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Margaret Ellis Palladino- A memory
By Phil Palladino
8/5/08

When Phyllis and I decided it was time to prepare the bedroom for our first child, we invited the best wall paper hanger we knew to come and give us a hand and advice. That person was my mother, Margaret Palladino. Days after her 65th birthday, she came to our new home in Austerlitz with Dad to help paper the small nursery with its seven foot high ceiling. Mom was a veteran paperhanger. From the time she and Dad bought their house on River Street in Troy that became my home during childhood, and was their home for about fifty years, she did most of the decorating in the house, from floor to ceiling, paper, paste and paint, drapes, curtains, and anything else you can think of. For her, it was- do these things yourself, or life would be very colorless and dull.

Margaret loved the wallpaper with pictures of fairy tale figures like Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. The busy pattern of light green and orange on a white background was gender free. The new procedure called ultrasound had not been done on this unborn.

The job was easy for Mom. She took her turn at pasting the paper. Dad wielded the smoothing brush. I handled the scissors and ruler. Phyllis, in her eighth month, made tea.

It was hard to believe all of the necessary little things that went into papering… measuring correctly so that the next sheet would line up; mixing the paste so it was thick enough, but not too thick; assuring that every area of the strip was pasted; getting it to the wall and aligning it so it was level, and matched the previous sheet. "Raise it up (or down)!" Mom would say. Once that part of the operation was done, Dad smoothed the paper, pressing it onto the wall, pounding out the air bubbles and excess paste. It was during this part of the process that I often heard mom say "Pound it near the top, (or bottom) use a little more energy! Watch out for the drips!" I could hear Phyllis laughing to herself. She really got to know her mother-in-law.

Tea-time! Dad was ready, but Mom was hot. She wanted to finish up to the corner before the break. We continued the job to the corner, and placed a few of the cut off pieces into small areas over and under the windows and door. After tea, we finished the final straight run quickly. Dad and I learned our lessons well, and he was a genius at making the paper fit the corners.

When I was about 4 years old, we moved from the first floor to upstairs at 804 River Street. That when I remember the beginning of wall papering. The ceilings in that old house were about twelve feet high. There was old wall paper that had to come off first, and scraping was the only method that worked at the time. Once that was done, Mom and Dad did their thing, the two of them foot by foot, strip by strip, turning a drab second story flat into a gracious and comfortable home for the six (soon to be seven) of us.

The energy Margaret brought to our home at age 65 was a fading reflection of the vigor with which she ran the household as the family grew up. For the first eight years of her marriage, Mom was pregnant, bringing six children to full term, losing the sixth, John Joseph, within hours of his birth in February of 1947. Dad brought home a modest salary from his job at Montgomery Ward, and secured a part time position at Bud Carrier's soda fountain in the late 1940s. At no time did we feel deprived of anything. We lived in a nice home, with a large yard. We had plenty of food, and constant love. Mom made clothes for us on an old Singer treadle type sewing machine. The pound of ground round from Jensen's became a delicious meatloaf or dozens of meatballs. The delicated steak or calf's liver or cod fish cakes made bountiful, elegant meals for the seven of us. Dad could not believe the rich, seemingly endless, variety of foods that graced our table daily.

From paperhanging to the wonderful meals, Margaret showed her creativity, energy and love of life as she raised us and cared for Dad. Her reflection lights a vivid memory and activates inspiration. Thanks Mom.

Phil Palladino 8/5/2008 the 100th anniversary of Margaret's birth.

Margaret Mary Ellis
Honors: Interview by
Meg Palladino
on 11/8/90

Margaret Mary Ellis is a truly amazing lady: she is
intelligent, determined, loving and good-humored.
Margaret grew up in Troy, New York, among two brothers and five sisters. Her father, George Ellis, was a railroad man who inspected the cars and maintained a high standard of safety. Her mother, Jennie McQuillan, cared for the large family and provided the freshly laundered clothes for her husband who miraculously appeared spotless at the dinner table despite a long, dusty workday.

While in seventh grade, Margaret contracted rheumatic fever and was forced to remain in bed for a full year. After the illness, she did not return to school but obtained her first job. She had worked only a week when she was told to turn in her working papers. Knowing that she was too young, Margaret never returned to the factory and never collected her week's pay. When she turned fifteen, however, she took a job at the five and dime store.

During all this time, Margaret did what she could to continue her education. She read all sorts of books and enrolled in a part-time school (one day a week) where she learned such marketable skills as typing and the use of office machines. She attended this school until she was eighteen. Night school came next, and so did a job at Montgomery Wards Company. At age twenty, a standardized test revealed her to have the equivalent education of a second year student at R.P.I. She was promoted and made the supervisor of sixty bookkeepers.

At Montgomery Wards, Margaret made her own contribution to women's lib, she was the first woman merchandiser. She fondly remembers a colleague telling her: "You know, Margaret, you should be in Washington, D.C., you're such a diplomat!"

In 1938, Margaret married Philip F. Palladino.
Five children later, Margaret proved herself to be a loving capable parent. Eighteen grandchildren and two great- grandchildren later, she is seen to be determined and good humored despite ill health.

From her rich experience, she often advises her family: "Don't give up on what you want to do; learn all you can and keep active; do it yourself. "Wisely, her words are listened to by all of us who know how truly amazing Grandma Palladino really is.