Peanut Brittle Fund Raiser
Each year the school has a fund raiser selling peanut brittle. The students canvas their neighborhoods for orders and the Nuns place an order with the candy company for the orders received. The children make the deliveries and collect and deliver the money to the school. The Finnigan boys, always on the lookout for ways to make money for birthdays and xmas gifts, Bob found after weighing many boxes that almost all weighed more than the one pound weight shown on the box and they made a note of that. The boy had record sales but before they turned in their order, they reduced the order placed with the school by their overage estimate. When the candy arrived, they weighed each box, removed the overage and used it to fill empty boxes they bought at a 5 and 10 store on Bailey Avenue. They delivered all the orders, paid the school for their boxes, kept the the amount collected for the overage orders and everyone was happy!
Dad always made sure that the family celebrated Christmas. Shortly before Christmas, Dad sent Jerry downtown to Klienhans Department store to buy several gifts for the family, using Dad's charge account. Jerry is "the last of the big spenders" and the delivery truck arrives with several gifts for each of the kids and Dad. Dad sends everything back except a Lionel train for the older boys, a doll for Kathleen and a hook and ladder fire truck for John and Paul. Presents are placed under a large tree in the living room and always opened on Xmas eve. It was a time of joy for the whole family. Dad always gave books to the kids, in fact, he gave Paul "Prince and the Pauper" two years in a row, one written by Samuel Clemens and the other written by Mark Twain.
Winter storms in Buffalo often delivered 6 - 8 feet of snow with wind and drifts that cover the doors and lower windows of any home. Roycroft Blvd is seldom plowed when Charlie is leaving for work and he depends on his boys to help him reach Wherle Drive six houses away which is plowed. "Princess" Kathleen sits warm and comfy in the back seat while the boys risk freezing hands and injury behind spinning wheels that throw gravel in their faces. When the car gets going, they crouch down, hold onto the bumper and "skate" along, sometimes hitting a bare spot in the road and take a big header. After school, they waited at cross streets and when a car stops, they hitch a ride for a block or two and when they released they just slide on into the snow bank
Sweet Tooth
On their way home from school, the family passed a candy store at the corner of Kensington and Darwin drives. Long glass cases span the width of the store with large bowls of assorted candies with chocolates, mints and all kinds of candy. The kids love candy but they have little money. They move back and forth the length of the cases choosing which candy to buy and finally reach a consensus. They buy ten cents worth of mints that will be easy to divide. After they leave, the store owner cleans off all the smudges and prints left by their grimy little hands. A few days later as they cross the street heading for the store, the owner runs to meet them at the door, with a free bag of mints... They found another annuity.
The Finnigan boys were very close and protective of each other. Paul was finally in school and generally walked home with the rest of the family, but on occasion and against Dad's orders, Paul walked home alone. The "Finnigan path" cuts across a large field full of tall summer weeds. George Eggloff, the bully in Paul's class lived near the path and seeing Paul walking alone, hides along the path, jumps out and beats him up. Paul tells his brothers about the ambush and they come up with a plan. The next day they walk ahead of Paul and hide along the path. When George sees Paul alone again and runs to hide, the boys take out old Georgee Porgee. The word spreads around school quickly... don't mess with any of the Finnigan boys. No different than any other family.
When they reached the eighth grade, each of the Finnigans was assigned to ring the dismissal bell. The bell ringer keeps an eye on the clock and at dismissal time walks down the hall ringing the bell. During the lunch hour, one of their pals sneaks into the class room and sets the clock ahead one hour. Class resumes and no one notices the change in time. At dismissal time "Finnigan" picks up the bell, leaves the room and dismisses the school. Several of the Nuns realize what has happened, run into the hall to stop everyone and return them to their class rooms. Sister Gabriel, who figures out that Finnigan is in on the scam, keeps him after school. Becoming famous school wide was a new experience.
Dad has “wired” the route between Christ the King and home with a series of contacts that provide a “spotting” service to keep track of the family's coming and going to school. Included are Mrs. Gustina at one end and Mrs. Horan at the other but there are several others along the way that report to Dad if the kids got off track or into fights or trouble along the way. Years later at the 50th class reunion for Amherst Central High School Arthur Pankow, who was Dean of Boys as well as head of the music department, told Denny that Dad had made contacts with a number of families along the route from home to ACHS to perform the spotting roll and that Dr. Pankow had organized the team and was the contact point in the network.
