Hubert 1957 – 1961 The single life!
Hi, This is a work in progress. It will arrive in pieces and cover roughly my personal life from about 1957 through 1961 when I met ‘My Lynn’. Enjoy as we go along! The reason it takes a while is because I am still fishing! Click on pictures.
A note to my Grandchildren Zane and Nova
Hello, grandchildren Zane and Nova! I am putting this page about ‘me’ here for posterity. One day grandpa will be gone and you may wonder about what his early life was like. Remember now that this website “Laubis Family and the American Dream” is a tribute to your Great Grandparents, my Mom and Pop! Their lives ended long ago but their legacy lives on through your Dad and Aunt Lisa and hopefully they will continue with their pages and your stories into the future. In that way, the heritage of the Laubis family lives on. You can look at the following links to see about Grandma’s and Lisa’s early lives and for my early years you can look at my friends Bob Shea and Bob Kaylor’s pages.
Robert M. Shea Robert Kaylor aka ‘Kaylor’ and RK
You can see in the above pictures that early on your Dad is teaching you to make the right moves. Now later on you must make the right decision to guide you through the life ahead.
As you proceed through this ‘Hubert’ page, we will cover my ‘growing up’ experiences through the years and when and how I needed to figure out exactly what I was going to do for my life’s work. As you grow up, you will also go through that exercise. Once that decision of what I am going to do to make a living was made and I met your Grandma, ‘my Lynn, and your Dad’ the biggest decisions were over. That story will continue on another page called “All in the Family”
Why ’57 – ’61?
This is the period of time in my life where Mom and Pop turned me loose in order to find myself and figure out where I was going in life. While fishing and hunting was good sport and enjoying life with my buddies was great fun and having many eye opening experiences, I had to figure this out. Fortunately, I had help and guidance.
The Fordham Prep years:
I was very happy to have chosen Fordham Prep as my high school experience. The discipline of parochial school education was enhanced by my interaction with the Jesuits at the Prep. Wearing business type uniform (jacket & tie) was something we only learned to appreciate later in life. Always dress your very best! Here are some pictures from those Prep Years. Can you find me in the pictures?
Attending the ‘Prep’ was a new way of life for me. As you saw in chapter 6, I had the good fortune of living both the city life in New York City and the country life in Somers NY. The Prep was not down in my neighborhood with my old friends but rather up in the Bronx on Fordham University campus. Those of us fortunate enough to go there came from all over the city as well as some from Westchester and New Jersey. The Prep is a prestigious school and compared to other Catholic Schools had a comparatively heavy monthly tuition cost. Mom took care of children to make the money necessary for me to attend school. The majority of my fellow students came from affluent families but that made no difference to me. I was at home at the Prep and my attendance there gave me the ability to appreciate a third way of life, a new classy lifestyle. It did not mean that our life downtown stood still. Take a look at these two links to give you an idea of what life was like for me in the 1950’s. These are ‘stock’ videos from the web. The one about the Brooklyn candy story typifies the kind of place every neighborhood had. Ours was called Mindy’s and was on the corner of Ave A and 14th street. Link==> Candy Store
All through my schooling at the Prep, I held a part time job where I went every day after school. This unfortunately/fortunately prevented me from being a part of the many sports teams that we had there. This was not a problem for me as I was a part of the ‘team’ school spirit. To this day, Lynn and I support the Prep. It is still a prestigious school. Here is a link to the ‘Prep’ =====>Fordham Preparatory School
I made many new friends and we had opportunity to go on many trips together and enjoy each other’s knowledge and companionship. Here are a few pictures I choose to put here because we became life long friends that goes on to this day. There is an extensive list of many Prep Alumni and we all keep up with ‘news’ by email as appropriate.
Graduation Time is here, so What’s Next?
We will do 1957 a month at a time as it was a complex period for me!
It is June, graduation is over and like most of my classmates as I have decided to go to college. But where to go and what subject to specialize in? I knew that the money was not there in our family to be able to go away somewhere to a school. So what I did was register for Fordham University at our familiar ‘Rose Hill’ campus and decided to take business courses. The word ‘Prep’ stands for preparatory education in order to go on for higher education. I did very well at the Prep taking the science honors courses which gave me the highest level math and multiple languages. I chose German which I could speak anyway and that made it easier for me, so I took the easy route. “Kids as you read this, don’t necessarily take the easy route. But in the longer term it worked out very well for me when I got my job in IBM years later.”
In July, I started a job working with the Jersey Lutz’s which were my Mom’s cousins who were influential at a yeast plant in New Jersey. Uncles ‘Bast’ and ‘Charlie’ were my mentors for the summer. I was about to grow up very quickly in a few short months. Here is that story which I already presented earlier in Chapter 4. Please read it, Link====>Summers of ’57/’58
September 1957 – I actually worked at the Yeast Plant for two summers, Summers of 1957 and 1958. So the first time was simple because I already had my enrollment in Fordham University, School of Business Administration waiting for me come September 1957.
I already was driving and as you read in the link above that due to the gracious gift of a ’41 Dodge by my Tante Pauline Lutz, I had the freedom of my own car and ability to cruise around at will. I went from Jersey to Lincolndale, home to Mom & Pop, and anywhere else my heart desired. Boy, I felt as a bird. The job I had at the plant back then was a union operation and I was paid a huge sum for the time, $8.50 per hour. Everyone I was working with was older than me and I could see lots of hard working people making a good living. It was a life experience that proved very valuable for me throughout the rest of my life.
College Life at Fordham September 1957 to June 1958 This was a period of ‘Good News’ and also some ‘Bad News’. The good news is I had the experience and learned what the curriculum was all about. The bad news is I did not like it at all and could not see me doing this for the next 3 years. So when the term ended, I was back at the Yeast Plant, making money and loving it. “Nova and Zane, for me kids, it was the best! see here a link of what life was like in the 1950’s Link” ====> “Best of Times”
August 1958 – Now, when you read my story at the yeast plant, you will perhaps understand the paragraphs at the end. I did not wish to go back to college. Great thanks to my Uncle Bast and my Mom for saying all the right words and keeping me focused on education. To keep a long story short, both advised that I get registered back into a school right away. I wanted to go to a school where I could learn electronics because that is what I loved to do most. My Pop had already taught me all about electricity with the trains and the subject of Computers and Electronics were the new and upcoming thing.
September 1958 – So quickly, I enrolled in a ‘Post High School’ Trade school where all kinds of working trades were taught. At the time it was called NY TRADE School. I enrolled in a two year program which would give me an Associates Degree in Industrial Electronics. Here is the Link==> NY Trade School I received lots of credits for the math I learned at the ‘Prep’ so my graduation would be December 1959. I was in school with ‘adults’ there from the Electrical Unions as well as men who were using their Armed Services benefits to complete their education. For the first time in my life, I was in school with all ages, nationalities and colors, who also were there from different countries around the world. It was a great experience. Here are some pictures. Time went by wonderfully as I was learning what I liked. Take a look!
More Great Experience!
Kids, since I was always used to having a job and making some spending money, I wanted to find one that would suit my school hours. One of my fellow students whom I met going to school there, Rudy Seeman, who you see in one of the pictures mentioned that he worked at a company called Liberty Mutual and that they were looking for help! Well I jumped on that one and soon was working 5 nights a week doing filing work at that insurance company which still exists today! Great Stuff!
Grandpa Filing Accident Cases at Liberty Mutual
So What’s next, another great circumstance!
September 1959 We were at lunch one day and I was sitting next to my instructor. Here is the picture. He announced that in the afternoon there would be a former student by the name of ‘Earl Turpin’ who would be coming to tell us all about the Job he has with IBM and what it is like. Well, Earl, whom I got to know much better later did come and describe his job as a ‘Customer Engineer’ working on business equipment around NY City for a corporation called IBM of which I knew nothing about. By the time Earl told his story, I knew that was what I wanted to do.
Well shortly after that day, a manager, Fred Kohli, from IBM came in, reviewed our report cards, and interviewed a number of us for prospective employment as ‘Customer Engineers’ with International Business Machines (IBM). Well, shortly after, those of us selected were offered positions at and IBM office on 385 Madison Ave. I was offered $350 a month to start and a promise of an increase if I successfully finished their initial schooling in Endicott NY. My date of Employment was February 5, 1960. Shortly after I hopped into my car and was off to Endicott for my basic training. Thank you Earl Turpin!
So Zane & Nova!
To Zane and Nova with love from Grandpa….. As you manage your way through school, learn all you can about everything that is presented to you. Make sure you do your best in every subject so you may choose wisely and pick what you like best to do with your life. Watch and learn from everything that happens around you. Listen to the great people around you, and choose only the right roads as you proceed forward. Take only the best of advice and do your very best. Keep your helmet on as well!
to be continued….
Laubis Family & the American Dream 
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