Jerome Drive

Jerome Drive is the street where we live. It is a short curved street, just two blocks long. On the south side it begins by Palmer where there were some steps the way a pond that was part Addison Creek. This pond was also part of an exclusive golf course. At the north end, the drive is bordered by Jerome Avenue Fullerton, Fullerton and beyond is a cemetery. In the winter, when the weather was well below freezing, freeze pond, making a skating rink for those who wanted to enjoy the sport. During our first winter in Northlake older kids got ice-skates for Christmas. The following year still put them in time on the needs of the house. The blanket that we brought from our old flat was put on the front room floor to cover the plywood floor. We had become accustomed to working around problems finishing the quarter. More and more just go along with the normal life while working on this site or that. Later in the spring it had a surge of building that was going on around us. The lots were sold and houses suddenly came up in our neighborhood. These homes were finished, and when they were finished owners have just moved in. His only task was the settlement of their membership. In what seemed like a relatively short time we had several new neighbors, and they all had children. In January 1955, our new neighbors gave me a baby shower. That shower was a total surprise but very welcome. January 20 we had a new baby boy, Richard. Our neighborhood had felt good to a close and supportive community. Now it was time for me to learn to drive the car, so that could relieve Nacho to take me to the store or elsewhere. He had been giving me lessons for several weeks or more. One morning I needed to get to the store, but would not leave Nacho bed. He had a hangover from its Friday night, "end of the week" rejoicing and had not yet received my license. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I took the keys, got in the car and off I went. When I got to the store, my knees felt weak. I had to calm myself down a bit before walking the car. It was a nervous wreck for a while, because I could not believe I had really driven the distance only. That was the first time I drove without my instructor. When I went for my license, the inspector congratulated me on my driving. He wanted to know where he had taken lessons. When I told my husband had taught me, he asked if we still married. I said, "was itself only a close call." After I got my license, Mickey Ventrelli and I took turns driving to the store grocery store to do our weekly shopping. During the summer of 1955 Nacho sister, Jean, he came to spend a little time with us. While Jean was here she took Jeanette and Cynthia to shows and did some shopping in the loop. All had a good time together. She stayed with us until September, when we had a heavy rain. After the rains, she was ready to go back west before the cold and snow came - just like his brother used to do. This precipitation also resulted in the flooding of most streets and yards around us. However, we had only a little water in part of our front lawn to the side of the street. The selection of the portion of Nacho had proved to be wise after all. Shortly after the flooding, the city put in retention basins to catch rain and to prevent flooding. Just before the winter set in, my sister Sophie and her husband came to see us. We had not seen for a long time. She had gone with her husband, Bob, to Massachusetts to meet his parents. They had come back and celebrate the Christmas holidays together. In the late spring and early summer of 1956, the largest project was raising the roof to enlarge the rooms upstairs. The rooms had to be enlarged enough to accommodate two bedrooms for boys and for girls bedroom. We also added a bathroom very necessary, adding a little more work for Nacho. Although the carpenter made the roof up and included, again, did deliver the site Ignatius, floors, and wall finishing. When were the two by four studs to denote where would the walls of every room, our son, Stephen, decided to play fireman. He rose stud and slid down to catch a bad splinter in his thigh. That was our first death. We had to take him to the hospital where the splinter was removed, he were given a shot of immunization and the wound was dressed. The rest of the year was spent just those bedrooms and new bathroom. It took a little longer to finish these rooms because Nacho still working nights at the Admiral and television repairs in the neighborhood. With all this going on, work on the house was done with "I end up later" attitude. Some years later we did the garage building. Nacho then had learned the proper way to build a strong bank. He immediately set about building their workbenches in the garage, where he was able to fix a television chassis worktable with confidence. Once he had a shop where he could work on his projects, he began to relax a little and enjoy their accomplishments. By the time the garage was built, repair television changed. They started using something called the "chip" instead of the tubes. To that point, Nacho felt he had done enough in repairing television. With that in mind, he marked the end of his TV repair, except for some customers who still had old systems with vacuum tubes. In 1958 we added another baby boy, Thomas Alvino, our family. He was born at the winter solstice. Our last addition to the family was our baby cousin, a girl named Gloria born August 3, 1960. Another change was the closure of Admiral Corporation in 1957 when he was forced to Nacho to find other employment. The positions were announced electronically but they were mostly out of state or far away places. Nacho did not want to move about the country. Since he knew electronics, he went to the electrical connection in hopes of finding such a position. Nacho time joined the union and became a full-fledged electrician. That, however, was a big change for him. He had to work in a totally different type of environment and make a different kind of work. The electrician being was not as specialized as the electronics work he had done in the admiral. In this new work, he had to use the work gear and a hardhat. This kind of work was timed often dirty, and had to be done in the worst conditions and in all kinds of weather. This change also affected our lives in the country. There were times when work was slow and he was fired due to low precedence. This would lead to bouts of depression, which affected the whole family. However, as he continued to work, and while he won precedence Union as an electrician, he stayed the course until his retirement. In his best days he focused on his plans to improve our home. Looking forward to these future plans was important to him. After the garage was built he had plans that only he knew about. During the summer, he often would take out your tape measure to measure and record on the back of the house. When he is asked, "Why it is it measured?" he would say, "I have a plan," and he seemed happy with it. In the meantime, the older boys had discovered strips yard by the makeshift operating base. That was his baseball field. One end of it worked on a maple tree, and this was where the second death occurred. Roberto hit a ball and Steve ran after him and the piece of a tree branch. The branch just missing his eye, but he caught the ball. That was the second close call for Stephen. Outside that our backyard was a nice place. Friends and relatives often come to visit. We had a picnic bench, the children made their swing set and all seemed well with our world. When the children were older we bought a camper and went on camping trips for several seasons. The family outings were eventually discontinued when children began high school. With Tom and Gloria growing older and growing older children in their teens, the house began to get a bit tight. It seemed that we need more room. With this attempt were to look at new homes, checking to see if any were larger or more spacious than ours. Households that we saw were not more spacious and were very expensive. Prices of homes had gone up in the past ten years. Apart from that, Steve swore he would not move from our current house even if the rest of us moved. He loved his high school, and all he was doing there. That, however, was the least consideration since he would not have had much choice. Since we found nothing to our satisfaction, we decided to build out and extend the back of the house. That had been everything from Nacho plan ahead. That had been his reason for all measure. He had been planning on building extension for several years. We had looked at new homes, but that might be due only get ideas and perhaps to accept the challenge. Nacho was ready to get to work again. This time would be a big project in which he would be the supervisor. This calmed the fears of Steve