Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School

There was this amusement park on the Hudson River that opened every Spring. Every Spring the reporters came to my Catholic school and they picked kids to go get photographed at the park and ride the rides. My Dad was the convent mailman and so I am sure that is why I got picked 2 or 3 times. It was so much fun. I have a newspaper clipping of me leaning over one of the carousel horses. My kindergarten teacher was Sister Rose. I remember her because Mom just loved Sister Rose. Mom would meet me at the school and I would put on my roller skates and she would let me skate home. I just can't think tonight too tired hard day or whatever. We live 50 miles from work. We get up at 5 am and do not get home until 6:30 or 7 pm.

Visit the forum at the Fort Lee Film Commission to learn more about this little town that is almost now part of New York City.

Fort Lee "Our First TV"

Life was very interesting when the first TV came out. Prior to then I used to sit in front of the radio on Saturday mornings and listen to the kid's radio. Sometimes if I did not get caught I would listen at night. I used to listen to the "Fat Man". He used to go down the hall and you would hear him go "clunk clunk" and then he got on the scale and you would hear the scale go "bump". But TV was wonderful. One kid in the neighborhood had a TV. The church bells rang at 6 pm and we would all run to his house to watch "Flash Gordon". Half way through the show it would switch from space to the cowboys on earth, which later proved to be my Dad's undoing.

We finally got a TV. It had about a 5 inch screen and a box on the side. We paid for the TV by putting nickels in the box to make the TV work. One time Mom and I were in NYC visiting my Grandfather Kier and the "Flash Gordon" show switched to the cowboys on earth. Dad thought the TV was broken and called the repair man. Another show was "Howdy Doodie" with Buffalo Bob and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring. This site says it all about "Its Howdy Doodie Time".

TV opened up the world to us. Prior to TV we used to go to the movies on Saturday and we got two movies, cartoons, and the news. Later we got the news at home. Now we get the news as it happens. Vietnam was the first war on TV. It is very different seeing real life killings than seeing it on the news in a movie theater two weeks later. Not always so good.

More Sweet Memories

It is funny as we get older our memories merge together and we remember just moments in time. I remember the corner candy store where they had hand packed ice cream with real vanilla beans. Mom and Dad used to send me for ice cream. We only had a ice box and so the ice cream had to be used right away. I remember the ice man coming with this big block of ice. One day I put all my Dad's change in a charity box and he really got mad. I remember my mom making fresh bread. One time I ate the raw dough and got really really sick. She used to make butter out of margarine in a bag that had a little tab of colored dye. You mixed the two together to make the "lard" yellow I guess. Dad and I used to play hide and seek. I was little enough to hide in the stove but he always found me. He was a mailman and walked a 17 mile route on the highway.

One day Dad was working on something green that turned out to be a kayak. I couldn't figure out what he was doing but he had this stencil and was making white letters. He put my name on the kayak. He used to go down to the swamp in Jersey and hunt birds before going to work. Then we would have "railbirds" and wild rice for supper. One time the tide started to go out and he almost didn't get home in time to go to the post office to work. I grew up eating squirrel, rabbit, ducks and rail birds. One time I was ill and he asked what I wanted for lunch. I said squirrel and so he went out in the back yard and shot one for my lunch.

Oh well it is getting late and I had better sign off.

1943 I Became Me

I was born March 13, 1943 at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in New York City. I know it was snowing the day my Mom (Marion Kier) and my Dad (Arnold Hook) brought me home, because my Mom said so. My parents grew up in the Bronx. I talk like a nu yawker because they taught me that way. One of the first things I learned was the Bronx cheer. My Mom lived in Riverdale and my Dad lived at 242 nd. Street at Kingsbridge Terrace. I must add that I grew up in Fort Lee and Rivervale, New Jersey. Consequently, I must talk like a Jersey girl too. Fortunately or unfortunately, this way of talking has been transferred to my children. When my daughter went to college she called me up and said, "Mom I can't find the hangerr." Her first day in first grade were marked by a note from the teacher saying she had a speech defect. I just couldn't here the defect. Then my brother said, "She just has a New York accent." That was cool.

The things I miss most about East Coast are fire flies, New Jersey crumb buns, and the smell of a summer night. However, to compensate me in the summer I have Alaskan mosquitoes and 24/7 of daylight.

I don't know when my parents moved to Fort Lee, NJ but we lived in a double house on Haffley Lane with newspaper insulation in the walls. It was heated by a coal furnace with a large grate in the middle of the living room. I used to love to play in the coal bin.

I do barely remember the snow fall of 1948. There was so much snow in the street that my Mom took me out and we made a tunnel. We had a huge back yard with a grape arbor. It was a really neat yard for a kid. Although, I don't think Dad liked trimming on the hedges. Well this is the end of my first entry. We will see how it goes. Comments or memories are welcome.