Life in Scribbletown Love Among the Sticky.

Okay, I promised you (or those of you who bothered to comment) the rest of the Frankie Barno saga. I will do that in a moment but first I must pause to mention three random things:

One: My husband, after much hemming and hawing, back-and-forthing, message leaving, etc., accepted the new job at the same old university for a much larger paycheck for the coming school year. Will it be the death of him? Who knows. I’m focusing on that paycheck issue for now. Perhaps it will come with too many strings and be nothing but a 9 month hassle. Who knows what next summer will bring. Hopefully a week-long vacation. Hopefully a screened-in porch. Hopefully some savings.

Two: Despite what I wrote about Red, she was entirely delightful this evening. Not a single tantrum! Not one! I probably shouldn’t have even written that because it will come back to bite my ass. But, hey, I’m used to that.

Three: Dusty has created the Red Pee Chart. That is what it’s called. She’s written down all the remaining days of the month and is adding a star every time Red pees in the potty – a skill she has pretty much mastered now. For July 10, there were 5. Maybe 6. I forget. I’m still scratching my head over why Dusty would want to devise this chart to begin with.

Okay! On with the show! I’ve changed a few names and deleted a couple of street names just to cut down on G00gle searches and such. Also, the people who contacted me are most likely still alive. I’ve left all the stuff intact. Chuck is the son of Doris. I first heard from him. He forwarded our conversation to his mother and she and I had a very interesting interaction after that. See if you don’t agree:

Chuck:

I stumbled upon your entry about Frankie Barno. My father’s brother, Johnny, was married to Anna (Mrs. Barno). I vaguely remember visiting Uncle Johnny and Aunt Anna in Richmond before Frankie came along. What I remember most is the pump organ in the front hallway. Johnny and Frankie did come to visit us shortly after Frankie was adopted though. The last time they tried to visit Anna, she greeted them wearing fatigues, the stocking cap and a Grateful Dead “T” shirt. At least she was current if not hospitable. As I read your piece I knew there couldn’t have been two crazy Mrs. Barnos with an adopted son named Frankie.

Darlene:

I was interested in your article concerning a Mrs. Barno who lived in your neighborhood when you were a child. I had a sister-in-law, Mrs. John (Anna) Barno who fit the description more or less. I can’t remember the name of the street in Richmond, but I know she owned a number of houses that she would renovate into apartments and rent them. John was my husband’s brother and died in 1974. They had adopted Frankie from a young woman tenant who moved, I believe, to California. We live in PA and John brought Frankie here for a visit once when he was about 4 or 5 yrs. old. We didn’t see Anna for a long time after John died and when we did go to that house, at least two big dogs nearly jumped the fence at us and we waited until she took them away. I think she got stranger as the years went by and the neighbors had a petition to get her to move or clean up the place. In the early 1990s we stopped to see her and she had moved across the street. Maybe the other house was empty. She had had loads of antiques and junk in it when we visited in the 70s. She saw us at the gate from across the street and came out on the porch, dressed in strange clothes and the toboggan cap. This was in July. She was very suspicious and acted like she thought we were after something. We weren’t invited inside. We talked for a few minutes, told her which members of the Barno family had died, stuff like that, and left. That’s the last we saw her. I know she and her husband are buried in that cemetery somewhere near Three Chopt Road.

If you know the address of that old “farmhouse”, I would appreciate hearing from you. The last we heard of Frankie, he was operating a laundromat, I think in Manassas or somewhere not far from King’s Dominion. We never kept in touch. How did the fire start that destroyed that old house?

Anna (and John, if his name was on the properties!) had a nice house on W– Hill in Petersburg when I met them. She ran a clothing store on H– St. there which had mostly black customers. When they moved to Richmond, she began the apartment rental business. At one point, they bought a house in Sandston which they intended to use as their own home, but when they got it redecorated, couldn’t resist renting it! Maybe she lost all her properties over the years. I printed the e-mails we’ve been exchanging and took them to a family pig roast last Saturday in Altoona, PA, and my daughters and son enjoyed them. They remembered going to the Grove Avenue house as children..

This is just fascinating! I never heard what happened to Anna’s mother. Anna’s maiden name was Hrcka, and we just called her mother Mrs. Hrcka. Never knew her first name. Anna had two brothers, Mike and John Hrcka, and a sister, Margaret Hawkins, and I think they all lived in Richmond. My son was trying to locate an account of the fire in a Richmond newspaper. My husband and I came to Richmond after Anna died and intended to find out what happened to her estate, but we were there on a day the row offices were closed. If no family was listed in her obituary, possibly they’ve all died and there was no one left to give information.

Our son, Chuck, has a son, Chandler, 15. They brought in several big loads of dirt and piled it in an adjoining lot so Chris could make “jumps” for his remote controlled car. Chandler made the comment that, if you could see their yard, you would wonder who was buried there! Maybe it’s genetic!