Do you have any children?

Yes, I have sixteen; eleven boys and five girls. Well I have a couple that are priest, some are married, some are teachers, some are just getting married

Do you have any grandchildren.

I have 28

28? Do they live in the area, or no?

Most of them, surrounding Worcester.

Where did you live in Worcester?

I lived on Millbury Street, originally when I was young.

When did you move from there?

Well, I moved from Millbury street when I got married, and then I moved to Paine street, which runs parallel to Lincoln.

Was your husband from here too?

Oh yeah, um hm.

What was his name?

Pardon me…

What was your husband’s name?

Richard Riley

And you’re Marie, right?

Um hm.

You were a nurse once you graduated?

I graduated in 1950 from St. Vincent’s.

So during the war, you were at school?

No, I was graduated by that time.

Who’d you live with?

Well, he was away, so I lived by myself, we had our own place. Yeah, at our home on Paine Street.

Did you have any kids by that point?

No, not at that time, no.

And when was your first child born?

Oh Richard, oh cripe, Richard is fifty…, hm, I married in 1950, I don’t know I had a child every year.

Sixteen children? Wow.

Yup. Every year.

Ok, let’s see, when were you born?

May 14, and that’s in 1927.

So you lived through some hard times before the war started?

No, it wasn’t that bad. It’s all what you get used to in life. You know, and of course, I am a really faithful Catholic, so to me the biggest thing is my faith

I go to Holy Cross, so the Jesuit tradition is big there; which nuns did you say ran St. Vincent’s?

The Sisters of Providence were the ones that ran it at that time.

Let’s see, I guess I should get into questions about what life was like here during the war.

Oh, God, I hope I remember…my memory is not as good as it used to be.

That’s ok…(shared laugh) So you were working at that point?

Yeah, I was working as a nurse; I didn’t go into the war, but I worked as a nurse during the war, during the war. I had relatives that lived near here, I’d have a baby, then go back and do nursing, and have another child, I had one every year, so…

Wow, and you still worked? 

That’s amazing. Did your wages change at all once the war started? Or did you get paid around the same before, after and during the war?

Well, they were, I think they were fair, I never complained, you know?

Did you notice that they changed at all? Like did they drop?

No.

So, in the 40s and 50s, were your wages lower because people were all joining the effort, or..

No. It didn’t matter to me anyway.

No? Ok. 

I was happy with what I had.

Ok, and you’re Catholic, so you attended church regularly at that time?

Oh, always. From the day I made my first Holy Communion. 

Yeah?

Oh yeah.

What church did you go to then?

St. Vernon’s; it’s over on Lincoln Street.

Let’s, see…

Do you know where Lincoln Street is?

No, I don’t think so.

No? Well, it’s, my street, Paine, runs parallel with Lincoln.

So you’ve lived on Paine street since the War?

Oh yeah.

Same house?

Oh, yeah, cripe, I’ve lived here since, and previous to that, when I was a child, I lived on Millbury Street, then when I got married I moved to Paine.

Oh, ok; fifty years on the same street, wow.

Yeah.

Are you close with the people on your street; your neighbors..

(Motions as if to say excuse me)

The people on your street? 

(Still cannot hear me over the music)

Are you a close knit community?

Close? Most of the people yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah?

Oh yeah, very few of them have moved away. It’s still like the old gang.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

And do a lot of your friends from school still live in Worcester too?

Oh, well, I haven’t contacted them for years; we haven’t had many get togethers…

No?

‘Cause at this age, ya’ know, of course I’m in my 70s now.

Yeah, I just figured that maybe…

I’d see or hear of them once in awhile, but no get togethers.

Right, right. So what’d you do for fun during the war? I know you lived alone, so…

Well, what I did for fun was, of course when I became a teenager I went to Johnny Heinz’s, do you know what that is?

No…

Well, it’s a dance place in Worcester, and let’s see, I went to the Royalto Theatre, which is over on the, one of the oldest theatre’s in the country I guess…(laughs).

Was it a movie theatre or did they show live shows?

No, yeah, it was a regular movie theatre, yeah.

Ok.

The Royalto, we called it…in fact, I have an uncle, on Harding street there’s a square, for veterans, it’s called Grabowski Square…

Ok.

My mother is Polish. My father is Italian. What a mixture?

(shared laugh)

So I have an uncle, who’s, we call it Grabowski Square. Yea, my father was Italian, but there’s a square named after my uncle, they call it Grabowski. (spells it).

So that’s your mom’s side? Your mom’s brother?

Yeah, well he was in WWI, so, I guess he was killed, you know?

So you didn’t know him?

No, ‘cause I was too young then.

That’s interesting that your family has that…

It was nice to see they named a square after him…but you know, WWI, that was a long time ago, (shared laugh again)

Yes it was, so where, were the dances at Johnny Heinz’s like USO dances, or were they just…

The dances were USO, or whatever was going on in the country or the world at that time.

Yeah?

Everybody, most people went there in Worcester. Yeah, they had bands you know?

Yeah…

Old bands, and we enjoyed the music…old-fashioned music really.

Yeah…what kind of music did you like then?

I liked the popular music, yeah.

Did you like to dance?

Oh yeah…

Was it fun?

Positively. We used to go dancing there, and that’s where I met my husband, and…

How old were you when you met?

Oh God, well, of course I had gone to nursing school first, but I don’t know…

Let’s see, I don’t know if you remember or not, but did prices go up during the war?

Oh, the prices?

Yeah. 

Ice creams were a nickel. You could go to the Royalto theatre for 11 cents…

11 cents?

Yeah, everything was low. I can’t remember the exact pricing, but to us it was a lot.

Right.

Because you didn’t make that much money working as you would today, what you make today, so you know. You didn’t have to be rich and you could still enjoy yourself, you didn’t have to be rich to still live comfortably. Enjoy your family and your friends or whatever, it didn’t matter how much money you had.

Yeah.

And I’ve always had a good life. I thank God everyday for that. My faith is the biggest part…raising my children.

Sixteen children…

I have two sons that are priests.

Yeah…around here?

Yeah. I had a couple that are teachers, the others are, Kathleen, and I had another daughter that are nurses.

Oh, so there are nurses too?

So they did well. There are so many children, they came out well. They really did. You don’t have to have all the money in the world to enjoy life, you know? 

Yeah.

We were happy with what we had…that’s why to this day I enjoy it, (laughs). But I have a lot of grandchildren, 28 of them.

Are they all nearby?

Yeah, some of them are in the surrounding towns, oh yeah, I see them a lot.

Let’s see, what did you think about…war things…ok…rationing, like ration cards?

Do you mean now, or during the war?

No, then during the war.

During the war, well, I felt that it was something they had to do. What could you do, you know? 

Yeah.

We always had enough to take care of ourselves.

I like talking to you. You’re very…optimistic.

Oh yeah, I’ve had a good life, and at this age, I thank God everyday.

That’s so nice to hear.

You know, my husband’s gone and I enjoy coming up here. It’s wonderful being around people. I can’t see a person, even at this age sitting at home and doing nothing.

Yeah.

Sitting at home everyday and doing nothing, people should come here. They have music, you have lunch, sometimes they have entertainment. It’s ridiculous to sit at home and look at the TV…no way. 

Yeah.

It’s not good for you, you know?

Um hm, so a lot of your friends come here?

I have some, but I tell them all about it. Like I tell the young boy who runs this place, I tell everybody about this place; I tell them to come try it, and think about it. Come to the Senior Center, you’ll love it. And some of them I have convinced, and they do, they love it. 

Yeah…let me see….

(She introduces me to a neighbor of hers, whom Matt has just interviewed a few days earlier…we have a nice conversation about college)

Let me just ask…alright, what did you think about all the war propaganda, like what the government put out about the Nazis and the Japanese? Were you completely behind the government during all of that?

Oh, of course, of course; naturally.

Were there a lot of posters and movies and things to rally everyone behind the government?

Oh yeah. We had to send our sons out, our husbands, whatever, but what could you do?

So you’re Italian and Polish, so none of the German propaganda really affected you?

No, my mom was Polish and my dad Italian.

What did you think about the bomb?

The Atom Bomb?

Yeah.

Well, they had to do something. It’s sad, it’s a sad thing because a lot of innocent people died, but it was them or us, you know?

Yeah. Were you surprised that we had a weapon that could do that?

Yeah, I was surprised, but we had to protect ourselves, you know?

Yeah.

I’m not crazy about war, but it’s you or them.

Yeah.

The thing is so many innocent people get killed in it, that’s the saddest thing about it.

I think that’s how a lot of people feel about it. Thank you very much.

Yes, thank you.