We moved to the Vailsburg section of Newark
when I was entering 3rd grade.
At that time we lived on Underwood Street which was a dead end,
great for roller-skating in spring and summer, and sleigh riding
in winter.
I remember my first day in Ivy Street school, which was brand
new. I was terrified and even more so when I met my teacher, Miss
Van Liew for the first time. She was very scary to a little 7 year
old girl.
It was a very long walk to school from where I lived. No school
buses in those days.
When I was in 7th grade, they put a 9th grade in the school, so
after 8th grade graduation, we just stayed in the same school for
9th and then went to West Side High School. By this time we had
moved up to Florence Avenue, the name of which was later changed
to Kerrigan Blvd. in memory of a boy, Billy Kerrigan, who was killed
in the war.
I remember my 8th grade class trip was to the 1939 World's Fair
in New York. That was such an exciting day.
Very few Jewish families lived in Vailsburg in those days, but
my father was a tailor who had a shop on Stuyvesant Avenue and so
we had to live close to the store.
My younger sister and I were probably the only kids in our respective
classes who were absent on the High holidays. Today the schools
close.
When I was in high school we moved to Clinton Hill and I had to
switch to Weequahic High. A year or so later we again moved, when
my father's business moved, this time to East Orange. I graduated
from East Orange in 1942, but my friends from the Weequahic section
remained friends right up to the present day.
I've told my three children how beautiful Newark was, but I'm
not sure they believe me.
Oh the stories I could tell!
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