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Who am I?
I was born healthy, not wealthy, on July 31, 1943, the eldest son of Virgil V. McCall and Luella May Heath. Virgil V. is the son of Clifford, who is the son of Elmer Allen, who is the son of Allen, who is the son of Samuel McCall and Else Davis. Sam and Else were born in the early 1770’s and settled in Butler County, Pennsylvania in 1802 along the banks of Muddy Creek. Samuel was a Scot, whose parents likely migrated via Ireland to the Colonies. Dad and Mom were born and raised in Butler County. They married in 1940 at Cumberland, Maryland. I was born just 30 days before my Dad left for Army basic training. Dad completed training and returned on leave in December 1943 to visit Mom, at which time my Brother, Denny, was created. Then, my Dad departed for North Africa to join General George Patton, whose outfit would battle the Desert Fox, German General Rommel. Dad’s Thunderbirds would move on to Sicily and to Italy. Dad returned to America in 1945, wounded and with undulant fever, to join his family, now of three.
My Brother, Denny was born September 22, 1944, while Dad was gone. Mom, Denny and I lived in a little house on Third Avenue in Brackenridge, Pa. about 18 miles NE of Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River in the mountains. Once Dad returned, we moved into larger quarters at 301 Cherry Street in Brackenridge. The two primary industries in our area were steel making and coal mining.
From our births until 1949, Denny and I were nearly inseparable. We shared dreams, ideas and feelings the way that twins do, according to some. I do not remember too many specifics about this time frame, but I do remember having had my tonsils removed, an orange-handled Gene Autry cap pistol with holster, the old steam locomotives, pulling the long coal and steel trains through the valley, going to Sunday School and church every Sunday, Easter egg hunts, Halloweening and meager but wonderful Christmases. I first attended Brackenridge Avenue School, which offered grades 1-4, in September 1949. Now for the first time, Denny (The Toke) and I experienced separation, and we didn’t like it at all.
On October 23, 1950, the bomb bay door opened, and the bomb was dropped. None of our lives would ever be the same. Toke and I had hoped for a sister, but a big ol’ baby brother was born instead. We were never to have a sister, as Brent would be Mom and Dad’s last child. I’m not sure that Denny and I liked Brent or not, but I think not, at least in the beginning.
Now, I was in second grade and Denny in first. Dad was now a union worker at the local glass works, known as Liberty Mirror. We would meet Dad at the plant every Friday, and he would take us to Ray River’s Tavern for a 6 ounce coke and a Hershey or Clark bar. He was sharp in all that he did though he only went to the sixth grade. He dropped out then to help support the family, of which he was the eldest son with eight siblings. Grandpap, Clifford, and Grandma, Dora, were Presbyterians and so was Dad, but he hardly ever attended church. He appeared twice to my recollection, when I was confirmed and when Denny was. Mom was the driving force and example, and she is Lutheran, so as such, Denny and I were baptized and confirmed. Dad was hard, cold and stern and had difficulty expressing love. He cared so much but didn’t know quite how to express it. Mom was best at showing love, managing the household and making those old-fashioned meals and home-made baked goods. Both parents constantly schooled us on honesty, respect, manners and morals. There was discipline at home, in the church, at school and by relatives and neighbors.
Dad was a volunteer fireman. He also belonged to the V.F.W., the American Legion, the Oregon Club (private local club) and others. When Christmas came, we attended many parties, and during the summer, we went to many picnics. The church had picnics and parties too and so did the factory, where Dad worked. There were fantastic family reunions at Uncle Bub and Aunt Ruth’s place in the country near Meridian. Endless, delicious food, games and non-stop laughter and smiles were the order of the day. How fantastic life really was!
Now, I ramble a wee bit about life in general in the 1950’s and about our lives as kids. To tell it all would require hundreds of pages. Living was clean, developmental and simple. Men worked at the factories, plants, mills and mines. Women cleaned house, washed clothes, sewed, cooked and cold-packed. My Grandpap Clifford in fact was a railroad engineer. My picture with him was taken in the cab of a steam locomotive, when I was about six years old.
There was no television in our early years. My Dad got a deal from one of his brothers on a Crosley T.V. with a 12 inch screen, which was only black and white, so we first viewed T.V. in 1950. We only received one station at first and only for several hours each evening. In the 1940’s we listened to “Lights Out”, “Hands of Mystery” and “The Inner Sanctum” on the radio. Early T.V. shows enjoyed were “Kookla, Fran and Ollie”, “Foudini and Pinhead”, “Captain Video”, “The Lone Ranger”, “Flash Gordon”, “Buck Rogers” and “Arthur, buy-em’-by-the-carton, Godfrey”. To supplement T.V., we attended the 7 cent Saturday morning shows at the Valley Theater in Brackenridge and the Harris and Manos Theaters in Tarentum, Pa. For 4 to 5 hours, it was non-stop Little Rascals, Bowery Boys, Three Stooges, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Lash Laroo, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, cartoons galore and news reels of the Korean War. Candy bars, popcorn, pop and popsicles were each one nickel. We had a party-line phone, on which there were 5 or 6 other families or parties. Mom and Dad had old 78 rpm records of “She’s Too Fat for Me”, “The Blue Skirt Waltz”, “Yes, We Have No Bananas” and “To Each His Own”.
There were no computers or cell phones. Our entertainment was wholesome, free, easy and self-created. We had cap pistols, bows and rubber-tipped arrows, dart- guns, squirt pistols, sling-shots and rifles, which pumped ping pong balls. It seems that we played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers or army soldiers most of the time. We also played pick-up baseball, basketball and football, often with more than normal team strengths, so everyone could play. We shot marbles and collected stamps, coins and baseball (from packs of bubblegum) cards. Mom had Denny and I enrolled in tap dancing lessons for 3 or 4 years. We danced at various schools, hotels and county fairs. Toke was rubber-legged and very good. I was rigid or stiff and apparently stank, according to Mom.
We all had the measles, mumps and chicken pox. I had pneumonia and was badly burned in a gas furnace explosion in the church. Denny had a dozen, broken bones, and I nearly lost him twice, once when he fell from a huge apple tree, which ruptured his spleen, and once when his appendix burst. Because of our ages, Denny and I were close, but in the 1950’s, we were not close to Brent, the little guy. Denny and I hiked the mountains, camped and fished the Allegheny. Brent was too little and basically a pain. Toke and I belonged to the Y.M.C.A., where we skated, played ping pong, dodge ball and volleyball and swam. We rode together on our sled, down the steep mountainsides and streets in winter. We were alter boys, then ushers in the church. We sang in the church choir, played church league softball, belonged to the church Boy Scout troop and went to church summer camp. In those days, there were no drugs and no school shootings, a fag was a partial cigarette, and gay meant happy or joyful. We weren’t perfect angels. We squashed pumpkins on porches and set bags of dog doo-doo outside front doors. We would hammer on said door, run, wait and watch for the owner to exit and tramp on the bag. We threw rotten tomatoes and eggs and occasionally stoned a street light. We also occasionally swiped a Chunky bar from the 5 & 10 cent store if super hungry. There were no porn nor school shootings, and we didn’t use the F-word three times in every sentence.
Denny and I played little league baseball. I played a saxophone for 7 years, and Denny played the trumpet. Most of my school summer vacations were spent with relatives in Butler, Pa. We visited the farms often, where I rode the ponies and picked fruits, vegetables and berries. I helped Aunt Annie to make pies and to cold-pack. Uncle Louie always took me to the Butler County Fair, where I’d watch and bet on the harnessed pacers, and to the Saxonburg Carnival, where we saw the horse-pulling contests. I crafted my very own soap box racing car, but I completed it too late to enter the derby down Main Street. Aunt Annie’s and Uncle Louie’s Lutheran Church made apple butter each fall, and my job was to stir the huge copper kettles. I helped Uncle Louie to clean the church every Saturday morning by waxing floors, polishing the alter brass and vacuuming the carpets, after which we went to town for a brew and a coke, a couple chili dogs and a visit to Kemper’s Saddle Shop. I earned money all summer in Butler by cutting grass, edging sidewalks, trimming hedge, painting and helping the elderly by doing small jobs. This enabled me to buy clothes for school. Mom made most of our shirts, but we still needed pants, shoes and coats. Denny always hated hand-me-downs. We wore spades, penny loafers and saddle oxfords. Our pants had buckles on the backs. We wore clam-diggers, sunglasses and white socks.
The rich kids, whose fathers were doctors, lawyers, dentists and car dealership owners, lived in the Heights. The blue collar families lived mostly in the Valley. We were a mixed bag of Catholics and Protestants. Many of the kids were Slavish or Polish, but there were Irish, German and Italian kids too. The high school served several towns and townships, and of course there were clicks, depending on nationality, religion, previous school attended and location of dwelling. Our high school had no swimming pool, had no tennis courts, offered no golf, had no air-conditioning but did have 33-35 kids per classroom. There really were no school buses and the teachers had no union, just dedication. We said the Lord’s Prayer, and the God-word was still in the Pledge. The Jews and non-believers never made a fuss. How remarkable!
I set up duckpins and tenpins at a six lane bowling alley above the Manos Theater in Tarentum from 14 to 16 years of age before the dawning of automatic pinsetters. In the summer of 1960, I became a stock boy and cashier at the Acme Super Market (Yes, there really was one), where I worked until I graduated in May 1961. Also in that fateful summer of 1960, I met my first true sweetheart, Emily, at the Sunday night dance at the Heights Firemen’s Hall. Denny and I shared girlfriends from time to time, when the pickin’s were slim, but Emily was all mine. My relatives hated this relationship because Emily was a Catholic. I was not.
I had enrolled in the Distributive Education Program in my senior year. This enabled me to have four, hour- long subjects, history, economics and business related English and math, from 800 AM until noon. I’d lunch with Mom and work 100 PM to 900 PM at the Acme. After work and on days off, I often went to see Emily. Her Dad would pick me up, as I had no vehicle. The times were absolutely great, but soon our lives would change, especially mine. There would be no more flying of remote-control model airplanes. Denny and I would no longer hollow out the Buckeyes, fill them with salt, pack the holes with mud and throw them into the fire to watch them explode. There would be no more scaling the cliffs by rope along the river, exploring the caves for old arrowheads. We would no longer build rafts in an effort to reach the island in the middle of the river. We would no longer sleep on the porch during the thunderstorms. Denny and I fought each other nearly every day of the week about something, but when anyone picked on one of us, the other was always there to help. I would give anything, probably even my soul, to return to those days. Fortunately, we were raised with love. It saddens me that I never got close to Brent, while I lived at home, but today love still guides each member of our family. Now, I am very close to Brent too.
This page is reserved for the remainder of my autobiography, which is being developed.
This page will include information regarding:
Ancestry
Heritage
Childhood
Primary school years
Higher Education
Military Service
Job History
My Two Families
Business Ownership
Pastimes & Hobbies
Clubs & Organizations
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