My mother sold Avon products for a while, and Sandra was one of her customers. I remember going with Mom many years ago to make a delivery when Sandra lived across the street from her family home; and talking with her just a bit. We were good friends in elementary school, but started other friendships in middle school.

Yes, Sandy was a very talented artist from an early age. Our family moved to the neighborhood in Sept 1962, and I was the "new" girl in 3rd grade.

 Ruth Malloy

The class was doing a big bulletin board about African animals, and Sandy was the primary artist. I took an immediate interest in her, and she took me under her wing. She was a nice girl.

What really stands out in my mind is how Sandra was always the one with the 'firsts': A real trendsetter. She started to listen to rock and roll, so then, I did too. She started to drink this concoction called 'instant iced-tea', with almost no tea and some sugar; I had too also! She went barefoot to a point of absurdity; so did I. She put posters all over her walls and used red lights and candles in her room. So did I! (This really got to my Mom I think but ...alas she loved all of us!)

 Bobby Mathews

She got a 'portable' stereo! I had to have one; and I got it. She covered her speakers in 'faux wood' paper. Guess what?...so did I! (not as well though!) She got a leather-fringed jacket, I HAD TO HAVE ONE!! (And once I got it, I never wore it) She read 'True Love' teen-angst magazines; I did too. They were so racy then, talking about kissing and 'touching breasts', ooooohhhhhh wweeeeeee! It was hot stuff! She wanted to smoke cigarettes, so I followed along. She wanted to smoke pot; I followed along then too.

There is so much that stands out in my mind about her love for boys. I remember some guy, forgot his name, but he was older: a very dark skinned Mexican. She really had a crush on him. I don't think it ended well. I think you knew him too. I also remember her crush on Walt's brother Dave. She was really strung out over him. I know; I was the one that got the earfull all the time, especially when Mary was not around and before Lee Ann was a friend. I don't really remember us drinking too much if we did at all. If we did it was toward the end of our being together all the time. I remember her wanting to lose weight all the time, and sometimes succeeding.

She drove us around in the Pontiac during summer when we were both bored to death. Seeing her privately 'hurt' when your mom would have an asthma attack. I remember her funny sense of humor. She was quite a wit. She was lovely, lively and quite a character.

That is the Sandra I remember. I still love her and miss her. I think of her everyday.

Where, as can be expected, most of my childhood memories spring from my home located at the 145 address on upper Mae, as I recall, the local grocery store, M&F Riverview Market is what really defined the neighborhood, and was the place that no one who lived on Mae could ever forget.

Owned by Mario & Frances DeVasio, M&F market was known to all as "Frances' Store." Frances was the epitome of a classic first generation wiry Italian storekeeper with a hummingbird metabolism. Standing about five feet tall and weighing no more than 100 lbs, she embodies all that was M&F Riverview. Ever present, I can still hear her mantra "Buy something!" As she beseeched a thousand times and which, of course, I an equal number, would ignore until finished with my Superman comic book. Her husband Mario, the store butcher was, how should I say -, "Notta too brite" - or at least, so he seemed to us smart-ass kids. But Mario did understand how to cut meat, and for all I know, he may have been the real brains behind the operation.

Technically, Frances' store was on Ramona Street just at the base of Mae. However, I can think of no place other than home that I went to more often. For example, at age four (circa 1960) - I can remember walking the two blocks down to Frances' with my Grandmother to get a loaf of bread; at five - riding in the car with Papa to buy a pack of Pall Malls, and some Burgie or a bottle of Piasano (or both); or at six - stopping after school to buy a Coca-Cola and a Snickers bar.

Back then, it was not unusual for me to make the short trek four or five times a day, often just to kill time. And every day, from before 7:00 AM to after 7:00 PM, Frances would be there behind the counter continually imploring us to "Please buy something." Mario died sometime in the early 70's and not long after, Frances closed the store and retired. The store never reopened and the property has since been converted into apartments.

Mario and Frances must have done well - financially, accumulating substantial income property in town, and a large family with grand and great-grand children to support, and be supported by them.

Frances was her 90's when last I saw her, still very much engaged and active with her family and friends. If I am not mistaken, she lived to be over 100, and may even still be alive. I suppose there was nothing peculiar or special about our neighborhood market. M&F Riverview was fairly typical for most Mom and Pop operations of its day. Of course we now have 7- Elevens, and Quickie Marts, - all consistent and alike, but really no place for a kid to hang out, or to become family friendly with its proprietors. Although for the most part, the corner stores are gone, they live in our memories and in our culture. Truly, Mae Ave (and indeed the whole neighborhood of Pittsburg Heights) would not have been same without Frances' store.

To say that Sandra loved music...is the grossest of understatements: it was more like she "breathed it in", like the air. It was that much a part of her - she lived for it. As her brother I could see the very early beginnings of this passion; and what it could lead to.

In our very young years we both listened to the "Little Golden Records 78's". It was Mickey Mouse Club and songs from Disney movies, fairy tales, and children's stories. We played my father's old 78's which featured 40's popular music and some classical. But in 1962, when I was 10 and she 8, we discovered the rock and roll Top 40 music. We listened to Chubby Checker and the "Twist", the Shirelles "Soldier Boy", the "Locomotion", the Beach Boys, and such.

One of my first 45 RPM records was Paul Anka's, "A Steel Guitar", but Sandra would always play the flip side, "I Never Knew Her Name". That was a precursor of her unique listening talent: she could recognize good new music: music that would normally go unheard.

When the Beatles and "Beatle-Mania" came around in 1964, we, of course, went right along with the fad. Sandra bought the records, listened to them over and over again, listened to the radio "Beatle-Battles", watched Ed Sullivan. Even to have a Beatle record in those days brought the envy of your friends. She collected the accompanying paraphrenalia: Beatle trading cards, Beatle tennis shoes, Beatle dolls, Beatle posters, etc.

One of the things that the Beatles' records taught us: to buy and collect long-playing albums. This was simple, because every song was good: even the ones you didn't hear on AM radio. So, sometime before the "summer of love" 1967, Sandra got a portable turn-table stereo. By then the "Monkees'" craze was on and we dutifully watched the show, bought the records and played them "ad-infinitum". Sandra stacked up the records on her record changer and listened and listened and listened.

At about this time Sandra had a cohort in her musical explorations. Her best friend Mary Karuse was also a music aficianado. Although living some fifty miles North of Sandra and seeing her two or three times a year; they traded record albums and shared their music and discoveries. As the brother; and thus being within ear-shot, I was the one who benefited from this expanse of new music. By the end of the decade my listenable list of rock groups and artists exploded; and I owed 90% of these discoveries to my sister.

So, who were these "groups" that she discovered? If I was to name the record album that probably started this passion, I would say the first Buffalo Springfield album, with its signiture hit, "For What It's Worth". From there it was Jefferson Airplane and "Surrealistic Pillow". Van Morrison and "Astral Weeks". And what followed was a "Rolling Stone" type list of the best albums of the late sixties -- too many to mention. Basically, if Sandra's playlist was broadcast, she would have been the first "70's album-rock-FM-radio-station". But these were the 60's!

Ok, it's true that not everything she liked was a big hit with me. There is just so many times you can listen to Vanilla Fudge, "You Keep Me Hangin' On", that I could stand. And I hated "Astral Weeks". (By the way, it took me 'til the late 90's before I even appreciated this epic rock classic. Its greatness finally dawned on me!) Some other artists that she "discovered", like the "Moody Blues" just "snuck up on me". And when I finally listened to their other songs, they were like old friends: I had heard them many times before; but finally appreciated them.

She attended the San Francisco Rock Concerts at the Fillmore and Winterland; she even looked the part, with the long, straight blond hair, stringy leather jacket, jeans, beads and such; she even learned to play the guitar. Still that was not the big part. The big part was the listening and sharing what she heard.

Time passed and music changed. Sandra still picked the "previously unknown" artists: Joanie Mitchell, Judy Collins, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen. She particularly loved Neil Diamond, especially at the time of his "Beautiful Noise" album. She never really embraced the CD media. And towards her latter days, she virtually abandoned the turn-table. However, the stereo was continually tuned to a "slow jazz" station.

After she died I pensively thumbed-through the record albums on the shelf below her stereo. All the music she loved: placed in no particular order; old and new; folk-rock; male-female; black-white; all waiting to be launched on the record machine. "Thank you, my sister, for sharing your love with me."