Marty Stories by Danny Ruberry

My grandmother Edith Joyce was a widower. She had two children, a son who was sent to military school and a daughter who became my mother. Edith was a very strict and a prim and proper lady. Her house was always very quiet and everything that was in it was in its place.

Grandma decided to take her 7-year-old twin grand boys to the Canadian World’s Fair. The problem was the train ride was approximately 23 hours long. My mom and dad took my grandmother and the twin boys down to Union Train Station in downtown Chicago. It was a very long train ride. Marty and his twin were approximately 7 years old.

No one is exactly sure what happened on the train during those 22 + hours. When the train got to Canada Grandma called my mother immediately. She said they would be on the next train returning to Chicago. Grandma Edith never spoke of this trip again. Also, she never took the twins on another trip alone again.

Marty played grade school basketball for Saint Barnabas. When he was in 7th grade they had a tournament on the east side of Chicago. My mother drove 6 of the boys to the game.

While driving to the game they encountered bad weather. There was a rain and heavy winds. The sky became very dark and Erie. As my mother was driving down 87th Street a billboard behind her blew up into the sky. There was a tornado right behind them. My mother continued to drive and went under a Viaduct on 87th Street. She stayed under the viaduct for a couple of minutes. Then she continued to drive the boys to their basketball game. Realizing how close they came to be in the tornado themselves.

My father took Marty out to baseball tryouts for the eight-year olds. He had been coaching Marty since he was very young.

The coaches decided Marty was already too good to play with the eight-year olds. Marty was moved up to Little League which was for players from 9- 12 years old.

They asked my father to coach a little league team which he did that’s how Marty became a Dodger at 8 years old.

He played the next two years before his twin brother at 10 years old could make the same team. At the age of 11 Marty made the 12-year-old All-Star baseball team. Which he did again when he was 12. The Dodgers won 4 Little League championships out of the five years he played.

He then played Colt baseball and pony league baseball until High School. He played High School baseball all four years where they won the Catholic League Baseball Championship and city of Chicago baseball championship his senior year of high school.

My mother and father used to go to Catholic church every Saturday. They would always take the twins with. As part of the Catholic faith you would go up and receive communion from the priest and then return back to your seat. The priest would continue to distribute communion and then go back to the altar say a few prayers and dismiss the congregation. My mother and father would go to communion and then my father would always want to leave the church after communion before the congregation was dismissed. So, on this particular Saturday my mom and dad went up to receive communion on the way back they decided to leave right away. My dad grabs the boys and told them it was time leave.  My brother Marty who was about 7 said to my father loud enough for everyone to hear, “Are we going to the bar to get a bottle of Schitt’s?”

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