Update 8-16-11

Hi,

Some stories of old New York.

First, from Helen David:  We, too, moved from a four-room Stuyvesant Town apartment to our Valley Stream home.  The Stuyvesant Town kitchen was compact, but when washing (laundry) machines were available for private residences, there was just enough space next to the sink for one to fit.  We hooked hoses to the sink tap when the washing machine was in use. 
    The foyers were definitely for eating, and some foyers were a little larger than others.  It and the living room formed an L-shape.  Actually, it seemed almost as spacious as many Valley Stream L-shaped living/dining rooms.  The master bedroom was about 12' x 15', and the second bedroom was larger than our small bedroom in Valley Stream.  Of course, there was only one bathroom and no air-conditioning.  A tenth floor apartment cost $82 per month, and we got demerits if we forgot our key to the apartment and needed help to get back in to the automatically locking door.
    Stuyvesant Town was subsidized by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and was available only for World War II veterans.  Housing was so scarce that they chose the tenants, not the reverse.  About 800 babies were born there each year among the 10,000 residents, and hence the baby-boom!
    Except for the surrounding slums, Stuyvesant Town was a lovely place to live.  Even though it was in Manhattan, it was very quiet.  Until I had children, I taught at nearby Washington Irving High School.
    After a few years, we were part of a mass exodus to the suburbs.  We chose a home near enough to  Valley Stream South High School to hear the piles being pounded into the ground for its foundation.  Fortunately for me, at the time that an eleventh grade was added to the school, I was ready to return to teaching.  Twenty-six teachers were hired at that time (1957).  And you talk about being old!

Next, from Paula Ignatow Cohen:  When I got married in 1965, our first apartment was a two-bedroom in Stuyvesant Town -- for $149 per month!

From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  My family lived in Stuyvesant Town too!  I was there from birth to 3 1/2 years.  We were at 2 Stuyvesant Oval, so you and I may have played together in the playground as tiny tots.  Who knew!

From someone else who lived on Stuyvesant Oval, Robin Feit Baker:  We have something in common and possibly crossed paths before meeting at South.  You see, I lived at 21 Stuyvesant Oval from age one until shortly after my fifth birthday.  In fact, I remember the elementary school where I attended kindergarten.  Perhaps, we were in the same class!

[Rich -- from me to Robin:  The main things I remember about kindergarten and first grade in Stuyvesant Town are the school was dark and old with a lot of stairs, and I didn't learn anything.  I ended up repeating first grade in Valley Stream.  I also remember a probably kindergarten holiday play where most of the class played reindeer, and the kid playing Santa Claus fell asleep when he was supposed to be dreaming the play.  So instead of him driving off with the reindeer at the end of the play, one of the reindeer or an elf steered.  Does this sound at all familiar?]

From Robin back:  So funny, your description of the school is exactly as I remember although I have one memory to add:  there was some sort of safety mesh by the dark staircase, probably to prevent a child from falling or being pushed over the hand rail.
    I recall a piano in the kindergarten classroom and pretending I was an alligator as the teacher played a song.  I began kindergarten when I was four-and-a-half, so when my mother enrolled me at Buck, they wanted me to repeat the year because I had just turned five and was small for my age.  I was given a test, finished the three months left for the semester and  was promoted to first grade.
    And do you remember a bakery where they sold mini-loaves of bread for the children?

[Rich -- from me again to Robin:  I kind of remember that mesh, but I hadn't been able to sort it out from the idea that these were dark, scary staircases.  And I remember there being a piano in the kindergarten class, though there may have been one in every kindergarten in the city.  I don't remember being an alligator, just a reindeer.
    I also started school at 4 1/2, but obviously you learned more in kindergarten than I did in kindergarten and first grade.  The main thing I remember about first grade, other than being in a more Spartan, darker, higher ceilinged classroom than in kindergarten -- which I mainly remember as yellow, perhaps because of the light coming from the overhead fixtures -- is the first grade teacher put a sign on the door when there was 100% attendance in her class.  That's because it was a huge event, and I only remember her doing it once.  Her name may have been Miss Barnes.
    And I remember small loaves of bread, but I'm not necessarily sure I associate them with Stuyvesant Town, more with Wonder Bread.]

From Robin:  I definitely remember going to a small store with my mother and getting a child-size loaf of bread.  But you made me think that perhaps it was Wonder Bread.  That sort of sounds familiar.

[Rich -- and finally, from me:  Speaking of wonders, I remember being allowed to walk to school by myself in first grade.  I would have been 5 1/2 by then.  And it wasn't just across the street to Forest Road School.]

There are some other letters, not about New York, but they can wait till next week.


The South '65 e-mail addresses: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com

The South '65 photo site: picasaweb . google . com / SouthHS65

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Rich