CHAPTER 4
MOVING
With Grandpa/Uncle selling the house in Elmhurst, we also needed to move and chose Queens Village, which was where my Dad’s new job was located. We lived in what is commonly known as a “Garden Apartment” although there was absolutely nothing that even resembled a garden unless you counted the two-foot-wide strip of grass on either side of “the stoop.” In Queens, you didn’t sit on your front steps; you sat on “the stoop.” Below is a more recent photo than when I lived there, but remarkably it stil looks the same except for the doors. Grass is about right, too.
I liked living in Queens Village, and we moved from one end of QV to another when I was in 7th grade. It truly was one of those days where I went to school and came home, and my family had moved…but at least they told me the new address.
A good friend of my parents built the two-family we were in now, and his elderly Italian parents lived on the first level while we lived on the second. My sister and I each had a room, which for a newly minted teenager (me) was excellent.
It is pictured below, but when we lived there there wasn't the cement wall. It looks like it may have vinyl siding now, too. I'm not sure vinyl siding was even invented yet when it was our place.
A good friend of my parents built the two-family we were in now, and his elderly Italian parents lived on the first level while we lived on the second. My sister and I each had a room, which for a newly minted teenager (me) was excellent.
It is pictured below, but when we lived there there wasn't the cement wall. It looks like it may have vinyl siding now, too. I'm not sure vinyl siding was even invented yet when it was our place.
When I think back on it now, I spent a lot of my early life living with elderly Italian grandparents.
I truly loved our downstairs neighbors, Grandma Mary and Grandpa Louis, who treated me like one of their grandchildren. Also, it was nice to tell myself that this Grandpa was ONLY a Grandpa, married to a Grandma, and not my Grandfather/Uncle/Dad’s brother-in-law. Grandpa Louis had a lovely little garden with tomatoes, basil, mint, zucchini, and a fig tree.
I have always had a love of growing things, although I officially have a black thumb, and I think I developed that interest not only from summers in NH but also trailing around behind Grandpa Louis.
I loved school and when we moved to Queens Village, I started in
SS. Joachim & Anne in 2nd grade, as now you did a full year of each class, no more 1A and 1B.
I truly loved our downstairs neighbors, Grandma Mary and Grandpa Louis, who treated me like one of their grandchildren. Also, it was nice to tell myself that this Grandpa was ONLY a Grandpa, married to a Grandma, and not my Grandfather/Uncle/Dad’s brother-in-law. Grandpa Louis had a lovely little garden with tomatoes, basil, mint, zucchini, and a fig tree.
I have always had a love of growing things, although I officially have a black thumb, and I think I developed that interest not only from summers in NH but also trailing around behind Grandpa Louis.
I loved school and when we moved to Queens Village, I started in
SS. Joachim & Anne in 2nd grade, as now you did a full year of each class, no more 1A and 1B.
This is the school; we didn't have the red canopy over the front door but the rest of the building looks exactly the same as I remember it.
I have fond memories of my time there.
I have fond memories of my time there.
I did well academically and had a nice circle of friends as I grew up. I held many class offices, including being President of my 8th-grade class. I was always volunteering for something and, of course, that got me into trouble...like the time I told Sister that my Mom could sew all the costumes for the Christmas Pageant. Not only did my Mother not knowing anything about sewing, but of course, we didn't have a sewing machine. Once I offered our TV so that we could watch one of the Astronauts go into space. That didn't go over well with Dad, but fortunately, someone else stepped forward and brought their little box with the rabbit ears in to the classroom.
What about the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Being as bright as I was, I knew full well that hiding under our desks with our hands over our heads would do ABSOLUTELY nothing to protect us from nuclear annihilation...BUT! If you got up fast and knocked your head on the bottom of the desk, then the hands at least softened the blow.
Being as bright as I was, I knew full well that hiding under our desks with our hands over our heads would do ABSOLUTELY nothing to protect us from nuclear annihilation...BUT! If you got up fast and knocked your head on the bottom of the desk, then the hands at least softened the blow.
At Graduation, I won the Creative Writing Award. Where everyone else who had achieved academic excellence received a medal, I received a large square wrapped package, which turned out to be a Dictionary.
I guess whoever judged those of us who were nominated thought this would be the best thing to give an aspiring author. But I wanted just a medal, and if it had to be a book, I would have preferred a Thesaurus.
I had a 100% average in Spelling through my years at grammar school, so the Dictionary was unnecessary as far as I was concerned. I even made it to the semi-final round of a NYC spelling bee, and got knocked out not for misspelling, but “breaking the rule” that said contestants could only say the word ONCE before Spelling. I remember the word was “bizarre.” Since there are obviously two words exact in pronunciation but different in Spelling, I lost my head and said “Bizarre” and THEN: “Bazaar!” The bell was rung, and I was sent home. Not a terribly disappointing life event (certainly not as bad as The Black Star), but because I broke a rule, I was out.
Later in my life, I broke more rules, but none of them involved repeating a spelling bee word twice.
Then the summer after my freshman year, my parents moved me out of Queens Village to Douglaston, which was the last town in Queens but was really on Long Island.
Above is a photo of the highrise we moved into in Douglaston. It was much different from living in the garden apartment and the two-family.
To give you an idea how far out from NYC it was, I could walk into Great Neck (Nassau County) from there. John McEnroe was from Douglaston and he and I learned to play tennis on the same courts but somehow he did much better. Anyway, I knew no one in Douglaston, (Mac is a bit younger than me) and it was over an hour of transferring buses to get back to my friends in the old hood. It was a 15-minutes by car, but my Mom didn't drive and none of the bus routes went the way someone could get there in an auto.
This new place had an elevator and whenever I went out on a date, my parents insisted that I buzz them when I came into the lobby. The purpose behind this was so one of them (usually Mom) could stand by the apartment door and see me safely down the hallway, which was all of about 25 feet from the elevator.
Needless to say, there was not a whole lot of making out done since it took only 30 seconds to get from the lobby to the 5th floor.
Since I had outgrown summers with Grandpa/Uncle, I spent that first summer staying up most of the night, watching old movies and then sleeping till one or two in the afternoon. It was a rather lonely existence for a teenager who thrived on being among large numbers of people. That was also when I started to teach myself how to cook, which largely comprised of taking a frozen hamburger patty out of the freezer, putting it in a frying pan, and burning it to a crisp on the outside while leaving it pretty raw on the inside.
Above is a photo of the highrise we moved into in Douglaston. It was much different from living in the garden apartment and the two-family.
To give you an idea how far out from NYC it was, I could walk into Great Neck (Nassau County) from there. John McEnroe was from Douglaston and he and I learned to play tennis on the same courts but somehow he did much better. Anyway, I knew no one in Douglaston, (Mac is a bit younger than me) and it was over an hour of transferring buses to get back to my friends in the old hood. It was a 15-minutes by car, but my Mom didn't drive and none of the bus routes went the way someone could get there in an auto.
This new place had an elevator and whenever I went out on a date, my parents insisted that I buzz them when I came into the lobby. The purpose behind this was so one of them (usually Mom) could stand by the apartment door and see me safely down the hallway, which was all of about 25 feet from the elevator.
Needless to say, there was not a whole lot of making out done since it took only 30 seconds to get from the lobby to the 5th floor.
Since I had outgrown summers with Grandpa/Uncle, I spent that first summer staying up most of the night, watching old movies and then sleeping till one or two in the afternoon. It was a rather lonely existence for a teenager who thrived on being among large numbers of people. That was also when I started to teach myself how to cook, which largely comprised of taking a frozen hamburger patty out of the freezer, putting it in a frying pan, and burning it to a crisp on the outside while leaving it pretty raw on the inside.
