Update 7-9-13

Hi,

 

Yeah, well, three newsletters in six days is two too many.  But I'm trying to ease back on schedule.

    I was helped by a small power outage last night, so small it might only have affected part of my short block and might have been caused by an overly adventuresome squirrel.  Or by the local inept burglar who was trying to cut alarm system lines and only succeeded in disabling sprinklers.  In any case, the power is back on after nine hours, just in time to let the air conditioning kick back in for the 100 degree heat.

    In cooler places, I spent what will probably be my last extended stay in Green Acres / Mill Brook.  I did notice the sewer covers still read Green Acres, and some maps read Green Acres Shopping Center despite fancy signs long elevating the place to a Mall.

    In Los Angeles, old sewer covers get stolen, both by collectors and metal scavengers.  And as I finished cleaning out my mother's house, I met some of those hard-working metal scavengers.  They gratefully took things like the corroded chrome meat slicer than hadn't been used in 55 years, and the cast iron meat grinder my mother probably picked up in an antique shop.  It certainly wasn't part of my childhood.

    I also met some of the newer neighbors, and it seems Green Acres is still a great neighborhood to grow up in, especially now that it's filled with kids again.  One of the women I met asked if the school district had really considered closing Forest Road School, and I said I'd heard something about that, maybe in the late 80s / early 90s, when the area was mainly filled with older people.  But now, it's happily noisy.

    But the Eisbrouchs are gone from Green Acres after almost exactly 60 years.  We moved there in the summer of 1953, assuming the $12,300 mortgage from David and Anne Parness.  I found the paperwork in my dad's desk.  Part of the paperwork noted that there were three free-standing storage closets and a workbench in the basement workroom, and they're still there, more than a little battered by kids.  The also-noted upright piano is finally gone, though -- oddly -- there was a shopping bag full of its keys in the garage.  I think my mother had some kind of art project planned.  And Jeff Levin, Chuck Gleichmann, and I disassembled the noted dog house for the lumber.

    Supposedly, as I've mentioned before, the dog that once lived in that dog house was the reason the Parnesses sold their house.  Reportedly, the dog bit Barnet Kellman's father, George, a lawyer who sued.  But that would have been unlike George Kellman, and Barnet said he knew nothing of the story.  Still, there was a dog, and there must have been a reason the Parnesses and their teen-aged sons left after only two-and-a-half years.  My family is grateful.

    And the Eisbrouchs weren't close to the longest residents in Green Acres.  Doug Kiviat moved last summer, having been there since his birth in the early 50s and having raised his kids in the family home.  Dr. Ruth Miller and her older son Cliff are still living on Eastwood Lane, next to where Barnet used to live.  Arlene Ainbinder is still there, after a side trip to Los Angeles in the 70s.  Michael Floyd is there, Pearl Kaplan just left, and I think I might have caught sight of Ken Senzer, going into the house he supposedly now shares with his aging mother, who he nicely takes care of.  There might even be some families who've lived in the old section since it was built in 1939.  Who knows?

    And the phone number that started as Tilden 4-9161, changed to Pyramid 1-9161, and then morphed to 516-791-9161 now answers, "The number you have dialed has been disconnected.  No further information is available."  That's because we didn't want telemarkerters trailing my mother to her new apartment. 

    When we were at lunch celebrating Robin Feit Baker's life, Valerie Nelson Gillen noted that she's rather read my writing than filler, but I told her, I don't intend to monopolize this as a blog.  I spread my writing in other ways.  One last observation though:  when I was looking for a bulk paper shredder for the 100 pounds of other paperwork I pulled out of my dad's desk, I was led by an Internet search to what was labeled an industrial park off Hook Creek Boulevard and 145th Street in Rosedale.  Of course, I should have immediately recognized what the place was, but I'm slow.  It's the remains of old Curtiss Field, and as another blog mentions, you can still see the Art Deco logos of small planes on what used to be the main hangers.  The sprawling, maybe ten acre site is now a hodgepodge of odd buildings, and I never did find the paper shredding company.  Reportedly, it had moved to Old Westbury -- or New Mill Brook, as those in the know call it.

 

Another kind note about Robin, from Janice Williams Teeuwe:  I was deeply saddened to hear about Robin.  We were friends from first grade up to twelfth grade.  She was a wonderful person and very kind-hearted.  The memories of her will remain within my heart forever.

 

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

 

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

 

 

Rich