Page 17: YOUNG MAN’S FANCY FINDS LOVE
As a landlord, it was Dad’s habit to inspect his property daily. One day he picked up from the grass a surprising thing. It was a lady’s pink panties which had blown down from the rooftop clothesline. Curious, Dad decided to find out how and to whom the feminine underpinkies should be returned.
She was Minnie Minton Middaugh who was visiting a tenant in the building. She was tall, stately, beautiful and so winsome a personality as to intrigue Charles Vincent Paterno. He asked her to a carriage ride in Central Park which so long had been a sociable thing to do behind a horse-drawn vehicle stationed across 58th Street from the Hotel Plaza.
At first she demurred, wondering if that would be the proper thing to do with a young Italo-American. She would think it over, he was told, and she would let him know. Inquiries indicated that this would be “safe.” Dr. Paterno (as he was called by tenants) had a high recommendation.
As the horse-drawn carriage toured the byways Father stopped it to gallantly step down and gather a bouquet of flowers for his inamorata, notwithstanding a law against doing this in spacious Central Park. This was the budding romance which proceeded for a year.
That is, until Dad learned that Minnie had been previously married and was mother of a son, Lyndon Middaugh Brown.
Page 18: “You never asked the question so I never volunteered the information,” was her explanation.
Naturally he was upset over this. Another consideration was that she was older than he was by ten years. So Dad went off to Europe and to the family homeland of bella Italia. In due course and upon reflection, he wrote a sweet letter to Minnie in which he professed love and the feeling that he could not live a happy life without her. They married on December 23, 1906.
Of Dutch-English Stock
Mother was of Dutch-English descent. Born in Portville, N.Y. on October 11, 1868 to Ebenezer and Charlotte Wolcott Middaugh she had one brother, Ray. Before marrying Dad, Mother grew to womanhood in Washington, D.C. where she lived for several years with her brother and his two children, Gladys and Ray Wolcott Middaugh. Ray was doing business under the name of Shannon & Middaugh, a prestigious construction firm in our nation’s Capitol.
An avid pianist, she played one of the seven pianos in the martial music of the John Philip Sousa band. In fact, she also played piano for the Washington Symphony Orchestra.
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His Italian lineage had Dad Paterno committed to Roman Catholicism. I was baptized a Catholic. Because Mother was divorcee, Dad’s Paterno kinfolk did not accept her. Our family unit turned to the Methodist Church and as a little boy I went to Methodist Sunday School.
Page 19: Mother Called Me Carlo
At birth on November 23, 1907 I was named Charles Middaugh Paterno. As a little boy when Mother would call for “Charles” both Father and I would react. So Mother adapted “Carlo” to distinguish me. “Carlo” is, of course, the Italian version of the English “Charles.” All through school it was this way. Eventually I legally made my name Carlo Paterno.
But Dad had pinned the nickname of “Bill” on me and always called me that, even though to school kids I was “Carlo.” Dad felt that “Carlo” seemed sissified and that “Bill” was more masculine. He wanted me to grow up to be a sparrow rather than a canary, he said. That was his excuse for calling me “Bill.”
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Every summer, until I went away to camp, Mother, Dad and I would put on our duster and caps. Mother had her veil. We got into our 1914 Packard Touring Car on our way to Aunt Nancy’s in Scio in upper New York State.
[Nancy Phebe Middaugh Wright 1845-1933]
She was my Mother’s aunt who lived on an old farm without central heating or plumbing, and merely with a cast iron wood stove in the kitchen plus an outhouse in the back.
On the farm was an old barn full of hay. As a favorite pastime, I went there with some of the local children. We climbed the ladder to the hayloft and jumped down into a pile of hay from the second floor. This was great sport.
Page 20: (photo of Minnie and young Carlo) Caption: Mother was truly the Queen of her Castle.
Page 21: I remember the little stream behind the farm that had all the flat stones which I threw to make skip on the surface of the water.
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Glenn Lybarger My Confidante
On these long trips, Glenn Lybarger and I had plenty of time to talk. From him I learned the innate facts of life and nature all the way from the love-life of the honeybee and birds. As a youngster it had been my custom to site in front with Glenn as he drove and Mother and Dad sat in the rear. Glenn was like an intimate family member.
Glenn Lybarger and Margaret, his wife, occupied the second floor of the garage at the Castle overlooking the Hudson. Their son, Lawrence, grew up there and from the time he was old enough Larry Lybarger worked as a loyal employee in Dad’s office. For some 40 years Larry was with the Paterno operation until its finale when we liquidated and moved to Naples, Florida.
It was Glenn Lybarger who drove Helen’s Mark II big car to Naples in 1970.
NEXT: CHAPTER III • MEMORABILIA OF BOYHOOD
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