–Family Stories

The Characters

My oldest brother Larry was the family mastermind and would always have some bright idea that would involve all of the rest of us kids. At the time, there were six of us, (Larry, Mary, Leonard, Me, Dennis, and Sue).

It was Larry's idea to get Lon and I to climb into the center of an old tire and he would push us down the hill into an old dump. Problem was, there were Bears down there. The bears were old and feeding their faces and didn't even bother to look our way. Dad didn't see it that way when he found out. Needless to say, we didn't play at the dump anymore.

When Larry saw a war movie about WWI, in France, he figured that we needed our own trenches to play war. We lived on a corner lot and had a large open field next to it. We gathered up all of the necessary tools, shovels, a hoe, a pick, and started digging. Within a week we had a good size maze of trenches about four feet deep. We went to war and had a lot of fun. But it wasn't big enough, according to the engineer. So, we dug some more. Then a couple of days of hard rain filled it all in. At the same time the owner of the property came by and saw the trenches. He had a talk to my dad and we spent the next week or so filling it all back in.

Another time we were living in a two-story house (on Brest Road). In the front we had two very tall skinny pine trees that were higher than the second story windows. Larry figured out that if we removed the screen and climbed out the window, we could jump to the tree, wrap ours arms around the tops, and the tree would bend down to the ground. He placed an old mattress down in front in case anyone fell or couldn't hang on. Well, to make the story better, my mother had the family Priest over for coffee and they were sitting in the kitchen and as we rode the tree down, we would run through the back door and back up the stairs for another run. After a while, the priest asks my mother; "How many kids did you say you had?"

Taylor Township was almost all farming country and woods when we first moved there in 1954. In the summer when we were out of school, it was his idea to get Dad's axe and go into the woods to chop down trees. He also convinced us to climb up the trees and ride them down as he cut them. My other brothers Lon (Leonard) and Dennis and myself, after a few bad falls got the hang of it. You would climb as high as the branches would allow and then rock the tree back and forth until it started to come down, then you would move around quickly so that you were on top of the tree as it fell. We cut a lot of trees down back then but it didn't matter as the contractors were bulldozing them down anyway and building houses all over.

– The Money

Larry had a Detroit News paper route. My sister Mary had one with the Detroit Times too and together we also delivered the Mellus News on Thursday and Sunday. We had an area over a square mile to deliver and it took a great deal of our time to get it done. In bad weather, my dad would drive us around. We did collections on Friday and Saturday. I remember always carrying 40 cents, (a Quarter, a Dime, and a Nickle), that was the change for a dollar, as the cost was 60 cents. Most of the time, the customer would tip you the 40 cents, which was a great tip. My Mom handled all of the finances and the only ones getting any cash was Larry and Mary. The rest of us had to put our money into our Savings Account. On occasion Larry and Mary would share some of their money or take us to the corner store for candy.

One day while collecting, I had this bright idea. I was standing in the alley behind the store and was looking at the phone poll, it had cracks in it all over. I stuck a quarter in one and when I came back the next day, it was still there. I took it into the store and bought a pound of grapes (10 cents a pound) and some penny candy. From then on, that Telephone poll became my bank when I went collecting. I would put at least 2 or 3 quarters into the cracks and not once did they ever get taken by anyone else.

-The Main Story

My kid brother, James Matthew Mahon was born on the 23 July 1956. At the time we were living in a three-bedroom slab home (no basement or garage) on Katherine Street in Taylor Township, Michigan. My mother stayed in the Hospital for about a week. Dad went to work every day and went up to the Hospital as often as he could afterwards. Mary made the meals, did the laundry, and took care of the little ones. When Dad was gone, Larry was in Charge.

Jim was born on a Monday. On the following Saturday, Dad didn't have to work, so he went up to the hospital early in the afternoon. Well, Collection days were Thursday and Friday, Mom wasn't around to take care of the money, Larry had another brainstorm. So, all of us traipse down to the Hardware Store to do a little shopping. Low and behold, Larry finds these brand-new Machine Guns that fire Caps. You fill the chamber with a roll, close the lid and you can shoot (crank the handle) 250 caps in a matter of seconds.

The hardware had three of them, he bought them all, plus six other cap guns, and five boxes of caps. Not the small box of 5 Rolls, but the big boxes with ten boxes of 5 rolls.

Home we went, Larry said we were going to be Mafioso's and "Go to War". Needless to say, I didn't get a machinegun, but I had two pistols that would pop some caps pretty well. So it begins, it was too hot outside, so we had to fight inside. All of our floors were tile over cement and very hard. We tried the die sequences slow so that we wouldn't get hurt falling but soon tired of that. Someone (Larry) had the bright idea to use bedding and so, out came the mattresses. Now you could do an elegant die in the hallway and not have to worry about the floor. In the living room, we would flop over the chairs and couch in some comfort. But again, as suggested by the wise one, if we flip the couch on its back, you could fall over the front, hit the back cushion coming down and then roll onto the rug. The lamps we put away on the kitchen table, as we thought they might get broke. Which, by some miracle, none did.

The War went on for a long time. We died, and came back to life, filled our cap guns, and totally lost track of time.

About that time the front door opens and Dad walks in. There was a cloud of smoke hanging about six feet off the ground and up to the ceiling. The smell of gunpower filled the room. It looked like LA on a bad smog day. Dad took in the catastrophic mess in the living room and hallway and in a very calm voice said, "Larry".