Let's see if I can recall where I've lived over the years.
The Growing Years
A Tree Kid Grows in Brooklyn
My parents were living in a Brooklyn, New York, apartment when I was born. As far as I know we stayed in that one until 1935, when I was age 5 and old enough for kindergarten, at which time they wanted to move from the city to the suburbs for my schooling.
My Earliest Recollection
To the Suburbs
They chose to move to Long Island, N.Y. The island -- 118 miles long and 23 miles wide at its maximum -- consists of four counties: Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk. Brooklyn and Queens are boroughs of New Ľork City; Nassau and Queens are genuine suburbs.
Baldwin
They chose the small town of Baldwin, Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, located between Rockville Center and Freeport. We lived on Twain Street, in a rented one-story home not far from the elementary school I would attend and not far from a grocery store. That was important, since my folks didn't own a car at that time.
My Last New York Home
In 1941 my parents bought a two-story home on East Stanton Avenue. (We moved in just eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.) It was further from the elementary school, but by then I was older (11) and could still walk to the elementary school. Also, by then they had bought a car and could drive to a grocery store when necessary. A bakery and drug store were within walking distance. When I went to high school I could catch the school bus on the corner by the drug store.
Lewisburg
Baldwin continued to be my official home, but, when I went off to college at Bucknell University, I spent considerable time in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. To attend classes at BU, during my freshman and sophomore years I roomed in a private home on South 6th Street. During a summer sesssion and for my junior and senior years I lived at my fraternity house on South 7th Street. After graduation, when I went to work, I began living in a variety of places.
The Working Years
On the Move
During my senior year at college I had several job interviews. If I had taken the Boeing offer, I would have moved to Seattle. With Lockheed I would have wound up in California. Instead, I accepted the offer from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (WEC), which I considered an old reliable employer.
Besides its good reputation ("You Can Be Sure if It's Westinghouse"), WEC offered its Graduate Student Program consisting of several educational courses interspersed with trial work assignments at facilities of one's choice. That sounded like a good deal to me, since I wasn't sure just where I wanted to work.
Wilkensburg
Headquarters for the GSP was in Wilkensburg, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. I roomed in a private home there. A trolley stop was within walking distance, and the trolley ran past the GSC on its way to the main WEC plant in East Pittsburgh. (I didn't yet have a car in those days.)
Also Buffalo and Newark and Baldwin Again
After some courses and a work assignment in the East Pittsburgh plant, I chose to take an assignment at the WEC Buffalo Motor Division in upstate New York. I roomed in a private home in the suburb of Williamsville, a rather pleasant small town. Another fellow with a Pittsburgh and Buffalo assignment gave me a ride to Williamsville and gave me a lift to work each day.
From there it was back to Wilkensburg for more instruction (Quality Control) and rooming in another private home.
Then I chose a work assignment at the WEC Meter Division in Newark, New Jersey. (Here's where I'm a little hazy about the sequence of events.) I believe I started commuting to and from my home in Baldwin but before long bought a used Chevy and took a room near Newark so I could drive to work locally. Then it was back to Wilkensburg for instruction (Manufacturing Engineering) and my choice to take a permanent job at the Meter Division.
Newark (For a While)
In 1953 I married a Bucknell girlfriend and we rented a unit in the Ivy Hill apartments on the western outskirts of Newark.
By this time the Korean War had heated up and the draft board was breathing down my neck. What to do? I decided I would get it over with and volunteered for the draft.
Fort Dix
So in January 1955 I received my "Greetings" from the President and I went into the Army. My Basic Training was to last 8 weeks, and for that time my address was Fort Dix, New Jersey. But after that time my assignment still hadn't come through so I hung around another 2 weeks.
Chicago
When my permanent assignment came through I was ordered to Chicago, Illinois. I served the rest of my 2-year commitment there, living in a basement apartment on West 65th Street while serving at the Quartermaster Food and Container Institute on Pershing Boulevard (the equivalent of W. 39th Street).
As my Army assignment drew to a close, I examined employment possibilities and picked the Westinghouse Air Arm Division just outside Baltimore, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. I started work there in January 1957.
Severna Park
After rooming in a private home in Glen Burnie, Md., for a couple of months, while waiting for our house to be finished, my wife and I moved into a split level on Holland Road in the West Severna Park community of Severna Park, Maryland. We lived there together for 16 years, at which point we divorced. I rented in a Glen Burnie apartment complex for a little less than a year.
Baltimore County
In January 1974 I married a woman who also worked at Westinghouse. So as not to interrupt her two daughters' schooling and social life, I moved to her county and her town.
Arbutus
They had lived in an apartment on Fernley Square in Arbutus, and together we moved into a rental house on the same street. We lived there for 3 years before buying a house in the next town.
Catonsville
In March 1977 the four of us moved into a 25-year-old house on Holmes Avenue in Catonsville.
The Retirement Years
Catonsville
I retired in 1988 and we have continued to live in the same house on Holmes Avenue in Catonsville.
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Last Updated 2/12/10