Pop Steers the Family into the Future

Welcome to the 1940’s and ’50’s

Hugh PassportI have been delaying on getting this chapter done for a while, as I could not figure out a way to present the complexity of it in a concise manner. As a result, I have changed the time frame of this piece from 1940 through 1960. These are the first 20 years of my life and therefore my real memories are depicted here. Up through Chapter 5, many of the memories were those I recalled having been told to me by my parents and others. The German Friends and Relatives which I unfolded during Chapter 5 were largely ‘my memories’ of those folks as I came to know them in the ’40’s and ’50’s. So, my dilemma is “How do I structure this so it remains a tribute to my parents” while also unfolding it through the eyes of a young man growing up under their guidance. The decisions they made during those 18 formative years for me define that person who I became and am today. To get the best out of this chapter I urge you to look at all the Blue links as each adds importantly to the overall story of Mom & Pop.

pop1Moving forward, I have decided to divide the time frame into segments of importance in their lives and how it effected my life. Pop gets a new career position with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company which he will hold throughout the rest of his working career 1940-1966. Throughout this period, Mom was homemaker and ran the household. Pop came home for lunch every day during his entire working career. The places we lived were housing complexes owned by ‘Met Life’ and in his positions, he was required to live as well as work there. This situation made for very close and great parenting throughout my entire life.

  1. The Places we lived: Pop’s positions and promotions define where we would live in New York. So this is where I grew up and learned what life in the big city is like and how to manage my way through it. These three places, Rochambeau Gardens (Bronx’35 – ’40) Parkchester (Bronx ’40 -’47) and Stuyvesant Town (Manhattan ’48 – ’66) for Mom , Pop  and I and (’62 – ’68) for Lynn and I after we were married.
  2. The Countryside we enjoyed: The very important fourth location in our lives is a place called Lake Lincolndale in the Town of Somers in Westchester county NY. Mom and Pop, while living in Rochambeau Gardens, met Swiss and German immigrant families, the Portman’s and Bachman’s who owned country properties there. They would soon join them there. It turned out to be a ‘Family’ retreat from the city as the many pictures will attest to. They built the house starting in 1940 during weekends and summers , retired there in 1966, and lived out their lives there with Pop passing in 1978 and Mom in 1988. Our son Christopher, with his family, live in that house to this day.  Lynn, Chris and I purchased our first home in 1968 just across the Lake from Chris’s grandparents, Oma and Pop.
  3. My schooling: Because my parents were devout Catholics who provided outstanding parenting, I was fortunate enough to get great Parochial School training. St. Raymond’s in Parkchester, Immaculate Conception in Stuyvesant town and High School with the Jesuits at Fordham Prep on the Fordham campus in the Bronx.

I must add a note here about my older sister by 5 years, Elizabeth. Through younger years when she lived home, she was a great sister. She grew into a beautiful women who raised a beautiful daughter, Lisa. As time went on, she grew in separate ways that took her distant from all of  us. Today she lives in state of Washington. Lisa remains our contact with her and the only bond still between us. She has her own story, maybe someday she will join us here on this site and tell it as well.

My Sister Elizabeth

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pop2Rochambeau Gardens: We back track here a little to make a point about how Pop positioned himself  through apprenticeship in housing complex management to earn hi position with Metropolitan Life.  Pop, was the Superintendent of that housing complex which was owned by a man called Robert Dowling.  Mr. Dowling on behalf of my mom , helped my father come to America in 1929 by guaranteeing him employment.  Pop had good skilled ‘hands on’ education in Switzerland, and was trained as an electrician as well. Pop worked for Mr. Dowling at one of his commercial buildings down in the Wall St. area all during the depression. When my sister Elizabeth was born in 1935, they needed a larger place to live. So now comes Rochambeau Gardens. The Dowling’s owned that complex so Mr. Dowling made my father superintendent and along with that came one of the apartments. Here is an interesting part of that story. Part of Mom’s responsibilities when in employment of Park Ave, was to walk ‘Peter’ the dog each day in central park.  After she left to live on Bainbridge Ave, Mr. Dowling broke the news. “Peter pines for you every day, you have to take the dog to live with you.” So somewhere there is a picture of Peter in his own room sleeping on a mattress. Some day I will come across it. So, there we were very comfortable while Pop and Mom learned more English, the responsibilities of running a housing complex. I was born there in 1939. I do not know what ever became of Peter the Great Dane, as we could not take him to Parkchester. That will remain a mystery sorry to say.

Met Oval Pkchstr

Metropolitan Oval Parkchester

Parkchester: As I understand it, Mr. Dowling, was somehow involved with the building of Parkchester, which was a Metropolitan Life Insurance project being constructed in the Bronx. With the background my father now had, Mr. Dowling said to him, “Gus, at this point I can not do much more for your career but if you like, I have contacts at Met Life and can get you a position in Parkchester which is being constructed.” And of course, this happened so in 1940 we moved to 2130 E. Tremont Ave to a brand-new terrace apartment. I made friends there and in 1944 began school in St. Raymond’s parochial school. Pop had a very good job, he was a section superintendent, and had lots of men working for him to get the daily chores done for each apartment house. My friends included Tom Healy, Eddie Fays and others who I would meet again someday when I went to High School in the Bronx at Fordham Prep.

There is no way I could properly describe the wonderful lifestyle which we enjoyed in Parkchester. On YouTube, however is a great 27 minute video showing how it was growing up there and all about the project itself. It is worth the watch.

Here is the link.===>The Grand old Neighborhood

While there, we made lifelong friends with a couple who worked with Pop named Mary & Bill Knockenhauer. They remained part of our lives from that point on as he was promoted down to Stuyvesant Town as was my Pop.

Two key points here. First a delightful one: Bill and Mary put up a Lionel Christmas display each Christmas which mesmerized me and became the start of my love for model trains. During WW2 when such stuff was hard to get, he knew someone! So, on my second or third Christmas a display appeared under our tree. Lionel Train displays became a focal point in my life for the next 70 years!

The second event was a touch and go one. Here is my recollection of it as a four-year-old kid. At that time during the war, there was some kind of a vaccination program for Americans underway. No-one apparently liked it, but it was compensatory. My father the supervisor showed off to his workers how simple the experience was, led the way and somehow wound up getting too much Vaccines.  He went into a comma at home in our house. He just would not wake up for days. I am not sure what medical help was happening, but they came and went daily. Now back to Bill Knockenhauer.

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Pop with his manager After recovery

One day he came to visit, and I was there with him and Mom at my Pop’s bedside. He was talking to Pop and shaking his shoulder at the same time. Miraculously, Pop started mumbling and Bill kept working with him until his eyes opened up and he took some water from Mom. Pop did come back to us in a very weak state but alive and well. After that, Pop went off to a place called Burkes Foundation to recuperate. Bill took us there on weekends to visit. I have no idea how long this took but Pop eventually came home and went back to work. That experience took a lot out of him. I can only see it when I study pictures of him before and after that time.

Pop’s Shop: Probably one of the best happenings as a result of his job was associated with a Perk my Pop got because of his position in maintenance. It was that he had his own “shop” in one of the storage areas of a building.   My Pop fully stocked his shop with all tools necessary and in my eyes he could do anything. He also had access to lots of ‘things’, odds and ends that people would no longer need or want and throw out. He would choose the items, take them to his shop and refinish them and they wound up as part of our household. I can tell you at that time, I had the best expensive toys, not because my parents purchased them, but because my Pop located them, refinished them and I was rewarded with them. I never owned a new bike but always had two of the best, one in the city and one in Lincolndale. Here are some pics.

Going to Pop’s shop was a frequent event as he went there often to refinish furniture which would up somewhere either at home or in Lincolndale. He was a master at what his talents were and he always involved me when I accompanied him there. Maybe it was just sorting screws or other simple tasks but I loved every minute of it. He was a great Dad and taught me so much during my formative years. Because of his position, Pop also had pass keys to go anywhere. His job required him to open apartments for any reason to let in the Police. They were anything you can imagine and as I grew older, and it was evening time and a call came to do that task, he took me with him. My eyes were opened up to see how other people lived. I had opportunity to witness lots of interesting but sad life experiences. Talking about keys, here is a short vide clip of being up on a roof top in Stuyvesant Town =====>   Rooftop with Pop

The shop experiences were further enhanced by Pop’s enthusiasm to get his vision of Lincolndale built. So, starting somewhere around 1944, Pop and I in his ’33 Oldsmobile would leave on Saturday morning on our way north to the property. On our way we would pick up Mr. Cappelletti, one of his workers in Parkchester, in front of Fordham University, who would help Pop for the day. Pop always had some small relatively simple tasks for me to do while we were together. This turned into weekends at some point so my learning what it takes to ‘build a house’ became reality. Until we could stay there overnight, Mom and Elizabeth stayed home. When they joined us, it was like every weekend was having a picnic. Mom knew how to do it.

To sum up my feelings for my ‘Pop’, no one could say it any better than Eddie Fisher did back in 1954 Take a listen here ====> Oh my Papa!

We are blessed to have a few original newspaper clippings that in a small way tell about my Pop and his Parkchester Days. They are great. Look here ===>Pop in The Papers

Lots of Great beginnings in the Laubis Family happened in Parkchester

If you look at the faces in these pictures you will see them as familiar faces of all the friends and relatives we told you about in the earlier chapters. Mom’s uncle ‘Groszpop’ and her cousins from Baltimore and New Jersey were frequent visitors. As well all the Muggensturmer’s from New York were frequent visitors and dinner guests. With Pop’s influence, some of these as well as new friends from Rochambeau Gardens joined us living there as they moved to Parkchester as well.

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The advent of ‘Cooper” the cat!

Well, we could not take Peter the dog to Parkchester to live with us, so Mom & Pop decided a cat and Goldfish would take his place. I do remember that we had two Coopers, the first was a Siamese and the second was  this Black and White who became known are Cooper #2.  We had Cooper a long time and both cats came back and forth with us to the Lincolndale weekends. #2 liked it so much there that he disappeared sometimes as we prepared on Sundays to return to the city. He figured out what was going on. I even remember that we all would pretend to go to bed for the night to fool her so she would come in and could be snatched up for the trip back.

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The interesting end to the Cooper story is this. I always suffered from sinus issues growing up. It was not until I got married to Lynn and moved out did I realize the whole time it was allergies to cats! Made no difference because a one point much later on, we got a cat called ‘Sushi’ for Lynn. We had her many years and she was a joy. Kerchu!!!  Before Sushi, Lynn, I and Chris owned Betsy Beagle. That story comes much later on in the next chapter. By the way, both Cooper the cats have as their burial place the southeast corner of the Lincolndale property where Chris lives to this day.

World War II

We were all considered ‘German’ as immigrants from that part of Europe. The war went on till 1945. While we children felt no animosity, I know that on occasion Mom & Pop did. Pop’s illness had him bypass the draft. As part of his position responsibility, he was a Civil Defense Warden and was out doing all the ‘blackout’ drills when they happened. In general the anti-German hostility prevailed.

It was also very difficult for them being isolated from their immediate relatives over there. Pop’s parents, even though German by heritage, were living in Switzerland where Pop was born. Switzerland being neutral was unaffected and letters were passed back and forth. It was a different story for Mom. Her nephews were seeing action and communications were cut off. Neither her village of Muggensturm nor Pop’s heritage village  of Bernau in the black forest saw any war time damage. However the city of Karlsruhe nearby saw significant damage. When Lynn and I visited in 1966, you could still see buildings which had not been rebuilt? Who knows why.

Pictures sent to us after the war.

My only memories of what was different was that Mom would every so often take me shopping into an interesting place outside Parkchester to get a CHICKEN! I am guessing it was black market. Big place like an open warehouse. I remember crates of live chickens and when you bought on, they beheaded it stuffed it in a bag and we carried it home. Interesting life experience for sure.

The other different and very usual experience was a weekly trip with a large well wrapped package to the post office. This was of course after the armistice and mail between countries became open. I guess 1946. Each week the package went out to a different relative family somewhere in Germany. It contained the essential staples that could withstand weeks long trips to their destination. This showed the love and compassion my parents had for the loved one’s they left behind. This process continued well into our life in Stuyvesant Town. By the way, as you may imagine, not all Mom’s relatives made it back home after the war.

Pops trip to see his Mother before passing

basel1I do have recollection of Pop leaving on a voyage back home. The purpose was to visit one more time with his mother before she passed. Of course I never knew my grandparents or in fact any of my European relatives but by the time the 1950’s were in full swing, we had quite a few coming to visit.

In the ’60’s we visited there as well. Those stories still coming,

Here is a picture of my Grandmother, Pop’s mother, shortly before her death. I believe she passed on May 11, 1947

In 1947 we Moved again, to Stuyvesant Town

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Stuyvesant Town & Peter Cooper 14th to 23 St, Ave C to 1st Ave

Stuyvesant Town: Well, moving on, Pop knew of his pending promotion to Quadrant superintendent at a place called Stuyvesant town down on east side of Manhattan on 14th Street. I am guessing that sometime maybe in 1945 or so Pop took me downtown there to see what was going on. I remember the corner we were standing on watching. We were across 14 street on the tenement side looking at the wrecking ball in action across the street smashing down buildings in preparation for building of the new project Stuyvesant Town. I believe it was ‘Ave B’ because all the buildings on our left facing crosstown were tenements. A site I was about to see was one no one would ever forget. Lined up in the street were all the building superintendents with flat bladed coal shovels. There were no cars going up and down 14 street as roadway was blocked off.. Here is the vision I will never forget. Each time the wrecking ball smacked into the building, rats would fall to the ground and come racing across the street toward us and into the waiting shovels beating them to death. What an unforgettable sight. Pop sensed that was enough and soon after we left.

We moved into 649 E. 14th St. in January of 1947. It was part of the first section being finished between Ave B and C. I remember they were still putting down sod on the grass and I was outside playing and in the fresh raked dirt waiting for sod, I spotted an ‘arrow head’ which I rushed home and kept for many years. I was told soil was from Pennsylvania.

I got signed up for 3rd grade at Immaculate Conception school on 14th Street and 1st Ave. and started school there. Being there was a whole new experience for me because Immaculate was filled initially with a mix of kids mostly from the tenements and a few of us early Stuyvesant Town kids.

I always went home for lunch. Pop worked right there so Mom always had a great meal for us. As professional cook, Mom always made sure we ate well.  I remember one day on the way home for lunch, I was  ‘walking the curb’ and found a $5 bill lying in the street. For another year I would look in the street both home and back and learned, all about ‘good’ luck. Never found another bill!

It is just as impossible for me to tell about the wonderful place Stuyvesant Town was for me growing up. But thanks again to the internet, there are some facts and videos, vintage and recent, which will give you an idea how great it was. It was a carbon copy ( exactly like) of Parkchester. Here are some links for you to look at. 

Wikipedia===>Stuyvesant Town Facts then & Now

My Schooling:  The growing up in  Stuyvesant Town story is well told in some of the other links on the site under the section on the welcome page called “Friends and Family”,  Have a look there please under ‘Bob Shea’ and ‘Bob Kaylor’ , two of my very best friends growing up there. I am still in touch with them.  After graduating from Immaculate Conception, I attended High School at Fordham Prep on Fordham Rd. in the Bronx. The ride to and from school was by way of the 3rd Ave elevated subway from 18th street all the way to the Fordham Campus. I did my homework on the way home and my preparation for daily quizzes on way up. My mother always packed me a great lunch. Another lesson learned. Fordham is also a great story to be told later. By the way, while at Fordham prep I wound up back with Tom Healy and Eddie Fays who I went to St. Raymond’s in Parkchester with. Still in contact with them today.

Lincolndale NY – What a vision my Mom & Pop had!

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Lake Lincolndale:  How did we get there? While in Rochambeau Gardens and in Parkchester, Mom and Pop met people of their own age with kids, who also were immigrants from both Germany and Switzerland. Their names were Bachmann, Portman, Klauss, Albrecht, and Geritsen. Each family had young girls my sister Elizabeth’s age. The families all socialized frequently. In between working on their properties, the men played horseshoes and cards and the women, took us swimming at the lake and managed family life with us children.

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Mom & Pop at the beach

Well, their friend Joe Portman bought a place in Lake Lincolndale in Town of Somers in northern Westchester in the mid ‘30s. Well, Pop, Walter Klauss, and Anthony Bachmann all followed. The Albrecht’s and Geritzen’s all became frequent weekend visitors. We enjoyed simple living in just the foundation of the ‘some day’ to be built house for a good 10 years. We loved every minute of it! We also had many visitors by the Jersey and Baltimore Lutz families.

Life in the foundation!

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So the big deal here was that me,  little Hubert Laubis,  grew up leading two lives. Getting ‘street smart’ living on lower east side of Manhattan and learning the good life of rural country living on weekends and during the summers. An interesting dichotomy which served me well throughout my life. How Mom and Pop first learned about Somers NY was through the Wyrenbeck Family all through the 1930’s, shown on their part of this website.

Link===> The Wyrenbeck’s! Take us home Country Roads!

Here also is the earliest video in my collection, taken by Bill Knockenhauer on one of his many visits to our “foundation Home” in the country. It is on YouTube thanks to help from my friend and mentor Peter Schenk.                  Link===> Early Lincolndale

Slowly from 1950 -53 Pop’s dream came true! The upstairs gets built!

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Pop’s used lumber pile.

Please take a close look at this picture. The interesting thing about it is not me holding my Daisy BB gun but the pile of lumber behind me. Somewhere Pop bought a truck load of used lumber. It still had nails in it and so we all had a big project ahead of us. We took all the nails out, carried it to the back and stacked them according to size. They were then covered safely for future use. In the pictures that follow, it was the lumber applied to the outside at a 45 degree angle. joe portmanPop was a first class planner and to the best of my ability I tried to do so just as carefully. The other picture shows Mom and Pop with Mr. Portman who was their friend from Rochambeau and also head carpenter on the house project.

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OK so what else went on in all these places!

The 1950’s were a source of constant change in our lives. The world was at peace for a change and our homeland, Germany was coming back to life.

The parties and Picnics never stopped.

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Christmas   was always a Big Deal!

No matter what, Mom and Pop would take us on the annual trip to mid town to see the Christmas events going on in all the stores as well as Rockefeller Center tree. We would stand on line for what seemed forever at Radio City Music Hall to see the annual Christmas show. I wonder if that tradition there continues.

As far as at home, this can best be seen on our home movies which, while not professional, tell the story of the Joys Mom and Pop created in our lives. Here is a list of links to some short video clips that are up there for your pleasure.  Hit the back button on your browser or close the page at top to come back here.

Home Movie Links 

Christmas 1950            Christmas 1953               Christmas #3         Dinner with Mom

Otto Re-appears from the dead.

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Otto and Johanne

At this point, we are into the mid to late ’50’s. A couple of life changing events happened. My Godmother Johanne who was introduced to you in an earlier chapter was blessed with information about her son Otto who was thought dead in WWII. He was a soldier in the German Army. Here is their picture. Also a newspaper article on his arrival in NY.
Here is a link to the article ===> otto

Thanks to Pop, Otto immediately was put into employment in Stuyvesant town in the painting  department where he worked till retirement. The family moved into Stuyvesant town as well. They lived there until retiring to Florida in the 1960’s where Lynn and I had annual opportunities to visit.

Our Friends the Schwarz’s were always with us.

Among our many friends were the Schwarz families. The story goes that Mom met Gertrude when pushing carriages together back in Bainbridge days. Albert was an auto mechanic and owned his own one man shop fixing Packard and Studebaker. Their son Rolf was my age and we grew up together. Their extended family shown in this picture was Albert’s brother Karl, his wife Anna and their two daughters. They were not home town Muggensturmer folks but originated elsewhere in Germany and like Mom and Pop were immigrants to America. As a result, they visited as a group mostly to Lincolndale as you see here. Albert owned a huge Packard convertible with a rumble seat. It was yellow. What a sight with all in it coming into our driveway.

Families were strong friends and as the late ’50’s came around, Albert and Karl along with Rolf introduced me to hunting which became a big part of my life as you will see. Gertrude and Albert were considered Aunt and Uncle to Lynn, Chris and I and we were constant visitors well into the time of their Florida retirement where we visited often. Rolf married Charlene and we had many good times together. Rolf worked many years out on the west coast before coming back and living on Long Island. Unfortunately, he passed on way too soon. We all miss him dearly.

We re-unite with the Maier Family Cousins!

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Pop, Mom & Emil

Well as I stated earlier, the ’50’s were a prosperous time everywhere. Here is a great happening. Pop’s heritage is in Bernau in the Black Forest of Germany. When he was a young boy, he would return there during his summers to be with his relatives. Well one of his cousins was Emil Maier and they had a strong boyhood bond. As you have seen, Pop’s life led him to know Mom and migrate to NY in America. Well, at some time his boyhood cousin, Emil Maier, migrated to Chicago. I personally was unaware of this though I am sure they knew where each other was, they were living their own lives.

One year, Emil, Louise and their daughter Carol came to visit us in Lincolndale for a nice vacation. Son Richard, already busy working, did not come with them. However the following year, Mom, Pop, Elizabeth and I went to visit them all in Blue Island Ill. This was right up my alley as Rich was a car buff and I was just getting there myself. Here are some great pics of these visits.

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Now in recent times, while on the Ancestry website, I recognized Carol’s married name Germanos. As a result I made contact with her son Paul. He is now a member of our website and you can see our communication exchange at this link=>Cousin Paul I should also mention that Carol came to visit us in Stuyvesant Town a couple of times on her way to visit Bernau in Black Forest of Germany and meet the rest of her relatives during the 1960’s.

Cousins Gusti and Yvonne arrive in 1956!

A gusti picWell, finally I get to meet a real cousin! August E. Laubis, better known to all of us as ‘Gusti’ arrives for a visit to the America. Gusti is Pop’s nephew and he brings with him his fiancée Yvonne. They came to visit but then they stayed. I will not try to tell you their story because it is well documented by them in detail.

You can find it here on this link ==>Gusti and Yvonne

What I remember is that we loved their constant visits and beautiful children and there is lots to tell you about that in the next chapter. Please do take the time to visit their portion of our site. Gusti and Yvonne’s family  was a big part of all our lives, but especially wonderful for Mom and Pop.

Muggensturmer Franz Koenig comes to see us.

Franz Koenig, arrives from Muggensturm for a work related visit. I don’t remember how long he was in NY but it was long enough for me to have him accompany my friends for shooting ‘skeet’ on the weekend. Franz was in the German Navy and came here to do some training with the US Navy at the time. Franz, with his wife Sophie, return with their family for a visit in 1965. We see them again during our visit to Germany in 1966. So there will be more stories and pictures to come. Stay tuned!

Summary 40’s-50’s

It was impossible to relate all my memories during this busy period of our lives, so here are some key points that need to be said.

Great Parenting: I felt sorry over the years when I would hear a story from someone about the bad memories of their youth. Elizabeth and I were so lucky in that we had great parenting. I have no bad memories, only good ones. Pop would take me out each Friday to go see a western movie together. He took me everywhere with him and I looked forward to it. My recollection is that my Pop never took a hand to me but I can remember Mom taking her favorite wooden cooking spoon and chasing me around the room for probably a good reason well into my 20’s. Thankfully I was always faster and it never landed! I don’t think she wanted it to.

Great Schooling: I was fortunate to have Mom and Pop choose Parochial schooling for us. When we moved to Stuyvesant Town my previous schooling in the Bronx was so advanced that the principal nun at Immaculate wanted to skip me a grade. Mom and Pop made decision to have me stay in my proper grade. I believe my future benefitted from that wise decision. When it came time to select a high school, I had my choice and without any influence, I chose Fordham Prep in the Bronx. It is run by the Jesuits and I am still in touch with and support that school because it provided me with absolutely the best parochial HS education I could have gotten anywhere in the city.

Incredible Work Ethic: Mom and Pop were the symbols of what it takes to make it in America. Pop’s story about leading us is in the 5,000 words above but Mom was there every step of the way. Besides her chores around the household, she was there in the garden in Lincolndale and helping us to pull nails out of boards and carry stuff as when necessary. What is not  written anywhere is that she was the mother to at least a dozen kids in the neighborhood, taking care of them after school and child sitting with them evenings when necessary. Yes, she was paid and that was good because it paid the monthly tuition for me at Fordham and Elizabeth at Cathedral High.

Inspired industry and Thrift: All the energy I witnessed in them all my life, gave me the momentum to ‘work’ also. I can say that until my retirement in 1988, I was gainfully employed from the 6th grade on. I delivered papers, working in grocery stores part time and then at Liberty Mutual evenings until getting my position in IBM in 1960. Mom and Pop were savers, I was one also. When in grade school, we students could open an account the local bank and once a week the banker came and collected some coins from those of us participating and deposit it in our account. We could watch it grow when we looked at the bankbooks. This account was with us till 1967 when Lynn and I  moved to Lincolndale. I contributed to it every week and interestingly enough Mom and Pop must have observed this and never asked for me for any of my work pay to contribute to the household.

Faith Directed Life Style: The lower east side during the time we moved there to live, was at best, a neighborhood of interesting characters and events. There was lots of opportunity for a young boy to do the wrong things. Mom and Pop kept our family under the guidance of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We were surrounded by the nicest people I could ever have grown up with, our family and friends. It was an inherited inspiration for me to be the best you can be, learning when and how to avoid the goings on around me when it looked like trouble. Our Family and friends were great examples and for me great life lessons.

So what’s ahead in next Chapters in the ’60’s, ’70’s and ’80’s. All of this!

Retirement: Mom and Pop enter into retirement years. This means enjoying the fruits of their labor. They will vacation back to the old country as well as hosting many of our relatives from the old country.  Mom and Pop have the enjoyment of being grandparents as the next generation arrives. Elizabeth and Al provided all of us with great joy of baby Lisa. Lynn and I carried on our lives in Stuyvesant Town until our little Chris comes into our lives. pop2Both children had special bonds to Mom and Pop as you will see in Chapter 7

The structure of the this next chapter 7 will follow the website’s purpose of maintaining the tribute to “All in the Family”

Of course as we all move away from living home with them, we new generations have a huge amount of ‘story telling’ to do about our own lives. In order to deal with this, we will start some new branches on the website accessible through Links. These will be titled as follows:

lynnEvelyn Murphy – Some of Lynn’s history as a Murphy before we met. You will be able to see that only here at this Link==>Evelyn Murphy

prep1Hubert (that’s me) – Some of my schooling, recreational and job events from ’57 to ’62 during my single life. You will be able to see that only here at this Link==>Hubert

Hubert, Lynn & Chris – Our great life together beginning with our wedding on 2/10/1962 and carrying on to today! Link===>Hubert, Lynn and Chris into the 2000’s
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Chris & Linda – Our son Chris and his great wife Linda as they march forward since their wedding on October 15, 2018. Link===> Chris and Linda

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Lisa Montini – Our beloved Lisa and her life story as she tells it. Link===>Lisa Montini

lisa1

Our Grandkids – Our Grandkids Zane and Nova in a year by year tribute. Link==>Grandkids

This remains a work in progress. Lots more stories to be told.

Where would you like to go from here?

Top of this chapter

About Hugh & Lynn

Chapter 1 – The tribute to Rosel & Gus