For Barb, Linda, Joyce, Patti and Jim. You have made my life so much better. Love you all.
My grandparents (Mom’s parents) were married in Diarbekir, Turkey in 1899. They had five children – two sons, three daughters – 1st son died in 1904, 2nd son in 1906 and 1 daughter in 1912. That left Mom and Aunt Fannie. Both of my parents were born in Diarbekir (once called Amid). Mom, Aunt Fannie and their parents, Naum and Lucia Kedersha Palak, left their homeland with little notice. A close friend of Grandpa told him that the Turks were going to kill him the next day. He was a well-respected Christian professor, poet, editor, publisher and nationalist. He mastered six languages, Turkish, Kurdish, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Farsi (and then English).
They left that night for America- September 1912. They traveled by mule to Aleppo, Syria, by horse and carriage to Beirut, Lebanon, by boat to Genoa, Italy, by train to Cherbourg, France, and by boat to Ellis Island. The trip took about three months and they arrived in America in December, 1912. At Ellis Island all the immigrants were examined. My grandfather was very sick and at first was not admitted. Not speaking the language the family did not understand the problem. After a period of time they were admitted to America. They lived in South Paterson with relatives. It was an area where many of their friends and relatives lived. Girls were not permitted to attend school in Turkey so at age 11 my mother was placed in Kindergarten. When she was 15 years old, she had to help support her family and went to work at the Doherty Silk Mill as a weaver. Aunt Fannie, seven years younger, was able to continue with her schooling. At 16 she married John Stambolian, later shortened to Stambol. They lived in Sterling, N.J.
When my father learned he was going to be called to serve in the Turkish army, he and the rest of his family decided to leave for America. The Turks were killing Christians. My father, Bshar, his younger brother, Louis, his younger sister, Fannie, and my grandmother, Lucy, came to America in 1911. My father was the 7th of 9 children. He had five brothers, Said, Gabriel, Kerim, Elias, Louis and three sisters, Susan, Farida, and Fannie. All of his older siblings were already living in America. His father, Hannah, a teacher, died in Diarbekir at age 51 in 1906. They lived in College Point, N.Y. with relatives. My father worked as a weaver in a silk mill. He attended night school to learn to read and write English. Dad served as a Private in the US Army from Feb. 2, 1918 to March 5, 1919. Originally he was assigned to the Veterinary Corps at Camp Upton. That meant he had to ride a horse. He had a fear of heights and requested to be transferred somewhere else. They honored his request and he became a cook at Camp Upton. He received his USA Certificate of Naturalization at Camp Upton on Jan. 24, 1919. Being an army cook explains why he prepared food in large quantities when he did some cooking at home.
Uncle Said, Dad’s oldest brother, and Aunt Farida, Dad’s older sister went to Mom’s family to ask for her hand in marriage. My Dad was a student of my grandfather in Diarbekir, so I believe he knew Mom. They accepted and an engagement party was held in Paterson. Dad lived at 564 4th Ave., College Point and Mom lived at 365 Paxton St, Paterson. Mom and Dad were married on Oct. 17, 1920 by Rev. H. Koorie in West Hoboken, N.J. Mom was 19, Dad was 27. Mom became a USA citizen on the day they married. They lived in College Point for a short time.
Dad started a dry cleaning drop store at 726 Hudson Avenue in West New York, N.J. He had worked as a weaver in the silk mill in College Point and had saved money They lived in an apartment at the back of the store. On July 4, l923 Mom and Dad planned to go with relatives to Union Beach, NJ to celebrate the 4th,
Instead, I was born two weeks early. Henry and I were both born with the help of a midwife at home. Henry was born on September 15, 1925.
In 1925 Dad went to Suffern, N.Y. into a cleaning and tailoring business with Uncle Louie. When we moved to Suffern, Mom missed her parents terribly. They needed her help and she wanted to be able to help but she was too far to do as much as she wished. Public transportation was not great but she would take us with her by trolley and bus to help them as much as she could. I remember helping with the Hef (that is the comforter made of lumps of raw wool). At the time the comforter was taken apart, the wool was washed and dried, then put into a muslin bag. Using heavy cotton thread with a large needle the bag was stitched throughout to hold the wool in place. It was then put into another bag made of percale. A Hef was a very heavy comforter.
Because my grandmother was diabetic and didn’t have good health care, she lost her leg. She died on Oct. 23, 1927. She was buried in Flower Hill Cemetery on Hudson Boulevard in North Bergen, N.J. This was a great loss for my grandfather. He stayed with us from time to time. He was a loving, kind man. I have fond memories being with him. He died on Feb. 5, 1930 and is also buried in Flower Hill Cemetery.
We lived at 3 Cross Street (the house is gone now—it’s a parking lot for residents of the condo building built next to our former house). It was a one-story duplex directly in back of the Wayne Avenue Elementary School (now apartments). Some of my teachers were Miss Parry 1st grade, Miss Eathorne 2nd grade, Mrs. Hanke 5th grade (she later became principal) and Miss Houston 6th grade. When Henry was too young for school, he would wander over into the building looking for me and the principal would call Mom to let her know where he was and he was fine there for a while. After school we would meet friends at the school playground to play hop scotch, red light, marbles, double dutch jump rope and some ball games. During an assembly program, we heard over national radio, Walter Damrosch hosting a classical music appreciation hour. The radio station provided workbooks so we could follow along or we were permitted to rest our heads on our desks to listen. This was an ongoing program.
My parents had a picnic for relatives to celebrate my 10th birthday on the 4th of July at a picnic grove on Lake Antrim (this area was across the lake from the swimming area). (Suffern was given money to build a pool when the NY State Thruway was built over the lake). All of a sudden it started pouring, there weren’t enough cars to take everyone back to our house in one trip. As a result quite a few were drenched. Dad went to the cleaning store and brought a bundle of unclaimed clothes and outfitted our relatives with dry clothes. That is all but my fat Uncle Elias (we had three Uncle Eliases so this is how we identified my mother’s cousin, Uncle Elias Palak). Nothing fit him! No clothes dryers in those days! We had three Aunt Fannies, Mom’s sister, Dad’s sister and Uncle Louie’s wife.
Evelyn was born on November 3rd, 1930 at Good Samaritan Hospital, which was located on Orange Avenue . Ev was so little and cute, like a doll for us to play with. The Hospital was in an old wooden building that was torn down. Good Sam was then built on Route 59. Grand Union had built a supermarket at the old hospital location, which was there for years, then the OTB, now it will become a hardware store.
Uncle Louie had a house built on Grandview Avenue. We lived on the main floor; they lived on the second floor. We had a large living room, dining room, three bedrooms, kitchen, pantry and one bathroom. Ev, Henry and I shared a bedroom, Grandma had one and Mom and Dad the other. We didn’t think anything of it, but we never locked our doors in those days.
Dad made a sedaya (bench with a cushion) that Grandma sat on and did her handwork, either beadwork or embroidery, from early morning to supper time. Over the years she would visit her other children, but her main home was with us. On our return trips from visiting relatives in West New York, Paterson or East Orange, leaning and sleeping on Grandma was comforting. Grandma had done her handwork in Diarbekir and made many donations of her work to her church there. She made many religious pieces for the Assyrian Orthodox Church in West New York, N.J. My father was a member of the Suffern Fromm-Maxwell DeBaun American Legion, Post No. 859. She made a piece for them dated 1929, which still hangs in their building. She did not speak English. We understood some Arabic and Armenian, but we could not speak those languages. We were able to say “it’s time to eat” in Arabic. She never interfered in anything that was going on. She was always busy with her handwork. She had a little round snuff box, when she put some in her nose, it made her sneeze. She died at our home on November 3rd, 1938
We had just one telephone and it was a party line. We shared it with Mrs. Rothaupt, who was a friend of Mom’s and lived on Hillside Avenue. If she was talking to someone when we tried to make a call, we would hang up and try later. No dial phones then, an operator would say “number please” and we would give the four digit number for our local call. Dad’s store number was 1128.
Various deliveries were made to our house. A 35 cent chunk of ice was put into our ice box in the pantry. Mr. Merriman was our egg man. The Duggan white panel bakery truck stopped by selling breads, cakes, pies and cookies. Milk was delivered at the back door. Every few months a knife and scissor sharpening man would ring his bell to let us know he was in the neighborhood.
Our heating system was a coal burning furnace so we had to add coal from time to time and shovel out the ashes.
Because I was thin and sickly when I was young, Mom was told by the doctor to give me a daily spoonful of strong smelling cod liver oil followed by a section or two of an orange. I held my nose, opened my mouth and Mom gave me a spoonful of the disgusting liquid. For many years whenever I had an orange, I could still taste the cod liver oil, Yuk!
The Camp Fire Girls was a club that I belonged to. We met regularly at the church. We made a simple loom and then did a beaded work on it, selecting our own designs. I made some ducks in a piece about 8” long (just like my grandmother, ha ha). I still have my beaded piece.
One Christmas our fathers, Dad and Uncle Louie, bought Sue and I two wheel bikes. We learned to ride in the cellar between the posts. We were mostly off the bikes turning ourselves around to go the other way.
We had only one radio which was in our living room. We spent a lot of time sitting in front of it. We listened to programs like Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Armstrong, Amos ‘n Andy, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, The Goldbergs, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Victor Borge, Jimmy Durante, Myrt and Marge, Lum and Abner. There were western shows like Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy. Detective shows were The Shadow, Boston Blackie, Sci-Fi show was Superman. The terrific sound effects allowed your imagination to run wild. We also listened to Grand Ole Opry and the Major Bowes Talent Show. On Saturday mornings I cleaned the house while listening to the Make Believe Ballroom, which played big band music – that was the music popular at that time.
We had a RCA Victrola in the living room that we had to wind-up in order to play and listen to records. Mom and Dad had a lot of Arabic, Turkish and Armenian records. (I probably still have most of them) When Mom listened to some of them, she would cry. I never knew why.
Aunt Fannie and Uncle Louie had parties for their American friends in the cellar. They called it The Whoppie Room. We were kept awake many nights from the sounds of their partying.
In the winter when it snowed, we went sleigh riding in several places: on the road from the top of Grandview, right turn on Hillside and continue on down; from Grandview down James St. In both of these rides, if a car came along, someone would yell “car coming”. We also went to Foxwood Hill. There were no houses there then, just a big open hilly area, so that was a very long ride; the scariest ride was called “suicide path”. It was a windy path that started on Hillside opposite the Rothaupt’s stone house. Again there were no houses then, just woods. You had to manipulate several curves in the path and end up just short of the brook.
We also had a few places to go ice skating. There was a reservoir all the way up on a path that began where Terrace Avenue is now. Or we went through the woods to the pond that is in the Foxwood section, or to Lake Antrim, when it was cold enough to freeze the lake. I don’t know why I kept going because by the time I got there and put on my skates, I was so cold, it made me cry. After we went to Lake Antrim, we would go to Dad’s store to warm-up and hopefully get a ride home.
In the fall and winter I spent a lot of time with my stamp collection. I really don’t know what happened to it. My guess is that I gave it away. We would take turns looking in our really large dictionary for a long word. Then we would have a contest to see how many words we could form using the letters in that word. We spent hours playing Monopoly.
We had on organ in the dining room area of our house. (My nephew John has the organ now). When our relatives came over, Dad played the violin or organ. If Aunt Fannie was there she played the organ. They would all sing their Mid-Eastern songs in Arabic or Turkish.
One Christmas Aunt Fannie, Uncle Elias, Sue, Ray and Ronnie came to our house. It was during the depression. They brought us gifts. Mom said you shouldn’t have done that just as I was opening mine, a dress. Sue said, “Don’t worry, it only cost $.59”.
Mom learned to drive before Aunt Fannie and family moved from Brooklyn to Goshen. She drove us to their home in Brooklyn and then to Coney Island. She was fearless when it came to driving, she took us to visit Aunt Farida in Astoria and her friend, Rose Asfar in College Point. From there she drove us to Rockaway Beach. There were some in the family who referred to her as Cowboy Sadie.
In the summer we swam at Lake Antrim. It had a sandy beach and a dock with a diving board. Mom couldn’t swim but loved going in the water. Sometimes she took us to Sunset Lake in Mahwah, Crescent Lake in Allendale or Lake Sebago (this was before Seven Lakes Drive was built), it was a narrow windy road to get there.
My love for dancing may have started when I took tap dancing lessons from Muriel Lee. Her studio was on the second floor of the drug store that was diagonally opposite our present building on Lafayette and Chestnut (that building was torn down many years ago). I did master the routine for Sidewalks of New York—East Side, West Side, All Around the Town. I think I only took lessons for a short time because I don’t remember any other routines or songs.
Dad’s brother, Uncle Said, was a patient at the Rockland County Welfare Home. Through friends of Uncle Louie, he was able to be admitted there. The building is presently the Administration Building for Rockland Community College. He was my cousins’ John and Joe Boyajy’s father. Since they lived in Queens it was hard for them to visit him. Dad was busy with the store, so we would go with Mom to visit him. Quite often she took some Mid-Eastern food which he truly enjoyed. He was paralyzed and confined to bed or a wheelchair, but very interested in reading and knowledgeable about world issues. I hated going there because it was stinky and depressing. Years later when the Welfare Home was no longer there, that building became the Administration Building of Rockland Community College. Several buildings were built to complete the RCC Campus. And many, many years later I went to RCC and worked in that very same Administration Building. It brought back all of those memories when we visited Uncle Said.
Mom and Dad bought three lots adjoining the back of Uncle Louie’s house, on the corner of James Street and Terrace Avenue (that was later changed to 23 Prospect Place). This section of Suffern was called Mansfield Park. Mom encouraged Dad because he was hesitant to take the risk. They met with builders, looked at plans and had our house built in 1938. It was very exciting moving into our new home.
It was a four bedroom bungalow. The downstairs had two bedrooms, (one was Mom and Dads and one was mine), living room, dining room, bath and kitchen. Upstairs had two bedrooms, (one was Henry’s and the other Ev’s), bath, and many closets, including a big cedar closet. There was a spectacular view of Suffern and the Ramapo Mountains from the upstairs bathroom. We had a detached two car garage with electronic door openers. Because of the grading of the property, the garage was reached by going down a flight of stairs.
There was a big drop off at the front of our house so a stone wall was built. (Some years later that wall collapsed making a thunderous sound and it was replaced with two walls at different levels).
Later a large room with jalousie windows was added next to the kitchen. We had a built-in milk box for our milk delivery. Outside of that, there was a large flagstone patio with about five pennies inserted between the flagstones.
Dad, who never showed an interest in growing anything, became an avid gardener—planting shrubs, flowers and a most productive vegetable garden. A fun thing he did was to grow a cucumber in a thin neck bottle and preserve it (Joyce still has one that he did). We spent most Sundays with Aunt Fannie, Uncle John, Jane and Carole. We would be at one or the other’s house. They lived in East Orange, Springfield, Kendall Pk. and years later in Florida. Dad and Uncle John played backgammon. Mom and Aunt Fannie would cook dinner.
Since we lived 25 miles away from the Assyrian Church in West New York, NJ, Mom enrolled us in Sunday School at Christ Episcopal Church in Suffern. At Christmas they had a pageant in which we took part and when Santa entered, we all received a box of hard candy and an orange. We considered that a big treat! I remember being an angel one year.
We had a very active youth group led by Mr. & Mrs. Chisholm. Years later we learned that they had lost their only child – a son at age 9. We served food at the annual Church meeting and helped man the various booths at the annual strawberry festival. The Chisholms took us to many Church related activities in the county. They had a car with a rumble seat that we would take turns riding in. They had parties at their home and at Church for us.
Rex (Mrs. Chisholm) was our Young People’s choir director and organist.
Imagine a group of teenagers singing at the 8 A.M. service every Sunday. The Chisholm’s gave us so much of themselves and we aimed to please them.
Our family had no credit cards. When we needed something, we saved money for it or Mom would use their lay-away plan, pay a few dollars as she had the money until payments were complete. Mom always had a Christmas Club account at the bank. She paid a certain amount each week so at Christmas time she had cash for some purchases. We grew up during the depression years. We weren’t poor but it was a hard struggle for our parents to make a living. Mom helped Dad by doing the sewing in the store.
Suffern was a thriving shopping center with people coming from the surrounding towns. We had the Globe Dept. Store, Harris Clothing, J.K.Patterson, men’s clothing, an Army Navy store, Mae Moon, National Shoes and the Shoe Horn, Suffern Furniture, A&P, Gattuso Bros, Giant Market, Grand Union, Christie Fruit & Vegetable, Imwolde Meat Market, Bloom’s children’s clothing, a bakery store, Fox Eagle Deli, Handy Store Hardware, an auto parts store, Hagedorn’s Ice Cream store, the Brite Spot, a shoe repair shop, Levine’s Drug Store, Paret & Lambouree, Carroll’s Drug Store, Jimmy’s Diner, Bonwell Tailors, our store was called Boyajy Bros., Lafayette Bank, a Savings & Loan Bank, Suffern National Bank. Dad would walk into the bank, request a loan and with a handshake with the bank president receive the money. It was as easy as that! We had two theaters- the Lafayette and the Strand (sometimes called the Itch-maybe there were bugs but I never saw any. They gave out free dishes and glasses). Dad liked to go to the movies a lot. Sometimes Mom went with him and at times she would fall asleep or go to the lobby and wait for the movie to end. At times we also went with him.
We always had a lot of company with Mid-Eastern food such as shish kabob, lula kabob, dolma, lamb stews, keleeya, keba kodurdee, kittle, lahmajeen, burghul, ajeen kittle, glorie yeknee, gouvaj, kaburgha, bassul baghdoonis, busturma. My parents made their own dough for paklava. I liked to help stretch it out over the pan. They also made kinafeh, yaglee, chorag, lavash, bread. Some dishes they made I never ate, such as chuckle muckle (lamb’s lungs), pacha (combination of lamb, lamb tongues and tripe, hyvah (quince stew), labaneeya, rachal (candied pumpkin). They made their own yogurt and ate it as a side dish or added it to string beans and ground meat, or by adding water made it into a drink. Jibin (braided string cheese) was made from curd cheese. Toorshee (pickled veggies-made by adding vinegar, water, garlic, coriander to cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, string beans, carrots). All layered in large crock pot and allowed to stand for a week or so. I still have these crock pots.
My father’s specialties were Turkish style salad (cut up very small), basteek (which Ev and I both make), seejok (walnuts are strung on a piece of cord –about 36” long-dipped in basteek mixture, repeat dipping a few times, hang it, allow to dry for 3 to 4 days). Sometimes after all the work that was involved, if drying conditions were not good, the nuts would get moldy and it all had to be thrown out. He also made us waffles, pancakes and halvah. Another favorite of mine was thinly sliced basteek cooked with eggs in butter. Dad also had a still in the basement where he make arak. I recently came across a gallon of it in my basement.
Dad was active in the Assyrian School and Orphanage Association. During the course of the year many of their meetings were held at our home. They had an annual fund raiser and sent money overseas to the orphanage. During the war they mailed packages to all the Assyrians serving our country.
Mom was very sociable and had several lady friends that she visited regularly. They were Mrs. Rothaupt, Mrs. Cucolo, Mrs. Tursi, Mrs. Adler and Charlotte Catanese. Years later when the Paramus Senior Citizens Club had a last minute cancellation on a ten day Hawaiian trip, Mom decided to go. She didn’t know anyone going on the trip, including her roommate, but on short notice she packed her bags and off she went. Ev and I each had our own circle of friends so we didn’t do much together in our early years. She was a great little sister. I don’t remember babysitting for her or her wanting to tag along with me. She was a Girl Scout and went for a period of time in the summer to Rocky Ledges at Upper Twin Lakes in Central Valley, then to Rocky Ledges at Lake Kanawauke. Our minister, Mr. McCandless, drove Ev and another church member and our Mom’s to the Central Valley Camp. He probably took them because gas was rationed and he could get it and the road into camp was very narrow and windy. Ev was interested in acting and was in the cast of a few SHS shows. She was a hit in Our Town. She also loved to sing and took singing lessons from Mr. Nichols for a few years. Here is something that Ev did that I would never think of doing, it was to jump into bed between Mom and Dad. Another thing that became a family joke, right after eating she had to go to the bathroom so when she came back to the kitchen, the table was cleared and the dishes were all done. I was reminded that I chaperoned Ev and her friends to NYC to the Broadway show Harvey. Over the years the age difference between Ev and I has narrowed and we have become very close. I feel blessed to have both Ev and Len in my life.
Suffern High School was in the present Village of Suffern Municipal Building. Actually it was both Junior High and High School. One year we were overcrowded and some Junior High classes were held in an old house on Lafayette Avenue, just west of the Lafayette Theater on the other side of the driveway. I was always active in sports. I played field hockey, basketball and softball. I was President of the GAA (Girls Athletic Association). I didn’t have a tennis racquet- guess we couldn’t afford it. Some years later I bought a racquet, took some lessons and still enjoy playing. We had a very good football team so we went to all of those games. We also attended all of the basketball games. Our school had a lot dances in the gym. The popular dances were the jitterbug, rumba, polka and waltz.
One year I was co-editor of our school paper, The Mountain Echo. I belonged to the Choral Group and the French Club. Most of the time we went home for lunch. Dad would pick us up and take us back since he took his lunch break at the same time. There was no school bus available to us, so we walked to and from school.
I did fine scholastically, my rank was #7 in my class of 85. I would have liked to attend college, but I didn’t think our family’s financial situation would have enough for Henry and me. So I applied for, and received, a scholarship to Wood Secretarial School. I lived at home and commuted to New York City to attend classes. Wood School was located on 42nd Street, between Park Ave. and Lexington Ave, opposite Grand Central Station. I made three very close friends there, Peggy Wasiscko from Yonkers, Esther Kekkonen and Anne Schwarting both from Long Island. We visited each other at our homes on weekends. We took trips to Lake Bomoseen, Vt., Washington, D.C. the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey shore, stayed in the city to see shows or to go ice skating at a rink at Madison Square Garden. Three of us were bridesmaids in Anne’s wedding. In l943 I started to go to USO dances in Pearl River, Nyack, Camp Shanks and West Point. I met Marion Dahl (Weidmiller) and Rachel Crum (Kaufmann) on the bus as we were all going to the dances. Popular dances were Rumba, ChaCha, Waltz. Jitterbug and Polka.
Rachel graduated from New Paltz and every summer she worked at Lake Minnewaska. I was between jobs and went with her to waitress the summer of l944. We, the help, had a lot of fun. We swam from Wildmere to Cliffhouse, which were hotels at opposite ends of Lake Minnewaska, we did synchronized swimming, we crawled through the crevices and took long hikes. It was a privilege to work up there, it was so beautiful. Many of the guests were from Germany, Austria and Switzerland because the mountains reminded them of their native countries. We had one car in our family, a Hudson sedan, so I traveled to New Paltz by Shortline Bus. They provided car service to pick you up from the bus station. Henry was in the Army and that summer he went overseas via Camp Shanks. The troop trains went through Suffern on the tracks that ran in back of our store. At the time our store was located at 6 Lafayette Ave., across the street and east of its present location. When I worked there, we would go out back when they passed through and wave. When Henry was at Camp Shanks, he got home for a short furlough. I received a telegram from Henry telling me of his furlough so I was able to take time off to take the bus to Suffern. We had a great visit with him. The very last time we saw him was on the troop train that passed through Suffern. That was a sad day! When war broke out on December 7th, 1941, Mom was so worried that Henry would have to serve. We said “Don’t worry, he’s only l6, the war will be over before he becomes of age to be called”. The war wasn’t over and he was drafted at age l8. Most summers when I was in High School I worked at Dad’s dry cleaning store. One summer I worked at the Bra Factory on Cross Street, sewing bras. You got paid according to the work you did, called piecework. I don’t think that I made much money there. When I finished at Wood School, I had a couple of jobs in New York City. I worked for PAW (Petroleum Administration for War) which was located at the corner of 5th Ave. and 42nd St. My boss, Mr. Baker was tracking Mid-East oil fields. I typed big charts showing locations and output of each oil field. My cousin, Rose, worked just one block from me for a German camera company, Carl Zeiss. We frequently met for lunch. She was an avid knitter and made me an orange pullover wool sweater. Orange was never a good color for me. I didn’t feel good wearing it. I was happy to get rid of it. Speaking of Rose, she was married to Carl Kooymjian, who had a great sense of humor and told stories that were so funny. Our family and Rose and Carl traveled to Springfield, Mass. to visit Uncle Gabriel, Aunt Tooma and Mary. It was a fun trip and Carl and Henry really hit it off well with their joke telling. A special treat for our whole family was when Henry came home on leave, we went to New York City. We ate at Toffernetti Restaurant, then we went to see the musical, Oklahoma. We all loved the show. After working for the summer at Lake Minnewaska, I started to work for our weekly newspaper, The Independent, as advertising manager. The Smiths, Missy and Lamson owned the paper. He was drafted into the Army so Missy ran the paper. It was great when ads came in from big companies. I did not like going to local businesses to try to sell them advertising space in the paper. Selling was not my thing! Henry played trombone in the Suffern High School Band. The band played the processional and recessional at my graduation which was held in the Lafayette Theater in June of 1941. He was a member of the Debating Club and the Student Council. Also at my graduation, there were six skits and Henry was in one entitled “A Panel Discussion”. What stands out in my memory as the best part was walking down the long aisle of the theater to the band playing Pomp and Circumstance.
This is what I know of Henry’s Army Service. His number was 42055986. Co L302 Inf. APO 94. He was drafted Dec. 14th, 1943, reported to Camp Upton then went to Camp Walters, Mineral Springs, Texas for basic training till April 24th, l944. For further training he was assigned to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky till June 13th, l944. He was transferred to Camp McCain from June 26th to July 26th, and then to Camp Shanks, Port of Debarkation the end of July. He came home early in August and it was great to see him. Writing was always very important to all of us, so there was a constant flow of letters back and forth. When he was in the states, he would reverse charges and call home on Sundays. August 16th, 1944 we heard from him somewhere in England. Then we heard from him somewhere in France, from September l0th to the end of January, 1945. While in France he became a PFC and he was on a leave in Paris from Jan 24th to 27th. When he was somewhere in Germany on February 6th, he became S/SGT. He was wounded when they took the town of Keblingen on February 22nd. He stepped on the porch of a house and set off a heavy booby trap. He was evacuated to Paris, then to a hospital in England where he died on February 24, 1945. The cause of death, according to a chaplain who was with him, was due to shock and bronchial pneumonia.
At that time communication was not like it is today. We didn’t know that he died until about two weeks later. We were getting his letters and mailing letters to him. The first telegram we received from the government on March 4th, stated that he was slightly wounded in action in Germany and his mail address would follow direct from the hospital with details. The next telegram, dated March 11th, expressed sympathy in the death of Henry on February 24th in England as a result of wounds received in action. Henry is buried in the American Cemetery in Cambridge, England. On separate trips to England, first Ev and Len, then a few years later, I went to the Cambridge Cemetery. My friend, Jean Svec, and I went on a tour of England with a group from RCC. We had extended our trip and went by train to Scotland. So before we left for Scotland, we went to Cambridge. That was an extremely sorrowful day. As can be imagined, it was extremely difficult for us to accept the fact that Henry died. It was hard for us to believe. It took us a very long time to heal. Of course we would never forget him, we don’t want to. When I think of him he is forever nineteen.
The summer after Henry died, my friends, Anne, Peggy, Esther and I were spending the weekend at the New Jersey shore. While having dinner at a restaurant in Asbury Park, I suddenly saw my cousin Sham. She asked me to go to the rest room with her. She gave me pictures of Henry’s grave in Cambridge. She was an Army nurse and asked a friend of hers who was serving in England to take the pictures. My friends saw how much that upset me and insisted that after finishing dinner, we go back to where we were staying. I never showed the pictures to my family.
The Assyrian Orthodox Church had a very active youth group (AYO) to which I belonged. It was at these activities that I met Jim. He had returned home from serving in the medics in the Army. (As a pastime while in England, he played a bass fiddle in an Army band.) Martha and their Mom ran the Warren Point Cleaners while Jim was in the service. He decided to take some courses through the GI Bill about cleaning and spotting at the Dry Cleaning Institute in Silver Springs, Maryland. We continued dating and were engaged in April and were married at Christ Church on June l3th, 1948, with our reception at the Swiss Chalet in Rochelle Park, NJ. My attendants were Ev, Maid of Honor, Alice and Martha, bridesmaids. Carole, flower girl. Jim had his cousin, Sam, best man, Joe Darakjy and John Boyajy, ushers. After spending the night at the Bear Mountain Inn, we continued north and spent the week at the Blue Water Manor, Diamond Point, Lake George. Very early in our marriage, Jim and I agreed that we wanted a large family. We decided to rent an upstairs one bedroom apartment that was being built at 112B Donor Avenue in East Paterson (now called Elmwood Park). While we waited for our apartment to be completed, we lived at my parents and took the upstairs bedroom. We ordered a new bedroom set, living room furniture and a small table and two chairs for our small kitchen. It didn’t take long after sharing the double bed that we realized we wanted to change our order and get twin beds. We moved into the apartment on January 1st, 1949. The nearest stores were on the opposite side of Route 4. There was a grocery store, where they reached the items with a long pole, and also a butcher shop. Barb was born at Good Samaritan Hospital on May 3rd, 1949 at 4:10 a.m. 6lbs 4oz , christened at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Paterson on September 18th, 1949. Linda was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital on August 16th, 1950 at 1:00 a.m. 7lbs lloz, christened at the Church of the Atonement, Fairlawn on October 1st, 1950. I would put them both in the carriage and walk along a sidewalk on Route 4, across the Passaic River over a bridge to the Eastside Park in Paterson. Or I would take them to the stores, make my purchases, put packages in the carriage with them, and trudge home. Within a year we bought a house for $13,500 at 2-18 Plaza Road in Fairlawn. We bought the house from the Notte’s, who built their new house right next to ours. Our house was a two-story house—living room with a bay window, dining room and kitchen on the first floor; one bedroom eight steps up over the garage, up four more steps to two more bedrooms and a full bathroom. In the basement was a knotty pine finished playroom with built-in cabinets and benches (we had several New Year’s Eve Parties there with our friends). There was also a bathroom, utility room with an Easy Washing Machine with a wringer—no dryer. I hung out clothes on the pulley line in the back yard. Off the kitchen we had a screened porch with a table and benches. Our back yard was fenced in. We had a peach tree and an apple tree. Jim planted some vegetables and we had some flowers. We also had a swing set. Our house was two blocks in from Route 4 and diagonally opposite the fire house. It took awhile for us to become accustomed to the shrill fire alarm. Joyce was born in St. Joseph‘s Hospital on June 19th, 1954 at 8:30 p.m. 8lbs 3oz., christened at the Church of Atonement on October 3rd, 1954. What we remember about her birth is that Jim was in the waiting room where he fell asleep. It got dark in the room and the doctor didn’t think he was in the darkened waiting room so Jim wasn’t notified. When Jim woke up, he made inquiries, learned that Joyce was born hours earlier and came to see us about midnight.
The Warren Point Elementary School was six blocks from our house so when Barb first went to half day kindergarten, we walked her back and forth. When Linda was in kindergarten and Barb was in full day of first grade, I took Joyce in the stroller and walked to and from school. Most times it disrupted Joyce’s naptime.
I was an active member of the Church of Atonement in Fairlawn. I sang in the Church choir and belonged to the women’s group. I also sang with the Choral Society under the direction of Barry Tedesco. We presented an annual spring concert. Barb was enrolled in a ballet class where she performed in a little program. Linda did not want to participate. Jim went into business with Dad the end of 1955. We bought our house at 18 Clinton Place on December 29th, 1955. We paid $20,500 with a fifteen year mortgage at 5% interest. Many nights Jim went from work to our new house to remove layers of wallpaper, then painted all of our rooms before we moved there in February. Our Fairlawn house sale fell through so we were paying two mortgages for six months before we sold it. That was a hard time for us.
Barb and Linda entered first grade and kindergarten at the Washington Avenue School. Joyce was a year and a half. When Linda was in Mrs. Hirshman’s first grade, she wore a dress that had three pockets. Mrs. Hirshman always made a fuss about that three pocket dress. We had the outside stairs built and a door put in where there was a window. We rented the upstairs apartment for several years. Our first tenants were the Antonios, Dominic, Evelyn, Nancy and Jean. Our girls and the Antonio girls would get together to play on the indoor stairway especially on rainy days. Years later we had a wall put up at the top. Patti was born in Good Samaritan Hospital on August 19th, 1957 at 6:14 a.m at 8lbs 6oz, christened at Christ Church on November 17th, 1957. There were many children living on our street—the Scallys, LaBarges, Vilords, Holleys and the Antonios. The teenagers and Priscilla (Mrs. DuVall’s daughter) planned a Tom Thumb wedding in Scally’s backyard, Joyce was the bride, Paul Vilord, the groom. Linda, Jean Antonio and Peggy Scally were bridesmaids; Billy LaBarge and Tony Scally were ushers and Randy Vilord was the minister. They decorated the yard, had music, cake and punch. We had to wake up Joyce from her nap for the ceremony. In 1958 the Boyajy side of our family started to have a Cousin’s Picnic on Father’s Day. The first was held at our Cousin Bill Kazanjy’s horse farm in Chatham, NY, then for years at the Bally’s in Goshen, NY, followed for years at the Boyajy Briar, Belmar, NJ, and ending the last two years at the Hallaks in Ramsey, NJ and Paramus, NJ. Jim was born in Good Samaritan Hospital on August 3rd, 1961, 7lbs 12oz at 3:53 a.m., christened at Christ Church on October 8th, 1961. We decided it was time to take over our entire house. Barb and Joyce each took an upstairs bedroom. We made the middle room into a sitting room and the kitchen became my sewing room. We had a stillborn son in April of 1963. I was so busy with our family, I know I didn’t mourn our loss as I should have but it did hit me a few years later.
A few of the many stories family members might want to tell are when Barb took Patti and Jim on a car trip to Staten Island and I had no idea where they were; when Linda couldn’t wait to take lessons on the glockenspiel, only to find it was too heavy for her to carry back and forth; when Joyce had to pick up Jimmy and the garage door wouldn’t open; when Patti had a haircut at Gene’s, she thought it was too short so she wore a hat for weeks; when Jim was playing on the front porch and had a squirrel drape itself like a fur piece around his neck and how his sisters reacted. I invite you all to add stories that you remember. Even though you grow up in the same home, have the same parents, each child has different remembrances.
This memoir goes back many decades and goes on longer than I expected. It is true as I remember. Some events are clearly recalled while other things are somewhat vague. I wish I had asked my parents more questions. They were anxious to immerse themselves in the culture and ways of their new country. They were extremely proud to be American citizens. Aren’t we thankful that they migrated here?
Lucy Turns 100! 