5.09.2006

After the war my dear wife Mary and I met again and began living on two acres of land on route 9 in Loundonville, NY.
Loudonville is a very historic place where many homes are listed on the state and national register. The Loudonville area was used by American Indians to hunt and later many troops went through the area I believe during the French and Indian and subsequent wars. It was settled around 1800 as part of the Van Rensselaer Manor.

My brother and my mother knew that Mary had a mind living on a farm type piece of property and I thought this was a good idea also. Not that I wanted to become a farmer but I thought I would enjoy living on a farm. My brother, Uncle Francis, heard of this property for sale in Loudonville which was owned by two Irish older women who wanted to sell out and live really farther out in the country. He discussed this with my mother and Mary and with me getting the information also. My mother bought the property for us and Mary and I began sending money to her to begin paying for the home. There was an old barn on the property which was quite unique with gingerbread trimming along the eaves of the roof and up and down siding for the exterior walls.

This barn I believe was considered a carriage house with two large wooden doors probably about 8 feet high in front and two smaller doors in the front of part of the building which extended out from the main building. We all decided this could be made into a home even though it was only 5 feet from the north neighbor's property who aat that time was a countess of some sort. She was a very nice woman.

I had to appear before what I believe was the housing board in the town hall to ask permission to build that close to a neighbor's property. I believe 50 feet was the normal restriction. I deliberately went to the meeting in my marine uniform and presented our idea which was accepted and we were given permission to make the carriage house into a home.

Uncle Francis got busy and ordered up a lot of wall board and other material which we kept in the front house which was a little old farm house and it is still there with Mark now owning and living there. We founda carpenter to do the bulk of the renovation. I believe he was separated from his wife and to live with Mary and I was part of his salary. He was a very good builder. We were ordering a heating system through Montgomery Ward in Menands and they had a heating engineer consult with us.

He actually drew up plans for the house for the kitchen, bathroom, dining room and living room downstairs and two small bedrooms and half a bath upstairs. Our carpenter, Father Francis, Mary, my mother, Helen, and I used the Montgomery Ward heating engineer's plans to renovate the house.

Mary and I lived in Loudonville from 1946 to 1948, when we left to go to Fordham School of Social Work where I had a double major, psychiatric social work and criminology. Mary stayed with my mother and sister at 1377 Union Street. Mary was pregnant with Anne who was born December 7th. I was able to be home then and drove Mary to Brady Maternity Hospital in Albany. On the way she became quite nauseous and sick. We arrived okay and Mary gave birth to Anne.

They stayed in the hospital for ten days which was the unusual time in those days. As soon as I could find an apartment in the New York area, Mary came with Anne. Anne was about 6 weeks old. I took the train into Fordham Graduate School which at that time was in downtown NYC. During my time at Fordham I had a field placement as a probation officer in Yonkers, NY, working out of the probation office and the family court. To get to my placement in Yonkers, I had to take a train, plus a subway, plus two buses. This was two days a week, sometimes three.

I had a part time job in Jamaica at the Children's Home a couple of nights a week where I would supervise, I think about 50 boys or so, in taking a shower and getting them to bed. It was a very tiring and frustrating job. Mary in the meantime had a full time job taking care of Anne who had many ear infections. Mary also helped me in my college work and actually typed up my thesis for my master's degree.

There were two interesting experiences of course in Jamaica, Long Island and while I was attending the two year course at the School of Social Work for a masters of science of social work, MSSW. An interesting incident before Mary arrived to live with me in our apartment in Jamaica shows my ignorance and lack of knowledge at the time. I was looking for a room to rent and my friend who had been in the service and also attended the Fordham University Graduate School told me I could stay in the house where he rented a room and that I could rent one also. I gratefully accepted this and when I appeared at the house the landlady was not expecting me apparently and did not have a room ready. So for that one night I was to sleep with my friend who happened to be gay and I didn't realize it. While we were in bed he put his arm around me and I was so upset that I got up and left the house immediately. I remained friends with him, however, in a sort of guarded way.

It turns out that later when I was living with Mary in the apartment in Jamaica that this same young man saved my life. About a week after Mary was there and had been "couped up" in the apartment we thought she might enjoy taking Anne out in the carriage for a walk around the local area. Mary did so and apparently we left the door unlocked which we never ever did prior to that one time.

While Mary was gone I started to do some small projects in the apartment. We had a radio which was plugged in and had a wire hanging from it which I thought I would ground on the radiator. I picked up the end of the wire and walked towards the radiator. There was a brass lamp in my way, which I picked up and immediately got knocked unconscious by the electricity. I couldn't see or hear and I knew I was fading out and I didn't know what happened. All of a sudden the electrical surge stopped.

I had been knocked to the floor by the electrical charge with the lamp and the wire still in my hand and my friend from school was standing there with a chair that he had knocked the lamp out of my hands which saved my life.

The strangest part of the incident was that my friend had not been invited to the apartment and had never been there before or after but came to the apartment door which had never been unlocked before and he entered. He saw the situation with me and grabbed a chair and knocked the lamp out of my hands.

Our friendship grew of course after this and when eventually we moved back to Loudonville where he did visit us there. Later after graduation my friend obtained a job in the personnel department of a large department store in NYC. I only recited this incident because I think originally I could have been more understanding about the situation and not cut him off from close friendship immediately following the incident when I learned that he was "gay".

Another kind of similar incident took place in the marines. All during the time we trained at the Parker Ranch in Hawaii, I roomed in a tent with three other marine lieutenants and the 1st sargeant of our battalion. The 1st sargeant was a regular career marine and very efficient at his work. Everyone in the tent went to Iwo and returned safely although some were wounded to the big island for further training probably for the invasion of Japan. Then the atomic bomb was dropped and the Pacific War was in effect over and our division shipped out to land in japan after the treaty was signed. We learned on the way to Japan that our 1st sargeant had been arrested aboard ship for homosexual activity with a sailor aboard ship. In Japan he was kept in a guarded single room in a building awaiting trial. In Hawaii the 1st sargeant had asked me for a loan for what he said was dental work. I loaned him some money, several hundred dollars. He did not have a chance to repay any of the money prior to his arrest. I requestd to see him and was asked why by my commanding officer and I told him about the dental loan. I was given permission and went to see the 1st sargeant in custody and he said he would repay me eventually. Subsequent to his discharge back in the states while I was still in Japan he did repay me the money with a note of thanks. He was a good marine but apparently did get involved in activities that he should have avoided.