Mr Turbesi

Yesterday Bill and I played basketball at dusk at Turbesi Park, which is on our street (Rathbun) but in the next town of Blackstone. Mr Turbesi was an amazing man who built the park himself because he felt his part of town needed a place for kids to play. He said kids need a second chance. He would hire the local boys to work on the park, and take them to get their drivers permit or to a job interview. I would walk by his house and hear opera playing through the open windows, curtains blowing, and see the pear trees overflowing in his backyard. He had a big garden with raspberry bushes, and a big landscape painting hanging on his front porch facing the street!

One day a few years ago he invited me in when I was out walking. It was a magic day I will never forget. He gave me a tour of his house, books piled on the chairs. Like my grandfather he loved to read books, encyclopedias, dictionaries! He had me sit down on the bed in his bedroom and he read me a poem he kept in the jewelry box that he wrote for his deceased wife. He handed me a framed photo portrait of her. He told me he built his house with his dad from used lumber, working every night after his day job in the mills. They had to pull the nails from the lumber by hand. He said that while they were working his wife would come by with bowls of macaroni for supper every night. Mr Turbesi died a few years ago in his 90's.