How to Make a Person

A few years aago Hillary Clinton wrote a book and entitled it "It takes a Village" I bought the book at a book signing event at Books a Million. There were protesters  across the street from the store carrying signs and posters and shouting disparaging remarks about Hillary.They pretty much showed their lack of upbringing and would have benefitted from the book if they had read it. It is a pretty little book and one that I am proud to have on my book shelves.The book 's purpose is to make us aware of the fact that children don't come with instructors manuals. We are pretty much on our own to care and feed them.

The world that I grew up in was not at all like it is today. For one thing there used to be lots of unmarried people in the families of yester year. I for example had three single aunts and two single uncles. I also had two sets of grandparents. All of whom had a hand in my upbringing! We also lived in neighborhoods that interacted with each other and they accepted the responsibility of setting good examples for us to follow.

As we played and moved about in our small world, we felt secure because we knew that the adults would see to it that we behaved and abided by the rules that were established in our community.

As I mentioned above, I hd three single Aunts. Two of them were Mother' s sisters and one was Dad's sister. Dad was the oldest in his family  and his baby sister did not marry until really late in life. She was only 9 years older than my oldest brother , Joe. She was more like a big sister to all of us.(My two brothers and one sister). She was a lot of fun and took us on her dates and  taught us all of the latest songs, "Ja Da, Ja,Da Jada,Jada Jing Jing,Jing She loved us but we had to toe the mark with her! No foolishness and questions. if she said No, we said OK.Aunt Mary Louise was her name. She was Dad's sister. I always wanted her dimples! She was a "flapper":She could dance the Charleston and taught us songs like ,:"It Ain't Gonna Rain no More, No More".All of her  friends loved us too. One of the guy's that she daterd had a car with a rumble seat. My sister Mart and I got to ride in the rumble seat when we went with Aunt Mary Louise. It was so much fun.The two unmarried uncles were Dad's brothers. They were like a comedy team. They kept us all laughing all of the time.


Mother was the only one of her family of ten , that had children. Two uncles married but did not have children. The Aunts never married.. I only mention two of them because the others died before becoming adults. My Aunt Agnus was a twin to Aunt Angela but Angela died before we came to be. Aunt Catherine was the youngest of the ten children and never married.
Aunt Agnus was a school teacher and she was also my God-Mother. She was a gentle, well educated woman. She and Catherine taught us the manners that we needed to live by. We were told not to cut our bread in two but to tear it into two peices. We had to say please pass me... and thank you. We were to sit with our ankles crossed never cross our legs.We took our glove off if someone offered his hand to be shook. We never interrupted when someone else was speaking.We covered our mouth if we had to yawn. However , we were encouraged not yawn in public because it might indicate that we were bored. (We probaly were) We were taught how to eat in public and how to conduct ourselves at all times. I must admit I broke a cardinal rule one time when my Aunt had me out for Icecream and while she was being friendly with one of her friends I licked the dish the ice cream was in. I found out what a big No,No that was!. As I recall, I have never licked a dish again!
We learned some of the other rules of life from our neighbors. If they saw us misbehaving or doing something we shouldn't be doing they were quick to tell us about.it.You may wonder what was left for Mother and Dad. Plenty!We learned respect, compassion, obeydience and what ever else it took to make us good Catholics, and good Americans.

I didn't even mention the school, we also learned how to be good students and citizens by obeying our teachers and pastors.When we got in trouble at achool we were in trouble at home ,also They all had our best interest at heart.

It did take a village to make a person. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to raising resilent children that will become strong ,honest,responsible people.CIAO