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FROM TOP:

1~ Maciel family Name History

2~ Costa Sisters: (L->R) Sarah Oliver, Mary Maciel, Anna Matoes, Lena Lopes

3~ Mary (1888-1979) & Anthony Maciel (1888-1958) President, Portuguese Fraternities of the US

4~ Frank Maciel, Their mother Emida(?) de Caldeiro, Anthony Maciel- Faial, Acores, Setembro de 1951

5~ John Maciel, Anthony Maciel Sr., Mary Maciel, Anthony 'Mickey' Maciel Jr.; 229 Mauran Avenue, 1940

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FLORIDA HOUSE

Just prior to this Odie and I sold our interest in the Florida property in Naples. When we purchased the home there in 1986, the owners of the property sold only to a senior citizen over 65 years of age. Sometime later, the Florida legislature passed a law which in effect declared that restriction on age was illegal. But this was several years after we purchased our home and we lived there for several years where all owners were over 65. After being there for about 10 years, we found we were attending more funeral affairs at the clubhouse than parties. When Odie’s best friend died we decided it was time to leave. We later wished we hadn’t called it quits at that time since we had to find a home and it was just as bad up north, we were beginning to lose many of our old friends up [there, too.] As of this writing, August of 2009, Odie and I are the oldest couple of our old gang still alive.

MAURAN AVENUE HOUSE

In 1996 Mickey and Margaret were living in the Mauran Avenue house after my parents died. By my parents will, their properties in East Providence and in Bristol were left to Mickey and Margaret for their lives, then to come to me after their deaths. I received a call from Mickey. He stated that they were having financial difficulties and suggested that we sell the Narrows summer home and split the money. But I and Odie had talked about the place for a summer home, and I suggested that he give up the Bristol property to us, keep the Mauran Avenue home and take out a reverse mortgage on that property, to which he eventually agreed.

JOE AND MARTHA FOREJT

At this point I will make a note of our relationship with the Forejts. When Joe and I left for overseas, Martha had invited Odie to visit her in Harrisburg, which she did, and they became very friendly. Then while we were living in the North Kingston condo after we were all retired, we received a call from them and that they were planning a trip to Nova Scotia and asked us to join them. At the time Odie and I had talked about buying a motor home and I asked if he had any experience with one. He told me that for a few years with some friends, they rented one to go hunting in Montana. He suggested that we rent one and join them on their trip. It was a great trip and the forerunner of other trips to the Grand Canyon and other Western parks, to California and also Hawaii with them, and Canada.

DAVID AND JAY

David, born in 1957, after St. Raphael Academy, started at Providence College, but became ill and dropped out before completing his freshman year. He, too, like Carlos, was very interested in water skiing and went to school in Florida, eventually graduating from Florida State University where he was active on the water ski team.

Jay, after Moses Brown, went on to Boston University and after his graduation worked for a local insurance firm for a while before transferring to State Street Bank in Quincy, MA. At some point [1984] Jay won a trip to California for two and he and David went together. As I understand, Jay took in all the events guaranteed by the trip but David fell in love with California and wanted to stay “on the beach.” He eventually came home but made plans to return to California, which he finally did. Later he married Diana Bell and they had a daughter, Sierra Isabella on December 10, 1990. David and Diana eventually divorced, but Sierra at this writing is living with her father in California.

At this point I feel there is very little that I can add about the four boys. They are all away from “home” and have their own lives to record and I will recount little except some items that relate to us.

CARLOS AND PAUL

Carlos had been named after a son who had been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cardanha, and died in infancy. After graduation from Providence College, Carlos began working at the Furniture Store. As a matter of fact all four sons helped out at the store during the summers when they became old enough to work. Carlos expressed a desire to learn how to install linoleum, tile and carpeting and we had him go to an Armstrong school, and he became a good floor covering mechanic. He had always been active in water skiing and had been a member of the Lincoln Water Ski Club, and eventually became active in the American Water Ski Association, and later became a representative of a water ski boat manufacturer.

In 2009, Carlos was honored [for his lifetime contribution] by the Water Ski Association for his many years as a judge and a boat driver. [Carlos had become the youngest to attain ranks of Senior Judge AND Senior Boat Driver.]

Paul graduated from East Providence High School in 1969 and went on to Wentworth Institute in Boston. He was very interested in computers (of which I have NO knowledge and why I am not able to put down on paper exactly what he does.) While in Boston he worked part-time at a “computer” company nearby, and quit school before getting a degree after he was offered a job. He changed jobs (for better pay?!) and as of today (2009) he is working in San Jose, CA. His company has had him [go] on trips to Europe and Asia. Why? I don’t know. Apparently he knows why and likes it.

In 1972, Paul married his Bristol sweetheart, Claudia Cameron, and they have two children, Jonathan born November 23, 1972, and Bethany, born May 10, 19??.

Jonathan and Bethany spent their summers in Bristol Narrows in the water. Jonathan eventually attended boat building school in Maine and is presently working in the boat building industry in Salem, MA, and married Amy Brown in November of 2010. Bethany eventually found her way to Boulder, CO led by a college classmate and is now a hairdresser.

9 RICH STREET, RUMFORD -> 16 BLAISDELL AVENUE, PAWTUCKET

Shortly before we moved into the Rumford home David was born on September 10, 1957. Though Carlos had been admitted to St. Margaret’s School, when it came time for Paul to start school, there was no room, so he started school at Bay View, then transferred to St, Margaret’s in his second year. Jay was born on May 29, 1959 and both David and Jay started school at St. Margaret’s.

We stayed in Rumford until 1970, after Odie’s father died. Serafim Cardanha died on July 16, 1969 while Odie and I with Carlos and Paul were in Portugal. While at Lisbon at the home of her cousin Regina Quintanillo, the phone rang and to my surprise, she said the call was for me! It was Mickey with the news of the death of Odie’s father! We immediately made plans to return home. If the call had been a half hour later, we would have been on our way north to visit Coimbra [and] Oporto, but with no definite plans as to where we would stay!

After Odie’s father died her mother decided to give us the house at Blaisdell Avenue in Pawtucket. She decided to move to a first floor apartment in a house on Clyde Street that they owned, but she asked us to take over her family home. None of the boys, nor I, wanted to leave Rumford, but Odie convinced us to do so. David [entered] St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, and Jay went to Moses Brown in Providence.

In the meantime Carlos graduated from Providence College in 1970 and married Lynne Freberg, daughter of Carl and Rita of Seekonk [MA] whom he had met at East Providence High School (after his first year at LaSalle Academy.)

Pawtucket to Rumford

While this was occurring, I think her parents were trying to think of some way to get rid of us! Shortly afterwards, they gave us a deed to the property at 683-685 Armistice Boulevard [in Pawtucket.] We made some changes there and stayed until the fall of 1957 when we built the house at 9 Rich Street in Rumford. By this time, Paul had been born on July 28th, 1951, and David on September 10th, 1957. Carlos in the meanwhile after a year at St. Teresa’s in Pawtucket had started at St. Margaret’s and for a while he lunched at the Keough’s on Mayfair Drive. (Joe Keough was a P.C. classmate and Virginia Keough had also graduated from Regis College, and with Odie had been active in the R.I. Regis Club.)

The Keoughs had introduced us to their neighbors, Charles and Phyllis Kelaghan, who had a son Bobby, who was in the class at St. Margaret’s that Carlos entered. While we were still in Pawtucket, Odie, with several other girls who had graduated from Regis, had formed a Rhode Island Regis Club. One girl, Eleanor O’Reilly, was married to John O’Reilly, another P.C. classmate of mine. While in Pawtucket on Blaisdell Avenue, we had been neighbors to Dr. Bill Casey and his wife, Mary, who was an E.P. girl, whose brother had been a classmate of mine at East Providence High School. Mary was also a Regis girl. Virginia Keough, Joe’s wife, had a sister, Helen, who lived in Rumford with her husband, Ray Keough (no relation to Joe.) Eleanor O’Reilly had a brother, Charles Kelley, married to Betty. He was also a P.C. grad and a very good friend of Dr. John Cunningham, and Charlie’s classmate, who later became our family doctor, and also a good friend. These people were all the members of a good gang, along with the Landry’s and the Leddy’s, who also lived on Mayfair Drive. At this writing, March 2006, the O’Reilly’s, the Kelaghans, the Landry’s have passed on, as has Dr. Cunningham, Charlie Kelly and Dav Carroll, another P.C. classmate, whom we introduced to Anne Slattery. Dav and Anne later married. She was also a Regis grad.

In the meantime, we had some good friends in Fall River. Alice Carvalho had been Odie’s classmate at Regis. She had an older brother, John, three months older than I, who had served as a dentist in the Army. After the war, the Navy opened up their officer’s club in Newport to Army officers. John got the information and we joined, and it was the locale if a lot of Saturday nites. Alice married Walter Neves, whose family had moved from East Providence to Fall River, and along with Neeb (Anibel) and Doris Almeida, Joe and Dot Moniz, Al and Lee Zervis, man a nite was enjoyed in Newport. At this writing, Joe and Dot Moniz, John Carvalho’s wife Irene, and Neeb Almeida [and his wife] are also dead. But the memories remain.

Living with the in-laws, but not for long

We were living with Odie’s parents on Blaisdell Avenue when Carlos was born (February 12, 1948), and he became a problem. We found it difficult for him to get to sleep, so we began taking turns walking him at night until he would finally fall asleep. After several weeks Odie and I decided to let him cry until he did fall asleep. We were on the second floor and I remember that he cried for quite some time and Odie’s mother started to come upstairs to see what she could do. I was at the top of the stairs and ordered her to go back to bed, and that he would have to cry until he slept. This continued for a second (and maybe third) night, but it worked. We would put him to bed and he would go to sleep without crying.

Portuguese organizations

Odie’s father [Mr. Cardanha] had been a founding member of the Blackstone Valley Unit of the Portuguese-American Civic League to which I became a member. I had been a member of the East Providence unit earlier, and subsequently was elected president of the Blackstone Valley unit for a couple of terms. I also feel I had something to do with the formation of the Seven Castles Club of the Blackstone Valley, but I never received any credit for it. I mentioned one day at lunch with Peter Pimental that the area should have an organization of professional and business men of Portuguese extraction. A few weeks later Peter called a meeting of some men, but I was not invited. Peter was prominent in Democratic circles. My family had been considered Republicans, mainly because of my Uncle Frank Maciel who had served as a town councilman and state representative from East Providence, a die-hard Republican. I had never participated in party politics and frankly I have never voted a straight ticket in my lifetime. I was eventually asked to join, and even later was elected secretary and then president of the organization for one term.

Later I joined the Portuguese-American Federation, eventually serving several presidents as secretary, and later became a member of the Board of Directors until my retirement when I gave up all such organizational duties.

One incident before I started in the furniture business

The Holy Ghost Beneficial Brotherhood, the organization in which my father had always been active, “honored” me at a dinner, the first Portuguese resident of East Providence to become a lawyer. The president at that time was an active Democrat. I had clerked in the law office of John Murphy, the Republican candidate for governor, who was invited as guest speaker. The club president, Julio Rocha, insisted on having John Pastore, the Democratic candidate for Governor also at the head table. Despite their political “differences”, they were good friends having been classmates at law school. (Their campaign was the “cleanest” to have been experienced.) I was seated at the head table between the two who carried on a pleasant conversation. This was in January, 1948, and Odie was pregnant with Carlos, born in February. Pastore was eventually elected and from that time until we started going to Naples in the winter (1986), I believe I got to meet every RI Governor. I mention this now because I remember that after a golf date in Florida, the four of us stopped for lunch, and somehow the subject came up and I mentioned that I personally knew a string of governors, the other three from other states were quite surprised-neither had ever met a governor!

Laplante’s Furniture Company

In the meantime, Odie’s father had been looking around for something to do and finally purchased Laplante’s Furniture Company. Arthur Laplante had been in business for many years but his doctors had told him to stop, and he died a few years later. He had started as a floor covering store in a small shop and later branched into furniture. But the business was still great in floor covering and our ads always carried the logo “The Largest Floor Covering Store in the Blackstone Valley.” At this point I must admit that after being in the Army during WWII, I didn’t have the desire about a law career. Four years without reading law books had stunted my love for a legal career. So I started in the furniture business with her father.

While working at the law office, quitting time was 5 pm. The furniture store, less than three blocks away closed at 6 pm, (Thursdays 9 pm and a few years later, 9 pm also on Tuesdays.) I started going to the furniture store, began cashing up every day and when my father-in-law became ill, I stayed on the nights the store was open. Eventually I left the Halpert’s office and worked full time at the furniture store as Odie’s father appeared to be weakening.

I didn’t give up on the law. I had a few cases but I decided to quit when a good customer asked me to evict a tenant who owed her about 4 or 5 month’s rent. We went to court, the judge told the tenant to pay her one week’s rent or he’d be evicted, and to pay back rent. The tenant moved out a couple of days later without paying anything. She didn’t know where he went, blamed me, never paid me, and never came back as a customer! After that all I did besides work at the store was income tax work, as many of our customers were Portuguese or Cape Verdean immigrants. I made many friends by working at a reasonable price, and in the process I learned to speak more Portuguese. I had studied Spanish in high school and at Providence College which helped me, and both languages helped me in the furniture business.

Lawyered up

I started working with a Pawtucket lawyer and had an evening office in the Maciel Building in East Providence. The office was on the second floor of the building that used to house the Maciel Brothers Market. The Pawtucket lawyer, Edwin Halpert, was well known in the collection business and before long I had made an appearance in most of the district courts trying collection cases. Within three months I “won” a case involving $36,000 in Kent County. Some of the lawyers who knew I had just started practicing congratulated me. The only problem was that the defendant was broke and could never pay and we were merely looking for a decision in court for the plaintiff.

While I was taking the bar review course, the two lawyers who gave the course used to check our notes on a regular basis, and both of them had congratulated me on my notes. (I’m not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but my college professor at Providence College had said the same.) But my only claim to fame as an attorney was that the two lawyers-to-be who used my bar review notes became judges, (one the chief justice), and later both resigned because of misconduct in office!

Cardanha & Pires

Some background on the Cardanha-Pires relationship- The men met in New Bedford and sometime later Pires’ sister Zulmira, Odie’s mother, came to the U.S. in New Bedford and after the two men decided to move to Valley Falls and open a grocery store in a neighborhood with factories and Portuguese immigrant families. The business prospered. Because of his fluency in English, Mr. Cardanha was often called to a factory as an interpreter, especially when someone was hurt. This is when he became friendly with Dr. Harry Triedman, and later the doctor’s brother George, who was a prominent lawyer.

Mr. Cardanha started a small loan agency in the store along with a travel agency. After WWI a period of prosperity led to the Portuguese visiting their families in Portugal. Later, during the Depression, Cardanha and Pires were able to acquire properties whose owners had defaulted on mortgages. When they split, Mr. Cardanha made two lists [of the properties they owned], which were about even in value, and offered the first choice to Pires. Pires refused but changed the list so as to have the better properties. I used to collect rents for Mr. Cardanha so I got to know his properties. Later Eddie showed me some of the properties his father had, and I realized that that Mr. Cardanha had let Pires get away with the better pieces rather than to have a family quarrel.

It was Mr. Cardanha who decided to go into the beer business distributing Narragansett Beer in the Blackstone Valley area. It was the bank with whom Mr. Cardanha saved and negotiated who recommended him to run the business. He did all the ground work while Pires ran the grocery business; he contacted and ran the beer business alone for a while until Pires joined him. Mr. Cardanha was the general manager; Pires was in charge of the loading and shipping of trucks. He was also the assistant treasurer so he could sign checks in the absence of Mr. Cardanha. As such he knew that Mr. Cardanha was getting a larger salary, but he was happy with what he earned and never complained.

Narragansett Beer at the same time was losing its popularity and its sales had been falling. When Odie’s parents returned, it was only a matter of time before the operation of the business, and their relationship fell apart.

NARRAGANSETT BEVERAGE CORPORATION

In the meantime things at Narragansett Beverage Corporation came to a head. While Odie’s parents were on a trip to Portugal, Pires made an attempt to take over the business, but when he went to the brewery he was turned down. As far as the brewery was concerned Pires was a “nobody” that had never been heard from before. (This I learned from a man who had been my father’s salesman for years who later became an officer of the Brewery Corporation.) Lawyer George Triedman, a friend of Serafim Cardanha, showed me a letter he had prepared while Cardanha was in Portugal appointing me as manager with instructions to fire Pires, Sam and Pat, but Cardanha didn’t want to start a big family fight. After is return from Portugal the brewery took over the business and the two never spoke to each other again. Only after Serafim Cardanha did Zulmira Cardanha visit her brother who was very sick and later died.

By Pires’ will Sam got a life estate in the [Bristol] Narrows property, then to Eddie [Pires’] children [Marsha and Eddie], to keep the property from going to Pat’s family. (Pat’s father had borrowed money from Pires, who had a tough time collecting. Sam rented the property but never paid the real estate taxes. The town [of Bristol] was going to sell the property, Mickey saw the ad in the Bristol Phoenix. He called me and I called Eddie, he paid the taxes, and bought out Sam’s life estate. Eddie later told me that he suspected that Anthony Nunes was part of a plot to buy the property at the tax sale to get it away from Eddie’s children! They might have gotten away with it, except that Mickey saw the ad, which only appeared in the Bristol paper and called me!

Back in the Real World

We must have arrived in Pawtucket in early April because I was finally drummed out of the Army on April 10, 1946. I spent the summer working at the Narragansett Beverage Corporation as the bookkeeper. The girl who had the job had planned her wedding for June and wanted to leave the job. Sam Pires in the meantime, was to marry Pat Nunes of Bristol on Labor Day. I intended to return to Boston College Law for my last year and Pat was to become the bookkeeper on their return from their honeymoon.

I can only assume that after Pat started to work on the books that she noted that Odie’s father was being paid more than [Eziquiel] Pires and that information reached Mrs. Pires, who was quite disturbed by the fact. In any event the families were at odds with each other with little contact until after Mr. & Mrs. Pires and Odie’s parents were dead. We used to see the Pires boys occasionally at some affair, but not until the parents passed on that we became friendly.

For my last year at Boston College, Odie and I lived in an apartment on Mount Vernon Street near Joy Street and only a short distance from the Boston Common. The Law School was only a short distance away, an easy 10-15 minute walk. Odie spent a great part of the time window shopping, walking through the Common and eating hot fudge sundaes. Mrs. Pires became very ill with cancer and Serafim Cardanha told his wife to go see her which she did until Mrs. Pires died. Odie often sat with her aunt and said the rosary which seemed to comfort her aunt.

I finished school in late May of 1947 and Carlos was born in February of 1948. I spent the summer taking a bar review course in Providence in preparation for the bar exam which took place in the fall. I passed the bar exam and was sworn in as a member of the Bar in December.

Miami, Naples, New Orleans, and Back North Again

Odie and I had contacted the LaNasas of our trip to Florida and we planned to leave Florida and go to New Orleans for the 1946 Mardi Gras.

On our way from Miami we went through Naples never expecting that at some later date we would own a home there. And even more coincidentally we had an accident in the northern part of Naples that had to be close to where we later lived. Leaving Naples in a rainstorm at a curve on old Route 41 we slid off the road into a ditch. We were able to get out of the car, and fortunately within a few minutes a car came by and they took Odie to a garage in Bonita Springs. There they had a vehicle to pull our car out of the ditch and towed it to the garage. This all occurred on a Friday. A part that was needed would not be available before Monday, so we were taken to a hotel in Fort Meyers where we stayed until the car was fixed on Monday. We never made it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras on Tuesday. And even several years after we had the home in Naples at Landmark did I realize that the accident had taken place practically where the main entrance was located! Incidentally, the hotel where we stayed is fondly remembered by Odie. On Saturday night we were the only ones in the dining room, and there was a small band playing for our entertainment!

Our stay in New Orleans was short. We had a couple of days to share with the LaNasas, and then received a phone call from my parents that Odie’s mother was very ill, so we left immediately and started driving north. I have no recollection of what happened on the way home, except for one incident. Somewhere in Tennessee we had to climb a high mountain. Before we reached the top the car’s motor stopped! A farmer who came up behind us stopped to ask about our problem. He said something about the air being so thin at that altitude that it caused the motor to stop. He pushed our car with his truck to the top of the hill- we were only about 100 yards or so from the top- and as soon as we started rolling down the other side the motor started and we kept on going. The roads we travelled over were only two lanes, but I believe that the hill is the one we travel to get to Knoxville on I-81- now four lanes! I have no recollection of where we stayed; we couldn’t have made it in one day. By the time we got to Pawtucket, Odie’s mom was feeling better.

Click map to make larger.

Not Quite Home, Yet, Then Yes, and on to Florida

Actually my Army service did not end on that day. I did not arrive at Devens until mid-afternoon and a non-com began to process me but was unable to find any officer who could sign my discharge. We finally agreed that I would return to Devens the next day and get my discharge. We drove to Valley Falls, dropped Sam off at his home, and Odie and I went on to Blaisdell Avenue, Pawtucket. We had a meal and eventually went to bed. When we awoke the next day we found the ground covered with about 18” of snow! We turned on the radio, (this was before television), but all we got were notices of schools and business closings and requests to stay off the roads until they were plowed.

It so happened that both of our parents were in Florida and they had rented a room for us and were expecting us to go directly to Florida and at the request of Odie’s parents we were to bring Sam Pires with us. Sam had enlisted in the English Royal Air Force in Canada, eventually shot down in the Mediterranean, and then been a P.O.W. in Italy, to eventually escape when the Italians were overwhelmed. Odie’s parents were Sam’s godparents and wanted to have him spend some time in Florida, and they were already paying a hotel for reserving rooms for us.

I called Devens and spoke to someone who finally told me to come back to Devens on our return. In the meantime we had spoken to the Forejts and they had agreed to meet us in Philadelphia. The snow storm and the promise to spend a few hours with the Forejts shortened our stay in Florida, but for me it was a great pleasure to see our parents and enjoy the Florida weather. It was a joyous reunion for all of us.