Trupo Family

Stormy Weather

Mary and I always liked to write. Mary also liked singing, and I liked acting. We both sang in the church choir. Mary had a good voice and entered a contest at the local theatre. She sang "Stormy Weather" and won honorable mention. She also wrote a short story, which was accepted and published in the local paper.

Mary's first job was in a sewing machine factory. They made children's clothes, and she was a sewing machine operator. She worked piecework and earned about 16 dollars per week. I quit school in my third year of high school and went to work at the same place as a floor girl earning about nine dollars a week. Mom took seven dollars and gave me two dollars for carfare and lunch.

But Mary and I were ambitious and wanted better things. So, I opened a little theatre group and Mary got a job working weekends singing at a bar. She was the only one in the family who knew about my acting and came to see the plays we put on, and I was the only one who knew she was singing in a nightclub. She used to get home about 2:30-3:00 am in the morning and Mom used to yell at her for getting home so late.

Mary finally told one of her girlfriends what she was doing and her girlfriend told her mother who finally told my mother. Mom waited up for her and started screaming at her when she came home. She woke us all up. Mom wanted to throw her out of the house, as good girls did not sing in nightclubs. But Pop intervened and said, "She's my daughter and you're not going to throw her out of my house." I think that's the one time Pop did not let Mom have her way. The only thing he said was, "I want you to quit that job." Which she did, and that ended her singing career.

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