Before I Met Sandy
Move to Hicksville - Age 5 to 7
 Libby, July 29, 1934
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 1935
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The Violinist A life lesson from an elderly gentleman. Don't ever tell your parents that you want to do something intellectual or artistic unless you really, REALLY mean it. Port Washington was not densely settled. From our house, to the north, east and south, there were houses, traffic, railroad tracks, but, to the west, there was a wooded area down a hill into a valley with a stream running through it. There were a few houses there, but mostly it was just woods and water. And yet, during one of my expeditions, I heard beautiful music. It turned out that a violin teacher lived there and I was very impressed with her music. I told my parents about my discovery, and before I knew what happened, I was taking violin lessons. I was good at it, but never really enjoyed it. When I was 10, after 5 years of practise, Mrs. Meyers, the teacher, wanted to send me to NY to her teacher. That's when I finally stopped. |
 1935 Libby and Lee, who, as usual, is paying very careful attention to instructions. |
 May 26, 1935 Bernice
and I are still growing.
Wow! The first suit. All dressed up with knees showing. Have suit. Will travel. Note the high shoes. Supposed to help prevent weak ankles. |
The Feigenbaums were coming up in the world. We moved
to Park Avenue. Well, almost Park Avenue. Actually, it was Park Place,
just one block off the avenue. Unfortunately, it was not New York City.
In September 1935, we moved from Port Washington
to Hicksville when dad opened a store on Broadway. I had started
kindergarten in Port Washington. In Hicksville, I was enrolled in
first grade at the East Street School. I don't know why I went
into the first grade instead of kindergarten. We lived at 15 Park Place, the only house on our side of the one-block long, dead end street. Next to us was a hole in the ground with a pile of dirt next to it. It was great for playing king of the mountain and cowboys and Indians. It wasn't until much later that I realized that somebody had started digging for a foundation of a house, but abandoned it during the depression. Next to that property was a potato farm. It was an 8 block walk to school, but only 3 blocks if we cut through the potato farm, which we did, regularly. On rainy or very cold days, dad would sometimes drive us to school and would let me steer on the straight stretches. |
 Jan. 1, 1936. We didn't know it at the time, but this is right in the middle of the hottest decade of the 20th century. |
 Summer, 1936 |
 August 1936. Glen Lake. I think we were there in 1935, also. Libby and Lee are too busy to pose for the camera. We spent the summer of 1936 at Glen Lake, along with Ronnie and Cele, who were acting as mother's helpers, and Louis, who was acting as a sophisticated, wordly teenager. I learned to row, and I always took the round-bottom boats which would go faster that the flat-bottoms, which were safer. I don't know why, but I was allowed to go out as far as I wanted, alone. After all, I was a mature 6-year old. (At least, I thought so.) |
 Always the athlete! Check out the form! That's Lee getting instructions from his older brother. And that's probably Nat Reimer's car that Lee's leaning on. |
 November 15, 1936. A formal portrait for my seventh birthday. |
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