The big girls help the younger sisters get ready for school, fixing hair, ironing dresses, finding matching socks and getting breakfast. We often woke to Mother running clothes through the wringer, then hanging them out the kitchen window on a pulley line that went to a tree in adjoining Mozart Park.
AAA walk
1946
Mama lovingly fits Julie while making these beautiful red dresses with white pique inset.
We lived at 24 Wyman Street in Jamaica Plain from 1945 to 1960,
on the second and third floor, while renting out the first floor to another big family of girls.
1945
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY
“When the O’Neil family gathers around the piano at 25 Horan Way, Roxbury, there’s harmony in family life as well as musical--sometimes. Mrs. Daniel O’Neil at the piano is never happier than when she leading a community sing for her eight lovely daughters. At left, Jane 13 is holding Julie, 15 months. Then there are Mary 2, Diane, 10, Maureen 8, Mrs. O’Neil, Virginia 3, Evelyn 6 and Barbara, 12.”
(INP by Carleton Patriquin)
Mother fit Frances with the tenth dress.
Danielle’s first stroll in the park in Jamaica Plain
Mother creates a hat for Mary June and then works on Maureen’s suit, while Barbara shows her finished pink suit.
Mama made sure all the shoes were laid out the night before so that wouldn’t be any shoes lost in the morning
