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SHEA'S PLACE PAGE FIVE

SETTLING DOWN....... On arrival home from the Pocono Mountains, we were disappointed to find that some of the furniture was not delivered. So we spent a week with Helen's Mother and Father. Not good, sleeping with your new bride with your in-laws in the next room!

Finally, we moved bag and baggage to our new apartment. The neighbors were all more than nice and not a bad one among them. We made some good friends there. There were plenty of gatherings with our old friends too.

A month or two later Helen announced she was pregnant, Oh Boy! A honeymoon baby! It took me by surprise, I was happy but at the same time doing some deep thinking......... I was earning ninety cents an hour and Helen would have to leave her job while earning three times my salary. Well, I put those thoughts out of my mind and knew everything would work out all right.

On February thirteenth, Nineteen Fifty Six, our bundle from heaven arrived. A girl! I could write a story just on the subject of that night, when Helen went into labor but I will stick to the facts Mam! Helen and I both liked the name Virginia, so Virginia Ann it was. "Ann" was after Helen's mother. Virginia was a little doll, (still is, only bigger) but we were both new at parenting and nervous as heck. Here she is at about one year.

So, time flies when you're having fun, and it is now Spring Nineteen Fifty Eight and another bundle from Heaven is on it's way. I have been receiving small salary increases and things were a little better. Colleen Marie arrived on April Twenty Second, Nineteen Fifty Eight. The name Colleen was again a mutual pick by Helen and myself. "Marie" was after Helen's aunt on her fathers side. Another beauty she was, and is. (I have to repeat these things or one or the other will be insulted.) But it's the truth anyway. And here she is at about six or seven months.

In Nineteen Sixty, I had reached my fifth year of apprenticeship and we were doing fairly well money wise. The girls were getting bigger and the bedroom was a little crowded with the four of us using it. So, we mustered a little courage and began house hunting. In those days, Queens was out of the question because of the large down payment required by most sellers. We started in Nassau County and worked our way out on the Island to Suffolk County. The further from the city, the lower the prices and down payment. (The down payment was our big problem.)

After months of shopping around we came upon a beautiful ranch in a new development in Commack, Suffolk County. It was a seven room ranch, on a quarter acre. We knew it was for us as soon as we saw it. How could you beat a four hundred dollar down payment, and a purchase price of sixteen thousand, five hundred dollars! I joke, but when I think back, we were a little apprehensive about making those monthly payments, taxes, insurance etc.

In December I graduated the apprentice program and was now a journeyman electrician. In late May of Nineteen Sixty One, we moved into our new home in Commack. By the way, I almost forgot that my brother Bob and his wife Rita bought at the same time and we shared the same moving van.

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