Favorite Childhood Memory

#2 Question on Trin's List, Favorite Childhood Memory

Aside from the holiday memories, Thanksgiving at Aunt Mina's and Christmas at our house, I guess it would be the summers we spent at the shore.

The day after school let out, we would pack up from E. Biddle St. TV and Cat in tow, and move to Seneca Creek for the summer. Mom and Daddy rented a cottage along with Aunt Mina and Uncle Ernie, and Aunt Lee and Uncle George. Since we were the only family with kids, and Mom didn't work, we lived there until Labor Day while Daddy commuted to work in the city. Everyone else came down on the weekends.

It was a simple 2 bedroom bungalow up on cinder blocks with a living room, a kitchen and dining area and a large screened porch that the men closed in with windows that could be shut in bad weather. When every one was there the sleeping arrangements were different. I slept in a double bed with Mom in the back bedroom. Daddy, David and Uncle Ernie slept out on the porch . Aunt Mina slept on a studio couch in the living room, and Uncle George and Aunt Lee slept in the other bedroom. Why they had their own space I don't know, but their room was off limits always!!

We had no indoor plumbing, but we did have a 2 seater outhouse. Uncle Ernie seemed to be in charge of that, pouring lye down the holes and trying to deodorize it somewhat. Of course the *Honey dippers* came if anything got out of hand.

Mom kept a pot under the double bed for emergencies. Daddy was known to go to the outhouse in the middle of the night but never without his hat which he kept by the door.

One of my daily chores when I got old enough was to fill buckets with water from the Hudson's pump which was a few houses away. I probably spilled half of it on the way back. The Hudson's were locals who lived there year round which seemed odd in those days. All the other properties around us were seasonal.

Since the floors were linoleum, no carpeting, Mom just had to get Daddy off to work, make the beds, sweep or wet mop, dust, plan dinner and she was done for the day.We would walk down to the beach area where I played in the sand and swam, and she would read and lay in the sun. David played baseball over on the the Walter's field with some other boys of various ages. Since this wasn't an ordinary neighborhood, it was hard to find someone your own age to play with. I was only 7 or younger and I had one friend who was 13, and another one who was 4. Mary Ellen Walters was the older one, and she told me the truth about Santa. I didn't like her much after that so I chose to play dolls with the little girl. I would dress our cat Lucky up in baby clothes and try to push him in a carriage. Of course he would be humiliated, and jump out and run away. He looked so odd in a dress on and his tail hanging out the back. He had a great disposition.

Sorry this got posted 2x. This is me at 18 mos on the beach The lady os Mom

We did however, spend many evenings on the Walter's huge 3 sided screened in porch, playing Parcheesi and other board games by the yellow bug lights until we were called home for bed. The summer days were endless and the nights were fun. We washed up in a porcelain basin, but once a week we got to Bathe in the big galvanized tub, hair washed and everything cleaned properly.


Once in a while we would drive up to the city with Daddy so Mom could do laundry, get the mail and check on things. Grandmom and Pop Ruppert lived with us so the house was always occupied.

There were lots of parties at the shore, crab feasts and such. We had a real beer tap and a Coca Cola cooler stocked with all flavors of Suburban Club soda. If we were having crabs, the men would go early in the morning to buy the live crabs, usually from Mrs. Miller who lived just down the road a piece. She had live boxes and dipped the bushel out by hand.





Then there was the ritual of steaming them, another Uncle Ernie chore. We had a huge crab pot made from a sawed off beer keg. This was before pre mixed seasoning so he carefully layered the crabs, salt, black pepper, cayenne, dry mustard and I think celery seed. Then another layer of crabs and so on. Water and vinegar and a Natty Boh or some other beer, maybe Gunthers was in the bottom of the pot which was then covered with canvas and a heavy lid to come to a boil and steam for a precise amount of time. When the crabs were done, they were laid out on the newspaper covered picnic table to cool. We never ate them hot. They were always room temperature which in my mind, gives the fat a chance to congeal and lets the seasoning settle in








I loved crabs.

Crab Feast with Aunt Neil, Aunt Rose, Uncle John, Shirley
Nancy, Uncle Henry etc. Sept. 1947

In the beginning I was only allowed to eat the claws, but I quickly learned to pick the main body as well as the adults.

Daddy's Boat and me (Age 4) waiting for a Claw

The Good Humor Man would always drive by on the weekends, ringing his bell and like Pavlov's dogs all the kids would go running home for money. Not me. Uncle Ernie would say, Ice cream or crabs ? No contest. That became one of his favorite stories ever and he loved telling it to all my boyfriends when I got older.

Cousin Freddie making a rifle out of a Croquet Mallet

I have no idea why but there was this Old Wives tale or what we would call now an Urban Legend that if you ate Crabs and Ice Cream you would die. Since that generation of adults had the depression mentality, I can't help think it had to do with the money. Either that or poor refrigeration.



The company would arrive by car in the early afternoon. Sometimes it was family sometimes friends from the home neighborhood. We had a stone driveway, which would make a crunching sound when the cars pulled in past the house to park. The party would get underway, the crabs being the main event. They would play cards, bingo, some would swim. We had croquet and badminton. I'm sure there was other food but the Crabs were the bomb.

Note the Out house behind Aunt Mina

The Fourth of July was the best because someone always fired off flares and other fireworks over the river and the reflection made them look spectacular.

I loved when we had company because we usually always had a crab feast. Sometimes Daddy would play the guitar and everyone would sing. It was fun and happy.

On the pier with Aunt Lee, David, Aunt Beth, In the hammock with Uncle Ernie

Daddy had built a boat and kept it tied to the pier. Sometimes I would go with him after dinner while it was still light and sit in the boat while he fished. It wasn't much fun because he kept telling me to stop moving around, sit still, you are scaring the fish away but that was OK. I just liked being with him.






Sometimes in the morning, I would take a string and hook and a piece of bread and catch little bluegills and sunnies with dough balls by dropping a line through the cracks in the pier. They were way to small to keep, but it was rewarding none the less.



The people next door to us, the Novaks, rented out their waterfront during the week to companies and others who wanted a place for a picnic outing. Many a morning as I woke up on a lazy summer morning. the bedroom curtains lightly blowing, with the sweet aroma of honeysuckle filling the room, I would hear the crunch of gravel as the cars drove past to the Parking area and just feel happy to be alive and have another day to explore the summer.



Today, that sound still invokes those memories. When Jim and I first into our house, we had a gravel driveway and when we had it asphalted I missed it. Still, the first summer breeze ruffling the curtains while I lay between cool sheets still remind me of how lucky I was to have those sweet innocent fun and relaxing moments in time that live forever in my mind.