Author Margaret Caso writes for her family--first, with her From my Kitchen to Yours recipes from family and friends and now, with Sullivan Street... The Book Description tells it all...
Sullivan Street, By Margaret Caso Sullivan Street is not just an address; it is the name of the memoir written by Margaret Bosa Starrett Caso. She tells about the house where she was born and lived in for the first years of her life. The house is located in Berlin, New Hampshire, which she describes in detail. Her family has always been important to her, and since she is the last remaining member; she has taken it upon herself to describe the house and its surroundings, the city of Berlin, where it is located, and the people there. She describes the City of Berlin and tells about the Bosa family and how they all got to Berlin. There is a section for each member of the family where Margaret describes his/her interaction with the others there. The book is unusual because it is filled with pictures, beginning with the old wringer washer that her mother used that had to be brought out to the kitchen and she had to connect the hose to the sink, and then drain it also into the kitchen sink. here are stories of the Starrett family—the first marriage of Margaret Bosa. Her years at college—Mt. St. Mary College in Hooksett, NH and a picture of the wedding of Margaret and Adolfo which took place in the beautiful room at Hanscom Air Force Base. The last pages are devoted to pictures of the 17 grand-children—10 boys, 7 girls. Some pictures were taken when they were very young and then pictures as older. The last picture is of Rudi Starrett, a medical student at U of Michigan, who with a Sherpa, walked many, many miles to arrive at the base of the mountain facing Mt. Everest.
It is clear that the author's life and interests surround her and her family, and I thought it quite appropriate for her as a member of the Branden Books Publishing company, to document her memories in a photo book, with narrative. Margaret writes as if you had joined her for lunch or stopped by the house and she begins to share her life's story...
My memoir would not be complete without my years of teaching at Reading Memorial High School--27 wonderful years. It was from 1974 when I arrived to be a substitute teacher for Gladys Roberts in the business Department. I had taken many business classes in college. In fact it was my major.
The many large typing classes meant that there are so many in Reading who are young (relative term) out there who learned to type in my class. I also taught Accounting for one year when Mr. Richard Gillis, our Department Head left on a sabbatical. It was a challenging thing to be sure. But I did keep one chapter ahead of them.
It was my last seven years that I remember with fondness because I was allowed to start a newspaper The Orbit and have a journalism class.
It was what I can say was my highlight in teaching. We purchased the Adobe Pagemaker software, which I still use doing the covers of Adolfo's publications.
I would meet with the students and we would, together, decide what they would write about. It could be about an event coming up, a game or a show that the students were performing. It also could be about National News and our opinion of what was happening. Then there was one young man who was interested in traveling--because he had already traveled extensively with his parents. I let him develop his own column...
I cannot tell about RMHS without mentioning my dear friend, Dorothy Woods Quintan. She and I met at Reading early on. She was a Guidance Department Counselor and we worked together on a team--one from Guidance (Dotty) one from the Business Department (Margaret) and one from the English Department (Ellen Gorsey) to assist a group of students that were having difficulty in class...
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Margaret takes the book up to the present, but she starts back in the 1940s about where she lived and shares much about her family members, including pictures, especially of her close and extended families. I couldn't help but think about all of the photographs that we have accumulated, but, now, with so many gone, nobody knows who they are. That compels me to add that Sullivan Street makes an excellent example of the possibility of creating your own picture family memoir!
Setting the story from her perspective allowed her to roam through years of her life--and how and who were part of that life and how they affected her. I smiled as she even included "As part of my new life, I'll tell you about the 3 young men who lived next door..." Of course, it just happened that one of those young men became her husband and makes a great lead-in for the "in-law" family of Ken Starrett, even including a picture of a portion of the genealogy of that family...
Of course, I was most interested about when she met her present husband, Adolfo Caso, and found that they married on May 2, 1999...Their wedding pictures are included, along with one with the "Ferrari Testarossa" which they took on their honeymoon. If you've read some of Adolfo's writings, you may already know about his "baby..." Speaking of human babies, Adolfo and Margaret have 17 grandchildren--a true blessing they both add... and the last pages of the book are pictures of those children. I can't help but imagine what it would be like to have joint a Thanksgiving family gathering, if they could ever get together somewhere...large!
Actually I can, since one of my cousins who, like Margaret, dedicated her time to helping keep the family pulled together... Every family needs that individual, don't you think?!
I realized quickly that this is a book that is a "prize" to have for a family history. When there are multiple marriages in a family, especially, it allows children to come to know the combined members and welcome the connection established forever... And, of course, getting to know the children always becomes fun and exciting as grandparents welcome all of them, no matter from what branch of the family. Note that pictures I included her were found on the Internet. All of the pictures, going back to the 40s and moving forward, however, include family, places, and things...I know you'll enjoy them!
Margaret notes: Her family has always been important to her, and since she is the last remaining member; she has take it upon herself to describe the house and its surroundings, the city of Berlin, where it is located, and the people there...
On Thanksgiving Day, many come together to be with family, and close friends. Margaret Caso has shown us in this book, just how all of us can take the time to record that family life we all share. I enjoyed the opportunity to go through the book, even as a distant acquaintance. Do check it out! Family is Important!
GABixlerReviews
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
from Book Readers Heaven!!!
from Book Readers Heaven!!!
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