Growing Up

Growing Up in Queens & Brooklyn

Queens (Birth - age 8)

I was born on September 15, 1942 . My parents lived in a lovely community called Kew Gardens, which was in Queens, New York. We lived there until I was 8 years old. Our address was 118-41 Metropolitan Avenue, Queens New York. (There were no zip codes then.) Our apartment was on the third floor of a 4 story walk-up building. The apartment always seemed ‘dark’ to me. I believe that the 'darkness' that I felt was due to my mother’s depression.

There were two bedrooms – one for my parents and one for my brother Bert and me. He slept on the side with the window and fire escape, with his huge pile of comic books; and I slept on the other side where the doorway to the room was located. Our living room had no windows that I can recall, but it did have, as its centerpiece, a radio, made out of wood, and about 4 feet tall. I fondly remember sitting on the floor with my brother Bert listening to the radio. We listened to Amos & Andy, The Lone Ranger, Baby Snooks, Burns and Allen, and so many more wonderful programs. I absolutely loved listening to the radio then, and I still love listening to the radio now. In 1949, when television began, The Lone Ranger and several other radio shows made the transition to TV. I can still hear the opening lines of The Lone Ranger...

In the hallway near the kitchen we had a black telephone with no dial. Our phone number was Virginia 9-2966. If you wanted to make a call, you would pick up the receiver. A voice at the other end (the operator) would say ‘number please’. We did not use the phone very much because it was expensive to make a phone call.

So, our family lived in Kew Gardens Queens, and my father worked in Forest Hills, Queens. It took him about ½ an hour to get to and from work. My father owned a Hand Laundry called Stafford Hudson Laundry. The address was 96-03 69th Avenue Forest Hills New York. He worked very hard in his laundry business - 6 days a week. On Sunday he worked on the bookkeeping. I remember he used to write all his figures on the back of a cardboard. These were the cardboards that he put inside the customer’s shirts after they were pressed. Every day I looked forward to seeing him when he came home from work. He was so very tired from working hard all day, but he always had time and energy for a hug. He said that he did not want my brother and me to work hard like he did. And so, he insisted that we both go to college – which we did.

The only day that he did not go into work was Sunday. I looked forward to Sundays because I could spend time with him. I remember asking him to take me for a ride on Sundays in the car. One Sunday we went to LaGuardia Airport to watch the planes. One Sunday we went to Coney Island and he bought me a huge red balloon. He was such a good Daddy.

My Dad going to work at Stafford Hudson Laundry

My Zaydee and me

Linda on Bubby's porch 1944

Linda & Bert on Bubby's porch circa 1946

My brother, Bert and me 1944

Linda in 1949

Brooklyn (Age 8+)

When I was 8 years old, my mother had a serious accident and she was not able to take care of my brother and me. My brother Bert and I were blessed at that time by some extraordinary people: my mother's sister, Aunt Ida and her husband, Uncle Phil. They had just married and they lived in an apartment on 25th Street in New York City. They volunteered to look after my brother and me. However, their one bedroom apartment in NYC was not large enough for us. So, Aunt Ida and Uncle Phil bought a two family house with my father on Montgomery Street in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. Bert and I lived downstairs with my father while they lived upstairs. Soon Aunt Ida and Uncle Phil started a family. My cousin Hy was born in 1952 and my cousin Barbara was born in 1956. Since we all grew up in the same house together, Bert and I and Hy and Barbara were raised like sisters and brothers.

When we moved to Brooklyn I was in the middle of the 4th grade. I enrolled in P.S. 161 which was just a block from our house. My class spent most of the 4th grade writing and producing a play called ‘The Spell of The Red Ruby.’ Our teacher used innovative teaching techniques to instruct us in Math, Science, Social Studies and lots more, using the play as 'home base.'

Bert age 10 with his holster & gun

Linda at Camp Kinderwelt 1952

Bert at Camp Kenderwelt 1952

Linda age 10

Visiting day at Camp Kinderwelt

Linda, Bert and Aunt Lee

My father --painting of photo from circa 1951 in Brooklyn

Playing bridge with Uncle Phil

1961 Linda dressed up like Poppa!

Steve & Linda in Brooklyn circa 1961

Linda & Steve

Aunt May and Uncle Paul

Aunt Esther (Poppa's sister) and Uncle Joe

Aunt Ida who raised Linda from the age of 10.

My cousin Barbara who I grew up with

My cousin Hy & Alison

Stories

Growing Up in Brooklyn

I loved growing up in Crown Heights on Montgomery Street in Brooklyn, just a few blocks from Ebbets Field. I remember lying in bed at night listening to the crowd at Ebbets Field during a night game. I knew that if there was a loud roar, it meant that the Dodgers had gotten a hit […]

My Brother & Me

Bert and I grew up in Kew Gardens in the borough of Queens New York. We shared a bedroom – and boy, did that create a lot of opportunities to fight! His side of the room had a window that let out to a fire escape, and my side of the room had the doorway […]

A Happy Memory of My Father

(One of Many) Every year, on a Sunday in October, my Father took us all on a car ride to Bear Mountain to see the leaves change color. It was also a chance to get away from the city and breathe in the fresh air of Fall. And so, each year, my father, mother, brother […]

What Did Children Do in the 1950’s?

I grew up in Brooklyn New York in the 1950’s in an era before television, cell phones, and electronic games existed. So, what DID children do in the 1950’s – what did they play with? Well, girls played outside with jump ropes, roller skates, jacks, and pink Spalding balls. I remember how excited I would […]

The Good Humor Truck

I loved growing up on Montgomery Street in Brooklyn in the 1950’s. Our street was so lively with lots of different trucks riding up and down the street. There was a “rag man” with a wagon pulled by horses, who would slowly go down the street yelling “Rags, rags for sale.” Then there was the […]