As written by one of his children...
Alfred Joseph Doherty was born in Boston Massachusetts on February 7, 1913. He had one sister, Mary. Al grew up moving around the northeast between Boston and Canada. At an early age he had learned to speak French and German as well as English. He grew into a fine looking blonde blue eyed young man who liked to smoke a pipe. Which is probably why I still love the smell of Cherry Blend.
Al had a talent for art and could draw, sketch with ink and pen, and paint in oils. It seems that he was popular and well liked. He played a part in his Senior Class Play in which he had to pull a tablecloth off of a table which was covered with china. He succeeded in learning the trick, but years later when he tried to demonstrate it to his children, it became a hilarious disaster. He loved classical music but never played an instrument that we (his children) know of. When he was ready to graduate High School in Beverly Mass., an acquaintance of his offered to pay his tuition to an art school, his talent was that good. This was something he could not afford himself, but his pride would not let him take the opportunity. It was depression time, and he didn't believe he could ever pay it back to his friend So, after graduation he went to work in the local shoe factory. The following years are kind of sketchy, but we know he met quiet, young and pretty Evelyn Larivee, and they eventually married. I would bet that this young couple thought life would be very different than it became for them. At some point during these early years, Al worked for the railroad, and although I don't know exactly what his job was, I do know he rode the trains and at one point got hit on the head by a RR crossing sign because he leaned out too far to see the signalman. They had slowed down or stopped at a small village crossing. The way he told it was that he was moving from car to car, on the outside of the slow moving train. He was standing on one of the outside ladders, and leaned back to look for the signal lantern when WHACK they passed the crossing sign. This injury left him with a lump on the crown of his head that eventually became a cyst that would be removed some years later. He didn't fall, but he had headaches for years after that, as well as the cyst. It also left him with a wide knowledge of trains and a love of trains that stayed with him all through the years.
Their first child, a girl, (and the beginning of many!) Mary Catherine, was born in 1939. Her legs were badly damaged, twisted, during her birth, and Al and Evie were told she would never walk. I guess the doctor who caused the damage didn't know the determination of the young couple. Mary's baby legs were actually massaged straight and strong by her young parents who were able to teach her to walk right on schedule. Being a good Catholic couple, and maybe because of the success with little Mary, the rest of the children arrived in fairly quick succession. Alma Rita, Diane Constance, a set of twins (born on Thanksgiving Day after dinner of course-she always told about the poor nuns who delivered her, who complained about the amount of undigested turkey dinner she delivered up to them!) Alfred William and Evelyn Ann, called Billy and Ann, then nicknamed Judy, after her godmother, then came little Michele and last but never least, Kevin Joseph. The arrival of the twins put our walk-up 3rd floor flat in Boston beyond capacity. Al's sister, Mary, told him and Evie of the availability of the house right next door to her in a little seashore town called Scituate, down toward Cape Cod. Before you could blink, they had purchased the property and moved us from the city to the country, all trees, birds and grass.
Gone were our days of roller skating on the sidewalk, kick the can and jump-rope on the sidewalk. Sometimes we had to skate around Mr. Healy, who owned our building and had 8 or 10 kids of his own. When Mr. Healy would have too much to drink, sometimes he "took a nap" on the sidewalk in front of his house. I guess Mrs. Healy wouldn't let him in. We invented games around Mr. Healy's inert form, such as skating around him, drawing his shape in chalk while he slept and other inventive games, some fun stuff involved the jump ropes we weren't using at the time. Although I was involved in the shenanigans, I was a little afraid of him, but his children apparently were not. Being city kids in the 1940's was fun. All the kids of all sizes and backgrounds on our block came out to play in the early evenings of the summer days. There were probably 15 or 20 kids out every evening. We played kick-the-can, Ring-a-levio and Hide and seek. Everyone (I was five or so, and the big kids always let me play) played until the mothers started the calls for the kids from an apartment window, as the dusk settled in. One by one we would go in until there weren't enough kids left to play. Inside at the end of the day, were both parents, doing what parents do. It apparently was a good time for us kids, but I think Al and Evie were worried about us and our environment, and felt that a bigger house and the country would be better. I guess they didn't think about our entertainment. You can't skate on grass, and someone needs to lay down on concrete before you can draw them. And your siblings never want to play hide and seek if they have to be "it".
