This story isn’t about my brother Billy, but the gentleman he was named after, our mom’s uncle Bill Regan.

Since Mom’s passing last November, Bill Regan’s daughter Patty and I have been in touch via email, as we piece together stories about Grandma Cassidy‘s side of the family.

Little Billy, the second youngest of Joe and Maggie Regan’s 11 children, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1908.

He lived to be 96 years old.

Patty sent me the following narrative, relayed to her son during her dad’s later years, about a special childhood gift from his very busy father:

My father [Joseph Malachy Regan] would go, on Christmas Eve, down to the hardware store on Grand Avenue and do his shopping. You know, they had more than just hardware stuff, they had Christmas things, too. One year my father got this wagon for me, with big sides on it; oh, it was beautiful! I went outside, you know the house on Lombard Street, and I must have pulled that wagon back and forth all day, back and forth around the corner. I don’t think I thought of anything else all day, just that wagon. Boy, it was great. My father, it must have been tough for him to work all day and then go shopping. He never did it any other way. He’d do all his shopping on Christmas Eve after he worked all day.

Curious to know the name of the store, I went to newspapers.com and looked through the New Haven Morning Journal-Courier archives to see if there might be an ad from a hardware store on Grand Avenue in New Haven in the early 1900s.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find Pop Regan’s favorite hardware store, but this old ad was too cool not to include:

Sidebar: In checking with Dad, he immediately remembered the hardware store on Grand Avenue was called Warner’s. The building still stands, and is now a household dwelling:

Patty didn’t have a photo of her dad with his wagon, but she did have this “Billy with his favorite bicycle” picture:

Billy grew up to be Bill, went to Yale University…

… and married Grace Reed. They had three daughters.

Here are two letters Bill’s mother (we descendants called her Gram) wrote to him back in the 1940s:

Bill’s career was in management and sales for Wallace Silversmiths. Dad remembers how Mom’s uncle got them a great deal on the silver pattern for their 1952 wedding. “A five-piece place setting for just $15!”

I couldn’t help but exclaim: “Dad, you’re on fire today!” when he also instantly remembered the name of their silver pattern: Discovery. He started to describe it to me, but I reminded him I’d helped to polish that silver many times during my childhood.

Dad remembers Bill Regan as a sweet-natured fellow with a great sense of humor. Another memory from their later years, each Sunday Bill went to Catholic Mass, and also accompanied his wife Grace, a protestant, to her church.

What shone the brightest among everything Patty sent me?

The endearing fact that her dad so appreciated the thoughtfulness of his father, shopping for Christmas gifts after a long day’s work. Also, that Bill had saved precious letters from his mom for more than half a century.

Postscript: My cousin Suzanne texted a note to me after reading this post: I wanted to share a little tidbit about [Great] Uncle Bill. The love of “wheels” must have continued throughout his life. Cheryl shared her grandmother Grace told her that when she was dating Bill, she would sneak out her window to go or rides on his motorcycle. I love it! Grace was always so proper, a member of the DAR, etc., so it was especially funny.

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