Charlie knows that strict discipline will be extremely important and he begins by creating a daily work schedule on a large board that he hangs on the dining room wall.  It lists the days across the top, the names down the side and the jobs to be done written in the intersecting squares. Everyone is personally responsible for making their beds, bathing and cleaning their rooms, with the older boys helping the children.

The cooking, shopping, cleaning, washing, garbage out, coal furnace tending, snow shoveling, grass cutting and other tasks are assigned to the older boys, rotating on a weekly basis. The younger children are assigned lesser duties.  Everyone is to come directly home from school and the older boys will deliver and pick up Paul at the Gustina's. All work assignments will be completed and ready for inspection when Dad arrives home from work.  Any poor work will result in reduced play time, and work not performed will often result in an encounter with Dad's leather belt.Charlie and the boys shop for groceries at Sauders Market on Egert Road where the butcher sets aside some good but less expensive cuts for the family. On the way home, they stop at the Cunningham's greeted by a couple of Great Danes. The children do their best to not show how frightened they are. They pickup fresh milk and chickens that are "dispatched" while they wait, and return home.

Jim is chief cook this week and is busy in the kitchen preparing Spanish rice and cottage cheese, one of the favorites that Dad taught him to make.  Dinners on and everyone sits around the table, being sure to keep one foot on the floor as they reach for bread and butter and pass the entrée around. Desert tonight will be chocolate cake that Jerry baked this afternoon.  Each of the children will eventually take their turns at cooking except Bob who Dad says "can't boil water without burning it" and is not allowed to cook.  Bob, one of the smartest of the gang, is not unhappy about being fired. Could it be that he burnt those dinners on purpose?

Up at 6am, bathed and dressed by 7 sharing the only bathroom, have breakfast and walk 1.5 miles to Christ the King school with a stop at the Gustina's house on Darwin Drive to drop off Paul...  the scene is repeated each day.  After school its same routine going home.  Weekends are busy with family duties like doing the laundry in a washing machine that has a set of hand-cranked rollers that squeezes the water out of the cloths which are then hung on lines in the basement in winter or the back yard in summer.  The ironing is done on a "mangle" that has a round, padded rotating arm and a hot bar that presses the shirts, pants and other garments. 

There is yard work in the summer like mowing the grass and cutting the tall weeds in fields around the property with a scythe; then carrying all the cuttings to the burn pile at the back of the yard. Sundays are a day of rest.  Everyone puts on their best cloths and Dad drives the family to 8 o'clock mass.  Before they go into church they are reminded of the rules, no talking, turning or squirming. Anyone who breaks the rules will get Dad's "stare of terror" that reminds them what they will get after mass is over.  All the boys will eventually serve as Alter boys and Father Mooney will talk Jim and eventually Paul into attending the Little Seminary of St. Joseph, but neither will stay more than a year.  The good looking girls at the public school down the street are just too much of a distraction.

After breakfast the family drives to Black Rock to visit Grandpa and Aunt Mae at 92 Gallatin Avenue. The tall Grandfathers clock in the entry is chiming as they arrive since Dad times the arrival at noon, not a minute before or after.  John and Paul race to be first on Grandpa's lap and Aunt Mae picks up whoever loses and gives them big hugs and kisses.  Next to Grandpa's chair is a side table with a metal donkey that holds his cigars. The boys love to pull the donkey's ear which makes the tail rise and a cigar to come out the back end... very funny!