Son of a Nun: An East to West Side Story

By Donald Moriarty O'Leary

It took me years to appreciate and a lifetime of memories to reflect, but it only took a glance at my grandmother’s photo hanging on my Kelly green living room wall and within minutes this story started to evolve. This photo was discovered by my mother and I back in 1976, at a vacant relative’s cottage while we were travelling together in Ireland, as told in my first novel “BICENTENNIAL ABROAD: A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE”! In 1920 when mom was only three years old her mother died in the Spanish Flu Pandemic along with her newborn baby as well as the eldest child in the family. Her life and the family’s was changed forever. Mom ultimately entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to become a nun when she was twenty one, but she left four years later (with about three years of college credit). She met dad, had three “rambunctious” sons and we lived in public housing on the East Side, across from the “Iconic” Snowflake Bakery, along with other great local businesses. My mother went up to Syracuse University to complete her higher education in 1960, graduated the following year, when us three were about seven, ten and eleven years old. Then about one and a half years later we moved to the West Side where mom grew up in Tipperary Hill, and on to Saint Patrick’s School!

In this book there are many other stories of family roots, connections, childhood adventures and travels retold from the vivid memory of this one Son of a Nun:)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: Jun 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781977202161

Donald Moriarty O'Leary

I’ve learned much from my many life experiences and writing all of a sudden became a passion in my 60’s. With so many vivid youthful memories, journals kept, photos taken, it is more like a wonderful revolving Time Machine from today:)! The many colleges, places visited or lived and the variety of people or characters were worth documenting first in cursive (LOL) and then in type. Growing up in Syracuse, NY from the East Side to Tipperary Hill (West Side) was very memorable. These past thirty years I’ve worked in commercial real estate at Pyramid Brokerage Company, now Cushman & Wakefield Pyramid Brokerage Company, where I continue to expand my horizons with great people, clients and networking with a unique pubbing style :)!

Book preview

Son of a Nun

An East to West Side Story

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2023 Donald Moriarty O’Leary

v3.0

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Cover Photo © 2023 Donald Moriarty O’Leary. All rights reserved - used with permission.

Outskirts Press and the OP logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MEMORIES: History, Family Mom a Moriarty, Dad an O’Leary, my Brothers , my Children, Cousins, Nephews, Nieces, Uncles & Aunts, Ancestors, Friends & Neighbors !

A REFLECTION FROM A PANDEMIC LOVE

Contents

CONTEXT & TOOLS

INTRODUCTION: From a 2020-2023 Reflection

1.) Home Again -Syracuse, New York USA @ the end of the Bicentennial and it’s almost 1977

Boy it’s great to be back home, for family in particular and reflecting with and about my mother

2.) EAST SIDE STORY: 1954-1963 Looking back at our family’s Early Years living on the East Side of Syracuse at Oak Place and in the Housing on East Fayette St. and a young son’s experiences

Midstate Market, Snowflake Bakery, Barry’s Drugs, and other neighborhood businesses

Adventures and games at Westmoreland Park on the field, in the Woods, at the Cliffs or within the Jungle etc.

Westcott Street, Thornden Park, Syracuse University

Downtown and Beyond and the other direction to Suburban Park Amusements and Rides….

3.) TIPPERARY HILL MEMORIES: 1963-1968

Streets of POETS, WRITERS, PUBLICANS & RASCALS

Burnet Park, the Zoo, Pass’s Field

Marble Farms, Johnny Mantel’s Creek, The Swamp and Pigs Woods

Lewis Park & Little League, Kallet Genesee Theatre, New York State Fair

MacArthur Stadium, Onondaga Lake, French Fort, Griffin Field, Regatta @ Onondaga Lake

St. Patrick’s School/Church

4.) 1968 Summer, Fall and Onward

On to Bishop Ludden High School Fall 1968-1971(through early summer before senior year)

School, Sports, New Friends and Extracurricular Activities

5.) 1977 Revisited

Back to the Present (1977): Job hunting (sort of), work, life and its moments, friends (couple great weddings with Marty & Sue, Tom & Janet)

Day to day, clearly living spontaneously

Getting the Future in Focus

The end of the year will be a Life Changer

6.) 1978

On the Road Again - March to August!!!Off to Florida, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, Guatemala, and Southern California and slowly up the Pacific Coast Highway.

My new home after arriving in San Francisco

First back East to Syracuse for my dear friend Dumbo’s wedding via Washington D.C. with friend Deacon and return via CINCINNATI to visit another friend Tim (All three old friends and former college roommates)

7.) San Francisco, California 1978 & Onward

Friends & ESSENTIAL FAMILY Visitors

Local MAJOR NEWS times TWO!!!!!

Settle in to Live, work, play

The Mission District (living), Tenderloin (working), the Marina, North Beach, Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, the Presidio (playing) and nearby great places Sausalito, Tiburon, San Rafael, Berkeley and further out like Stinson Beach, Napa Valley, Redwoods, Mendocino, Ukiah, Half Moon Bay, Carmel, Monterey, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite etc.

8.) 1979

San Francisco: Richmond District & Bernal Heights (living)

Hiking Trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada-Vancouver, Lake Louise, Jasper, Whistler’s Mt. and Columbia Glacier

A Surprise Visitor when I get back to San Francisco

Back to Syracuse for family visit and Christmas

HEAVEN CAN’T WAIT………………………………………

1980 LIFE GOES ON?????

9.) 2020-2023 WOW…..40 YEARS LATER & FROM A PANDEMIC REFLECTION JOURNAL (March 2020-March 2023)

My book Bicentennial Abroad: A Declaration of Independence got published January 31, 2020!

The PANDEMIC of March 2020, the Virtual World and a NEW Everyday Socially Distanced Life with PEOPLE, PLACES, REUNIONS & EVENTS

PEOPLE:

Friends, family, work and random (HARD TO BELIEVE) @ old and new places, Burnet PARK with folding chairs and walks, Coleman’s TERRACE & Middle Ages Brewery DOCK CONCERTS then the TENT

Tom, Janet, Deacon, Margie, Kelley, Debbie, Kevin, Kathy, Bridgid & family, Brian, Dan, Jane , Andrew, Zoe, Tess, Dylan, Donna & Jim, Mary Jo & Dave, Chuck & Kitty, Maggie & Brad, Amber & Erik, John & Kitty, Dick S., Heather, Dennis & Danny C. (Peter Coleman RIP) Tim K., Tom G., Tracey

All of the people at Cushman & Wakefield Pyramid Brokerage Company and the Widewaters Company and their continued support

PLACES:

BURNET PARK was and is an Oasis, the newly opened Recess Coffee of Tipp Hill, Coleman’s and their adapting early and creatively, Middle Ages Brewery with live outdoor DOCK CONCERTS safely

The TENT at Middle Ages Brewery during the more restrictive times, like the Orange Zone in New York State

The New Recess Coffee in the heart of Tipperary Hill

The STAFF at all these establishments rose to a higher level during these times as well

The brand new Widewaters Company and Cushman & Wakefield Pyramid Brokerage Company building in October 2020

Kitty Hoyne’s Irish Pub at long last with solo performers and maybe more to come (July 2022)

REUNIONS:

Bruges (Brugge/Flemish) ZOOM REUNION from our 1976 Bicentennial Abroad (OSWEGO STATE Program-30 of us total, 20 from Oswego State)

New Year’s Eve 2020 Kick Off (8 calls to follow by June 26, 2022) Reenie, Andy, Pat, Sue, Katy, Patee, Debra, Beanie, Judy, Sue S., Myself, Larry on July 18th and Walter on Sept.5th.Danny H on Jan. 30,2022 and Lisa S. June 26, 2022. Maybe Mike K., Richie E. and Cheryl B on next call, who we’ve been in touch with

Old Friend Nancy T. from Amsterdam 1976 (She recently had her Book published 2021)

SUNY OSWEGO 2021-45th Class Reunion Virtual, I’m not quite as connected as others (my one disjointed academic year Jan. ’75-Dec. ‘75 and graduated my last semester abroad in Brugge in 1976)

Old friend Angie S. from San Francisco 1979-82

Bishop Ludden High School- Principal Leo C., Kathy & Dan G. visit our office Feb. 2020, REUNION talk about 2022- Our 50th in 2 years

The O’Leary Clan on March 6, 2021 World Wide ZOOM!

Connect with old friend Angie F., from Lucerne, Switzerland 1982 and Andy S. (Bali & Switz.)

SISTERS OF THE TRAVELING BOOK with Heather, Barb, Sue and Leslie

Snow Flake Bakery and the Wonderful MEMORIES

You Grew Up in Tipperary Hill if You Remember

Ireland revisited via zoom to CORK in fall 2020, emails and mail LAOIS, TIPPERARY with new and a 1976 acquaintance from RATHDOWNEY/DUBLIN/ UPPERCHURCH/THURLES in early 2022

EVENTS:

United States Capitol Attack

Russia attacks the Ukraine

Daughters move away, but WhatsApp, Face Time…Technology, but still not the same

50TH Bishop Ludden High School Class Reunion

Sadness of a few more passing’s, but memories are forever

70TH Birthday for Tom G. is better than an Irish Wake

Aquarians, Saint Patrick’s The Irish Season(s), Middle Ages Beer Hall Grand Opening, March Madness, Indictment and New Attorney, etc.

IN MEMORIUM- Ann Nancy Moriarty, a Sister, Daughter, Nun as Sister Mary Malachy Moriarty, a Wife as Mrs. Arthur O'Leary and then MOM

Grateful & Thankful

REUNION FOR ALL FROM 2020-2023!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But for the sake of HUMANITY and SANITY, I want to end this story before something else happens and for some degree of closure for the original reason I wrote again at this time, which was a REFLECTION of My Mother, Family, History and Growing Up ! Starting this in April 2020 and finishing in April 2023, seems to be about right, but with hopeful caution moving forward !

Context & Tools

One of the best and or smartest things I’ve ever done in my life was to record some life experiences as I was in the midst of them, or shortly thereafter in a journal. I would capture moments, places and people with a camera, whether using an instamatic or a 35MM camera and at times drawing/sketching scenes or places. Now on to today with a digital camera or I-phone, but I still like a personal touch with a sketch or two!

I’ve always been a sentimental historian I guess, being the youngest in my family and always very observant and looking up to my elders. I started drafting a family tree in 1983(forty years ago) when I returned to college to study architecture and my dad literally went blind after my first semester. He needed eye surgery for a cornea transplant at eighty years of age. During his recovery after the surgery, I would call our relatives and he would talk to them about everything and get their current family updates .Listening to dad’s conversations with his nephews and niece, sounded like he was that young Uncle Art from the stories we heard and a total character from the past.

I started writing originally in 2012, what became a published book in 2020 and now up through the present with reflections from the past being the main life source. I couldn’t help but dig deeper with the soul of my older self, but with the spirit of that previous youth embraced !

To be back in time in those many eras and that age again, where I was involved or the spirit of my ancestors was not hard to escape to ! After all I’ve told numerous people that whenever I read my previous journals and started to write the book, that I felt so in those moments, with those people and in those places, it was EXHILARATING LIKE A TIME MACHINE!

In the final chapter, how everything evolved in this New Normal and how we coped and continued to cope, from mostly my own personal point of view through reminiscing and experiences in the world around me 2020-2023!

My mother’s early adulthood included a four year stint from 1938-1942 with a prominent religious order to become a nun, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, New York.

I always thought her decision to go in to the convent was partly to escape where she was coming from, partly a higher calling and finally/smartly to extend her education at a college level (Intuitive) !

Luckily for me, my brothers and our father, that she made such a strategic life reversal by ultimately leaving the order.

Bringing it all together with a personal spin on our family, history, roots, upbringing, ESPECIALLY with a strong emphasis on my mother’s quiet but profound legacy for us as a person, woman and mother !

Introduction

WOW, LOOKING BACK from the eyes of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC really puts a different perspective on what’s important in life!

I started writing this new book today April 11, 2020 as a means of my own distraction and within this new found Universal Isolation! A funny aside, my daughter moved back from Kentucky a day ago and shared her remaining stash of toilet paper, there’s a shortage you know !

Also, a very close friend recently suggested that I should get on to my next book and follow-up to Bicentennial Abroad: A Declaration of Independence(published January 31, 2020) for my own benefit as well as he looked forward to reading about my follow up adventures.

It would be lacking in support of context, if I didn’t dig deeper within my own earlier roots, my bond with my parents, brothers, a background of youthful events, friends, characters, places, neighborhoods, adventures, and misadventures (hundreds it seemed) for the sake of history per se’ !!!

A key to my life besides giving birth to me, was my mother, her challenges, history and her quiet and caring demeanor, with a strong work ethic, family first focus, respect for others and truly endearing love.

This pandemic made me look back and recall how my mother lost her beautiful Irish born mother, her new born brother, and her older sister (born in Ireland) during the Spanish Flu Pandemic one hundred years earlier in April, 1920!

My grandmother come to find out, shares the same birthday (AQUARIANS) as me and that added connection is extremely powerful !

I reflect back on my grandmother almost on a daily basis as I look over to her large framed photo on my living room wall. My mother and I found this 16 x 20 photo back in 1976 in a vacant relative’s cottage, while touring Ireland and visiting many long lost relatives. The photo is a constant reminder of herself, my mother, Ireland, life and history. My mother grew up with only a 2 ½x 3 ¼passport size color tinted photo of her mother and my brothers and I did as well growing up as my mother displayed it prominently in our home(s) over the years.

2 1/2 x 3 1/4 small framed portrait of my grandmother Mary Kilcare Moriarty that my mother grew up with and cherished

Mom was only three years old when her mother died, with a one year old younger brother, an older brother of five and her father. He was now a widower with three very young children and him working full time. How would he raise the children and let alone within this sadness and despair?

There was some extended Moriarty family, uncles, aunts and grandparents nearby on Hamilton St., who could probably help for the short term at least!

Not long after though, mom’s father would remarry and I am thinking from an arranged marriage perspective. I came to this conclusion because it was fairly soon after and my grandfather was working, the relatives could only help so much and the new wife and mother seemed to be a spinster as she was older(38 years old) and never married previously! The saddest part was that she was so extremely hard on the kids I found out from an older relative.

My mother never spoke ill of anybody but her, mostly out of sadness than hatred. I would find out the stepmother actually tortured them at least from a child’s perspective, with some very harsh punishments!

Her role from what I gathered was to watch the kids (and discipline), cook and clean but that was not a replacement for a beautiful, loving and caring mother!

These were hard times for many in the early 1920’s and reflecting back from one pandemic to another magnifies or brings it to a new and contemporary light.

I can’t imagine and my mother couldn’t explain everything because she only had a three year olds perspective initially. The talks we would have gave me at least some insight to the absolute loss and somehow the family would have to continue on, but with a significant hint of dysfunction!

The life my mother would have moving forward, would be forever different now since losing her BEAUTIFUL IMMIGRANT IRISH MOTHER, NEW BORN BROTHER AND HER LOVELY OLDER SISTER, who was also born in Ireland !

Mom was the daughter of a prison guard with a wicked stepmother and growing into her own womanhood eventually, but what made her want to become a nun one day in 1938 at twenty one years of age?

I look back and can only wonder, perhaps all of the above with so few opportunities for women back then in the 1930’s!

Over the years my mother and I had many heart to heart conversations, chats or just talking out loud when I was a young boy, adolescent and young man. While growing up, I bonded with her like no other person and learned the value of love, family, friendship and community (pardon my tears from a son’s reflection)!

One of the most endearing lessons I learned was the respect for my elders and especially being the youngest on both sides of the family! Dad being 51 years older and mom 37 years older, uncles and aunts having children years earlier, our cousins were often a generation older!!!!

I always enjoyed tales from history and learning of exotic places from the far reaching corners of the world. I read a lot when I was younger and etched in my mind some of the places I would love to travel to and the adventures that would come from those opportunities.

It was fascinating to listen to my uncles, aunts and grandfather with their heavy Irish Brogues and colorful ways of describing even the simplest deeds, situations, people or places. It seemed like another world and from a different place, but it was all right at the kitchen table, on the couch in the living room, or an occasion at the neighboring Nibsy’s Pub on Wilbur Ave. when my grandfather lived nearby.

To overhear some of the stories of where my grandfather, aunts and uncles on the Moriarty side (twelve in total) came from and how they came over from Ireland was riveting to my young ears. It was a lesson in overcoming hardship, persevering, family bonding and love.

They mostly immigrated to the US, but not all and some did not settle here in Syracuse but downstate. They were all mostly adults except Aunt Nell when they arrived starting in the early 1900’s, my grandfather first arriving in 1906 for instance at the age of twenty one years old. Grandfather was out of his house and working and living elsewhere by sixteen years old as the family had twelve children, him being the fourth oldest and full grown for that era.

Grandfather’s brother Gene came over younger at the age of sixteen he was already boxing professionally at the age of sixteen in 1911, with a career lasting into the mid 1920’s. He in later years would teach and train some famous actors for film roles, including Burt Lancaster!

Their parents as well came over with them and mostly living in Tipperary Hill on Hamilton Street near Avery Avenue.

HOMECOMING TOUR

An opportunity came up for my grandfather to go back to Ireland on an All American Irish Hurling Team around 1911. Players came from a few different states like Illinois, Michigan and New York apparently and played in a variety of towns throughout Ireland, barnstorming so too to speak from Wexford, Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford and then on to Tipperary!

A photo in the December 17, 1911 Chicago Tribune and another local paper from Tipperary called out the occasion as the exiles return from America to a great reception, including a parade with bands playing. Leading up to the game itself, the weather was horrific, storming, almost hurricane conditions, but by the morning of the game itself it began to clear and the crowds they were hoping for started to arrive.

The exiles were from many parts of Ireland, mostly from Tipperary, but also Limerick, Cork, Leix and Kilkenny were represented.

They had already played a match in Wexford and suffered some injuries. They next would play in Waterford vs. Kilkenny, then on to Dublin, Cork and finally Limerick!

Mick Moriarty (my grandfather) would stay on in Ireland, working there for about two years between Tipperary and Queens County (Co. Laois today) and ultimately meeting my grandmother Mary Kilcare. They would marry in 1913 over there, but then Mick came back that year to the States to work and prepare for her to follow and with their beautiful baby girl as well the following year.

They would settle down back in Tipperary Hill in a two family house at the corner of Avery Ave. and Hamilton Street (The Blarney Stone Pub currently)!

My Aunt Nell (Ellen) Moriarty Halpin was my grandfather’s sister, the youngest of the twelve Moriarty kids from County Tipperary and the embodiment of the IRISH WOMEN, beautiful and strong. She couldn’t replace my mother’s mother who passed in 1920, but her influence, love, voice and spirit was genuine and probably very comforting to the three very young children, John, Annie and Fergus. I would see it in later years visiting Aunt Nell and her family, over the hill not far away from Tipperary Hill on Montrose Ave. in nearby suburb Westvale.

Aunt Nell had a quiet demeanor as I was growing up, but I saw the balance she provided with her husband Art Halpin, their children Alfreda, Kathleen, William and Jack, her brother Hugh Moriarty, and in particular for her brother Mike Moriarty or my grandfather. I remember times visiting with Aunt Nell and my mother would glow from listening to her like it was coming from her own mother’s mouth and spirit! Her woman’s perspective and the love her mother would have bestowed was totally present !

Learning a lot from the mannerisms and personalities of my own older extended family, especially the Colorful IRISH BORN, came in to play in my own development and future life.

My mother and I traveled in 1976 together through Ireland and in 1977 we hung around and reminisced a lot when a life change threw us all in tizzy. Upon re-grouping and after some new travels by me as I would relocate out west and mom’s visit in 1978 everything seemed ok again. 1979 started well, but the stars and saints were not all aligned, STAY TUNED!!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t act like I had a SAINT (or a Son of an almost NUN) for my mother, but I always had her support in spite of some of my actions or behavior, which was a big part of who we were and our relationship !

CHAPTER 1

I AM HOME AGAIN, Back in The CUSE (Syracuse, New York) mid December 1976

My mother and I are closer than ever from our shared experiences in Ireland last summer! We both love each other’s company, our conversations and just knowing we are there for each other !

ONE OF MY first memories when I got back from my travels abroad in mid-December 1976 was my grandmother’s photo that my mother and I found in a vacant relative’s cottage in and around Tipperary, Ireland! Mom had the photo professionally re-done with a beautiful new frame (see photo). It really kicked off a smooth transition home and an almost spiritual tie in with her and from our travels together earlier in the year.

It is such a wonderful connection for her to her beautiful Irish born mother who passed when she was just three years old at the tail end of that Global Pandemic from The Spanish Flu in early 1920!

The photo is also a continued connection for me with both these wonderful Irish women, my mother, grandmother, our time traveling in Ireland together, life’s journey and our American/Irish heritage.

Mom really embraced her past memories with me about her mom, her dad and what she knew of their time together. It was somewhat a mystery to me before our time together in Ireland last year, but stories started to come to life in the echoes of the old sod. We both wanted to explore further our family history and Grandmother’s photo was the catalyst. That photo also tied together with the much small color tinted photo that mom grew up with and then us kids after. My grandmother was a beautiful red headed woman and I was sincerely drawn to her and her