family stories - beginning

7/30/2019 Family Stories - Beginning

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It happens these days. People move away from their parents and the town and people they knew when they grew up. They lose touch with the family members that would have, in earlier days, been an integral part of their lives. When my niece Kate asked me to tell her some family stories I started to explain who various people were, and what they were like, but it took on a life of its own. Here then, to the best of my ability, is a collection of my memories of our family. This is the first part. Im working on sections about places we lived and about our great grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, parents and siblings.

Alison


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My Earliest Memories

The night I was born, my dad and Granny Abbott went out on the town together and got pretty squiffy. At one pointDad boozily introduced Granny to the doorman at the Colony Club. When they finally got to the hospital theylearned that I had arrived, and Dad went and threw up in a linen closet.

They lived with Gaffer (my Dads father) inNew York for a while, and when Dad got asales job with Dickinson's Witch Hazel theymoved to Essex, Connecticut.

Jane Niles, who often worked for Granny Abbott's family, came to help take care of me. My mother (let's call herPolly) was always complaining she was too fat. Jane was thin and they joked that if Polly copied exactly what Jane ate

she'd be thin too. Polly smoked. Jane probably didn't. I think she may have been Canadian from Cobourg, Ontariowhere the family went in the summer. Both my parents' families summered there, and I think that's where myparents met. Aunt Nancy told me that just before my father got engaged to my mother, he took Nancy aside intosome bushes and practiced his proposal on her.

When the U.S. entered WWII, Dad, who had been in the Army Reserves, was called up. He and Mr. Dickinson werefriendly and he was promised his job when he returned. (But then, when he got back there was no job.)

While Dad was in basic training we moved to a couple of places in the South. The earliest memories I have are ofseeing a parade of little children going by the apartment house we stayed in. They were marching along in the dusk,chanting, "Air raid! Air raid! Air raid!" I wanted to go too, but I was too small. I had just had a bath and been put tobed in what I remember as a very high, grownup bed. I was nearly asleep when there was the most tremendouscrash! The bathtub from the floor above ours had fallen through the ceiling. There was plaster and lathe all over theplace and the upstairs tub lying crazily right on top of the one where I had just had a bath.

Granny Abbott came down to visit us there and would sit on the porch and knit little squares using leftover wool.When she had enough squares she'd crochet them together and make a blanket. I called them Granny's Quares.

After that we lived on Kershaw Street in the town near the army base, Fort Jackson, in Columbia, SC. I was made tomemorize the address and I still remember the street name. I went to Google, looked up the street, and found ahouse that looks eerily like the one we lived in. I remember a front porch. Ours had a bench on the side, and forsome reason 78 records had been left there. One day a lady came to visit. She sat down to wait for Polly who wasprobably in the bathroom or something, and CRACK! she landed right on the records. Those things were brittle.


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I was walked to my nursery school past a big building my mother toldme was the orphan asylum. I called it the Orcan Aslyum. I lost my firsttooth one day at nursery school. It hurt. I went home and was given aglass of milk and a sandwich at a little table. I was weepy from the painand the big hole where the tooth had come out, right in front. The waterheater had exploded that day, and every curtain in the house wascovered with soot. Granny Abbott was expected next day for a visit and

my poor mother had just washed and ironed all the curtains! They werethe white cotton kind with ruffles... I got zero sympathy. When she wasin a better mood she called me, "My little Lamb Chop."

My first friend was a tiny black woman, possibly a dwarf. She had beenhired to babysit for me, but I just thought she was there because she wasmy friend. Usually she had a ride to our house, but one day we droveher home. She lived in a sparse group of little wooden houses with dirtall around them instead of grass, and there was a well with a bucket inthe middle.

I'm not sure if it was the same woman, but my parents visited Granny and Poppy on Long Island during this timeand brought along a black woman to take care of me. They stopped overnight in Washington, D.C., and were veryupset that she wasn't allowed to eat with us in the restaurant and had to go somewhere else that catered to blackpeople. I remember them arguing that she was with them and there to take care of me, but it was no use.

I had a little baby carriage for my doll. One day we went to the grocery store. I waspushing my carriage. My mother had a shopping cart. I decided to help her shop.When we got to the checkout counter the baby carriage was riding low. It was full ofcans! I was not popular that day. My mother was afraid the store manager wouldthink we were stealing. I got scolded but I didnt really understand why.

My pink rubber doll Oscars arm popped out of its socket. I brought it to Daddy,convinced he could fix it, but he couldnt do it. But he did give me sips from his beer.My mother called him Bill so I called him Bill too. Later I found out the right namewas Daddy. Ever week morning he got dressed and left us. He said it was because hehad to go and crank the bread and butter machine.

We had a dog named Callie who had nine puppies. One of them would only move backwards. I don't know whathappened to them, or to Callie, but she got into a neighbor's chickens and after that... no Callie.

One afternoon, playing by myself, I decidedto climb on top of the car. It was aconvertible and I fell right into the backseat, scaring myself into howls. I was fine,but the soft top was ruined. My parentswere very upset about the top.

The took me with them one night whenthey went out. I was delighted because theygot the tiny white horse from their whiskey

bottle and gave it to me. On the way back Iwas frightened. I didnt know what it was,but told them I had a mouse in my leg. Ihad been sitting on my mothers lap andmy leg had gone to sleep and was allprickly.

Dads training was over, and he shipped out.My mother and I moved to an apartment in New York. At night on the train north, we had a bunk together, andcould look out the window. The train would pull into a station and passengers would get on and off, but we were


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lying, hidden by a curtain, and could see out in the darkness. Porters with baggage carts and people were coming andgoing and there were lights and mysterious noises. It was very exciting.

From our apartment In New York I could look down and seebuses going along the street below. I wondered how thedoor on the bus got onto the other side when the bus cameback down the street. I had a pair of little red shoes with a

strap across the instep that buttoned down. I took one shoeand made it be the bus. When it got to the end of the imaginary street I turnedthe shoe around and the button (that was the door) was magically on the otherside. I also had trouble figuring out that although the windshield wipers in thecar looked as if you could catch them, they were on the other side of the glassand you couldn't.

My mother's youngest sister Aunt Nancy shared the apartment for a while. Mymother was volunteering as a nurse's aide in a uniform with a pinafore with widestraps that buttoned in the back, and a cap. Her feet hurt and when she camehome she soaked them in hot water and Epsom Salts. She liked to read in bed atnight and would cover the bedside light with a silk scarf so as not to wake me.One night it caught on fire! Then I got a lesson on crawling under hypothetical smoke and putting a wet towel overmy head to breathe under.

Kindergarten was at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. We had nap time, but I disrupted it and was exiled to the hallon my nap blanket for misbehaving. I still remember how deeply insulted I was by this. After all... I was only retellingthe entire story of Red Riding Hood to the other kids.

Muddy Abbott, my great grandmother, was in New York for the winter, and I wastaken to visit her. I was sitting beside her in her bed and she asked me what I had beendoing. I told her I was going to kindergarten. She didn't like that at all because it was aGerman word.

I saved every scrap of tinfoil -- the wrappers for candy or gum, for instance -- "for the

war effort." I had quite a big ball of it eventually. I lost another tooth and sent it to Billencased in a huge wad of adhesive tape for safety! I wonder if my tooth made it all the

way to Germany.

Dad's sister, Aunt Gretchen, was living in New York then with Gaffer. She came overone day and found me hiding under a table in the hall. My mother was drunk and out

cold in the bedroom. She took me back to their apartment at 1088 Park Avenue, and I stayed there for a while. Itwas on about the fifth floor and you could look down on one side into a little courtyard in the middle of the building.

There was a bicycle room full of bicyclesand large toys to the right of theentrance, and the halls had a typicalNew York smell of dry oil-painted walls.Gaffer would take me for walks inCentral Park. We visited the zoo. Thepenguins were fun to watch and had a

water slide. Gaffer would call thesquirrels to come to be fed peanuts bytapping his cane on the ground. Mycousin David Thomas, Aunt Gret's son,was there then too, but was too old for me to relate to. His sister Rhoda was away atschool. David teased me a lot. He had a model ferry boat. I thought it was a fairyboat and couldnt understand the difference. I remember watching Gaffer shave. Heused an old fashioned straight razor and a leather strop. The shaving cream had a

little brush to make it foamy, and he used old fashioned tooth powder to brush his teeth. Hed pour a little pile of itinto his hand and dip into it with his wet toothbrush.


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Travel was accomplished by taxicab. Some of them were large, and had jump seats so that you could fit four peoplein the back. These seats folded flat into the floor behind the drivers seat. There were buses and subways, but I dontever remember taking them until I grew up and went back to visit.

Polly took me to see the Disney version of Pinocchio. I loved it, but when the whale came leaping toward us on thescreen I went right under the seat. We also went to see the circus. You could buy a chameleon on a string, or pin, and

it would change color to match whatever you were wearing. Until the poor thing died, of course. We had two tinyturtles called "Peggy" and "Franklin." Tragically, they escaped into the kitchen and were nowhere to be found. Aftera while Polly noticed an odd hump in the linoleum. She pulled it up and there were Peggy and Franklin, perfectlyfine! These little turtles used to be sold at Woolworth's, and other places. Usually they had colorful decals stuck to

their shells. The turtles were found to carry salmonella and are no longer sold. I haven't seen achameleon sold like that since 1945.

My favorite food was fruit cocktail. It came in a can in syrup. I lived for the cherry and would save itfor last.

At about that time I had my tonsils out. I remember going to the doctor and having to pee into aspecial basin like a tray inside the toilet. I was told that I was having my tonsils out and next thing I knew I woke upin a big white bed, in a room by myself. I had the worst sore throat I can remember -- as bad or worse than when Ihad a strep throat in my 20s. I couldn't swallow and there was nobody there to tell, so I just spat under my pillow. Ofcourse they found a big slimy swamp and I was grumped at, but I was only six! Afterward, I was taken to stay atHitherbrook and installed in the blue front room to recuperate. About a week after the operation my mother cameinto my room and found me crying miserably. She asked me why. I had been promised ice cream when I had mytonsils out and I never got any! They had promised! I finally got some vanilla ice cream, but somehow it wasn't asgood as it would have been if they had remembered in the first place.

This may have been the moment it was decided we should move out to Hitherbrook on Long Island and joinGranny, Poppy, Aunt Hopie and Peter to wait out the war.


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Hitherbrook

Polly and I lived with her parents, Granny and Poppy Abbott, at Hitherbrook during the final part of the war. Afterthat we visited every summer. We'd drive down through Connecticut, past fieldsof tobacco growing under white netting and the enormous restaurant calledOvide's. Once we actually stopped there, just to say we had done it. It had rest

room doors marked "pointers" and "setters". Then we would take the LongIsland Ferry to Port Jefferson. My youngest brother Frank was a big fan whenhe was little and excitedly pointed out birds he called "Segals". The ferrywould signal when it pulled out of the harbor with a deep horn blast thatterrified small children. From Port Jefferson the ride to Saint James wasn't long.I always looked along the side of the road to see the restaurant that was in areal boat.

Hitherbrook was the family's country getaway when they lived in New York City. In the summer they went toCobourg in Ontario. After the 1929 stock market crash, Granny and Poppy put the New York house up for rent andretreated to the country. Later, my father helped to sell the New York house.

My mother disliked Hitherbrook. She missed both Cobourg andNew York. There was little of interest in St. James, and going to

the beach every day with little children was boring. In winterthere would have been nothing at all to do.

We would drive through two high, curved white-painted woodenside gates, up a long white pebble driveway. It made a continuouscrunchy noise under the tires. There was grass on the left side,backed by a long row of rhododendrons (pale pink in spring) anda field on the right that was rented to a local farmer. Then youcame to a little cottage on the left. Across from it was a defunctapple orchard and the large vegetable garden.

The sales brochure, made when the house was sold in the 1970s,describes this as a "guest house." It was, in fact, rented out to afamily named Haas after the days when the gardener/chauffeur

and his family lived there. It had been empty for a long time.There were stables behind it. My cousin Peter was about threewhen I first arrived. There was a governess briefly, (I HATED her)who had a car. This was before Poppy built the garage at the main house, so her car was kept inside double doors atthe stable. There were chickens there then, but they were later moved to their own chicken house down past thegarden and the "playhouse" which was actually a tiny, two room cottage with a cellar below it.

There were horse stalls and atack room with a collection ofprize-ribbons from horseshows that my mother andher sisters must haveparticipated in. It was darkinside. There was a perfectly

wonderful device there forsharpening knives. I watchedmy grandfather use it once ortwice. It was a stationary ironbicycle-like object with a stone wheel attached. Yourode the bicycle to make the wheel revolve and heldyour knife against it to grind it sharp. There was asmell of oily earth and many cobwebs.


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A small barn was opposite the stable. The cottage had hydrangea bushes in front of it. If you put iron nails in thesoil, it was supposed to make the flowers blue.

The rhododendrons continued past the cottage and stable, all the way to the garage. On the right, not far from thehouse, was a very tall pine tree, with branches that reached down to the ground like a skirt, creating a little room youcould hide in, full of scratchy fallen branches and pine needles. An attempt to climb resulted in pine pitch on yourskin and clothes that was fragrant, ugly, and difficult to remove.

Finally, you came to a round grassy island outlined at intervals with white-painted rocks. The house was on the right.Across from the house, in the island, was a cedar tree, very tall, with the characteristic reddish, stringy bark. On the

left was a huge oak tree with a swing for me and Peter.The garage, designed by Poppy,was built in about 1947 and had six sides and a pointed roof. It was white shingle likethe house, but a Wedgewood blue line ran around below the edge of the roof,providing a perch and three open, arched entrances for my grandfather's white fantailpigeons. False arched doors in between the openings balanced the look. A ladder insidethe garage led to a trap door so the pigeon loft could be accessed for cleaning.Once, tomy horror, squabs were served at lunch. I couldn't possibly have eaten a babypigeon.They were pathetically tiny.

Between the house and the garage there was a tall, white lattice wall with an arched opening for tradesmen to accessthe kitchen door. It carried a fragrant rose that was pink in bud, but white when open. The house was surroundedby mature box bushes that had their own acrid, musty but pleasing smell.

These bushes often had spider webs on them. They looked like circular handkerchiefs spread out on the surface, andin the center was a depression, as if someone had poked a finger in. Inside was the spider, waiting for prey.

You can see the arched entrance to the kitchencourtyard on the left edge of the picture. Therose bush covered the entire lattice wall. Insidethat archway was an area for a delivery van topark. The kitchen door had a wide step with asmall seated stone lion on either side. They had arather peculiar appearance because the groundsfrom the coffee percolator had been knocked outagainst the tops of their heads and some hadstuck forever.There was a little entry porch witha screen door on either side -- one into thekitchen, one into the laundry -- with a wiredevice attached. The wire had a little rubber balldangling downward. When you let go of thedoor, which had a spring to pull it closed, therubber ball got in between the door and the jambto keep it from slamming, and then swung asideallowing it to close quietly.Starting at the far left, you see the screened porch at the very end of the house. On the ground floor this was used bythe cook and any maids that happened to be around to sit on hot summer afternoons, in large wicker chairs, to restor to pluck chickens or string beans. Outside at the back were some clothes lines. As the years went by, the woods

crept right up to the house and it got quite dark back there.

If you went in through the porch, there was a laundry room on the left with a vast padded table for ironing. Asmaller room on the right contained a washing machine and washtubs. I went in one day and found a bathing suitGranny had put to soak in a basin with water and Clorox. I lifted it out to discover it was nothing but bathing suitsoup.

Then there was a dark little corridor, with a toilet and basin on the right (under the smaller window you see on thesecond floor), and the main icebox on the left. The icebox was really an electric refrigerator with threecompartments. They had lever closures with some sort of spring. Milk was kept in the center compartment directly


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below the ice. Nobody ever defrosted it, so the ice compartment was enormously swollen out with white ice. In spiteof its size it really didn't hold very much. It was on legs, about as big as three double-height bread boxes. The motor,which also ran another small refrigerator in the pantry nearest the dining room, was in the cellar to keep down noise.

Under the two side-by-side windows was the kitchen. It was a large oblong room with a long, center work table.Glass-fronted cupboards on the garden side contained kitchen china. Pots and pans lived below the counter. A smalltable and chairs sat under a window in the middle on the garden side.

The gas stove was at the left end, by the door that led to the refrigerator. On the back of thatdoor was a roller towel. It was a heavy cotton loop hanging from a round roller. As it got dirtyyou just pulled it down to use a clean place.

In an alcove under the stairs (tall arched window) was a big old blackiron wood-burning range. Granny used to keep her mason jars andcanning supplies on the shelves and stove top. In about 1958 the Cookswere living at Hitherbrook while their house was being built and UncleDavid surprised poor Granny by building a wall that enclosed all butthe front lip of that stove. He painted it a bright robin's egg blue. She

showed me this with tears in her eyes. She was too kind to tell him after all his work that shedidn't want her stove entombed like that!

Cooks were interchangeable but we had one very stout one. I used to lie on the kitchen floor and try to look up to seeif I could see her underpants. One of these women slipped on spilled grease and fell down on the wooden landingjust outside the kitchen door. She broke her leg. An ambulance was called but it took two hours to find us. Poorwoman, she sat there all that time, on the floor, in pain, outside the screen door among newspapers that had beenput down to absorb the grease.

During the war there was also an Irish girl who helped the cook, did dishes, and helped with laundry. She and thecook lived in the maids' rooms on the third floor. Peter and I often visited the kitchen and ate some of our meals

there. They had much better comics in their newspaper,including one called the Teenie Weenies I particularlyloved.

I had to eat all alone in my room when itwasn't convenient for me to eat in the kitchen.I was fascinated by boiled onions. If you mashed one with your fork a smaller onion would slide out. Then a smallerone again until you got to the middle. The center part of carrots would also come out. Later I graduated to the realdining room, but usually only for lunch.


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Moving from the kitchen toward the main house you next came to the cellar door on the right, with the back stairscurling around above it. Opposite was a sink for arranging flowers and some deep drawers that held things like tools,wire and miscellaneous accumulations of interesting junk. They were extremely heavy and so full they were veryhard to close. On the garden side (opposite the stairs) was a Dutch door out to a sort of no man's land outside thekitchen where a sand box had been placed for me and Peter, and a jungle gym. I wasnt able to make my way acrossthe overhead monkey bars. Peter could do it. I just fell off !

If you went down the stairs you came to the cellar under the kitchen. This was quite small and low-ceilinged butcontained what must have been one of the very first freezers. It had three big square compartments and one morecompartment for the motor. Access was from the top. The freezer contained many little waxy containers ofvegetables, a soup that Granny made by grinding up pounds and pounds of mixed vegetables and then cookingthem, and "Raspberry Water Ice." The soup was a strange brownish color sort of like army uniforms, but tasted verygood. It was thick, and you probably could live on it. Raspberry water ice was used for dessert sauce or even straightfrom the container as sherbet. It was raspberry syrup from Granny's enormous raspberry patch and it was heaven.

At the entrance of that room there was a cupboard with doors that had chicken-wire panels. Bottled stuff likeGranny's wonderful applesauce (think huge chunks of apple in light syrup, tinged the faintest pink) and pickles("Mary Mahoney Pickle" was green tomatoes, celery and things -- a sort of piccalilli) were kept in there. There was aloud bang from the cellar one day. Then another! And another! Something had gone wrong with the canningprocess. Nobody dared go down for about a week for fear of explosions and flying glass.

The cellar under the main house contained a gigantic coal furnace. It had to be stoked all the time during winter,and produced buckets of clinkers (byproduct of burned coal) that were emptied in the woods behind the garage.Itmust also have heated the water. Poppy had arranged it so that the pipes circulated hot water all around the houseconstantly, so you never had to wait for it. You turned it on and it was hot. Water was pumped from an artesian wellin the woods near the gardener's cottage.

Back upstairs, you came to the pantry next to the dining room. On the side looking out to the garden was a lovelydouble copper sink with a wood surround and an arched faucet. There were glass-fronted china cupboards above allthe way around the room, and drawers and cupboards below the counter. There was a broom closet (liquor livedabove the brooms) on the dining room side, and opposite that was the smaller refrigerator. It contained ice cubes,lemons, and cocktail-hour food.There was also some milk. Poppy sometimes liked a nightcap before he went to bed.He made it with half whiskey and half milk in a water glass.

Aunt Nancy told me that after the war the little icebox in the pantry exploded. This was dangerous because it ran onnatural gas. Uncle Gus was upstairs with a bad back, but had to come down and deal with it, and they called the firedepartment fearing a fire might touch off the gas fumes.

Under the window, there was one of those rolling butler's tables with a collection of African violets.

For special occasions, we would sometimes get a cake. It would be un-boxed in the pantry. Granny had several "littleold ladies" that she got cakes from, or who did sewing for her.This cake came from a pair of elderly sisters whosupported themselves by baking. It had very thin, white sweet and sour lemon icing (on the sour side) and a thinspreading of red jelly in between the layers.

The Dining Room

In the dining room the wooden screen on the right masked the swinging door to the pantry. It had two big shelvesinside that held a toaster, various salts and peppers and a little brass lady with a bell in her skirt. There were alsosome pill bottles and vitamins, however there was one house rule that although you may have had to take it,


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medicine was not ever to bementioned. I once used the word"putrid" at the dinner table and thiswas not tolerated.

Under the table there was a hump-shaped electric bell so you could ring

for the next course. It was hiddenunder the rug, with a wire that ran offtoward the kitchen. The bell wasn'tattached to the floor, so gradually itcrept further and further away fromGranny, until she was practically lyingdown, trying to reach it with her toe.

One day we were all eating corn at thedining room table. The new variety"butter and sugar" had just beenintroduced. We were talking about

how some people eat corn neatly,nipping off a couple of rows of kernels at a time, and some people make a mess of it, getting corn all over the placeand leaving a messy looking cob. Poppy remarked that when I grew up it would be a perfect test for a prospectivehusband. We would see how he addressed an ear of corn. I took that seriously at the time, but now I realize howfunny it was.

By the fireplace was an antique high chair. It was a regular little chair with arounded, woven wicker back, sitting up on a matching wooden platform. The babywas held in by a round wooden bar that went through the arms of the chair andhad a knob on the outside that screwed on to keep it in place. When a baby was inresidence it got to sit in this chair at breakfast or lunch. I didn't have dinner withgrownups until I was seven or eight years old, and then only on special occasions.Behind the chair, the fireplace was faced with blue Delft tiles with pictures on them.

I amused the grownups once when fingerbowls were distributed between the maincourse and dessert. I was very pleased to find a pansy floating in it, took it off, anddrank the water.

Granny had a big collection of Canton and Fitzhugh china. There was matchinground-topped cabinet set into the wall on the right of the study door and morechina on the two sideboards that flanked the double doors to the hall.

She used the china, too. On a winter visit with a school friend I remember being served the most wonderful rich, hotborscht in tall cups with lids. Under the lid I found the hot soup with a spoonful of sour cream on it.

By the French doors, out of view in the pictures, was a barrel chair where Poppy used to read the paper. Onemorning when I was a teenager Granny and I were lingering at the breakfast table. She was eating her usual toastwith marmalade. She made her own marmalade. She had diverticulitis and had been told never to eat anything withsmall indigestible lumps (corn, seeds, orange peel) so she ground up oranges with the meat grinder. It was very good.

She'd put one bite's worth of marmalade on the buttered toast, eat that bite, then prepare another bite, and so on.She was talking about various things, and said something about Poppy. We hadn't realized he was sitting quietly bythe French door in the chair, reading. A voice came suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere: "I didn't realize I would beTalked About!" For a moment Granny was taken aback, worried that he wasnt pleased by this. Then we both beganto laugh. Very amusing

Opposite the French doors that looked out to the lawn and garden were the study doors. The doors to the entry hallwere across from the fireplace. All these double doors were usually kept open.


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The Study

The study at Hitherbrook was oval. Originally the room had been the kitchen, but when Poppy renovated the househe redesigned it, adding curved walls. He liked curves and arches as well as secret doors. The two little sofas on eitherside of the desk had curved backs to fit the curve in the walls.

Two lighted scenes made by a friend who did theatrical scenery were set

into the bookcases above the sofas. The one on the left of the desk was apirate on the deck of his ship under a huge sail that disappeared up intothe frame of the box. I think he had a parrot on his shoulder. The otherwas of Jean Valjean, shivering and crouched, going down a narrow Parisstreet. Each scene had a cord with an oval electric switch. We wereallowed to turn on the lights sometimes, as a treat.

I have the two candelabra that are on the mantel. When I got them I wassurprised to find that the crystals were yellowed plastic. They wereprobably made in Russia (I think my grandmother went to Russia withGrandfather Vauclain) and are copper and brass. The tops come off soyou can also use them as single candlesticks. The portrait in the blackand white picture is of Aunt Nancy as a little girl.

The man on the right is my grandfather's brother Wainwright. Poppyhad died the year before. This was taken the evening before SheilaCook's wedding.

I am talking with my grandmother and you can see the concealed doorto the telephone booth behind us. It had book backs with joke titles("Polly's Folly," "Hopie in Love," "Nancy's Adventure") on it to resemble abookcase. The oval frame contained quartz arrowheads Poppy had foundwhile raking the white pebble driveway.


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Peter and I used to crawl through thekneehole in the desk. There was alittle space behind it where below thewindow that just fit a small child. Itwas a "partner's desk" and haddrawers on both sides. One of thedrawers on the accessible side

contained a big box of crayons for us.In latter years my grandparents spenttheir evenings here with a fire going,watching TV. Perry Mason was a bigfavorite. Granny (who in some wayswas quite innocent) seemed to thinkthe program was real.

There is a china lion in the bookcase.I have a brass one on my dining roommantelpiece that I bought the momentI saw it.

I don't know if it's because I saw things that I liked in this house and remember them, or its because theres a "familytaste." I found the furniture, how it was arranged, the colors, and the pictures at Aunt Nancy's apartment inPhiladelphia to be almost eerily familiar. She ended up with some of the furniture and small objects like the chinalion from Hitherbrook, but it wasn't only that. For instance, she, my mother and I all share a fondness for pieces ofsmall furniture, either made for children or salesman's samples, and I love dollhouse furniture too.


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The Hall

The door bell worked by pulling a brass knob that yanked a wire. It rang all the way back in the kitchen. Thebarometer worked. Hanging below it there was a wooden box to hold gloves, and a stand for umbrellas with a drippan under it.

Someone has removed all the hats from the coat tree for the picture, but it always had a few on it, particularly adisreputable straw one Poppy wore while raking the pebble driveway. Beyond the coat tree is another door into adeep coat closet.Peter and I used to play in there amongthe galoshes. It was a triangular spacewith one side that bulged inward becauseof the oval study. Galoshes were blackrubber, had tall sides with floppy tops andsmelled interesting. They had severalmetal fasteners on the front that clampedshut to close. One side was like a little

ladder and the other was hinged to pullthrough and clamp down so you couldadjust the tightness. They went on overyour shoes. The closers jingled when thegaloshes were empty.

There are three steps down to the marblefloor inside the front door. One day whenPeter was about four, he began to roll thebig glass bottle encased in a raffia basket.


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It sat on the right side of the big chest in the picture. The bottle got away from him and rolled faster and faster, allthe way down the hall. Then, to our dismay, it rolled briskly down the steps and smashed to smithereens on the hardmarble. The bottle was like the familiar Chianti bottle but big enough to have held about 3 ten pound bags ofpotatoes. Or maybe four. Granny was devastated.

Under the stairs was a lavatory with a long, glass-topped, chintz skirted counter and bench, where ladies could sitand repair their makeup. There was a long horizontal mirror and a powder jar there in case you needed to powder

your nose.

I loved the two pottery fan-tailedpigeons on the chest, and havebeen looking for similar ones foryears.The portrait is the threeAbbott sisters, done when theylived in New York. Just past theportrait on the left you can see aline on the wall, and a little greenglass doorknob. The dooropened into a tiny phone booththat just fit between the hall andstudy walls. It was triangular,fitting into the oval study wall.Inside the phone booth was alittle jump seat that folded up outof the way to enable you to passthrough, and an old black phoneon a little shelf beside the SocialRegister Granny used as herphone book.

There was also an extension in the kitchen and one in Grannys bedroom.

Another hidden door at the foot of the stairs opened into the living room, concealed on theliving room side by false book spines. It had been converted to a closet with shallow shelvesbetween the two doors, but when we buried my grandfather the doors were opened for theminister to go through. The funeral was held in the living room. Granny refused to allowPoppys body to be taken to the funeral home, so he was laid out in the kitchen. After theservice Dad and Uncle David, remembering Poppy was also a Yale man, began to sing Yalesongs a little too enthusiastically in the dining room among the guests. Granny was suitablyscandalized and they were quickly hushed up.

Granny had a long, narrow bench at the end of her bed. This had a flattish cushion and around bolster at each end. Peter and I used these as horses one day to ride down the stairs,galumphing across the landing and then riding the cushions down again into the hall.

At about nine in the morning there would be the sound of Grannys backless bedroom slippersas she came down the stairs to breakfast: kaLOP, kaLOP, kaLOP.

The window seat on the landing was a nice touch, but it was very hard, and not a particularlygood place to spend any time. The stairs continued upward from the second floor, ending inthe attic but were strictly utilitarian by the time you got to that final flight. There is a slightcurve at the top left of the first flight of steps, no doubt designed by Poppy, carrying out thecurved theme he was so fond of.

I watched once when the glass lantern in the stairwell was being taken down for cleaning. Itwas a near nervous breakdown for everyone as this involved a tall ladder and a great deal ofdirection giving.


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The clock lost its real insides long ago. It looked authentic, but it ran by electricity. Granny loved soft colors. TheChinese wallpaper with scenes of trees, birds and flowers was on a soft buttery cream background.

On the left of the French doors was a built-in cupboard, above a radiator hidden in the wall. It was quite large andwas filled with odds and ends like old tennis racquets and board games filling the shelves on one side. Peter and Imanaged to climb up into the cupboard and could close the doors and be completely hidden. Peter had discoveredhow to make terrific snoring noises. One day we were in there with the doors pulled shut, having a contest to see

which of us could snore the loudest.

I heard grownups going by outside, stifling laughter.Opposite the cupboard there was a magnificentChinese chair made of carved wood with rosemedallion panels on the seat and back. Thenarrow arched cupboard let into the left wall ofthe alcove held china, and on the bottom shelf,some decorative pottery figures, Chinese "MudMen."

We went to Hitherbrook for Christmas one year just before Poppydied. There was a fire in the hall fireplace that was very welcomingand cozy. That Christmas my grandmother placed three trees inthe alcove side by side. They were white pine, with long needles.She had the tops cut off so that the whole space was filled, and thedecorations were only silver balls, silver rain and tiny white lights. Itwas one of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen. I went downalone at night to see it. The smell the pine and effect of all thatsilver were unforgettable.

A friend of grannys waiting in the chair.


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The Living Room

The living room was the comfortable public gathering place at Hitherbrook. The room was large -- one whole side ofthe house, with plenty of places to sit.The sofa was absolutely huge, easily seating about four people, with chairs oneither side. In early days there was the piano to hide under, and the large standing radio/phonograph.

There were children's books on a low shelf near the door, and the whole inside wall was a bookcase.


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There were four sets of French doors, so that if you wanted, the whole room could be opened. We often used theones that went out to the terrace and garden.

On the right side of the door, hidden behind the painted screen, a panel of buttons controlled all the lights for theroom. When you pushed in the top button to turn a light on, the bottom button popped out, and vice versa.

One afternoon, at a loose end and unsupervised as usual, Peter and I began pulling the rubber

tubes out from the underneath of the player piano in the living room. These had been danglingfor a while, but suddenly we became obsessed and once we started pulling we couldnt stop. Wehad a wonderful time and soon the floor was covered with rubber spaghetti. The tubes were alittle crumbly anyway but this destroyed forever the piano's ability to play by itself. The livingroom was changed not long after that and two sofas at the far end supplanted the piano andradio. There was a huge painted tin Chinese tea chest under the window that looked out to thedriveway. It was big enough for a child to hide in.

Every evening before dinner Granny would come downstairs after changing into her tea gown. This was a dusty rosecolor, floor length affair with long sleeves and a pleated center panel that was sort of black and white speckle. Shewould go into the pantry by the dining room and make up a plate of Ritz crackers with salmon roe caviar and sourcream with a little lemon, or mash some cooked chicken livers through a strainer, add a little fresh onion juice anddried herbs and make up a plateful of crackers.

She'd make a small shaker of martinis the old fashioned way. 1/3d dry vermouth and 2/3ds ginwith lots of lemon peel, a good squeeze of lemon juice, in cracked ice. The grownups would thengather in the living room to listen to the news. This was introduced very dramatically by anannouncer who said, "And now... Here is LOWELL THOMAS with the NEEWs." When Peter

first learned to talk he called him "Lower Thomas." After thecocktail hour, when dinner was announced, the grownups wouldmove into the dining room. One night I came downstairs anddrank up all the martini-flavored ice-melt in the little green votiveglasses the martinis were served in. I still have one.

There was a table near the French doors that opened to the terrace. It usually held somebooks and a flower arrangement. There were lots of interesting drawers in the livingroom furniture. One drawer held a collection of brass bells from India. Deep drawers inchests on either side of the big sofa contained photo albums. Other drawers had thatwonderful miscellany that always seems to gather in drawers. Ashtrays. Keys. You neverknew what you'd find. The table by the fireplace had a collection of jade objects andbrass pieces on another table. Two small sets of drawers on legs faced each other.

Originally they would have been set against a wall, but because the backs were exposed, they had been cleverlycovered with green silk damask panels.

Granny occasionally threw an afternoon bridge party. Furniture would be moved away, and six or eight card tablesand chairs would be set up. I would be allowed to put on one of the maid's uniforms that hung in an attic closet,complete with small white apron and cap and pass little sandwiches or bon bons. One day I was puttingmarshmallows on a plate. (This is an odd choice of a treat to serve at a formal bridge party, but it may have hadsomething to do with wartime sugar scarcity -- I don't know.) I was intrigued by the consistency and was squeezingthem with my fingers as I took them out of the bag, when a needle emerged from one of them. There was talk ofenemy sabotage, however no more needles were discovered and the furor died down.

Once a year a little car would come up the drive. A short, middle aged, bald man would come in with cases ofembroidered or lace-edged place mats, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, pillow cases and knitted baby clothes. He'd spreadthem all out in the living room and some would be chosen and paid for. He was always referred to as "The BlindMan" because the profits from his sales went to support blind people. We were told not to call him the Blind Manwhile he was there. I did wonder how a blind man could drive. Part of my confusion stemmed from the fact that hehad extremely thick eyeglasses.

One afternoon I was lying on my stomach on the living room rug, just thinking. A tiny brown mouse went scootingacross the room, never noticing me, and went away, somewhere near the fireplace.


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Upstairs

The blue bedroom was directly tothe left when you got to the top ofthe stairs. I considered it mine.This is where I found myself after

my tonsillectomy and where Iusually stayed on visits. It had lowtwin beds then, and pictures onthe wall above them. One ofthese terrified me so much I wascareful not to look at it. I think itwas a Biblical scene with a cloudthat seemed to resemble a bigface. That cloud was SCARY!The door had a key and one dayI turned it. The whole householdwent into emergency mode.Poppy climbed up a ladder andcame in the window after a good

deal of shouting through thedoor had no result. There was acedar tree outside the windowthen. One summer I could see abirds nest with blue eggs inside.

This room had one of the several Olson rugs Granny had made for the house.Another was a very long runner in the corridor that led to the wing. These rugswere made out of clothing and rugs that you collected and sent away to theOlson factory in Chicago. They turned the scraps into a rug with a pattern ofstriped squares, and shipped it back. They were a pink and gray color, mostly. Ithink these rugs were quite ugly, but they weren't expensive and lasted very well.The company still exists. Otherwise, the room was pleasant. It had bluewallpaper except for the wall behind the beds. That wall must have becomestained somehow, and unable to replace the paper, they tried to match the bluewith paint. The closet near the window was a fine place to hide out and play. Theone next to the fireplace had shallow shelves for quilts, bedspreads and that sortof thing.

There were two side-by-side windows on the right (out of view) with a tall benchunder them. It hid a long radiator, and was high, perfect for suitcases. The benchhad a rather hard upholstered cushion in dark red to match the pelmet over thewindows. There was a child's wing chair, upholstered in pink chintz on the rightnear the dressing table, and behind it, a bookcase with the entire set of "The FiveLittle Peppers and How They Grew" in it.

Between the beds and bathroom was a big bureau with a thick sheet ofglass on top. I was just tall enough to put my face up to it. Inside, if youlooked at the edge of the glass, was a many-layered green world thatstretched up, down and away. Fascinating!

When I visited as a teenager I would raid the freezer in the room belowthe kitchen for a tub of raspberry water ice, and eat it, sitting up in thefour-poster bed that supplanted the twin beds of my extreme youth,reading New Yorkers in total bliss.

The chaise longue was a soft blue color with pinstripes.


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The bathroom was opposite the door to the room, by the beds. The tub was longenough to lie down in completely, even after I grew up. There was shaving tacklein the medicine cabinet. When there was no guest, Poppy would use thatbathroom instead of the connecting one between his and Granny's room so as notto make noise and disturb her. On the floor was a felted wool Numdah rug withflowers and animals on it.

There was large built-in cupboard in the upstairs hall with an assortment of usefulmedicines inside. There were more in a cupboard in Poppy's room, beside thedoor to the bathroom. It had such an interesting smell -- shoe polish and adhesivetape and iodine. Band-Aids were white cloth and had their own funkycharacteristic sort of smoky, medicinal odor. If you got a cut, first iodine wasapplied from a small bottle with a glass wand inside the cap. It delivered theiodine one drop at a time and it stung like mad. Think screams and howls fromsmall children...

There was a painted wardrobe in the hall that held sheets and beach towels, withplenty of lavender in little bags. Across from that was a heavy, dark chest. On topof it were tidy stacks of New Yorker magazines. When I visited the first thing I'ddo was take a pile of these to bed with me. Long before I was old enough tounderstand the stories, I would scour them cover to cover for the cartoons.

Across from my blue bedroom, just past where the stairscontinued upward to the attic, was Poppy's room. It wasdarker in there, with a soft moleskin colored carpet. Across from the door was a large,mahogany wardrobe, and high on top of this was a glass dome containing many tiny,brilliantly colored stuffed birds. He had a four poster bed beside a built in closet. Above thebed on the right side, was a picture of the actor William Gillette,portraying Sherlock Holmes. I think Poppy had known Gillette inNew York. There was a fireplace and to the right of that, almostundetectable, a secret door flush in the wall that led into Granny'sroom.

The door to the bathroom was held open by a black iron bootjack.As a little girl it never occurred to me it might be racy. When

Sheila Cook got married friends of the bridegroom took it,probably to tease the wedding couple. It was returned soon afterward.

The bathroom contained a tub as well as a separate shower bath. This was in the corner, so it was pie-wedge shapedand completely tiled in white. On the glass shelf above the sink was an antique cut-glass water goblet. Granny liked

to use it for her Haleys M-O.

Looking through the bathroom door into Grannys room, her bureau was onthe right. There was a wiry, little leather leprechaun with a wizened faceperched high on top of the mirror. He had on a tiny, green suit. Granny saidthat at night he came to life and capered around the house, and I believed it.Her telephone sat on the right-hand corner of the glass topped bureau. Sittingat an angle across the corner on that side of the room was her dressing tablewith painted perfume bottles, silver brush and comb, and a three-panel mirror.


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The left side of her four poster bed was always full of books, her pine-needle pillow, and anelectric heating pad for her back. At the foot of the bed was the long, narrow bench withcylindrical pillows at each end.

In the opposite corner by the closet was a folding screen. This hid her sewing machine and whatshe called the rats nest, her term for a mess, which was a big pile of mending. The machineran by pressing a long lever with your knee. Granny used it to do things like sides-to-middle

sheets. When the middle got thin and worn out, the sheet was cut in half from top to bottom,and the two sides were sewn together to make a new middle for the sheet. She also used to make

her own slips. They had a characteristic scalloped bottom that she must have done by hand. She also covered many abed with the blankets she made by crocheting together knitted squares of left-over wool. She had an accident onceand sewed her index finger with that machine. The nail remained a little lumpy and impressed me with the idea ofbeing very careful when using a sewing machine.

Between the two windows overlooking the garden therewas a little hanging cabinet above a small chest that hadmany deep little drawers containing sewing supplies.One day she was poking around inside the cabinet tofind something and was delighted to find a long-forgotten piece of chocolate wrapped in paper. Weshared it with pleasure even though it had been therequite a while, had gone white on the outside, and tastedsort of musty.

In the distance, out Grannys windows, you could see atrace of blue that was Long Island Sound. Every fewyears Poppy would have some trees cut down to retainGrannys water view.

View out upstairs windows taken the day of Sheila Cooks wedding

Both Grannys room and the yellow bedroom on the other side of the hall had a whole wall of built-in closets withpaneled doors that folded so that you could open the whole thing. The floor had a slanted platform for shoes, with aridge to keep them from sliding off. Above the closet there were cupboards to the ceiling. I got into Grannys uppercupboard once by standing on a chair. I was just curious to see what was up there. There were boxes of all sorts of

things folded in tissue paper; linens, underwear... And they found out because I never thoughtto put it all away again. Aunt Hopie voted for punishment, but Granny defended me andnothing was said.

Each bedroom had a fireplace. In Grannys, over the mantel, therewere Venetian sconces and a mirror. Across from the fireplace was atall narrow closet with many shallow shelves. They held Grannysshoes, neatly lined up, all with Cuban heels and pointed toes, left overfrom the 1920s. Between the cupboard and fireplace was the otherside of the secret door that went through into Poppys room.

Sometimes an old spool bed crib would be set up in Grannys room for a visiting babygrandchild.

Coming from Grannys room, if you looked to the right, youd see her desk. This was a heavyoblong table with a bronze bust of her father in the middle. It was by the window at the end of the upstairs hall,opposite the stairway. The desk was always deep in papers. Every night after dinner Granny would sit here and writeletters to friends and family until about eleven.


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The bust was large, made of metal. I used to particularly admire the nose, which wasimposing.

Directly across the hall from Grannys room was the yellow guest bedroom with low twinbeds. When Dad came back after the war I was overwhelmed with love for my parentsand wanted to give them something. The only thing I could think of was to give them thelovely smell of baby powder, so I went in while they were at dinner downstairs, and under

each pillow I put a big heap of powder. They were not pleased. At all. I heard cries of rage in the night. I was verysad that they didnt like my surprise.

The mantelpiece in the yellow room had a beeswax candle in the shape of Red Riding Hood at each end. They werepainted like dolls and were about a foot high. Between the windows that looked out to the garden was a dressingtable, painted with designs and flowers. It had a folding mirror that came up from inside. There was a coveredcontainer of pink face powder on the top of this table. One morning Sheila Cook came in while I was just wakingup. She was idly stirring the face powder with one finger, came across something in the depths, pulled it out andexclaimed, OH! A Chocolate BIT!

I was given the yellow room on a visit after I had grown up, and felt there was something amiss, but couldnt figure itout until I realized that a tall, rather heavy bureau that used to be in the corner by the bathroom wasnt there. Later,when I came again, the painted dressing table had vanished. It was Granny, gradually selling things to raise moneyfor her grandchildrens educations.

Between the two guest bedrooms, the upstairs hall had an arched opening to a long, narrow, rather dark corridor. Itled down into rooms above the kitchen and laundry. If you ran down the hall it echoed nicely. CLUMP CLUMPCLUMP, all the way down. There was an extra linen press on the right about halfway along, and pictures on thewalls of the rooms in the house they used to have in New York. There was also a photo of someone in uniform whohad died in WWI. I asked once who it was, but Granny choked up and changed the subject. Since nobody in theimmediate family was killed it remains a mystery.

There were two odd little doors, about the right size for a gnome, at the end of the hall. They opened to reveal theplumbing for the blue and yellow room bathrooms.

At the end of the hall was a little foyer with a fire extinguisher complete with a woven hose behind a small glass door,and an ironing board secreted in the wall. Back stairs went down to the kitchen, and up to the attic, and there weretwo nursery bedrooms, separated by a bath. At the very end was the screened-in sleeping porch. It was large andairy. When Peter and I were little it was a big treat to be allowed to sleep there on very hot summer nights.

Another narrow hall ran alongside the back of these two bedrooms. There was alow bookcase that contained childrens books under a window there, and in themiddle, using the space on the other side of the bathroom, was a big, deep closet.This is where we could go, shut the door, achieve complete darkness, and whiz ourtin sparklers.


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The Eidic

In spite of the heat, Peter and I loved nothing better than to spend hours playing in what hecalled "the Eidic." This meant the attic in general, but particularly the longpeaked part above the wing. We also laid waste to the storage room at thevery top of the stairs in the main house. It had a very wide shelf that ran

around the whole room, waist high for grownups, big enough for us to climbup and sit on. We opened boxes and poked around, and one day we found around, sealed tin box. It wasn't easy to open, but that made it more of aninteresting challenge, and when the top finally came off there was a beauti-ful candy thing inside. It had white candy flowers on it and was hard as arock. We ate it. The grownups were upset, but it was gone by the time they

found out, so there was nothing they could do. It had been the top of Aunt Hopie and Uncle David's wedding cakebeing saved for a future anniversary.

We spent whole afternoons playing above the wing. This was a verylong room with a peaked middle and very low sides. At the far endwas a big chimney, behind which was a small space where things likean old bedpan had been stored. The only air came from small, lou-vered opening at that end. It was insanely hot up there, but there

were all sorts of objects, trunks and boxes to look through and wecould be pirates or explorers. There were costumes galore. In oneold trunk we found the velvet suits the three Abbott sisters wore inthe big portrait downstairs in the hall. They weredeliciously soft, a wine red with a hint of brown.

Another costume resource was the cedar closetin the main part of the attic. It was packed withclothes, including evening gowns left over fromthe 1920s and 30s, as well as hats and some furs.It smelled strongly of both cedar and camphor.

There was also a shelved closet in the hall be-tween the two bedrooms that flanked the bathroom. It had stores of folded material. I foundsome wonderful amethyst velveteen and asked Granny if I could have it. She agreed. I took it

home, but didnt find anything to use it on. About a year later she asked for it back! Aunt Nancytold me Granny often did that. She said she was a famous Indian giver.

The attic was a useful place for Granny to sort through things that ended upat Hitherbrook when various family members died or moved. She would laythings like a large set of Imari china out on a bed, for instance. Then eithershed sell the things, or pass them on to other family members. The mainattic had four maid's rooms and a bathroom as well as the storage room(once a bedroom too) and the cedar closet. During the war at least two ofthem were used by the cook and her helper.

One of these rooms still had some maid's uniforms, aprons and a cap or two in it. Each smallroom had a bed, painted bureau with a mirror, and perhaps a chair, but little else. The closetshad openings into the eaves of the house, possibly for ventilation. I had a secret, private club-

house inside one with a lamp and books to read.

The flat roof at the top of the back stairs was accessible through a window, and this was whereGranny would put out a big white enamel pan filled with strawberries and sugar, with a large sheet of glass tiltedabove it. The sun heated the contents, the water evaporated and ran off the glass and made Sun Jam. It was verygood.

I have recurring dreams about the house, and particularly about the attic that include costumes hanging as if for sale,and a feeling that somewhere there is a treasure if I can only find it.


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The Beach Club

Every sunny weekday in summer saw us at the beach club. It was about a twenty-minute drive and Peter and I wouldjoyfully chant the landmarks. It must have driven Polly and Aunt Hopie crazy. At the turn onto Moriches Road it

would start. "Red door, red door! Red door, red door" And that would segue into the next one. Granny's friend Mrs.Dixon's driveway was one of the landmarks. "Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Dixon, Mrs.Dixon!" A few times we were allowed to go there (Dixon's Beach), where it was very stony, but you could playamong the rowboats. Hallie Dixon telephoned Granny every day to discuss life, but she was so deaf her maid was theone that called. Granny would tell the maid what she had to tell Mrs. Dixon. Then the maid would shout it, get ananswer and tell Granny, and so on. The only time I ever saw Granny cry was after Mrs. Dixon died.

At the beach club we would park on a sandy bluff and go past tennis courts down a steep, horrible little rutted pathfull of stones, past the small, shingled club house. It had a little window where you could buy Cokes, popsicles andGood Humors. These were vanilla ice cream on a stick, with a thin chocolate coating. You had to eat them fast

before the chocolate detached itself and slid off. The club housewas also a restaurant in the evening and had an enclosedporch-dining room facing the water. We used the main bathhouse to change into our bathing suits. This was a largebuilding on short stilts, so you could creep underneath, peekup through the floorboards at people changing (you would bepunished for this if caught), and look for loose change thatmight have fallen out of pockets. It had many dark littlebooths, each with a seat at the back, and a big open place inthe middle for those who weren't modest. There was a largegalvanized tub and a cold shower outside for washing the saltoff. In a little house next to the bath house there was the"Ladies" dressing room, but that was off limits. It had a littlesort of parlor with chintz curtains and a chintz-skirted dressingtable. A private toilet. I don't remember ever seeing anyone inthere, though.I snuck in to see what it was like.

We always brought our own picnic lunch. Sometimes I was allowed to buy a Coca-Cola (when I got old enough notto be afraid of the lady in the little sales window) and we had crustless chicken or ham sandwiches and lemonade onthe round, outdoor tables. Then we had to wait for an hour before we could swim again. Everyone knew if you wentswimming before that you got a cramp and died.

Granny rarely came to the beach club but she did go in swimming a couple of times. She had a long, droopy bathingsuit, white rubber bathing shoes to protect her feet from the band of stones near the edge of the water, and when sheswam her head was as far above the water as possible so she wouldnt get her hair wet.

I taught myself to swim at the beach club. I became very good at the dog paddle. It was on the Long Island Soundside, so there were no real waves. Peter had a tendency to get cold when swimming and he would shake and his lips


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would turn blue. He would be ordered out until hewas warm enough to go in again. Nobody paid anyattention to me until it was time to go, so I couldpaddle around or make sand castles using the dribblemethod, or possibly dig out a horrid big soft-shellclam. Once I brought one home and watched withmingled admiration and revulsion while Poppy ate it.

There were rocks to climb but they were crustedwith fierce white barnacles. When the rocks were drythe barnacles closed their little sliding doors, andwhen wet they would open up again.

Most of the summer was spent barefoot, and theends of my pigtails were salty.


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More About Hitherbrook

Hitherbrook was a big, square house with a wing that had been added by Poppy. He originally planned the wing tobe curved like an arm reaching out from the house, but suddenly they ran out of money. The box garden at the footof the lawn replaced the original owners tennis court. A separate service driveway would have curved far around tothe kitchen from a second set of curved white gateposts, but was never completed. Later, the Cooks built a house on

the land and were able to use the gateposts and thebeginning of the second driveway. Originally therewas a cottage for a gardener with stables attached, anda clay tennis court between the house and thevegetable garden. I found the tennis court later as ateenager, with saplings growing in it. Hidden in thewoods above the house there was a rustic round or six-sided folly made of bark-covered trees. Peter and Icame across it by chance one day when we wereexploring. If you went out the white iron gate at theend of the formal box bush garden, there was anarrow path that came to a tiny forgotten playhouse. Ithad a child-size stove and drifts of leaves inside.

Hitherbrook was full of possibilities for a child. WhenI was very small and arrived there for a visit, Grannytold me the first thing I would do is run aroundeverywhere to see if I still "reckernised" everything. Iused to go to the vegetable garden with Granny oftenin the mornings. She would pick peas or beans for thetable and there were two long rows of raspberry bushes. The garden had a lush grass path down the middle and agate at the far end. When you went through the gate you came to a little two-room cottage with a stone chimney anda tiny root cellar underneath. We called it the playhouse, but it's possible it had once been lived in. The new, longchicken house was a little farther along. It had a roomy chicken-wire enclosed area for the chickens on the left side,and inside on the left there were six or eight small doors along the wall, about four feet from the floor. Each hen hada cubicle with a nest in it on the other side, and a door opened at the back of the box. You could reach in and get theeggs right out from under the disgruntled chicken. At the far end there was a small room with a big tree stump in themiddle. That is where the chickens met their end, neck to stump, from an ax. I never saw this happen, though. We

did eat chicken fairly often.

The lawn was surrounded by woods and tall pines. When the wind blew in the winter thepines made a low roaring noise that was very atmospheric. In the hot summer we spenttime on the terrace outside the living room or dining room, depending on where the shadecould be found. Sometimes the children sat or played on the grass.

Peter had a little red wagon. He and I would get into the wagon, poise it on the steepestcorner and use it like a toboggan, rattledy bang, all the way down the hill.At the bottom of the hill to the right of the house there was a large area solidly filled withdaffodils in the spring. In the late summer the woods were full of peepers. I don't know if they were frogs or cicadasbut there were so many of them there would be rocking waves of sound, like a round.

Little brown rabbits would come out to play on the edge of the lawn in the twilight. My life's ambition when I was

six and seven was to catch and own one of these. Uncle David helped me construct atrap made of a cardboard box ("CAR-ton" as Granny and Poppy called it) propped upon a forked stick, with a carrot for bait, but although the trap was often sprung, norabbit would be inside the box. I was very disappointed. Gaffer and Aunt Gret took acottage nearby at this time. I was sent over to visit and spend the night. In the morningthere was show of great excitement. They said there was a rabbit outside! I went out,and there was a stuffed toy rabbit, sitting up at the outside edge of the garden, in a bigpatch of poison ivy. It was almost life size. But the thing was hard. It seemed DEAD.Not real. I was crushed and began to drizzle tears. They didn't understand my

ungrateful response. They'd gone to considerable trouble to find a lovely toy rabbit for me ... and I was inconsolable.


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The other thing about twilight, besides rabbits, was fireflies. Imagine the heat of day graduallyfading, the light fading too, and the lawn and bushes filled with minuscule, moving greeny/whitelights. I was able to catch a few sometimes and put them in a jar. I would go to sleep with thetiny lights winking away in the jar. Next morning they would be dead, but I would free themanyway, hoping they would fly off and be fireflies again.

Long Island is both hot and humid in the summer. Salt cellars always contained rice to soak upthe extra moisture and keep the salt from turning into a wet clump. When it got really hot,

Granny would hold her wrists under the cold water faucet to try to cool off.

In the center of the box garden inside a round patch of incredibly prickly low-growing evergreens,was a small statue of a little boy. He was holding up one finger as if to tell you to be quiet, and listen.Originally he was seated by a basin of water, and there may have been a fountain. As the pricklybushes grew taller he disappeared, so he was placed higher on a column and the little pool was leftbehind in the undergrowth.

One day Peter and I discovered some odd metal boxes with covers that swung off sideways embeddedin the grass at intervals on the edge of the box garden. Poppy explained that they

were for water. Inside the boxes there was something that turned, probably with a wrench, but thesystem didn't work any more. Then, there were the moles. They would tunnel just under the grasscausing long humps. The grass where it had been raised would die. The garden roller would beemployed to flatten these humps, and sometimes mole traps would be set. They had wicked, longmetal teeth that plunged down into the ground.

We spent a good amount of time outside, and when the governess, who wasEnglish, was with us, every time a plane lumbered over she'd shriek "V forVictory" and raise her hand with the first two fingers in a V.

If you went into the woods behind the garage, and walked for a while along a narrow path, youcame out into the sunlight on a road. To the right was a big Victorian shingled house, and if youcontinued on to the left you came to the Thornton estate.

We called it the Fairy Palace. It did have the air of an enchanted palace from a fairy tale. It hadformal gardens in perfect condition, lawns mowed, flowers growing, but the house was empty. It

seemed as if it were sleeping until the spell wore off and the people returned. Granny had permission from theThorntons to gather lavender for her linencupboards, so Peter and I went there with her orwith the hated governess. You could peer insidethrough the windows and the emptiness of therooms added to the abandoned feeling. Therewas a small, round hidden room with a stone seataround the outside, sunken inside hedges andbeyond that, a sweeping lawn with a rectangulargrass play area and the lavender bed. The housewas torn down during 1955 and 1956 and otherhouses have been built on the land.

There were many amusements besides closetsand interesting spaces under beds. One rainy dayPeter and I were introduced to a large cardboardcarton that had been placed in the upstairs hallnear Granny's desk in the alcove at the far end. Itcontained furniture, tiny plates of artificial foodsand lots and lots of other wonderful doll house items. We spent hours unwrapping piece after piece from the whitetissue paper they were in. Later, poor Granny must have had to re-wrap everything.


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This furniture may have belonged to the big doll house in the cottage that was just past the vegetable garden. It stoodon a platform and must have been four or five feet high. It may have had electric lights. I think there were wires andlittle china knobs.

Peter was about three and a half years younger than I was, and late to talk, but very smart. He had an erector setand was able to build structures with it, while I just looked on with amazed admiration. The set of children's booksin the living room had examples of things you could make as science projects. I made a cardboard box smoke ring

machine from directions there, and then had to get a grownup to smoke into it. When you tapped the paper panel atthe back of the box, out would come perfect smoke rings, one inside the other.

Someone occasionally came to mow the large expanse of lawn thatsurrounded the house, and there was a gardener, Adolph. Adolph andhis wife, Helen, who was cook for a while, were Polish. Adolph knewno English and took out Granny's beautifully established (it takes twoor three years to get going) asparagus bed and planted strawberriesinstead. She seldom got angry, but this time she was furious. He hadone thing to say: OI YOI YOI!! Peter, being too little to realize Adolphcouldn't understand a word he was saying, would tell him things andhe'd get Oi yoi yoi's. Worked perfectly. Helen once asked Adolph tomail a letter, but because he couldn't read English, he confused themailbox with something with a similar shape, probably a metal trashcontainer. They, like Mary Mahoney, lived in Saint James.

Aunt Nancy surprised everyone by arriving for a visit driving a truck.Gasoline was rationed, but you could get it if you had a truck. She told me the real reason for the truck was thatGranny had given her a four-poster bed, and that was the best way to transport it. Later, in the 1950s she arrivedone summer sporting the new fashionable haircut. It was a "poodle cut" -- just a few inches long and curly all over.

Polly told me that Hopie once decided to dye her hair black. This was not done at home in those days, but she triedit. As soon as she went out in the sun her hair became a sort of iridescent purple, like a grackle. Aunt Hopie wasgood-looking and enjoyed being glamorous. As a girl she had two beautiful red setters that she would parade aroundwith. We just had Ian, also a red setter, who we called "Eeny." He was a gentle dog, but once he stole an entire roastoff the long table in the center of the kitchen and departed with it. The veterinarian had to be summoned oncewhen he was in real distress, pawing at his face and whimpering. The vet took a look, stuck his finger into Ian'smouth, and out popped a big chicken bone that had wedged itself from side to side between the upper teeth. He hada good dog life, being able to run free in the woods and come home for love and dinner.

I spent some time wandering around in the woods myself. Long Island ticks carried Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,so Id be stripped to my skin and gone over with care. Grannys friend Mrs. Dixon had one on her back. It got underher skin and she had a bad infection. The other thing that was constantly watched for was poison ivy. Gaffer andGret didnt realize they had walked me through a huge patch of it. I was washed immediately with laundry soap.Polly and Bill both had a terrible time with a bad, persistent poison ivy rash and had to have shots for it.

O'Berry's GARRahge (as Granny and Poppy pronounced it) was one of the stops when Peter and I did errands withPoppy. They had Mobil Gas and could fix the car if something went wrong. We would go to Saint James on Sundayand buy the newspaper at the train station. There was a small grocery store there that stocked one of my favoritethings, chocolate covered raisins. I asked for them once and found out they didnt carry them in the summer. Theraisins got worms! We would go to the lumber mill, and to Smithtown, but rarely, and would always admire the

statue of the bull. Legend says that after rescuing a Native American Chief s kidnapped daughter, Smith was told tthe Chief would grant him title to all of the land he could encircle in one day riding abull.

There was a way to get to Stony Brook through the woods on an extension ofHitherbrook Road that had a big gate. This was a private road and would stay private aslong as the gates were closed once a year. Stony Brook was where Mr. Brush the barbercut our hair. He had a board that fitted across the arms of his barber chair. You wouldbe draped in a huge, striped cotton cape that closed at the back and sometimes he wouldfinish your haircut off by singeing your bangs by running a flame along the cut ends.


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Also in Stony Brook there was the Three Village Inn with an enticing gift shop. There were chairs made from barrelsin the bar. The best thing of all was the wooden eagle on the Post Office in thecenter of the row of shops at the top of a rounded hill. At twelve noon theeagles wooden wings flapped. Once in a while we were given a bag of breadcrusts to feed the swans. Their pond was at the foot of the hill, below thevillage.

Granny knew several old ladies who made money by making clothes forpeople, or baking. One of these lived near Stony Brook in a tiny cottage with abig black wood stove in the kitchen. I only remember two downstairs rooms,the living room that opened directly to the street, and the kitchen. We werethere to collect a box of cookies and I was given one.

Granny had come late to driving a car and she would press down on the gas toget the car going and then as it slackened speed shed give it more gas. I didntsuffer from car sickness, but my friend Katama came for a visit once andturned green on the trip to Long Island from the train. Poppy did most of the

driving when I was there.

* * *

It was very difficult to enter the work force with floods of young guys coming back from the war. Polly's first cousinAnn Worrall was married to Fortune Peter Ryan. The Ryans lived in a duplex apartment looking out on the EastRiver in New York. It was exactly like a house inside with stairs and many rooms... Peter Ryan got Dad a job assalesman for the Royal Typewriter Company in Boston and we moved from Saint James to Lexington,

Massachusetts, and I entered the second grade there.

family stories - beginning

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