A garage sale that brings back chilling memories . . . Well, here’s something that brings back memories of my childhood: Garage Sale 715 Thomas Street, Monongah Friday and Saturday Sept 12 and 13 from 9-3. NO EARLY SALES. Come check it out. The Olesky family lived at 711 Thomas Street in the early 1940s, moving there within a year of my birth in my grandparents’ house on Walnut Street. If the numbers go up by 2, then 715 is the former Catania home. If they go up by 4, then 715 is the former Mangino home. I still feel a chill when I think of using the two-holer outhouse at the back of our Thomas Street home, which was just off the alley that separated the Thomas Street outhouses from the row of car garages under one roof. Between the garages and U.S. 19 (Camden Avenue) was the “baseball field” that we used. Later, the Catania brothers, Angelo and Alex, who lived two doors down from the Oleskys on Thomas Street, had part of the baseball field covered over with dirtfill to build their Sinclair service station. Because left field was so close to U.S. 19, any “ball” (a rock inside a sock covered with miner’s electrician tape) hit onto it was an automatic out, to prevent any of us from running onto the road and getting squashed by passing traffic. Lawrence and Regina Godby, and their children Lawrence “Sonny” Godby and Jackie Godby (all deceased), lived next to our baseball field. The Evans family, with children Sonny and Marylee Evans Lusczynski (Eddie’s wife), and the Elutrio family, including Joseph Junior “Beansie” Elutrio, lived across U.S. 19 from the Godby family. All except Beansie, who lives in Baltimore and regularly danced with Sue Greynolds Davidson at Monongah High Reunions, are deceased. The Oleskys moved to the next house, on Church Street, when Consol sold its homes because it knew the mine would be closing within three years. The Church Street home, rented by Mary and Angelo Raymond, had indoor plumbing. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven! Particularly in the winter. Mary and Angelo -- whose children are the late Bob Raymond, Class of 1951, and Rosemary Raymond Pagliaro, Class of 1958, who lives in Fairmont today with husband Carmen Pagliaro – bought a home in Frogtown, south of Monongah on U.S. 19 just before Swisher Hill, and opened a tavern below their new home. If you have memories of the Olesky or Raymond families, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add your information to this Monongah High Alumni blog article.