Massapequa Life in the Day

Evelyn, my gorgeous mother

William, my tall, handsome father

Growing up in the 50's and 60's, to me as I look back, was like living in Pleasantville, the movie town. I was born in Astoria General Hospital,Queens, NY, in 1952, to parents that wanted me. They had a 5 yr old daughter already, my big sister Diana, aka the evil witch. Diana was not too happy about my arrival, so, my parents settled that by having another girl a year later, followed by a brother, another sister, and then the baby brother.

If, before I was born, I had been shown videos of prospective parents, like the ones on dating sights, extolling their virtues and what they are looking for in a child, I could not have chosen better than the parents God chose for me. I was blessed from the beginning. They adored me, they adored all 6 of us, even though it was well known by my siblings,I was their favorite. LOL.



 Back in the day, most of our mothers did not have jobs outside of the home. Most of them had the job of being a housewife and mother. We all know that means mom was doing a hole lot more than just loving on us. According to an article from 2012 "If a stay-at-home mom was ever handed a pink slip, dad would have to hire a nanny, a driver, a cook, a janitor, a psychologist, a laundry-machine operator, and a myriad of other professionals for the odd jobs moms do on a daily basis. A Salary.com calculation found that after all the various duties are added up, stay-at-home moms put in 94.7 hours in a typical workweek, and it would cost $112,962 a year to replace her. For working moms, the extra 57.9 hours a week of work they put in is worth $66,979."
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/05/04/What-Are-Stay-at-Home-Moms-Really-Worth

I am guessing with inflation, that number is a good bit higher for 2016.

My father was a wounded veteran, Irish, and Catholic when my mother first met him at a VA facility she was working at. My mother was a Jewish woman, born to immigrants from Hungary and Germany. She was the eldest of 2 sisters and 2 brothers. My mother did not finish school, but, went out to work to help the family.

Here is MY version of how they met at the VA: My father comes into the facility in his uniform, having just recovered from a shrapnel injury that left some very deep scars in his shoulder and upper chest.  ( Story within a story: Daddy was injured overseas during World War II. He was picked up unconscious with the shrapnel embedded in his shoulder and chest, by a German Ambulance. He woke up during the ride to " someplace' , and seeing the German uniforms, jumped up fighting. He then heard them speaking in French/English, and they explained they were not German, just in " disguise" to get him to safety and a hospital. Whew!")

This 6 ft 2", dark haired , blue eyed, handsome GI, spots my would be mother, and takes the first step when she goes to the water fountain. He saunters up to her, and places his hands on the wall behind the fountain, corralling her there, and initiates conversation and a promise of a date. Ahhhhh, how romantic. She could not resist his charms, and I would have to say, he obviously liked hers:)

Mommy and Daddy's wedding

My mother converted to Catholic, before marrying my father. I asked her once how it was so easy for her to change from Jewish to Catholic. She replied:" There are very few differences between the two religions, mainly the Jews are still waiting for the savior to come, and did not accept that Jesus was the son of God and our savior. I figured, that if the savior had not come, during the Holocaust when the Jews needed him most, then surely he had already come'"  Good answer, and all of her children were raised Catholic.

The evil witch, OK my sister Diana came along within the first year.  My father was a highly educated man, who never stopped learning. He began his career in Engineering, working for Sperry Gyroscope, and then Grumman Aerospace. As the Chief Test Conductor there, he played a major role in out LEM project and success.

Mommy did not learn to drive, and was, like most, a stay at home mom, and wife. Growing up with an entire neighborhood, where the mothers all watched out for each other's children, and knew all of our names, and where we lived.. well.. how great is that?

No one freaked out if you were "missing", as they all knew we were in one of our friends' home, and that we were safe and being fed if needed. What the neighbors had, we had. We never had a care about walking around the block, going to the park, or even going into the near by woods, to explore and walk the trails.

We had no fear, as it was not KNOWN or heard of for someone being a pedophile, or drug addicts. It was a " kinder and gentler" time.. boy   I wish my grandchildren were living in such a time!!

We learned respect, too. Unless told otherwise, my neighbors were Mr and Mrs, and while we did not live in the south, we said MR and MRS, yes Mrs.. ( not Ma'am-), we did not know what a Bully was,
( well, there was Butch on  Our Gang). and  had no clue as to what " body shaming " was. 

The Gang. Butch to the right of Spanky..

We played OUTSIDE. There were no video games, there were no cell phones, computers,  or other electronic distractions. We had our bodies, our feet,  and our imaginations. We had Barbie dolls, but, there were no prebuilt furniture, or houses. Barbie did not have a car  We made that stuff, oh, yeah. We would spend HOURS making the house, shoe boxes, match boxes, whatever boxes. we made the furniture all day long.

Just when we would be done, Mom  would say.. Dinner time.. and we would be like what??????? Start all over the next day. I guess that is why so many Barbie dolls still had all their hair, and boxes, so, they could become collector's items today. ( Not my Barbies.. oh no. When the Ken doll came out, Barbie partied hard.. did not make it out of my preteen years intact, at all, if you know what I mean. Wink) (( Karen, one of my best friends ever, knows exactly what I mean. )) Karen went on to marry Bob L, a manage at McDonald's, and then she  become a preacher's wife when Bob became a minister, that took a while to absorb in my head, LOL!!!

We had a TV, a small black and white at first, but, it was in my parent's room, and we would all gather in there for the Ed Sullivan Show, or such. Our first air conditioner , a window unit, was in their room, but, on hot nights, we could all pile up in there too.

My parents bought their first home in a new development, and it was a 2 story home with 2 bathrooms and a basement, for 13000 dollars in 1953. Yes, that is thirteen thousand dollars. The lot was probably a quarter acre or bigger, plenty of room. Over the years they renovated the basement, so, half of it was a den. They also added onto the back of the house, extending the kitchen and dining area. They sold that house when all the children left for their own families to begin, around 1975, for $38000. If you bought it today.... wait for it........ $426,573!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing different about it today... this is what it looked like then, this is what it looks like now:

I just cried with happy memories. Well loved home, with so much love within those walls.

We always had a back yard above the ground pool Daddy got to be a big man ( no body shaming), but would get in the pool with us and say, " Hey , you with the tusks, outta the pool!"  Then there were NY winters!!

The only mother of 6 that had movie star hair even in the pool

Daddy, myself in his arms ( told you I was his favorite) Juliette in the rear, Billy on the Right, and MoMo to my left

Snow, oh yeah! We loved the snow as kids... the deeper the better. Yes, we loved school too, but, snow day ... we could play out there all day, snow suit, mittens, and our rubber boots... We all had second pairs, and would come in all blue lipped, and wet, snow in our boots, toes turning white, while Mommy would just smile and help us pull them off. We would hang or place all that near the radiators, yep we had those " back in the day", or by the furnace in the basement, and slip into the dry ones, and back out the door.  We played outside so much, our neighbor's daughter was told one time' " Don't play with them so much, they wear out your sneakers too fast." Well, yeah, that is what PF flyers are for! So, you can run faster, and jump higher, and use them for brakes on your bikes and the swings. Hello?

The snow plow day was a big favorite, as when they came through making mountains of snow on the sidewalks and driveways, Daddy had to shovel it out, to be able to get out  of the driveway and make the sidewalks and our front steps, walkable pathways. That left all the snow on either side of the driveway, huge hills of it. So, when you have 2 opposing hills, what do you do? You make snow forts!!!!! Oh , yeah, hole in the top, and hole to get in, pack that snow down, and then.... snow ball fights with the neighbors, oh, yeah.

We got so good about it, we would make our snowballs the day before, and put them under the gutter drains, so, the dripping water would make...... ICE BALLS!!! We, meaning my fort members, we never shared out winning recipe with the boysssssssssss , ewwwww!! So, we could not throw as hard, but... if we landed one, oh, you knew it, yeah buddy.. !!! Thwapp! Take that Jackie Werewolf, Frankie Frankenstein, and Gary the Inside Out Man! There is more where that came from!

In the summer, there was Spud, Red Light Green Light, Hopscotch, Rover come on over, Giant Step.. we played until the street lights came on , or your mother screamed for you. Sometimes, we just took whatever friends were with us home, too, after all we did not hear their mother call them. My mother would look around the dinner table and say, "Do I know you?".. giggling friend would say" Yes, Mrs Durkin!" She would laugh and say, " No problem, I will just throw another potato in the pot!" Yep, that is how she rolled.

TOBAY Beach, Jones Beach, Fire Island.. all at our doorsteps.

 

Mommy, Juliette, Billy, and Maureen ( MoMo) This may have been the day I went missing Notice how worried my mother is.

One day at TOBAY Beach, Juliette and I were doing our body surfing over the low waves. We had walked straight out from where our parents parked the blanket. The tide kept shifting the sand, and when we were done playing, we headed back, we thought, straight back to the blanket, only, that was not OUR blanket, and those were not OUR parents, so, we set off to find them. Juliette may have been a year younger, but, she was the more aggressive, adventurous type than I was. ( I was just prettier and smarter. duh?)

Well,  some time later a concerned beach goer notices we looked lost, and I would not answer her, but, Juliette ( aka the Wind of War) agreed we may have been a little bit lost, so, the lady took us to the life guard, and I stood at the sand dune near him, and would not let him put me on his high in the sky stand, but, Juliette did. He whistled for attention, meanwhile, I wandered off again, across dunes, and a road... Some other beach goers, spotted me, and I simply said, I am ok just hungry and thirsty. ( Priorities for survival in the dessert dunes). They gave me a  sandwich, and a drink from their cooler, and I then those sneaky people took me to another Life Guard. 4 weeks later ( an hour or so), my father found me.

He hugged me so tight, I thought I would die.. part of that was my heart pounding , joyous I was where I belonged. He brought me back to my mother, who was crying. I think she said. " Don't ever do that again!", but, I only heard" OMG I am so glad to have my baby girl back!).

Daddy would often carry us out in the ocean, 2 at a time, swimming to a sand bar, then stand on it and show us how big the ocean is. When I got older, and saw " Jaws" for the first time, I thought to myself, " Hey.. sharks, sandbars.. um, were they other siblings that were fish bait, and was he trying to attract another one with us?", no way, I am his favorite. Still, Jaws kept me out of the water, pretty much, unless it is a nice clear pool, or shallow water, surrounded by other people who can get eaten first!

We were Massapequans. We have history!   http://massapequastories.com/

To be continued... 

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