Friday Feature The Mooney Family and Family Lore
I sometimes begin talking about my novel From Ice Wagon to Club House: The Life of Jude Mooney by saying that my dad was Jude Mooney, the main character. Well, that statement isn’t totally accurate, but it’s close. I definitely embellished Jude’s story, but he and my father share many similar stories and traits. My father, Samuel Weaver, was a maverick, a handsome rogue. He died when I was twelve, but I can still see him. At the time of his death, he was a horse trainer. I can still see him with the thoroughbreds, putting them through their paces. Sam, however, had worn many hats during his lifetime.
Like Jude Mooney, my father grew up poor in New Orleans. Like Jude, his first job was driving a horse-drawn ice wagon for Pelican Ice. Like Jude, Sam, along with his best friend, bootlegged during Prohibition. Like Jude, his family was poor but respectable. His mother had crossed herself and said, “Your father would roll over in his grave if he knew you were doing something illegal.” My father, young and newly widowed, replied, “My father would roll over in his grave if he knew we were starving.” Only a few months earlier, his young wife had succumbed to tuberculosis. Sam always attributed her death to the deprivation of the Depression. I recounted this scene in Jude Mooney when Jude responds to his mother’s anxiety over his bootlegging. Like my grandmother Leah, Jude’s mother Nora simply crossed herself and accepted the food the bootlegging bought.
Sam eventually ventured into other moneymaking endeavors when Prohibition ended. He trained prize fighters and promoted boxing matches with his friend Emile. They eventually opened a restaurant together—as do Jude and his friend Pete. My father also ventured into the world of illegal gambling when he opened his own book in the basement of his house. This was a profession he would abandon when I was born. He told my mother, his fourth wife, “I have a little girl now. I can’t disgrace her by going to jail.”
I continued the Mooney saga with The Progeny. The story follows Jude and his sons—as well as his niece and nephews—during the trauma of WWII. As Jude did in Ice Wagon, Jude’s sons would fight for Ireland and then fight against Germany. The characters in the sequel are not actively based on any of my family members, but they share many qualities with us. They are my family and I in our weak moments and our most heroic. In The Progeny, a new generation faces tyranny and despotism. Like Jude, they also rise to the occasion and face seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Blurb for Ice Wagon:At fifteen years old, Jude Mooney is driving an ice wagon to help his struggling Irish immigrant family. An obedient son and devoted brother, he willingly works in the sweltering New Orleans heat along with his friend, Pete Saluto, to help his pious and respectable parents. When his older brother’s suicide leaves the family nearly destitute and shame-ridden, Jude seeks employment in the infamous Storyville of old New Orleans, becoming the confidante of the many characters who populated Emma Johnson’s establishment.
When his parents learn of his activities, Jude leaves the family nest, becoming even more embroiled in the seedy lifestyle until a disastrous encounter forces him to leave town and join his relatives in Ireland. It is in his ancestral birthplace that he meets the fiery Maeve and joins the fight for Irish independence and then, paradoxically, the British army when his love turns sour. Upon his return from the front, he seeks Maeve, who has had his twin sons.
Together, they return to New Orleans. A series of losses then force Jude into an uneasy alliance with the powerful mob family, the Matrangas. He rises in the ranks of the Matranga “family,” becoming a valuable cog in the wheel of their bootlegging and horse-racing empire. However, any links to the mob brings risks. How much more will Jude lose as the Feds pursue the men who supply the country with the illicit nectar?
Excerpt from Ice Wagon:
It was at that moment the pub door swung open, and Jude saw Maeve. She wore the typical high-necked blouse and long skirt of the time, but the black skirt swung around delicate ankles in a way that sent Jude’s pulse racing. She curiously looked at the people hovering around the bar, and her eyes met his, frankly appraising him. They were the loveliest eyes he’d ever seen — blue with flecks of gray. Her black hair was in a knot at the top of her head, and her skin was as creamy as her mother’s but held no trace of freckles.
“My sister, Maeve.” Sean moved toward her. They embraced and Sean took her hand, drawing her toward Jude. He then turned to his sister. “Jude and I met on board.”
“I figured as much.” The slightest smile crossed her lips, and her gaze took him in from head to toe. The bewitching eyes danced.
Jude wondered if she was mocking him somehow and was acutely aware of how he must look. When he’d left New Orleans, he’d had only the clothes on his back, and he’d worn the cast off clothing of the other sailors. Now he stood before her in a woolen fisherman’s cap, tattered plaid jacket, and dungarees that had a long tear in one knee. He drew in a breath and swallowed. “Pleased to meet you.” She was so lovely his breath caught in his throat. Could he breathe around her?
Maeve smiled as if sensing his discomfort. “I heard some of the conversation. So you’ll be the new bartender these weekday afternoons?”
Jude felt the heat rise to his face. “It seems your uncle and ma have offered me a job.”
“Remember your manners, girl.” Kathleen gave her daughter a pointed glance.
Maeve offered him her hand. It was a hand like her mother’s, like his own mother’s, in fact. She withdrew it quickly, hiding both arms behind her. A slight blush rose to her cheeks. “Any friend of Sean’s is welcome here.”
Amazon buy link for Ice Wagon.
Blurb for The Progeny:The sins of the father . . .
Prohibition has ended, and Jude Mooney is trying to establish himself as an honest businessman. However, his sons are exiles, having fled New Orleans for Ireland after becoming entangled in their father’s illegal activities. Daniel finds burning passion in the arms of the fiery Grace, and Paul learns the joys of the flesh with yet another Irish beauty. Inspired by these fiercely nationalist women, the Mooney brothers join the fight for a united Ireland, acting as snipers and embarking upon clandestine bombing operations.
A series of catastrophic blunders then send Daniel and Paul to England where they join with the enemy they once fought against, hoping to defeat Hitler as he marches throughout Europe. Both Mooney sons eventually infiltrate the Nazi machine at the highest level when they enter the clandestine world of espionage. In New Orleans, Jude faces his own personal battle as he and his young wife drift apart when she betrays him. And, as much as Jude wants to escape the criminal life that lured him in, he and his brother-in-law Pete cannot completely break free of the powerful Matranga family.
As America enters the war, not one member of Jude’s family will remain untouched as his brave niece Julia joins the military as a nurse. Nephews Wally and Peppy Saluto also enter the fray in Asia and Europe. Each family member encounters danger and romance as they face the war machine. This sweeping saga follows the Mooney clan from New Orleans to Europe and then to Asia. Not all will live. All will be scarred as they do what they must to save themselves.
Excerpt from The Progeny:
Daniel strolled leisurely along the Liffey until he came to the small flat he shared in Grafton Street with Paul and Grace Cleary. His heart was pounding, but he whistled as he strode up the stairs, tipping his cap to an elderly woman who gazed suspiciously from her doorway as he passed. Once inside, Daniel lit the cigarette for which he’d pined, removing it from his shirt pocket with shaking hands.
“Dan!” He heard Grace’s voice before he saw her in the bedroom doorway. Her blue eyes flashed in the darkened room. He loved the way her soft dark curls fell to one side around her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around her midsection but then broke, running to him with arms outstretched.
Daniel threw down the cigarette, crushing it under his boot before clasping her tightly, lifting Grace off her feet. As he buried his face in her hair, Daniel caught the scent of lavender. He drank in the softness of her flesh against his face before letting his lips linger on hers.
“Did you do it? Did you follow Sean’s orders?” Grace looked expectantly at him.
“I did. The bastard’s been dispatched.” Daniel searched her face, seeing no signs of womanly sympathy or remorse. Her eyes glistened with excitement and a perverse joy.
Amazon buy link for Progeny.
Bio
Viola Russell is the pseudonym for Susan Weaver Eble. A homegrown New Orleanian, she holds a doctorate in English literature from Texas A & M University. She has traveled far and wide and relishes the memories she has made in places as distant as England, Ireland, Canada, and Jamaica and as near as Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Massachusetts. She lives with her husband Ben, the love of her life, in a New Orleans cottage and is most comfortable at her computer creating the worlds that drift into her imagination.
