The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

Chapter 14
Letter from Mom:
Margery Callan’s memories
of Al Callan’s childhood
Albert Francis Callan was
born at Genesee Hospital in
Rochester, New York, on April
26, 1965. He was the sixth child
and fourth son of John F. “Jack”
Callan and Margery “Marge”
Helene (Byrd) Callan.
When Al was born, the
family was living at 106
Coldwater Road in Gates, a
suburb outside of Rochester with
a very small-town feel. As was
said above, Al was the sixth child
born to the family. Al’s five older
siblings were Bernard James
(Bernie); Linda Marie, Maureen
Elizabeth; Stephen Jeffery; and
John Edward Callan..
A few weeks before Al’s
wedding on April 20, 2002, Al’s
mother, Margery “Marge”
Callan, recalled many stories of
his birth and childhood. They
are recorded in this chapter. She
starts the story a year before Al
was conceived.
“I thought I was pregnant
two months before (I got pregnant
with Al),” Marge says.
“Dad was just as excited
with each one of the kids as he
was with the one before. I would
be thinking, Oh God, how are
we going to support another one.
He said, “It’s your job to
have them and my job to support
them. So I thought, well we will
have one more, to even it out.
Three boys and three girls. Al
was supposed to be called Laurie
Anne. But I wouldn’t trade him
for anything.”
“When I woke Dad up and
told him it was time to go,”
Marge says, “we loaded all the
kids in the car and took them up
to Aunt Margaret’s and Uncle
Albert’s. The kids stayed there
and dad took me to the hospital.”
(Uncle Albert was the
brother of George Callan, little
Albert’s paternal grandfather. He
was married to the former
Margaret Cunningham, of Ponca
City, Oklahoma. Margaret’s
sister Ursula, who still lived in
Ponca City at the time, used to
visit the family when they moved
to Springfield, Mo.)
After Al was born,” Marge
goes on, “Jack and I talked it
over and we decided to name
him after Uncle Al. Uncle Al was
like a fairy godmother to us.
When we moved into the house
on Coldwater Road, it was the
first house that we owned. It only
had two bedrooms, but that was
all we could afford with a V-A
loan. (Jack was a Korean War
vet.)
It had an unfinished “expansion”
attic. I used to put the
rest of you kids to sleep in the
one bedroom. Bernie would
sleep in our bedroom till we
went to bed, then I would carry
Bernie out to the couch where I
made a bed for him.
Uncle Al would come out
every couple of weeks. He would
always bring out bananas, and
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The Callans and McClarys
candy for the kids.
One day he said
“How long can this
go on,” because we
didn’t have enough
space. He turned to
Jack and said,
“Saturday I am
renting a U-haul and
I am taking you
down to the hardware
store and we
are going to buy
everything you need
to build out the
rooms in the attic.”
Jack said, ‘We
haven’t got the
money.” Uncle Al
just said, “I didn’t
ask you that. Can
you do the work?”
So we put two big bedrooms
in there, one for the boys
and one for the girls. And one
was pink and white and was blue
and white. We moved the kids
up stairs. Then we used the
downstairs room for dad’s office.
He was selling State Farm
Insurance at the time.
Uncle Al had just two
daughters, Pat and Jerry, and no
sons to carry on his name.
When we decided to name Al
after Uncle Al, all Dad’s relatives
said it was too old a name for a
baby.
After Al was born, Dad
(Jack) left the hospital and went
up to Uncle Al’s to pick up the
kids. And he told Uncle Al we
had named the baby after him.
The next day Uncle Al
showed up at the hospital with