Page 182 - Always Virginia

170 Virginia Day Fritscher

Jack: What was living in St. Louis like at that time?

Mary Pearl: Just about like it is now. I can’t see much differ-
ence. Of course, there is more to go and see now. I’d go to see my
girl friends and they’d come to see me, and they’d stay til 10 o’clock
and we’d walk each other halfway home. You wouldn’t do that in
St. Louis today. But we did then and we weren’t worried about it,
and our parents weren’t either, because nothing ever happened. But
now it’s like every other big city.
Jack: Nanny, will you sing “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louie”?
You did the other day.

Mary Pearl: I can’t sing no more.

Jack: You sang for me the other day.

Mary Pearl: I was just foolin’ then. Jack.... [Spontaneously, she
sings.] “Meet me in St.Louis, Louie. Meet me at the Fair. Don’t tell
me the lights are shining anywhere but there. We will dance the
hootchy-kootchy. You will be my tootsie-wootsie. Meet me in St.
Louis, Louie. Meet me at the Fair.” [They both laugh.]

Jack: Very good. [Their laughter continues.] Tell me your
wonderful story about Francis Devine.

Mary Pearl: Ooooh. [Laughs at the memory.] That was my
old boy friend. I went with him for practically two years. We were
engaged, then I met the man I married.
[On July 12, 1911, she married Bartholomew Day, born
October 17, 1887, in Hamburg, Illinois, of parents John Day (c.
1824-1900) and Mary Lynch (1844-1924), both born in Ireland;
Bart died February 13, 1954 in Springfield where he lived with
Mary Pearl and their son, John Bartholomew Day, in the rectory
of St. Cabrini Parish where he was pastor, and himself died when
he was 55, April 9, 1967, as Mary Pearl held him in her arms. She
was 78 years old.]