Happy Birthday, Jane

Chris & John (?) Robinson, Moe and Jane

About 1950

As today is Jane's birthday her older sister will take this opportunity to post a short biography.

I was 4 and Bill was 3 when she arrived. We were thrilled to have a little sister.

She was darn cute from the start.

She had curly red hair, a gift from her Dad.

Dad with hair, about 1913

The only problem was she was crazy.

She told the neighbors her name was Mary. I recall a woman asking me about my sister Mary once. Her name is Jane, I insisted, to little effect.

Worst of all she thought she was a dog, the offspring of this dog, Timmy Robinson.

Her earliest memory is lying on the grass looking up at the enormous cocker spaniel in great contentment.

Our house was full of her imaginary dog pack.

The imaginary dogs spent a lot of time under this stove which had legs.

Cele about 1953

I remember Cele couldn't light the oven because the imaginary dog was living in there.

Jane and Duchess

Jane grew out of this stage and lived a seemingly normal life. I believe she learned merely to stop talking about the imaginary dogs. 

Chienne in the Christmas picture 1964

She got a Ph.D. in dogs and is an expert on how dogs have changed over time. She writes articles popularizing dog science for magazines like Bark and the American Kennel Club's Gazette. She posts comments here under her alterego Dr. Barkman.

Jane and Sophia

Today she lives in Altadena, California with 3 dogs.

She also has two stepchildren and two granddaughters.

Her husband Rod is a tv director.

He won an Emmy for directing E.R. last year.

They have a vintage stove with legs that looks very much like the one we had when we were kids.

Jane, Rod and friend Charles wondering if stove will explode

It never works at Thanksgiving and we always have an oven crisis.

Why doesn't she get a new stove, we wonder.

I know why.

A new stove would not have any room for the imaginary dogs underneath.

Many years ago:

Jane and Rod and the tangible dog pack of Ruth, Mickey and Willy

Hear a 40 minute radio interview with Dr. Barkman by clicking here:

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1616534

The Family Band

Tommy Duane and Pat Bentley in November, 1945

Pat is playing the same banjo ukulele seen in this post.

http://mcnallyfamilyalbum.blogspot.com/2010/02/cecelias.html

Those are Grandpa's drums so it must be the McNally basement.

The same party

Bill Brackman in 1950

The basement had dress-up clothes and instruments.

My most vivid McNally memories are of the music. Give any one of them a drink or two and they would burst into song.

Jack on saxophone, Vera on piano and Ann on ukulele, 1968

Cele played the ukulele too

 I had to do a lot of photoshopping to restore this photo of her

when she was about 20 in 1930. It was creased badly.

I imagine Ben carried it in his wallet.

And she sang, as did everyone else.

Ann, Patty, Tommy, Jack and Bud at an Outlaw Party

The fashion looks to be the 1970s.

There was dancing too.

Pat, Ronnie and Dotty

We still have a family band although the family is extended across the alley to the neighbors.

Above Jane playing with my neighbor Charles in 2007.

Stanley and Christa on guitar

and keyboard here in 2008 with Charles and Jane.

Jane's husband Rod is playing the harmonica.

The band is called The Disappointments.

Christa, Charles, Jane's daughter-in-law Ilka

 and sister-in-law Flo in 2009

Charles, Flo and Jane play the ukulele. The Dissappointments  

often sing songs I can remember that Cele played.

Five Foot Two

Ain't She Sweet

Yes Sir That's My Baby

Dalmatians: Timmy, Teddy and Smokey

 Dalmatians are traditional coach dogs because they work well with the horses.

Memory is elusive. For much of our lives Jane and I have discussed Timmy, a succession of Grandpa's fire house dogs. When Jane was young she demanded a dog, so we got a Dalmatian because that was the McNally family dog. She named him Timmy.

Jane and Timmy about 1952

 Georgi notified us that she and her mother Anna recall the McNally's dog's name was Teddy.

Jane said, "I've been living a lie all these years."
What else have we misremembered?

Here are Georgi's comments:

Teddy and Smokey were both dalmatians. Teddy was the dog at the firehouse where Grandpa worked and when Teddy was "retired" Grandpa took him home. As the firehouse dog Teddy would run before the fire truck to clear traffic. Mom said that when they all piled into the car to go to church, Teddy would run in front of the car. She said everyone knew them - first came the dog, then came McNally and his kids. Smokey was Teddy's son, and was more my Mom's [Aunt Ann's] dog. She trained him and took care of him. She even taught him to stand on his hind legs and shadow box with her.

Bud and Jackie with a puppy in 1940

I sent this picture to Ronnie and Buddy and Ronnie emailed back:

That handsome guy [in the photo] says the puppy is definitely Smokey-although he is not sure which number. Grandpa brought home at least 2 or 3 Dalmatians from the firehouse and they were all named Smokey.

Cele and Jane and Timmy in Cincinnati. That's our tan Studebaker coupe, I believe.

Jane named the dog Timmy because our Halesite neighbors the Robinsons had a cocker spaniel named Timmy (actually they had two black cockers named Timmy.)

John, Chris, Jim, Jerry, Geoff Robinson and Timmy #2.

Jane's Timmy did not last as the family pet for too long. Like most Dalmatians he was a rambunctious youth and he knocked Jane over a lot, so a new home was found for Timmy and we got a beagle named Wimpy (or maybe it was Muffin.) I can't remember.

How Do You Tell Them Apart?

Steve & Kay in April, 1946

Steve remembers a story about his mother Kathryn:

I STOPPED IN AT MY PARENTS WITH A FRIEND AND MOM INVITED US TO STAY FOR DINNER. DURING THE COURSE OF THE MEAL IT CAME UP THAT MY FRIEND HAD BOTH A CAT AND A DOG THAT WERE NAMED “CHARLIE”. THE CAT SHE HAD FOR YEARS AND THE DOG WAS A RECENT ADOPTION FROM SOMEONE WHO HAD LEFT THE AREA FOR SOME FORGOTTEN REASON. OF COURSE MOMS ONLY QUESTION WAS “HOW DO YOU TELL THEM APART”.

This may be the McNally family motto.

The 1910 census listed 8 McNallys and Valentines living on Adelphi Avenue in Brooklyn. Three (38%) were named Elizabeth.

Lizzie Daly Valentine in 1934

Grandmother Elizabeth Daly Valentine was 48. Her nickname seems to have been Lizzie, but everybody there probably called her Mother. Her daughter Elizabeth Valentine, 21, was called Bess. Anna Valentine McNally had three little girls, the middle one another Elizabeth. Because her father was William McNally they called her Billie, which was probably a good solution for the name confusion at the time.

Billie in 1949

Billie was called Billie all her life, but when she was 17 her little brother William Joseph McNally was born.

Bud in 1940

He was never a Bill but a Buddy, another good solution to the question of How Do You Tell Them Apart? The solution only lasted for a while. When Bud was about nine years old, Billie married another Buddy, Francis Thomas Duane, so we have an Uncle Buddy Duane and an Uncle Bud McNally.

Buddy and Billie Duane in 1946

Ronnie in 1949

Bud added further to the confusion when he grew up and married Veronica Muenkel in 1948. Now we had a second Aunt Veronica McNally, but we could always tell them apart because one's nickname was Vera and the other's name is Ronnie. They had a daugher named Veronica Ann McNally, but she's called Bonnie.

Vera in 1935

We probably don't even want to start on Bonnie's generation with all the Bills, the Patricias and Patricks....

Patty in 1945

The most confusion may have been caused by the 1952 wedding pictured at the top of the blog, at which the bride at the end of the line, Pat McNally, married Pat Neary. They were always distinguished at our house as Pat and Patty.

Uncle Tommy (a relatively rare name in the whole McNally scheme of things) married Margaret Mary Wood in 1950, giving us a second Aunt Peggy McNally. We always called Peggy McNally Bentley "Peggy Bentley" and Peggy Wood McNally "Peggy Wood".

Peggy Bentley in 1945

Peggy Wood in 1978

Because her older sisters-in-law knew her when she was young we always referred to Mrs. Peggy McNally by her maiden name and it was all quite clear.

We only had one Charlie in the family but, of course, everyone called him Biff, shown here in 1943.