Aunt Rita

What I learned and knew about Aunt Rita

Rita was a timid child. When my mother needed to get her out from underfoot (remember all those other babies) she would send her out on the back porch on Navy to play. There was no playing on Rita's mind. All she could think of was getting back in. She would stand with her nose pressed against the screen door (which was locked) and either cry or wait patiently till she could go back inside.

When I was about 4, (she would have been 8 and Monica 6) the three girls were sent, every Sunday afternoon to the movies. Saturday was housekeeping chores day and Sunday was movie day. We were each given the 12 cent admission as our "pay" for doing the Saturday chores. There were two movie houses (shows) in the neighborhood, The Rio at the corner of Vernor and Central and the Capital on Vernor, just east of Cunningham's near Springwells. The Capital carried mostly Westerns and Horror movies like "The Mummies Curse" and "The Beast with Five Fingers" and was where all the rough kids went. We "nice" girls went to the Rio. When we left the house, we were admonished "Don't come home till its dark."

The walk from our house on Navy to the corner of Central and Vernor was a long one for a 4 year old and I'm sure "Are we almost there?" became tiresome to Rita. So she invented a game to play on the way. As soon as we rounded the corner onto Vernor, we would start looking for the sign that said Rio. Whoever spotted it first would say "I can see part of the R." The next one would say "I can see all of the I and part of the R" and so on until one of us could see all of the R, all of the I and all of the O.

It didn't matter when time we got there, we just stayed for both movies until we came to the part where we had walked in. After we had seen both complete movies one of us would be sent to the lobby to go look out the front door to see if it was getting dark yet. If it was we would go back and tell Rita and she would take us home. I remember walking home in the dark at Christmastime. Many of the store fronts on Vernor had Christmas trees and decorations. And the Western Auto store had toys and dolls in the window.

This went on for years and I remember being nervous one year because Rita was going to turn 12 and she would then have to pay the 60 cent adult admission. I knew instinctively that times would change then. And they must have.

At the age of 12 Rita became quite ill with an intestinal flu I remember her lying on the couch in the dining room (yes, I said couch and yes I said dining room. What we called the couch was more of a day bed on wheels. It had a bed spring underneath that rolled out and you could put the top cushion on the roll out part and it made a suitable double bed for company. This couch also plays a big part in what we remembered about Gabby. What we now call a couch was a sofa in the living room)

Anyway, Rita was lying on the couch in the dining room being visited by the doctor and nursed back to health. We had to be quiet and be nice to her. When she became ambulatory, the doctor recommended that she get away from the city and into some good country air. My parents had just the place. Remember Eldege and the farm in Canada.

Rita was dispatched with her big brother Bernie as her protector/escort by train to Canada. Bernie was 13. Rita remembers him taking very good care of her. He went to the Kiosk to buy the tickets. Made sure they and their luggage got on the proper trains. I think they had to change trains in Toronto. When Rita felt ill on the train, Bernie found the conductor and told him that his sister was going to be sick. Bernie got her to the space between cars where she could throw up onto the ground.

Not long after she got back she was put into the work force and I don't remember much about her after that. I do know that she used to buy me trinkets occasionally and I always looked up to her. She bought me a key chain with a plastic enclosed engraved rose and my name on it and I still have it.