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All Is Well Heading Into Our Future of Love, Family and Friends by Mel Downing DEDICATION This book is dedicated to my wife, Evelyn, and my family. Evelyn was the most remarkable and unequaled woman that God ever created. My family has been there for me on every occasion and time of need. With a champagne toast to all, I say AML-AML. Mel (Dad) July 2020 Contents DEDICATION .................................iii INTRODUCTION ..............................1 THE BEGINNING ..............................2 MY PARENTS ................................. 5 UNITED STATES NAVY ........................ 12 RELIGION ...................................21 COURTSHIP .................................26 MY WONDERFUL WIFE: EVELYN THERESE LEAHY DOWNING ...........30 46 GREENWOOD LANE, WALTHAM MASSACHUSETTS ............................38 OUR WONDERFUL FAMILY ....................42 MY CAREER IN TEACHING .................... 47 MY WORK EXPERIENCES......................50 A LIFE OF MUSIC.............................52 MY THREE ANGELS...........................54 PLACES I HAVE PLAYED MY HARMONICA .......56 iv ATHLETIC ENDEAVORS .......................60 IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN MY LIFE ...............79 MY BROTHER AND SISTER ....................83 PLACES I HAVE BEEN .........................86 OTHER PLACES I HAVE LIVED .................88 THINGS INVENTED IN MY LIFETIME ............90 OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN MY LIFETIME .......92 A FEW QUESTIONS ..........................94 I THINK ABOUT ..............................98 v With our first boy, Mike, and first girl, Sue, in 1960. INTRODUCTION Writing a memoir about my life is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. Many people have told me, with all the things you have done and the places you have been, you should write a book. At the age of 93, I decided to do just that. As my wife Evelyn was the one who remembered almost everything in my life, I have had to consult with many other people about dates and places that I had forgotten. Each chapter is just as important as the others. I had a great time putting down my thoughts on the past, and I thank my son, David, for his guidance and editorial direction in making this dream of mine a reality. It has brought back many great memories. I hope you find it interesting and informative. With our first boy, Mike, and first girl, Sue, in 1960. Mel Downing St. Petersburg, FL July, 2020 1 THE BEGINNING On August 13, 1926, Roy L Downing and Geraldine Louise Downing brought forth a son dressed in a diaper. That was me. Melvin L Downing. The place was a small community called Cedarwood in Waltham, Massachusetts. It was here that I grew in wisdom and strength. Playing football in the fall, hockey in the winter, baseball in the spring and summer. I had a constant companion — my dog Brownie (he was a true mutt) — from the time I was three until I turned 20. When I was in the fifth grade, we moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, about 4 miles away. It was a very big house, as I remember, with an underground garage that impressed me greatly. There I attended elementary school, junior high, and the ninth grade only at Brookline High School. From an academic perspective, I did not do well in my classes, but I did excel in both football and baseball. Naturally, my father was not happy about my lack of academic achievement, and in the fall of 2 With my dog Brownie, 1932 3 1941 I was enrolled in the New York Military Academy in Cornwall-on- Hudson, New York. It was a school noted for academics and discipline and was known in some circles as “Little West Point,” situated as it was just 5 miles down the road from NYMA, 1944 West Point Military Academy. It was run by retired colonel named Frank A. Patillo, and he was, as you might imagine, a very strict disciplinarian who demanded excellence in everything we did. It was here that for the next three years I gained the knowledge that would help me in the future. Indeed, I learned many things during my time there, and came to appreciate the discipline and routine that would stay with me for the rest of my life. But I believe the most important thing I learned was that I did not want to go into the U.S. Army. So I joined the U.S. Navy instead. 4 MY PARENTS ROY LESLIE DOWNING My father was born in 1899 and grew up in a hard-working, blue-collar part of Waltham Massachusetts. I don’t know much about his early years, but I do know that he dropped out of school in the sixth grade and sold newspapers on the corner of a very busy street (a location he had to constantly physically fight to keep). His best friend during that time was a boy named Asa McKenna, later became the chief of police in Waltham. He served in the Navy in World War I and was boxing champion of the east coast Naval Training Centers. He eventually became out of the Navy with the rate of chief machinist mate, and he started a moving business with one man — Matty Ellsworth (see photo on page 51). Their logo was a picture of a checkerboard with a simple slogan: “when it’s your move let us know.” He eventu- ally went into the liquor business in 1933. He sold all of the famous brands of liquor and wine, but 5 My6 parents: Roy and Geraldine Downing, 1924 faced problems with bootleggers, who would break through the walls and steal truckloads of high-priced liquor from him. As a result, he always carried a pistol, sometimes two of them, depend- ing upon where he was going. He did very well in this, but he worked as many as 18 hours a day, which eventually contributed to his early death in 1948 at the age of 49. In fact, he worked so much that I rarely saw him during the week at all. Sunday mornings were the only occasions I regularly saw him, and those were usually for a very short time. Although not big in stature, he was a very powerful man — I once saw him move a piano down a flight of stairs by himself. He donated to many charities, and used to give prison inmates a second chance by hiring them when they got out of jail. Although he was very strict, he was known for treating all of his employees very well. My dad was also a great baseball fan. I remember him taking me to see Babe Ruth pitch his last game for the Boston Red Sox just before they sold him to the New York Yankees. Somehow he came to be friends with Wally Berger, centerfielder for the Boston Braves. He was in our home many times. 7 GERALDINE LOUISE DOWNING Born in 1897 in Boothbay Harbor Maine, where she spent her early years, her family moved to Waltham Massachusetts in 1912. She worked in the Waltham watch factory which employed around one third of the city’s population. She had a job working in Halls Drug Store, the largest in the city. She worked at the local hospital as a nurse’s aide (she always wanted to become a nurse). She worked in a big bank working on ledgers because of her beautiful handwriting (a job done now by computers). She married my father in 1924 and was a stay-at- home wife and mother for the rest of her life. To my knowledge she never wanted to marry again. The big thing in her life at that time was sewing. She made a lot of her own clothes and some of mine. She had her own sewing room which was out of bounds for me. She also loved to knit. Every winter I would get a pair of mittens and a woolen hat that came down over my ears. All made in bright colors so that I could be easily seen in the snow. Her favorite things to make were aprons, every mother always wore an apron. Some were real fancy others were for work. She had many friends who also sewed and they would get together every 8 week or two and discuss all kinds of things about sewing and knitting. She moved back to Boothbay Harbor in the early sixties. It was there she picked up a new hobby painting land and seascapes. She had talent that amazed everyone including herself. She would go out in the woods with her easel and just paint what she saw. Her colors were great so she decided to go to the seashore and it is here that she found out just how good she really was. I have many of those paintings she did when she was over 70 years old. In 1976 she moved to Florida and lived in a trailer park in Zephyrhills. She then moved to St. Petersburg in an apartment complex called White Hall. She had many friends there. She took part in all the festivities, and she always loved a party. She really missed not seeing the water so she moved to a place called The Velvet Cloak which was really on the water. Her apartment was about 30 feet from the water. She could look out and see the cruise ships headed out to the Gulf of Mexico. She lived there until she passed away on October 10, 1985 at the age of 88. 9 With Mom 1927, Waltham 10 With Dad in 1929 11 UNITED STATES NAVY I became a sailor in June 1944. I spent six weeks in Sampson Naval Training Center in Lake Geneva New York preparing for my future in the Navy. I qualified for submarine duty, which was my goal since at the time I was told my father was a subma- riner in World War I and I was eager to follow in his footsteps.