My mother Rose Finnegan died in 1985 at the age of 79

In late August 1985, Margaret went over to visit my mother at Thornwood House in University Park, since we had not heard from her in a couple of days. When she got there, she found my mother laying on her couch unresponsive. I told her to call 911. She did, and called the priest from St. Lawrence O’Toole, Rev. Edward Cronin. He came and told her that my mother was dead. I began to feel bad that I had been so neglectful to her the last couple of weeks. My mother was gone at age 79. She had lived a good long life. My father had died at age 74, thirteen years earlier. She had been a widow for nearly fifteen years. As a little child, I thought that I could not get along without her. However, as I grew older, I knew that I would be able to live without her. She was kind, yet overbearing. She always defended me but demanded a lot from me. Both my parents were now dead, but I was just 46 years old. I began to think about all the people who had their parents die, who were younger than me, young people. I suddenly missed her. She had no long illness and no history of heart problems. She had suffered a sudden heart attack. She might have been dead a day or two before Margaret found her. Then we had to plan the funeral. We were going to have the funeral at St. Lawrence O’Toole, our parish, where Margaret taught in the grade school. Father Cronin at O’Toole helped us with these decisions. I remember going to the funeral home in Chicago Heights. I had to decide what kind of coffin we should get for my mother. We decided on Assumption Cemetery in Glenwood, because it was not far away. I called Jerry Mingin, my foster brother, in New Jersey. He flew out from New Jersey to be with us. My cousin, Mary Henry from the Bronx, was living in Naperville, Illinois, after having lived in Janesville, Wisconsin, for some years. She was a few years older than me. Her mother’s sister was married to my mother’s brother. I had a very pleasant time with her as we recalled the years in New York City where Aunt Kate, Mom’s sister, was so kind. I realized why she was called “Mary from the Bronx” because of her very pronounced Bronx accent. My other cousin John Finnegan flew in from Denver. My mother was born in 1906, the youngest of eight children. She came to the USA as an upstairs maid working for rich people in New York City. She married my father in 1931 at the age of 25. I was her only child that survived childbirth. The funeral home had a nice booklet about my mother, Rose Finnegan, and a holy card “In Remembrance,” with the prayer for peace of St. Francis. At the wake, there were ten people from Thornwood House, who knew my mother, but I did not know any of them. Many of Margaret’s fellow teachers and our neighbors were there. They took up a collection at Montgomery Ward for me and my mother. At the 10:00 AM Funeral Mass of Resurrection the next day, Father Cronin presided, as all the grade school children from St. Lawrence O’Toole were present, because Margaret was a teacher there and Joy was a junior high student. After Mass, we had the car procession to the cemetery where my mother was buried at Assumption Cemetery in Glenwood, IL, in Section 12, Block 36, Plot 7, Grave 1. We had a small reception luncheon afterwards. Do you remember the funeral of your mother?

Travels in the 1980s

Thus, I planned vacations every year for our small family in the 1980s. In 1983, we flew out to Los Angeles and rented a car there. We saw Margaret’s uncle Ray who lived in Redondo Beach, visited Disneyland, San Diego, and Tijuana, Mexico. Then we drove up to San Francisco and visited Margaret’s cousin, Jo Ann, in Walnut Grove. There we drove through the wine country and took public transportation to visit Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz in San Francisco. On the way back, we were on highway #1 along the coast as we stopped at the Hearst Castle, before we headed back to LA for our flight home. In 1984, we headed east towards historic Boston, with stops in Lexington, Concord, and Sturbridge, before we took the Freedom walk by bus in Boston. We saw the reenactment of the Tea Party and Paul Revere’s North Church, before we landed at Plymouth Rock. Then it was on to Rhode Island and Connecticut, before we stopped in New Jersey and New York City, where we visited my brother Jerry in Metuchen, NJ. If that was not American enough, we went to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Williamsburg. By then we were truly American colonists. In 1985, we went south to Tennessee, down I-57 to Memphis with the Blues and Elvis’ Graceland. Next it was east to Nashville, the country music capital, and Opryland. Then it was on to Chattanooga, and the Smokey Mountains, via the Blue Ridge Parkway with a stop in Asheville, NC. We ended up in western Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Hersey Amusement Park, before we turned west for home. In 1986, we drove west to Colorado, via Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, visiting a few American presidential libraries. We visited Margaret’s cousin Art in Colorado Springs and my cousins, Frances and John in Littleton, both outside of Denver. Joy and I rode a camel at the Denver Zoo. Then it was on to the Rocky Mountains Continental Divide, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We went White Water rafting on the Snake River and drove through the Grand Teton National Park. Then we drove through Yellowstone National Park to see the geyser “Old Faithful.” After Cody, Wyoming, we entered the Black Hills of South Dakota with Mount Rushmore. We stopped at Wall Drug and the Badlands on our way to Margaret’s parents in Dell Rapids, before we drove home. How much traveling do you do in the summer?

Back at the Montgomery Ward Outlet Store

Then out of nowhere, I got a telephone call from Dale Hoffman. Apparently, things did not go well at his new Montgomery Ward store, so that he was back at Franklin Park as the Outlet Store Manager. He wanted to have lunch with me. I figured that he wanted to catch up. It turned out that he really wanted me back at Wards, since things were not going as well. He even had a plan. I would return and he would retire in the next couple of years, and I would be the new store manager. There was a plan that made sense. Margaret wanted me to do it, since I had been happy there. Besides, he was asking me, and I was not asking him. I thought it over and said yes. Within a couple of weeks, I was back to being an appliance salesman at the Montgomery Ward Outlet Store. Within a month or two, I became the appliance manager. However, then Hoffman got sick. I did not pay much attention. I took over running the store and he asked me to take good care of it. Then, I went to visit him in the hospital. He had some kind of stomach cancer that made his stomach expand. Within a month, he was dead. He never got to realize his dream of sailing around the world in his boat with early retirement. I did not go to the funeral, since I was running the store. However, instead of being named the store manager, they brought in another guy named Bill Kadlec. He seemed nice enough, so I continued there as the appliance manager and the assistant store manager throughout the 1980s. He did not like handling customer problems, while I was good at that and liked doing it. Meanwhile, Wards was having some economic problems and changed its accounting system. The Outlet Store would no longer be a profit center, but an absorber of loses. Kadlec was opposed to it but accepted it. I decided since I was making a good salary and commission, I would stay on. Thus, I began to enjoy my life at Montgomery Wards, since many of the same employees were there over five or ten years. It was easy for me. Have you ever been disappointed over a hire at your company?

I took on new jobs in the late 1970s

I got my MBA in marketing, from Loyola University, Chicago, on a part time basis, in 1976. I thought about what I would like to do, or what could I do, since I had another degree. Dale Hoffman was no longer my boss, since he had been assigned to another Ward’s store. I had told Hoffman that I was not interested in human resources. I thought about what to do. One of my co-workers had a friend who worked at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He said that he could help us become traders on the CBOE. We were both interested until we found out that we would have to put up our houses as collateral for the purchase of a seat on the Exchange. We both backed out, but I heard that you could rent a seat for around $1500 a month. That seemed okay with me. Thus, I spent six months as an options trader in Chicago on the CBOE floor. I liked the new lifestyle, with a daily train ride to work and weekends off. However, I could not figure out how to make money. I would always break even, with somedays a little gain and some days a little loss. One day, there was a mistake of $100,000. Then I knew that I was in over my head. Iran captured Americans in their embassy in November of 1979 that threw all the markets off. I decided that I needed a more stable type of job. Luckily, Margaret was still working. She pushed me to get a job. I saw an ad in a local newspaper for an on the road salesman. I thought of the play, “The Death of a Salesman.” Anyway, I got the job where I reported to this guy who was a super enthusiastic salesman. I lasted a month, after a week in Memphis, Tennessee. I sold some signs, but not enough to sustain a good lifestyle since, it was a complete commission job, where your pay was the down payment on the sign that you sold. That Gulf Sign company is still going today. Margaret reminded me that I needed a job that actually paid money. I got a one-year contract from Prudential Insurance in Palos Heights, Il, another south suburban town close to my house in Matteson, so I had a twenty-minute drive to work. They paid me $12,000 a year to learn to be an insurance agent and sell life insurance. After that, I would be on my own. At least, it was something. I loved learning about the various kinds of insurance, but I did not like the cold calling to people about why they needed life insurance. Of course, I sold a life insurance policy to Margaret and myself. I got the commissions from them. However, I was not a great insurance salesman. As 1981 was ending, I knew that I needed a change of venue. I was not going to be a life insurance person for life. Thus, I spent the late 1970s and early 1980s learning about stocks, options, salesmanship, and selling insurance, but made very little money doing so. Have you ever been a salesperson?

Travels in the mid-1970s

Once we got settled in Matteson, we took some trips. I was surprised at all the hidden expenses of home ownership. Everybody wanted to sell us things for our new house and new baby. Besides, a couple of car trips to South Dakota and New Jersey, Margaret and I found time to go to Las Vegas. My mother baby-sat Joy and got to see our house. Later in the 1970s, she sold her house in Carteret for $15,000 and I was the mortgage holder. She moved to Illinois and finally settled at a Senior Home, Thornwood House in University Park, IL. We were part of a Woodgate Bowling team, since this Kaufman and Broad subdivision was called Woodgate. They even built a grade school that was called Woodgate school that still exists today. I decided to go to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, by car. I had become more aware of the pros and cons of car driving in our trips to Dell Rapids, South Dakota, and Carteret, New Jersey. This was one of my first planned car trips as we went to Michigan and Upper Michigan to visit with our Woodgate friends, the Fricke family. They had three girls who used to baby-sit Joy. Then it was on to Ottawa and Quebec, before we went to Montreal and the Olympics. We got to see several events a day as two-and half year Joy was a hit every place we went. Then Margaret’s sister, Rosie, was in the Air Force and got assigned to Bitburg AFB, Germany, where I had been ten years earlier. We flew over there to visit with her husband and two small kids in the summer of 1977. The three of us, Margaret, Joy, and myself took driving excursions into the Benelux countries, southern Germany, and Austria. We went on a Rhein River Cruise and spent a couple of days in Paris with just the adults. We also drove to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and then went to Branson, Missouri and their amusement parks in 1978 and 1979. Any time, we went some place, we always stopped along the way on what I thought were interesting places. Sometimes I was right, but other times Margaret thought I was wrong. Have you traveled much by car?

My baby daughter Joy was born in 1973

Then on December 8, 1973, we had our first and only child, Joy Finnegan. 1973 was a big adjustment year. We moved from the city to the suburbs in July, as we bought a house. Margaret quit her teaching position. I had an appendectomy in September that took me a month to recover from. I went to classes to prepare me for Margaret’s childbirth. Joy was born at the University of Chicago Hospital, since the doctor she went to for her pregnancy was affiliated with the UC hospital. Unfortunately, I knew that Margaret and I had health insurance, but we did not have family insurance, so that he had to pay for over half the hospital stay, around $900.00. I soon fixed that. I remember driving down I-57 into the city. At first, they sent us home. Then, the second time, I insisted that we stay, since it would be within the next twelve hours. Thus, we had a beautiful baby girl, Joy. Once again, our life would change. She had her own room with all the baby furniture. Now we were one small family, as Joy was born on December 8, a Saturday, that was the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It was not snowy but cold. A few days later, we brought her home where she was going to grow up in Matteson, Il. We had her baptized at St. Lawrence O’Toole Church in Matteson, Il, with a nun from Peru as her godmother and Charlie Ruffner as her godfather. She would eventually go to the St. Lawrence O’Toole grade school, where Margaret would spend over 25 years teaching there. Sadly, both the school closed in 2015, and the parish closed in 2023, where the property was listed at 2.7 million dollars. Margaret, Joy, and I have lots of memories about this parish and school. Joy went to Marian High School, in Chicago Heights, as well the University of Illinois at Champaign, where she got a degree in accounting and a CPA. She married Larry Walton in 1999, and they have three college age children, living in Chicago, Il. Thus, my three grandchildren are Kiley, 22, Lauren, 20, and Will, 17. Were you excited about your first child?

We bought a house in Matteson, IL (1973-2006)

In the spring of 1973, we found out that Margaret was pregnant. Immediately, I thought that my new child should not be born in an apartment. We needed a house. My boss at Montgomery Ward, Dale Hoffman, wanted us to move into the north Chicago suburbs. He showed us around a couple of places, but they all seemed so expensive, nearly $100,000, the cheapest around $70,000. I figured out that we could not make that work. We would be down to one salary. A couple of weeks later, he told me that Montgomery Wards was building a new store in the south suburbs on Route 57 and Route 30, Lincoln Highway, called Lincoln Mall. Margaret and I decided to take a trip down I-57 to see this new Montgomery Ward store. Just as we got close, a big sign said new homes for sale. I decided to take a look at them. Kaufman and Broad were building acres of houses just outside Matteson on Vollmer Road. They had sample showcase houses. All the houses were in the $30,000 range. We looked at a couple of these model houses, all with furniture. I liked the fact that we would not have to do any remodeling, since all these homes were brand new homes with some kind of warranty. We talked to one of the salesmen. Before you know it, we had bought a new house on a cul-de-sac for $33,000 with 5% down, $1,500.00. Margaret and I were both pleased. We saw the house and the lot. We could move in July. It worked out perfect, a new neighborhood, with mostly young people there. We had our Hyde Park friends help us move in. I was able to get our furniture and appliances at a good price from Montgomery Ward. We would be all set to go. We had a huge lawn in the back yard that ran into a wetland area behind the house with a big tree, so that no one could build there. We only had a one car garage, but we could build another one later. Little did we know then that we would spend 33 years there and sell it in 2006 for $165,000, with a paid off mortgage. We learned to live in the south suburb town of Matteson, Illinois, for over thirty years, longer than I have lived at any other place. What is the longest that you have ever stated in one place?

My father Eugene Finnegan died in 1972 at the age of 74

Meanwhile, my father had developed thyroid throat cancer. He had worked as a welder at GATX for over twenty years. As a teenager, he had been an IRA volunteer for Ireland from County Monaghan. He never got over the five counties of Northern Ireland as a separate country. My dad was the youngest of nine children, as his father died when he was two. Thus, my grandfather was born in 1839 and died in 1900 at the age of 61. My father came to New York City in the early 1920s. He immediately became an American citizen and then married my mother who was from the same town in Ireland and was a Finnegan in 1931. They had a few children that died in childbirth, until I came along. My foster brother Jerry Mingin took my father for chemotherapy treatments, but then he would lit up his pipe afterwards. He was asked if he wanted medicine for the pain or alcohol, and he chose alcohol. He may have been an alcoholic, but he never missed a day of work, since he walked to work every day. On his way home, he would pick up a pitcher of beer. On weekends, he had a fifth of rye whiskey. My father never spoke much, but I always remember his admonition, “Do not get your mother angry.” We visited him once before his death and then later for his funeral in Carteret, NJ. One of my father’s friends said that I had caused his death. However, I did not let that bother me. I always remember my father, sitting in the living room on his chair, listening to the radio and smoking his pipe. He was a quiet man but enjoyed a drink and a chat with his old IRA friends when they would come by. Our vacations were to visit his brothers and sisters, as well as my mother’s brothers and sisters, who lived in the Bronx, New York. Thus, I got to know a little bit about the Bronx and New York City life from my cousins, aunts, and uncles there. Do you remember your father?

Our Hyde Park married days 1971-1973

Margaret and I lived for two years at 5300 Hyde Park Boulevard across from Lake Michigan and Promontory Point. 53rd Street was Hyde Park’s oldest shopping district, lined with many small businesses and restaurants offering various dining options. Harper Court was the center of Hyde Park where you could buy Baskin-Robert’s ice cream. My favorite store to shop was Walgreens. I would read their Sunday sales and get everything on sale. We could walk along the Lake. It was lovely in the spring, summer, and fall, but really cold and icy in the winter. We were on the third floor. Margaret got a job teaching at Our Lady, Gate of Heaven grade school on 99^thStreet, that is now closed. She also bought a new Fiat car on credit. We were becoming consumers with our own credit cards. There was good access to transportation with Lake Shore Drive to the east, and the 55th Street Metra line to take us downtown. The 57th Street shopping and Art Fair was a pleasure. We went to St. Thomas Catholic Church on Kimbark. The University of Chicago dominated the west side of Hype Park. Then in the 21^st century, Hype Park became the home of President Barak Obama, where his presidential library is. We met some new friends in Hype Park, including a local newscaster, Jim Ruddle. I realized that the travel from Hyde Park to O’Hare and Franklin Park, was not as easy as it looked on paper. Traffic jams downtown and around O’Hare made it more difficult and time consuming at times. Otherwise, everything went well. Margaret’s parents came to visit us. We went out to South Dakota for the wedding of Margaret’s brother, where I got to meet a lot of her family. Over the years, we would go out to South Dakota a lot, because of Margaret’s family. We were becoming like any other young married couple in their thirties. Do you remember you first apartment as a young married couple?

Getting married in 1971

Wow! This was going pretty fast, once I made my decision. I had to get all my paperwork about my resignation from the Servites, CTU, and the Catholic priesthood. I had to write letters and be interviewed. However, I was able to rent an apartment in Hyde Park with another seminarian, just a few blocks from CTU. I also got a job as a salesman at the Montgomery Ward Outlet Center in Franklin Park, Il. My parents sent me a couple thousand dollars, so I bought a car. Margaret came to Chicago for the summer. She split a rental with some University of Chicago students, where she smelt the sweet smell of marijuana. She got a job as a teller at a local bank, as she began looking for a grade school teaching job for the fall. We had a fun time exploring the Lake Michigan Shore, the Museum of Science and Industry, plus all the local restaurants and pubs. Margaret had few friends, since most of her friends were friends of mine. We decided on an October 9, 1971, wedding, the weekend of Columbus Day. I did all the planning for the wedding, including writing the vows and the whole program, not Margaret, the bride. It would be in our apartment. Father Dave Gallegos, a classmate of mine, would preside, Jude, a friend of Margaret’s would provide the singing. They sang the popular songs, “Both Sides Now” and “We’ve only just Begun.” My roommate, Charlie Rufner would be the best man. Margaret’s new friend, Carole Thorne would be the Maid of Honor. We were not going to invite any relatives to our wedding. I think that this was harder on Margaret than me. We invited people from our new workplaces, and some male and female Servites. Charlie was in charge of cleaning up the apartment. Margaret and I went for our honeymoon to a Holiday Inn in downtown Chicago on Lake Shore Drive. Thus, we began our over 55 years of married life, Margaret and me. It is amazing where the various twists and turns of life take us. What kind of wedding did you have?