The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

put me on the pill anyway.
He told the priest, Look,
you want to raise the kids? She
can’t have any more, she’s worn
out. The priest wouldn’t give me
a dispensation, but he told me I
had to confess it. That was when
I started going to confession only
once a year.
When I went to register the
kids at school, I used to keep a
list of all the kids and the
birthdates in my purse. When I
registered the kids in Gates, I
knew the gal in the office. We
went down the forms and she
saw the piece of paper.” She
said, “Marge, what happened
between John and Al?, meaning
the four-year gap. I said, “No
parties.”
Al’s Al’s ear ear infection infection
infection
When Al was about a year
and a half old. and just talking a
little, he got up in the morning
and he was pulling on his ear.
He kept saying, “Hurts. Hurts.”
I called the doctor across
the street, I said I think he has an
ear infection, and the nurse said
I could make an appointment
for the next morning.
So I put him in for his nap,
and when he got up, his whole
head was distorted. By this time,
his ear was pointing straight out
from his head. I said can I bring
him right over, and the nurse
said “You have an appointment
tomorrow.” I said he could have
brain damage by tomorrow, and
she said “that’s the chance you
take.”
We didn’t have a car then –
dad was riding to work with his
boss Don Metzger to a new job
at R.T. French Company. I
called dad at work and said you
get your mother or somebody
and get over here, we are taking
him to the emergency room.
We got him to an emergency
room and the young
doctors had never seen a mastoid
infection. Finally an old
doctor came through and said,
“My god.” It was a mastoid.
Al was in the hospital for
ten days, and it was touch and
go. With a mastoid, you can
have brain damage or die. We
got him through that, we got him
home, and he was home about
two days. I went in to change
him after his nap and his skin
was all black on his bottom, in
the whole diaper area, like he
was burnt.
Johnny and Albie Callan at
Walt Disney World, Christmas 1972.
I called Uncle George, and
he took us back to the doctors.
The doctor said that it was a
diaper rash. I had been watching
him like a hawk since he got to
go home. I knew it was no diaper
rash. They finally decided it was
a penicillin reaction. They were
pumping him full of penicillin
every four hours to get him
through the ear infection. He has
been allergic to penicillin ever
since.
Al Al first first first road road trip
trip
When Al was about three,
he had a little turquoise scooter,
like a big wheel. He was outside
the house in Irondequoit playing
one day. Gramma and Grampa,
Jack’s parents, had come over.
~ 61 ~
The Callans and McClarys
We were talking, when all of a
sudden, we realized Al had just
taken off. He was half way to St.
Salome’s Church, many blocks
away, by the time we found him.
He just decided to take a ride.
Another time, he went for a
ride with Timmy Sykes next
door on a real bike. He wasn’t
supposed to leaving the yard,
and the neighbors came running
and told us he had cut his whole
chin open. He had gone over the
handlev bars and landed on the
street down on Garford Avenue.
He cut his whole chin open.
Special Special times times with
with
Al Al and and and Mom
Mom
I said before he was my
constant companion. When he