John F. Pickett: After High School in Framingham, MA, just before entering college where he intended to study medicine, his 42 year old father died of walking-pneumonia, and at the age of 18 my father became the man of the house with 8 brothers and sisters to raise, the youngest being four years old. He took care of his dear mother, his maternal-grandmother and all the children except for his elder sister, Mary, who had recently married and became Mrs. Mary Hall. He went to work for the Gas Company in Framingham and became an invaluable asset to them. When War broke out my father was the first to be sent to Worcester because of the Harrington & Richardson Arms Factory. They knew it would be a target, and my father was more important to the war effort in Worcester in case we were bombed, so that he could help with the gas situation, than if he were on the front lines.  I am very proud of him.

John wanted to connect to his Irish routes.  He was the second generation Irish, and would love to have had dual citizenship, but otherthings always came first. It would have been his greatest dream, for his heart was truly in Ireland.

John loved baseball and football as a young man growing up in Framingham, MA.  They would play at Nicholson Field. He was captain of the football team, there is a picture of the whole team with my father in front holding the game ball. There is also a picture of my father's FIRST HOME RUN, it shows him running the bases – the look on his face was priceless.