Growing up. The early years

Joe,Bill,Jack,Gene

The month of July 1934 was a hot one. 25 out of 30 days hit over 100 degrees. Can you imagine what is was like to be 8 months pregnant with 3 children, Gene 6, Jack 4, and Bill 2 years old with me on the way. The only air conditioning was a hand held fan. I was born in a house on Iliff Ave. on August 6th, 1934. If my memory serves me correctly the house had 4 rooms, 2 on the first floor and 2 on the second floor. The bad news is we only had the first floor. My God parents had the second floor.

In the first month of my life we moved to Dewey Ave. where we had 4 rooms for mom, dad, and 4 boys. I guess I'll never know or understand why we moved back to that same little house on Iliff 6 years later. I went to Ressurection school for the first 3 years and then we moved to Beech Ave., from the time I was 9 years old to 15 years old and I attended St. Lawrence School. When I was 15 we moved to Duebber Dr in Delhi Hills. We had 4 rooms down and 2 rooms up. We thought we died and went to heaven.

There are two of Jack's favorite stories I need to record for future generations.
Jack likes to tell at all family gatherings how he is only going to live to 102 years old and will not be available after 2032.

When I was growing up I had a friend whose name was Frank Braun, his nickname was Dutchy because he was always in trouble. Dutchy's parents owned Braun Bakery at the corner of Iliff and West Liberty. One day he decided to relocate (a better word then steal) 2 cigars. On Gilsey Ave. was an abandoned ice house. Back in the depression people had ice boxes instead of refrigerators. We decided to smoke the cigars in the ice house. I was 10 or 11 years old. Later that day Jack came home and said the ice house burnt down and guess who was seen leaving the ice house. Thank God they didnt turn us in.

Another time Dutchy took some money from the cash register. He was only relocating it. We went up on Glenway Ave. where a Chili parlor had coney islands 21 for a dollar. Dutchy purchased 21 of them and before we could eat any of them he remembered that is was Friday and we couldn't eat meat on Friday. It was alright to steal but don't eat meat on Friday.

By the way Jack said he needed me for a Pall Bearer in the year 2032. I don't know if I will be available I may have golf that day so we are looking for a volunteer to take my place.

Until I read Kathy's blog I didn't know about the squirrels in the attic but I remember a squirrel getting in the kitchen on Beech Ave. Mom came to the rescue and got him out. Another time on Duebber we had a rat come up the pipes and into the toilet bowl. Mom got a pot of boiling water from the stove and took care of him. Those were the only pets we had while we were growing up.

Pat almost got arrested in Arizona

Better to read the story here.

Who's the clown in the middle?

Thom

I saw your picture on the new web site I see the two clowns in the masks
but do you recognize the real clown in the middle?

Love

Barb

Lachmann Family News

September has been a good month for the Lachmann family. Michelle celebrated her 20th birthday on the 11th. No longer a teenager. She is a junior at NKU, working part time at Montgomery Inn Boathouse and living in her first apartment in Kentucky. Not my little girl anymore. Her boyfriend Danny is home for 2 weeks from the Navy where he is stationed near Fresno Ca. Watch the reality TV show on MTV "Made" as they tape a show at the Boathouse recently and Michelle had to sign a release in case she appears in the show.

Paul has already been on TV in commericals for WLWT's My High School Playbook. Paul covers highschool sports for Channel 5's webpage. Check out his interviews and highlights on www.highschoolplaybook.com. You have to signin but the site is free. He has his own Press Pass, Camcorder, microphone and new computor to edit his videos for the webpage. Paul wasn't in any hurry to get his driver's license but due to an upcoming school dance has been motivated to finally take the test and passed the 1st time. I don't think he wanted mom to drive him and his date. Go figure. The same day he also landed a second part time job for after school. Best part is that he won't have to work any weekends and it won't interfer with his Channel 5 job.

Bob is staying busy with the upcoming Mt. Healthy Haunted House. Construction started on the 8th and will open to the public on the 28th. One of the best haunted house' to go thru. Check out cincyhaunts.com for special bus tours to 3 of the most popular haunted houses in the area. This is a nice fundraiser for the boyscouts and Knights of Columbus.

I have volunteered my time to help with making lunch for the construction workers on the haunted house every weekend till we open up. A special thanks to mom and dad for preparing the food. Once we are open you can find me working the concession stand every Saturday night. I hope to see you there, its a fun night out.

Getting off track got me here!

I've been scanning pictures non stop for about a month now. I've put everything else on hold, working on getting pictures in my computer so I could store them on the internet in case of fire or a computer crash. Going through the photos has been a trip down memory lane. After starting to put some pictures on the internet for storage I decided to make a site for my parents and mother-in-law. They enjoyed it so much I thought it would be great to have a Monahan site. Hopefully by Christmas, but first I needed to update some family history and get contact information. In the mean time I took a class at the Apple store and learned so much at the class I decided to put the site on the web now and then I could make my changes as needed. Well one thing lead to another and I still have stacks of pictures to scan but I got the site up and running with lots of help from my family. The blog has been a great addition to the photo album I had in mind when I started this. I hope everyone tries to add something.
This is what my art room looks like now. (minus all the dishes I just removed) I can't turn around without knocking something else over. I still have many photos to scan but the biggest part is done. Now I can go back to scanning the rest of my photos in. And when my e-mail pings I can take a break and enjoy "Growing up Monahan"

My Angel, My Mother

Margaret Walsh was the second child born to Elizabeth and Michael Walsh. She had 3 sisters, Mary, Henrietta and Helen 2 brothers John and Joseph. Margaret was born 9/03/08, from that day forward the world was a much better place. She truly touched many lives during her 89 years on earth.

My mom grew up on Ilif Avenue in Price Hill in the early 1900's with her parents, sibblings and her beloved Aunt Mae. She married Frank Monahan. Early in their marriage they had four boys, Gene, Jack, Bill and Joe. After four active boys she must have been very tired because she waited 12 years to give birth to her first daughter, Ruth. She always told us how upset she was when she found out she was pregnant since she did not know how she would be feed and take care of another child. When she finally had her beautiful little daughter, she was happy with her little suprise and her last child. Oops, 1 year, 2 weeks and 2 days later another bouncing baby girl arrived. If she thought she was upset with her first suprise, she was devestated by her second arrival, Kathleen and finally the last child.

Margaret had many trials and tribulations during her life, seldom did she compain and usually had a beautiful smile she shared with all those around her. She never knew how she was going to feed and clothe her family but some how she always pulled thru. We never had steak or anything you could recognize as steak but she always had wonderful meals on our table.

When her sons were growing up they moved into many homes in Price Hill. In 1950 she purchased her first home with the help of her oldest son. Finally a home she could call her own at 1921 Duebber Dr. She lost her husband Frank in 1974 and lived alone until she discovered squirrels in her attic. She decided she had enough of living alone and accepted the very generous offer from Ruth and Dave to live with them.

She lived with Ruth and Dave and their three children for 17 years. She was well, happy and active up until she became ill in February of 1998. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She moved in with me since I did not work outside my home and she needed constant care. I also needed her since I had quilt feelings of not making the same generous offer my sister did. So I tried to cram 17 years of loving care into 4 short months.

She passed away on 8/09/98 shortly before her 90th birthday with four of her children, Jack, Bill, Joe and Ruth at her side. All of her children and their spouses took an active role in the care of their ailing mother in her final days. These may have been the hardest and the happiest days of her life for she was the happiest with all of her children by her side. I was the only one missing that day, hopefully mom had cut out a picture from her memory of me and pasted it in the middle of her loving children.

There will be more stories about my angel mother later and then I will explain the pasted picture.

I have never been able to write beautiful letters or put my feelings down on paper for the world to see but I have made an exception in this case. Please ignore any spelling or grammer errors, you all know that I never excelled in academics. If you don't remember, I have copies of my report cards from St. Dominics. Does any one remember what an "E" was, well I do , I used to get them on my report cards.

Leave a Laugh...Leave a Legacy

Last Thursday Sally and I took a trip to Norwood because it's beautiful this time of year or because there's a magic store and I needed a few things. Bill was kind enough to show us a few of his tricks and that is cheap entertainment folks. Bill is probably in his seventies and has been a magician for most of his life. There was a couple of guys from Dallas in the shop at the same time and boy are those Texans gullible. Seems that the one thing in Texas that might not be big is their ability catch on even after seeing the same trick for the fifth time. But I do digress. Bill showed us a couple of magic tricks that were his own doing and the right thing to do when that happens is to buy them, so I did. You may be wondering about now what this has to do with the title of my blog entry or for the Monahan family as well. I asked Bill if he knew a magician by the name of Wayne Handley and his eyes lit up and a smile as big as a Montana sky appeared between his ears. " Now there was a funny guy", said Bill. Sally never had the pleasure of witnessing Uncle Wayne's red nose nor having to endure his red panty salute but she sure did get an earful of his legacy. The real professionals remember Wayne the clown, Wayne the magician and Wayne the man who could make you laugh when he smirked prior to delivering the punch line. We went to Norwood to pick up some magic, who would have thought the visit would have been so magical. We miss Uncle Wayne but he hasn't been forgotten. Norwood is beautiful this time of year.

Hunter History

Robby-Bryan-Amy-Margie-Bob


Here we are in our Thanksgiving outfits. We celebrate Thanksgiving in Columbus in September, so the decks will be clear for our big November Christmas extravaganza. Actually, this is an old picture, because Margie thought we all looked good in it. Personally, I would dispute that, at least if she weren't sitting here in the same room with me. To use Margie's suggested intro, this is a busy time for the Hunters. Rob just started school at Columbus State, after two quarters at Ohio State-Newark. He says he likes Columbus State a lot better, but after one day, it's probably better to suspend judgment; we'll give you an update on that Nov. 25 at Christmas. Amy is going to Bradford Culinary School and is also working at Sugardaddy's, a small brownie-making company that was enjoyed by celebrity guests of Ellen Degeneres. Sugardaddy's will be featured on the Food Networkin the fall of 2007, at which time Amy will hopefully become a multimillionare. Otherwise, she will finish school, have her internship, and work. She is also only a few hours from getting her degree at Ohio Dominican, which she has told her father she will get. Bryan moved to Denver six months ago and recently got a temporary job at Coors Brewery. He has since moved to Golden, a nice little town snuggled up against the mountains where the brewery is located, and hopes to become a permanent hire soon. Some of us are hoping (OK, probably just me) that Amy and Bryan collaborate on the world's first beer brownie, which could become an international hit. Margie is working 24 hours a day on this website, which is pretty hard to do considering that she still has a job with the Volunteer Firemen's Resource Organization. She is able to do this because they are between projects. As long as there is another project, this is a good thing. Bob is still working as a sports columnist at the Columbus Dispatch, which last weekend took him to Seattle for the Ohio State-Washington football game. There are more games in his future.

Arizona - It's A Dry Heat

Tyler, Pat, Emily, Amy

It's the middle of September and our highs are finally under 100. Tyler is now a junior and Emily is a freshman at Corona Del Sol HS. They've been in school for a little over a month now. Both Tyler and Emily are involved in youth group at church. Pat and Amy are still Realtors. The market is slow, but we're still working hard. It's 10 years now that Pat has been selling homes. Amy is still involved with the local quilting club, as well as, scrapbooking. Pat's gotten into runnning. He has three half marathons finished and plans to run a full marathon this January.

Welcome to the Monahan Family Blog

This is a blog to share news and happenings in your family with all the families that are descendants of Frank and Margaret Monahan. All are welcome to contribute to this blog. Margie Monahan Hunter is the blog admin and with a short email she can add your name as a contributor.

If your grandson hit a home run, we want to know about it. If your daughter is in a play, we want to know about it. That story about the hole-in-one, goes here. Ran a marathon, we expect a race report.

You can even do a daily feature. Maybe an Uncle Jack Joke of the Day. Of course, Margie will have editing rights. You might have to email Uncle Jack for the punch line.

Photos can be added here or in the photo section that Margie is organizing.

Finally, the more people that share in the blog with stories and photos, the better this website will be. Don't worry about spelling or grammar, just post your stories. This is a blog, not a final paper. Just write. If you have questions about blogger or 'Growing Up Monahan' feel free to contact Margie at mhunter1122@mac.com or pat at patmonahan1@gmail.com.


Thanks for stopping by 'Growing Up Monahan'