PhilaPlace

The George and Mary Endres Family

1809 Sigel Street

I remember when . . .

to me it seemed like it had snowed for days at Sigel Street . . . and while other children were allowed out with the excuse to shovel their pavements after the storm and with the snow dust blowing from the roofs . . . Mamie was still cautious . . . it had to stop snowing completely before we the younger of the family were permitted to go out . . . by we . . . I mean my sister Cassie and I . . . Eleanor was too young . . . and Agie was at that time hanging on to sister Mary’s dress, a helper . . . . George ran the errands and Frank helped McGary at Lits (Lits Brothers’ Dept Store Phila 9th & Market) . . . Elementary training at Ranieri’s butcher shop, followed by a rugged apprenticeship at Wiles on Snyder avenue, began a career for Joe that was to take him to Chicago later on in life . . . this I believe was the picture of the Endres family at that time . . . I’m trying to recall in memory the day that Cassie and I were bundled up and was told to go and play in the snow covered street . . . that we did . . . Catherine Richardson, Mary’s closest friend was there to watch over us . . . But there were tears at 1809, joyful tears I guess . . . cause my little brother William whom I can only remember as something breathing and something, sometimes crying under a bundle of blankets in a crib at the foot of the bed, passed away (May 10, 1923) . . . . When I asked my Pop where William was going, he said to Heaven and pointed upward . . . I was made to understand at that time that snow came from heaven and I gathered that something as pure and as white as snow was destined to replace all that had fallen during that storm . . . I kindled at that time a deep love for children . . . which I hold to.