13.Mothers High School Years

Webster Schroder High School was the only High School in Webster at the time that my mom had gone there. With very lenient rules my mom remembers high school as some of the best times she has had. Some of her best memories come from her senior year in 1982. After driving to school in a 1976 Camaro, my mom would attend a few classes, but spend much of her time hanging out around school or would leave school with a group of friends and hang out at different places around Webster. She was a varsity tennis player and played on the team until the end of her senior year. Her high school dances, prom and ball were held in her high school cafeteria. While attending Schroder High School my mom remembers how different it is from high school today. With a smoking lounge right next to the cafeteria it was not unusual for someone to smoke inside the school building during their school day. At night my mom would get ready in her jordache jeans get her hair all done up in a perm and go through cans of hairspray to keep her hair nice and curly. Since Disco music was very popular in the early eighties my mom would go to club 2001 or Club 747 and disco dance. Another popular hangout for high school kids was Flaherty’s. Flaherty’s is a tavern in Webster. This was a very big hang for kids at the time from the ages of 16 up to about 21 everyone would go there. After her High school graduation ceremony in her Schroeder’s gym, my mom decided to go to Monroe Community College as well as work part time as a mortgage originator at Nothnagle Home Securities. My mom decided that she really enjoyed working in real estate and decided to drop out of MCC.

12.Our Move to Florida

During the 1960’s jobs were very easy to find in the Unites States. With this in mind my grandpa decided to drive to Florida hoping to find a new job. After interviewing for a job in Florida, he found out the same day that he got the job. So, after living at 264 Oakdale drive in Webster for a few years and having two children, my grandparents decided it was time for a change. My grandpa decided to take up the job offer in Florida and move there. With plans of having both of their parents moving down with them they thought it would be a better place to raise their children and live a happier warmer life. In 1972, they moved into a small apartment complex on Kendall Drive in South Miami. During this time my mom, Debbie, and Aunt, Lynne were still in grammar school. For them changing schools was very hard, not because of making friends but more because the school they would be attending was a bilingual school. The name of the school was School without Walls. At this school my mom and aunt learned both the English language and Spanish. Even today my mom remembers songs and Spanish words that were used a lot in the classroom. At the time there was not much transportation to and from school and my grandparents did not feel safe having their first and third grade daughters walking to school in the city so my grandma had to bring them to school every day. While in Florida my grandpa worked as a payroll specialist at Pemar Industries which was an engineering company in Florida. At this company my grandpa only made 12,000 dollars a year which is only 86 dollars a week. This forced them to living in a transient apartment complex. At this apartment complex my grandparents met many people. This included many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, single mothers, and a group of people from New York City. While living in this apartment my grandma made friends with one of these single mothers who happened to be Ernest Hemmingway’s niece. After going to Disney World its opening year and staying at the Polynesian Resort my grandparents decided Florida was not the place for a family, but more a place for vacation. In 1973, my grandparents decided to move back to Webster.

11.Being a Wife and Mother

In 1963, Jim Eggleston and Yvonne Knittle got married. At their wedding they seemed to meet many of the people who we are still friends with today. They met a man named Raul Perez at our wedding; he came with a relative from Florida. After speaking with Raul for a long time the day after their wedding they found out a lot about his life. Raul was able to leave Cuba, and go to Florida. He left his family behind in Cuba. Raul's one brother was a communist member; this caused many problems for him when he tried to leave Cuba and enter the United Stated. For years he was never allowed to return to visit; when his parents passed away, he could not go back for their funerals. After many years and still remaining in contact, they still speak about how they met. “After many fun years with our friends we decided to settle down and start a family”. In 1964, they had their first daughter. They named her Deborah Jane Eggleston. After, two years had pasted and a lot of work with their first child we had another daughter named Lynn Marie Eggleston. “Since Jim’s salary was not very high at only ninety five dollars and military reserve pay at only seven dollars a week it seemed like he was putting in a lot of work and we were not getting very much in return.” Being at home with her daughters raising them most of the time it became hard not seeing her husband much. With a mortgage payment of seventy two dollars a month it seemed like they were living off of nothing. They did not seem to have much money to do much more than live off of what they had. Since my grandma had a job before she had two daughters, she had to take years off of work to raise them. “This turned out well and I am glad that I decided to do that.” All through the sixties and even into the seventies she stayed at home. She enjoyed watching her daughters grow into young women and loved teaching them and helping them through some of the toughest years. After years of being a stay at home housewife, she decided to go back out and get a job.

10.Life During the Kennedy Era

The election of 1960 had a huge impact how the rest of the sixties went. My grandmother remembers vividly watching the two candidates, Nixon and Kennedy, on television. These two candidates were always debated certain issues of the time. Kennedy was a young unknown senator to my grandparents and they really did not know much about his experience or what he wanted to do for our country. Nixon was older and much more experience. When it came to voting time both of my grandparents remember voting for Kennedy because after watching him campaign for many years after their first time watching him they both seemed to like his younger new style and ideas. Once Kennedy was president my grandparents remembered a lot of happiness in the country. It seemed like everyone loved the Kennedy Family in office. My grandma said directly that it was a “Very sad day when John F Kennedy was shot. I remember vividly working at Kodak Office on State St. hearing the news and spending the next day’s watching TV at a conference room, cafeteria settings.” When this happened everyone seemed to congregate together in disbelief. After going home from work my grandparents met up and talked about what had just happened to our country. My grandma said that for the next few months “it seemed as if this event changed the nation.” “Everyone seemed to come together”, she said, people all over were talking whether they knew each other or not. It was talked about on all newspapers, news stations, and all over the streets. In 1968 my grandpa, Jim, shook Bobby Kennedy's hand when he came thru Rochester campaigning for the democratic primary. When Jim was at his mother's house, Kennedy's car came parading down her street and he reached out and shook his hand. “He was so excited.” When I was talking to my grandpa about it he had a different tone in his voice, he said “Daniel, you could even believe it; he stuck his hand out the window and shacked my hand, unbelievable.” That summer Bobby Kennedy was killed during a primary rally. He too is buried at the Arlington Cemetery with a very simple white cross as a grave marker. My grandpa said this death had a bigger impact on his life than John F Kennedy’s. After this day my grandparents went out and bought their first American flag. The death of these two great men seemed to have that kind of impact on everyone in the United States. Ever since then my grandparents have not gone a day without hanging an American Flag from the front of their house.

9. "How we Met"

While my grandpa was a junior at St. John Fisher, his friend from Aquinas who also was going to Fisher was dating a woman who worked at Kodak. This woman at Kodak was good friends with my grandma, so the two of them decided to set my grandma and grandpa up on a blind date. They were about 20 years old when they went on their first date. It was February 3, 1961 when my grandpa and his friend from school brought my grandma and her friend from work to a double header basketball game held at the Buffalo Auditorium. St. Bonaventure was playing against St. Joes in the first game. After leaving mid-way through the next game they all decided to make a drive up to Niagara Falls. While walking around in Niagara Falls and watching the falls for a while my grandpa bought my grandma a rose. “Starting then, I started to call her Rosie,” my grandpa said. The night seemed to have gone perfect for the two of them until it came time for my grandpa to drop her off. Not getting back until 4 o’clock in the morning, my grandpa though her dad was gonna come out with a shot gun. After dropping her off, he made sure he got out of there fast. After weeks went by and staying in contact with each other it was time for the two of them to meet each other’s parents. My grandma was very nervous going to my grandpa’s house to meet his parents. She described his Father as an “Archie Bunker kind of man, very intimidating.” My grandpa’s family called my grandma “Frenchy” because they figured since she was French she would hate Italians. When my grandpa went to meet my grandma’s family it was very quiet. Both my grandpa and my grandma’s father were very shy and nervous people. So at dinner there wasn’t much conversation which did not bother my grandpa at all.

8.Cuban Missle Crisis

During this time period Military draft was still in effect. If one left college or didn't go to college, they were open to be drafted for 2 yrs. active duty, 2 years reserves or opt to be a reservist for 6 months active and 5.5 years of reserve. In the event of a national event, reservists were compelled to serve. In that timeframe, some ran to Canada to dodge the draft or declare being a conscientious objector or one who believed in non-violence, no war. During this time my grandpa Jim spent 6 months in active duty and 5 and a half years as a reservist. Some of his instructors were activated to Homestead Fla. for training in case there was an issue with Cuba and the Russian missiles that were there. My grandpa came very close to being sent into active duty during this time. With the missiles put into Cuba the United States began to take action by placing more reservists into duty. During this time both my grandparents remember being very scared with missiles so close to American soil. Since my grandpa knew what these nuclear weapons could do, for those two weeks it seemed like everyone was very content with what they did. Remembering many of his reservist friends who were sent into active duty from his same company, he never realized how close to this crisis he really was.