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Readers' "Moments to Remember"
(by Ed Flynn - June 04, 2008)
The following is another column in which Ed Flynn’s readers share their own “Moment to Remember” with other readers.
Presidential sightings
In 1936 I was in the second grade in Public School #19 in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn . One afternoon we were led out to stand at the sidewalk. Eventually a motorcade arrived with a large open convertible. Seated in it was President Franklin Roosevelt waving to us. He was campaigning for his re-election to his second term.
In 1948 some friends and I visited
Washington D.C. during the Memorial Day holiday. We were walking across the bridge to
Arlington
Cemetery to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were the only pedestrians on the bridge when a larger convertible limousine came by. In it was President Harry Truman who greeted us and then continued on his way. There was no extreme security. How unfortunately things have changed since then.
Martin Solomon
Hackensack
Swimming in the Ramapo
I remember so many things from
Bergen
County of the late ’30s and early ’40s like hiking in the Ramapo mountains as a young person in Oakland and swimming in the
Ramapo
River . In those days it was quite a resort for New Yorkers in the summer. Now Route 287 cuts through the mountains and its not the same.
Eunice Brigham
Lyndhurst
(NOTE: Eunice observed her 90th birthday in May.)
Trying to ford the
Hudson
One of my vivid memories is of the summer of 1948 when I was 14. Steve, a 15-year-old friend, and I were neighbors in
Fort Lee . We had the notion to build a raft to paddle across the Hudson to
New York City .
We took the usual route to Edgewater, climbing down the cliffs behind
Palisade
Amusement Park . We lashed makeshift wooden planks together with ropes and managed to get launched. About 50 yards out the float came apart.
Worst part of the “trip” was the slog back to shore. It happened 60 years ago. It seems like yesterday.
Louis Vagnini
Fort Lee
Recalling a hero
Growing up in Weehauken I particularly remember one event that occurred in
West New York at the American League Hall.
It was after World War II and Harold Russell, the veteran who lost both hands and used hooks as hands, came and was greeted by a tremendous crowd. He was our hero.
One may recall that he appeared in the 1946 movie “The Best Years of Our Lives.” He won an Academy Award as supporting actor. We owe him a debt of gratitude for getting Congress to pass the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. What a wonderful, warm, friendly person he was. He passed away in 2002.
Grace Jacobs
Cliffside Park
Remembering
Pearl Harbor
I was a sophomore at De Witt Clinton H.S. in the Bronx when my dad called me to the sun porch to hear President Roosevelt’s ominous radio address after
Pearl Harbor .
I listened intently as I looked out a window watching a deep red sun slowly setting over Riverdale and the
Palisades … like an enormous Japanese flag with its rays. That gut feeling met my reality four years later aboard the USS C. K. Bronson, flagship of the destroyer squadron that entered
Tokyo
Bay on picket duty prior to the peace treaty. A vital part of my own history.
Durand Harootunian
Ridgewood
Tears for a fallen Marine
I remember a Marine named Donald Sergent, who Ed Flynn has mentioned in his columns, coming to my house in his striking Marine uniform and large boots to date my cousin, Dorothy Wandell.
I also remember my cousin crying when she was informed that Donald was killed by a Japanese sniper on
Saipan . I hope that the sacrifices made by our brave servicemen and women in WWII are never forgotten.
(NOTE: Don Sergent and his brother Cal, who was wounded in the war, lived across from me in
Bergenfield . Ed F.)
Louis Schwarz, MD
Franklin
Lakes
A lamentable Yankees loss
I recall the 1960 World Series between the Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Never before or since has any team put up such awesome numbers and still failed to win the series. The Yankees during the seven games series scored 55 runs, got 91 hits, had a team batting average of .338 and won their three games by the lopsided scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0.
Yet the Yankees sadly lost game seven by a score of 10-9, if you recall, on a bad hop grounder off the bat of Pirates Bill Virdon in the eighth inning that hit Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat.
The Pirates then scored 5 runs because of that unfortunate incident and it was reported that after the game Mickey Mantle actually cried.
Al Noricia
Township of
Washington
Anyone wishing to contribute to a future column can send his or her memory to Ed Flynn at this newspaper. Keep it brief and be sure to include your name and address.
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