904 E. CLINTON ST.

904 E. Clinton St. is my personal photographic investigation of my Uncle Paul’s house. Uncle Paul (Calcanas ) was my Mother’s oldest brother. I had lunch with Uncle Paul on his 89th and last birthday, November 1, 2004. As usual, I had my camera with me. Uncle Paul made it clear to me that he did not want any kind of pictorial remembrance of himself at his funeral. He must have known his time was near. He passed away on November 30, 2004. Upon speaking with my cousin Bobby, after the services, I felt a need to preserve a piece of my Mom’s family history through photographs. My inspiration came from a story Bobby told my about Uncle Paul having told him that he had had a party two nights before he passed. Remnants of the party were 3 cups of hot chocolate on the kitchen table. Uncle Paul said that he had made it for his guests and was quite frustrated that they did not drink it. Some of the guests he named had already passed before him. I was moved by the idea that Uncle Paul might have had some form of contact with them as he prepared to join them. The thought of this made me want to preserve the table and the house, as they were. I knew that eventually the house would be sold and I would no longer be able to visit that part of my past; what I remember first to be Gramma and Grampa’s. It was not until I was well into my twenties that I learned that Uncle Paul actually owned the house. So, in the spring of 2005 I began my quest.

Uncle Paul returned home to Joliet, IL after WWII where he was stationed in New Mexico then France. He worked on the railroad during his tour in the army. He and his brother Poncho (Frank) bought a house. They moved their family (my grandmother, grandfather, my mother and my Aunt Connie) into the home with them. My grandparents moved here to the US from Mexico as, legal imigrants, in 1920 . They were a close family (they had seven children) and took care of each other. My grandfather was legally blind and could no longer work. I remember his glasses were so thick, his eyes looked as big as the lenses. My Uncle Paul and Uncle Poncho helped support the family.

My Mother married my Father in 1954, and they moved to their own home. My Uncle Poncho married and moved to California in 1958. Uncle Paul never married. Instead he stayed at home and took care of my grandparents and my Aunt Connie (who had also never married). She had twins, Christina and Robert (“Tina and Bobby twice” we called them when we were little). My Aunt Connie was my Mother’s best friend. And Tina and Bobby were the same age as my brother Phil and I. Consequently we spent a lot of time at the house with them. Grampa passed in 1975 and Gramma in 1984. Uncle Paul continued to look after Aunt Connie, Tina and Bobby. When Aunt Connie passed in 1998 Uncle Paul remained a father figure to her children. He was a quiet man with a good sense of humor (“Right on” he would say to me). He could sit in the middle of the living room in his easy chair on Christmas Eve with a house full of people, kids bouncing off the walls and blocking the TV; and never lost his cool. He was everybody’s Uncle Paul, even those to whom he had no relation.

This exploration of 904 E. Clinton St. is a look back at what I remember about it and the people in it. It is meant to remind me of my family, where I come from and who I am. I have memories about everything that is pictured, and some things that are not there where they once were. There are images of some places, that as a child, I rarely or never saw. There are images of things I haven’t seen since I was a child. There are images of things that belonged to those who lived in the house. There are images of things I saw every time I went to the house, things that I never thought twice about; till I am faced with the fact that I will never see them again. The house is now sold. And a new family will begin to create their own memories at 904 E. Clinton St.

Please join me as I take one last look at what once was, and always will be, a part of me.