  

Mom: 5 o'clock?  

Tim: It is. No, it's 5 to. Oh. You too warm?  

Mom: No, I'm thirsty.  

Tim: Want me to go get your wine?  

Mom: Yes. Okay. If you don't, Melissa will.