My Brother Peter

About the Book

My brother Peter was eleven years older than I, so my memories of his school years are limited. One particular, even humorous event, was when he played on the Perth Amboy football team. He was running for a touchdown when his uniform pants began to fall. As he was losing his pants he continued to run, scoring the TD but falling over his pants and breaking his nose - a second time!

I remember my brother as being a gentle, loving person. He loved listening to music on the radio. His favorite song was "I'll be Seeing You." Whenever he heard that song he would stop whatever he was doing just to listen. Until this day, whenever I hear this song, I always say, "That's Pete's favorite song." He loved airplanes and had several models hanging by strings from the ceiling in his room. He called me "Giggy" and would read to me while I sat on his lap in the living room. One of the chairs had large padded arms with a round wooden front. He would straddle the arm as if sitting on a horse and beat the wooden part like a drum to the rhythm of the music.

I recall the day he left for the Army. He wore a suit and carried a small duffle bag. I saw him one more time after that when he came home on leave. We went to the beach in Perth Amboy known as "Free Beach" and took pictures of him in uniform. While these memories are few, I treasure them to this day.

About the Author

Sister Margaret (Manger) Mangieri, a native of Perth Amboy, NJ, is the daughter of the late Josephine and Paul Manger. She has two sisters, Dr. Rose Channing Danzis, retired president of Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ, and Antoinette Murray, a long-time resident of Woodbridge, NJ, now recently moved to Toms River, NJ. Two other sisters, Josephine Halek and Lucy Gyorfi are deceased.

Sister Margaret attended Most Holy Rosary School, Perth Amboy, NJ, and entered the Religious Teachers Filippini at Villa Walsh, Morristown, NJ, in 1939. She was graduated from St. Elizabeth College, and did graduate work at Seton Hall University.

During her 55 years as a teacher, she has taught in elementary schools in NJ, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In addition to teaching general education subjects in grades 2 to 8, she has served as a parish organist and choir director for school children, high school, and workingwomen. She has also conducted special programs in enrichment and provided tutorial help to students, enlisting the aid of senior citizens in the local parishes. While in East Harlem, she planned and directed recreational activities for the youth of the community.

Sister Margaret now resides at the Religious Teachers Filippini Mother House, Villa Walsh, Morristown, NJ. Here she gives service driving Sisters to doctor appointments and serving as part-time telephone operator. For relaxation, she enjoys painting by numbers, writing poetry, and playing solitaire. Her newest project is the printing of her doodle design note cards, both in black and white and also in color, which you can find on the website - www.filippiniusa.org.

N.B. Due to the frequent misspelling of the family name, her father, a s a young boy, decided to drop the two i's, making the name sorter and easier to spell and pronounce. Needless to say, her grandfather was delighted when Sister Margaret was requested to use the original family spelling. Thus the use of both names, Manger and Mangieri.