TexasEscapes.comTexas Escapes Online Magazine: Travel and History
Columns: History, Humor, Topical and Opinion
Over 2500 Texas Towns & Ghost Towns
NEW : : TEXAS TOWNS : : GHOST TOWNS : : TEXAS HOTELS : : FEATURES : : COLUMNS : : ARCHITECTURE : : IMAGES : : SITE MAP : : SEARCH SITE
HOME
SEARCH SITE
ARCHIVES
RESERVATIONS
Texas Hotels
Hotels
Cars
Air
Cruises
Magazine
Texas Escapes
Online Magazine
Galveston Hotels
Find Hotel Deals in Galveston, Texas
Book Here & Save
 
Texas | Columns | Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories

Being Sent to the Abattoir
Wasn’t Sam’s Lot in Life

by Bill Cherry
Mr. Sam, like his brothers, cousins and uncles, worked for the patriarch of the family, Jasper Tramonte. Mr. Jasper had a meat-packing business on Broadway, near 61st Street. It was called the High Grade Packing Co.

“We useah so muchah cereal in our Boohkanear weenies, the Pope eatsah them on Fridays,” was Mr. Jasper’s favorite self-deprecating joke.

And, even though we had heard him say it a thousand times, we’d still break up in almost uncontrollable laughter every time.

Mr. Jasper had left Sicily without much of an education when he came to America, but he made sure that all of his children got college degrees. Mr. Sam got his from Texas A&M.

When one of his boys did something that displeased Mr. Jasper, the first words out of his mouth were predictable. “Don’tcha makeah me angry.”

Then, making a large sweeping stroke with his arm, he would continue: “If you behavah yourself, someah day thisah could allah belongah to you.”

Every now and then, when Mr. Jasper was especially upset with one of his boys, he’d say to him: “You gonna workah in the abattoir for a while.”

An abattoir is the polite name for a slaughterhouse. And I’m not going to go into the specifics of why that was almost inhumane punishment.

One time, when Mr. Jasper was on a rampage against Mr. Sam, he screamed: “Samah, my boy, you’re gonna workah in the abattoir until nextah Christ-mas! You understandah me?”

Mr. Sam said: “Pappa, I quit.” And, with Mr. Jasper screaming in the background, “Disah never gonna belongah to you,” Mr. Sam got in his car and went directly to a friend’s used-car lot on Tremont Street and bought it.
Mr. Sam Tramonte With Chris Craft
Mr. Sam Tramonte with his Chris Craft
Courtesy of J.E. Tramonte

Mr. Sam had always been a good trader and he had lots of friends and everyone liked him. I remember we all thought he was a natural for his new enterprise.

A few months later, one of his friends came by the car lot with his wife and they had a beautiful, shiny, mahogany Chris-Craft Sportsman boat on a trailer behind their truck.

“Sam, the wife needs a car,” said the friend.

“We haven’t got any money to buy one but, since you like to fish and all, I thought maybe you’d trade us that ’51 Olds over there for my solid mahogany Chris-Craft Sports-man.”

Mr. Sam’s defenses went down in a nanosecond. He wanted that beautiful, shiny, solid-mahogany Chris-Craft more than he wanted to make a sane decision — one he’d be able to explain later to Miss Ernestine, his wife; the mother of his four boys, J.E., Sammy, Val and Darryl.

Within moments, the shiny solid-mahogany Chris-Craft on the trailer was unhitched from the truck, the wife was behind the wheel of the ’51 Olds and she and Mr. Sam’s friend were driving off, Mr. Sam’s friend driving the truck they had come in.

In moments, reality set in for Mr. Sam. How was he going to explain the shiny, solid-mahogany Chris-Craft to Miss Ernestine?

He decided he’d better hide the boat somewhere until he had time to come up with an excuse. He hitched it up to his truck and pulled it over to his friend’s house and asked if he could leave it there for a day or two.

Wouldn’t you know that, the very next day, and before Mr. Sam had gotten up his nerve to tell Miss Ernestine what he had done, and before he could move the shiny, solid-mahogany Chris-Craft from his friend’s house to another hiding place, Miss Ernestine stopped by to play bridge.

“That’s some fancy boat your husband’s got there in the driveway,” Miss Ernestine said to his wife, basically just for something to say to pass the time.

“That’s Sam’s boat,” her friend replied.

Sam’s friend was in the kitchen nearby, overheard the conversation and almost had a heart attack. He pulled the receiver from the red phone hanging on the kitchen wall and spun the dial to call Mr. Sam to let him know there was trouble brewing in River City.

Quick as a flash, it came to Mr. Sam. He knew what he had to do. He called his friend Maurice Hennessy, the sign painter.

“Maurice, I need you now. Drop everything, bring your paint and brushes and come running.”

Within an hour, Mr. Sam had the shiny, mahogany Chris-Craft hooked up to the back of his truck and he was on his way home with it.

When he got there, he started beating out a tune on the truck’s horn. Miss Ernestine came out to see the big toothy grin of Mr. Sam as he was pointing to the stern of the shiny, solid-mahogany Chris-Craft.

“Miss Ernestine” painted in still wet, beautiful gold-leaf letters, was there for her to see.

“Let me go get the bottle of Gallo from the kitchen pantry so you can christen the Miss Ernestine,” he said to her.

Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories
October 13, 2010 column
Copyright 2010 – William S. Cherry
More Texas People

Galveston
Galveston Hotels


Related Topics:
Texas People
Columns
TE Online Magazine
Texas

Bill Cherry, a Dallas Realtor and free lance writer was a longtime columnist for "The Galveston County Daily News." His book, Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories, has sold thousands, and is still available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com and other bookstores.
ALL ABOUT TEXAS:
PEOPLE >
PLACES >
THINGS >
TE Online Magazine >
Hotels >
Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories
 
TEXAS ESCAPES CONTENTS
HOME | TEXAS ESCAPES ONLINE MAGAZINE | TEXAS HOTELS
TEXAS TOWN LIST | TEXAS GHOST TOWNS | TEXAS COUNTIES

Texas Hill Country | East Texas | Central Texas North | Central Texas South | West Texas | Texas Panhandle | South Texas | Texas Gulf Coast
TRIPS | STATES PARKS | RIVERS | LAKES | DRIVES | MAPS

Texas Attractions
TEXAS FEATURES
People | Ghosts | Historic Trees | Cemeteries | Small Town Sagas | WWII | History | Texas Centennial | Black History | Art | Music | Animals | Books | Food
COLUMNS : History, Humor, Topical and Opinion

TEXAS ARCHITECTURE | IMAGES
Courthouses | Jails | Churches | Gas Stations | Schoolhouses | Bridges | Theaters | Monuments/Statues | Depots | Water Towers | Post Offices | Grain Elevators | Lodges | Museums | Rooms with a Past | Gargoyles | Cornerstones | Pitted Dates | Stores | Banks | Drive-by Architecture | Signs | Ghost Signs | Old Neon | Murals | Then & Now
Vintage Photos

TRAVEL RESERVATIONS | HOTELS | USA | MEXICO

Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Recommend Us | Contributors | Staff | Contact TE
Website Content Copyright ©1998-2008. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved
This page last modified: October 13, 2010