I remember when I was about 7. Karen Casilio,who was 8 and much more worldly than I,and I were on the outs ever since I quit ‘club’and drew some unflattering pictures of her. She must have forgotten all about it on this day however as she offered to buy me an ice cream cone. I wondered what the catch was but thought I’d just play along to see if it was for real.
I had already told her I had no money so she wasn’t trying to trick me into buying her one. So she says…“Ok,wait right here!”Right here was on her grandmother’s porch. Karen walks in to grandma’s house quietly and pretty soon I hear..
“What are you doing you little bitch!”
“I need some money,so shutup you old coot!”That was Karen.
“Not my money god dammit get out of my purse you BITTCHHHH!!!’
Then I heard some crashing,a dish broke and then I heard a thud. Then a few seconds later,Karen walked out very pleased with herself and said ‘Ok,lets go!’.
So we walked about 1/2 a block to the Humdinger. I had a medium chocolate cone and Karen had a combo chocolate and vanilla and my cone wasn’t poison or anything.
But alas,that was the last ice cream cone Karen ever bought for me and the last time I remember hearing ‘grannie’s’voice.
LOL! I remember Grandma Casilio well! When I was only four or five,Nina took Karen and I downtown and we went to the dimestore and she bought a huge set of baby doll accessories. Bottles,diapers,bibs,feeding dishes…It probably wasn’t as huge as I remember it,probably something like you’d get at the Dollar Store now,but it made my heart leap anyway.
Trecking back up the hill toward home,there came Grandma waddling toward us,all 4’9″of her daunting,stooped figure darkened by the shadows of the overhanging brush. Immediately the girls went into “guilt mode”and Karen whispered (as if Grandma was within ear-shot and not half deaf) “Quick! Hide the bag! She’ll yell at us for wasting our allowance!”
We quickly crossed the street and my little heart raced as we continued our climb toward that house with the zig-zag sidewalk that still criss-crosses its way up the green-painted cement hillside front lawn. Grandma stopped dead in her tracks,her gloved hand waved menacingly from across the street and I heard her rickety accent ravage the air. I felt the fear in her granddaughters’frozen posture and nearly wet my pants! Then her eyes lowered toward me and she broke into a wide grin. I have no idea what she said,I probably didn’t know then either,but it ended in a loud chuckle and we all relaxed a little.
I’ll never forget watching those stubby,bowed,black-stockinged,granny-shod legs suspended from her heavy black coat as she continued on down the hill. Or the flowing wisps of white hair lit by the western sun as they escaped the black wool scarf tied under her chin on that summer day!
Maybe all that guilt made the experience of playing with those pink and blue plastic dolly items thrilling enough to stand out in my memory to this day! Maybe that was our reasoning a few years later when we sent your little sister slithering under the fence to steal the strawberries from her garden! That must have been why they tasted so sweet!
I don’t know where you were,but I remember at least one occasion when the tips in Edna Casilios purse,that she’d worked her legs off for at Harrington’s the night before were stolen by Karen (while her mother slept) and spent to treat the whole neighborhood to icecream at the Humdinger! I’m sure Karen was seeking the approval of all of us who were fed up with her BS! I don’t think she ever got the approval,but we got the icecream!
Wow,you remember everything. Harrington’s was my uncle’s restaurant but I think he bought it after Karen’s Grandma worked there.