ACT Blog

My Three Sisters And Their Only Brother By: Joe Ball, Publisher

I have three younger sisters.

“Much younger”, they would say.

All have married names, but they’re known as “The Ball Sisters”.

They live near each other. They are in touch with each other daily. They are clickish. Much so!

For years they have asked me to do one of my essays about them.

I’ve declined- -until now.

But it’s a Saturday morning and the opportunity of time is upon me.

So let me start.

I can recall seeing sister Barbara, eight years my junior when she was carried, directly from her birth hospital, into our home at 5712 Florence Ave., Southwest Phila.

I was eight, and an only child. An only SON.

I don’t really recall my relationship with her in her childhood years.

My life in her early years had me working as a self-employed sales and home delivery boy for “Look Magazine”…a delivery and clean-up person at Rosenfields & later Bergers neighborhood deli’s, attending Longstreth Elementary and Shaw Junior High.

Riding bicycles… snow sledding at Cobbs Creek Park (where I broke my arm)… Boy Scout Troop 195, where I advanced to Senior Patrol Leader. (The lessons were helpful in later years in the Army.)… the Lenox and Ambassador movie theaters (Saturday matinees included coming attractions, news, a cowboy or superman series and then…double features, noon to 5PM- -all for a dime.

Fights, after school, (words and fists) with the kids from Most Blessed Sacrament the parochial school at 56^th and Chester Ave. (They called us “Christ Killers”).

Raking ashes from the coal furnace in the cellar…pouring out melted water from the pan at the bottom of the ice box…running away from home (1x) but stopping at the corner.

Growing Up, Plus Sister #2

 I had, I think, a normal young boys life of that time.

Along came sister Dana. I was 12; Barbara 4.

Dana was named after a deceased brother of our dad. At the time Dana was a different name especially for a girl.

I don’t remember much of sister Dana’s childhood. There was a 12 year difference.

I was now at Shaw Junior High, wheezing my way through gym class cross -country runs… playing wire ball, box ball, hump-hump- – and beginning to babysit for money. The Beth Am rabbi was one of my “clients”.

I also had summer jobs, doing deliveries for a huckster who sold vegetables and fruits from the back of his truck.

I shared my bedroom with a stranger, a boy my age, who my mother took in as a boarder. His name was Irv Clofine. Really, a nice person, but I had to give up my former exclusive bedroom, and live with him via twin beds.

In our three-bedroom row house, we now had my parents in the main bedroom, Barbara and Dana in the middle, Irv and I in the rear.

My “nana” (mom’s mom) would sleep at our house, but I don’t remember where.

I don’t remember any major problems.

World War II started.

My dad became the neighborhood Air Raid Warden. He made sure neighborhood blinds were down during air raid exercises.

Butter, meat, and gasoline were rationed. There were government ration books.

T he father of a schoolmate-friend of mine, George Christine, who lived across the “backyard (it wasn’t a yard, it was more of a wide driveway with enclosed garages under the homes) on Beaumont Ave., was manager of a local A & P store.

Our ration stamps and the store’s limited inventory came together well.

 Growing Up, With Sister #3

But this is supposed to be about “The Sisters”.

I’m getting there…I’m getting there…

Four years passed.

Hello. Here’s Jayne, sister number three.

I’m now 16, Barbara is 8, Dana 4.

From that time to now, the three sisters linked.

Not me. They were there. I was too, but I was in a “different world”.

We had moved to 6429 N. Park Ave., E. Oaklane. The cost of the house: $8,400, with a substantial mortgage.

There was a finished attic on the third floor.

It became my domain.

My life was basically separate from my three sisters.

I was attending Central High School.

The routine was school, home, outdoor play with Ed Schweriner, Mike Hertz, Saul Chudnoff, Don Goldberg (there could be essays on each one) usually basketball using a peach basket without a bottom nailed to a telephone pole, homework, family dinner, washing the dishes, and early bed.

I’ve always been “early to bed, early to rise”.

Even after high school, still living at home, my sister’s lives didn’t really intrude too much on mine.

It was the age difference.

I was still living at home.  My mother wanted me to be an undertaker, I even enrolled at the Dolan School of Mortuary Science. I lasted two weeks- -and one body.

I then made an application at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and was hired. I started working as a 17-year-old copyboy in the newsroom.

The hours were outside the mainstream. Sometimes my shift was 4PM to midnight, sometimes 11AM to 7PM (the best) and often 6PM to 3AM.

In those days The Inquirer had five editions daily. They were: Bulldog, Late Bulldog, City Edition, Late City Edition, Final City Edition. The Bulldog was off the press at 6:30PM, the Final City at 3AM. One of my duties was to be in the press room, and take a dozen of the first papers from the press to the editors for their checking.

I also worked Saturdays and Sundays, having days off like Monday and Thursday.

 Jayne: In The News

 There was one incident worth noting during our lives at our home at 6429 N. Park Ave.

It occurred while I had my job at the City Desk in The Inquirer’s newsroom.

I was stationed next to the fire department radio and police radio.

In came a “local” on the fire Department radio.

The location of the fire was- –my home!

“Oh my gosh!”

I called my home and spoke to my mom even before the fire engines got there. The blaze was in a back shed!

Turns out sister Jayne, then about 8 years old, was playing with matches (“They make a pretty”, she said.) The blaze created smoke, and enough flame to have my family leave the house.

I wrote a story, which was published the next day. “An eight-year-old East Oak Lane girl saved her family yesterday by alerting her parents to a fire in their home.

I didn’t say she was responsible.

She became a neighborhood hero.

Jayne also became the family’s maverick.

She cut school, smoked, was a magnet for men (younger men) married, had two sons, both highly successful, divorced, had jobs of responsibility, invested-well, and retired.

Today, she is a grandmother, single, a social Internet guru, attractive- -and still a maverick.

Definition: She does what she wants.

This family tie has also stayed with the father of her children, long divorced, and remarried. He continues to come to Ball Family events, with his second wife. All get along.

 Barbara: The Hub

 Now Barbara.

She is the link that holds us together.

This includes my wife, Sandy, who is “the fourth sister.”

The following comes to mind as I think of Barbara growing up.

…Oaklane Review Club

…Pinafores

…Her marriage to Gary Meyers, in my parents living room, and their honeymoon trip to New York- -on a bus.

…Her first job at a clothing manufacturer at 16^th and Vine. I went to check out the owners. (He hired her anyway.)

…Her years, later, as manager of “Best Foot Forward,” which made her one of the best informed ladies in Cherry Hill, N.J. (Gossip. Gossip.)

…Her care of our mom during the last five years of her life, which ended at 93.

…Her husband, after a 25-year career at RCA, started his own property management firm. He recently sold it, and now Barbara and he cruise, visit doctors, spend time with their two daughters, and grandchildren.

 Dana: In The Middle

 And now for middle sister Dana.

I asked her to relate several incidents from her life for this column.

She submitted the following:

“When I graduated high school, our mother said to Joe, YOU WILL HIRE DANA!!!

“Not will you hire Dana?

“She was emphatic….YOU WILL HIRE DANA.

“While I was his secretary, a day did not go by without Joe firing me. (Author’s note: I don’t remember doing that. Dana was always conscientious, capable, and a pleasure to be with.)

“Every time he fired me I used to say back to him, ok…but I’m going home and telling mommy.”

“With that I was rehired again on the spot.”

Another episode she remembered:

“I was summoned to Grand Jury Duty.

“It was going to last a month, if not longer.

“The courtroom was mobbed. There were between 100 and 150 people there.

“The Judge came out of his chambers to explain the case to us.

“He told us the case was in headlines of the Philadelphia Inquirer and was one of the most publicized stories in New Jersey.

“He said the case would start in November and last until May. Jurors had to be there Monday through Friday.

“The Judge said anyone who can’t sit on this jury for that amount of time, please stand up…and with that everyone stood up!

“As I was waiting for the Judge to call my name to possibly be excused, I turned around and in came a couple that I knew.

“They waved hello to me.

“I waved back hello.

“Then I “mouthed” to them, “Is this your case?”

“She nodded “yes”.

“When the Judge called a recess for lunch, I went out and the wife introduced me to her husband.

“He was the Defendant.

“After lunch, the Judge called me into his chambers to interview me with the defendant present. Before I even sat down, the defendant said “I know Dana.”

“With that the Judge said “You’re dismissed.”

Dana has now been married almost 40 years, has two successful, married sons, and is a grandmother, including a set of twins.

She has been active in community social and non-profit organizations.

Among the non-profits are trips she occasionally makes to casinos.

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