Monologue – by Margaret Theresa Brown Forsberg

We waited all day, sitting out of doors for the First Zeppelin, to fly over head. All the folks gathered at Bertha Horowitz’s yard to watch, finally Mother made the announcement that she had to start cooking for supper, we all went into the house, we were waiting, 1926, for the USS SHENANDOAH Zeppelin, Rigid 1 & USS LOS ANGELS ZR3 to arrive.

Little Eddy, who lived in Dad’s garage apartment was sitting in the screened open window when he yelled, “there is a fish in the sky.” We all ran to look at the arriving, long waited, Zeppelin floating in the clouds overhead, going to Lakehurst, NJ.

Goody Peterson came to School #5 and the teacher told him to remove his sweater, he did, bur he wore no clothing under his sweater. When he walked back into he room form the clothes closet, the teacher screamed, “Goody, put your seater on.” The Goody Peterson family had a bakery on Ridge Avenue, Lakewood, NJ, about a block East of the railroad tracks.

Mike Monnison made and sold dill pickles, the pickle barrels were all lined up on the side porch of his home.

Annie Walter had an ice cream shop, in her home, in metal containers smothered in chopped ice laced with rock salt. There were times when she scooped up the ice cream, placing it in a sugar cone, mistakenly, some of the salt chunks would get mixed up into the cone. There were other times, one could buy a paper container of this frozen dessert which was weighed for correct quantity. May time, Dad would purchase this ice cream, bring it home and eat the entire quart, on his own. Other times, he would place the ice cream in a vegetable serving disk and pour crème soda over it, before he indulged.

In the evening, after a great game of cards, played around the dining room table, Dad would treat to ice cream. Harrison would say, “turn out the lites – I am so tired”, when the lites went off and came on again you would find that some on in that darkened room, had removed your ice cream, unto their plate.

Bernard Snyder lived next to Sininsky at the West End of the Ty Pink. He was a case upon himself. Winnie Wallace complained that he followed her around town exposing himself. Nothing was ever done about this except we were all on alert.

The iron cooking stove exploded, one day, when Rose Bacon threw a can full of kerosene into the lited fire wood. Her chore in life was to raise Mary Dunbeck’s illegitimate child. It was hard for Mary since she did not have an independent way to make money to support the son, her husband allowed his wife to haver hew own group of laying hens. She sold the eggs to financially support her son.

As usual, Dad decided to go ocean fishing, but Harrison had the “around about town auto”, so Harry started to steam, walking up and down the cement side walk in the front of our home. We were all watching form the bed room windows. Harrison drove up, stepped out of the car, tipped his hat and said, “Good Morning Harry”, and walked into the house. Dad was in total shock, he just stood there, straightened his hat, spit tobacco juice and drove off, bewildered.

Talk about the youngest in the Brown family. Helen was doomed to wear all that left over clothing, hooked in lace with a big safety pin. She even had to wear Cousin Esther’s discarded skirts that Aunt Annie would give to us. I am sure, Helen was never bothered with these clothes, not too much, she would go to the Lakewood High School football games, climb over the big chain link fence, with her fired Peggy, come home in a happy mode showing us the foot ball cheers, with her rear swinging.

When a dog was in heat, sexual receptiveness, the owner would put a pair of ladies home made bloomers over the rear end of that animal, extending the dogs legs out of the underwear, to prevent pregnancies.

Talk about the birds, Ms. Robeck who lived down the Avenue, found herself a man friend. They would walk a few steps and kiss each other, peck back and forth, then continue on walking, reoccurring as they went.

The Matthews family that lived in the Horowitz’s house, at one time, threw their green apples from their tree into our yard. Dad gathered up those, no good for nothing apples and threw them, one by one, at the Matthews family while they were sunning themselves on the side porch. Dad was sure that one of us kids would get the colic, if we ate a green apple.

Mother would sit Harrison in a highchair near the chicken pen, so he would be entertained. There he sat with his mouth wide open, upon investigation, some kid had placed a dry hard dog bone in his mouth.

Doctor Thompson was our family doctor, he would come to our house when we needed him. One day, he lanced Harrison neck that had a big lump on it, operation took place on the dining room table.

Raymond Doyle would follow Haddie around town singing, “It an’t goin’ to rain no more – so how in the heck will Haddie wash his neck – when it an’t gon’ to rain no more.”

Since Mother was always on the sik list, somewhere, Dad would go to the PTA meeting, with us children. He never knew just which class we were in, so, he would line us up and we would state the class we were attending.

Maggie and Harry married to have a family, this announcement was appositive thought. We always seemed to have a wee one. Mother use to rock the babies, over her shoulder, in her favorite rocking chair while Dad sat on the other side of the pallor in his favorite rocking chair, smiling. She would sing as she rocked, giving commands and demands, “close the door”, or “don’t make any noise, the baby is asleep”, etc. many time, Dad would sing along with Mother but his turn and song was completely different, such as, “De De Di Do, where is my lunch.”

The Holy rollers, from about the TYPINK would visit, kneel by Mother’s rocker and pray, since my Mother had every illness that the children brought home from school. She even caught the mumps in her breast while nursing one of the children. Lord only knows how that happened, for she didn’t have any breast, she was a flat as a board, had to use some kind of glass shield enabling the baby to find her nipple.

The Holy Rollers invited ma to attend a Revival Meeting but she would not go. Told them that they smothered her and she couldn’t stand thin. If one of us children developed the measles, all the children came down with this illness. We were all upstairs, together, having a good old time, sick. Pete would drive on his tricycle from room to room, always on the go. Dad went to town and bought each on of us a coloring book and crayons.

St Vitius Dance was the next illness that Harrison had. He was confined to his bedroom for one complete year. Mother and Dad read to him, each nite, and helped with the homework. There Haddie was, laying in bed with his arms folded behind his head like the King of the East Side of Lakewood.

No door was ever locked, in our neighborhood, I do not believe that anyone ever had a key. The fish monger arrived each Friday, Mr. Brower, he would walk thru our house shouting “Fish”. One afternoon, Mother was asleep leaning on the wall over the dining room radiator, he walked rite by her and didn’t know that she was there.

The vegetable huckster would arrive, hand ring his bell for us to buy from his truck. He also sold live Kosher chickens, the Jews could tell by the hens rear end if they were in healthy shape.

Talk about fish, the boys would go to the Forge Pond and catch many Jersey herring, in the spring of the year. This was a major disaster, Ma would bake these fish in the over, all day, with a vinegar mix and spiced, we ate them cold. Big pans of these fish and they smelled ‘awful’ for weeks to come, but they were delicious. There was no way we would bring our friends home with us from school, the smell was in our complete house.

C A N D Y would have to be spelled out when we wanted something sweet from our store. We would spell this since Helen was too young to indulge. If the answer was agreeable, we brought the candy bar home and cut it into four pieces so we could have a bit. Then one day, Helen looked up at Mother and asked: “can I have some C A N D Y”, she knew just what we were spelling.

Our second father, Uncle Joel would call us: Theresa (Treesee) – Harrison (Haddie) – Elston (Pete) – Frances (Fanney) – and Hellen (Mrs. Meyers). We all loved our Uncle Joel, he was never blessed with children of his own.

Castoria was the favorite drink for a Friday nite, each one of us had a heaping spoon of liquor. Then, a complete head examination for head lice, with the fine tooth comb. When live were found, Dad would go to our Drug Store and speak to the Druggist for a solution to take care of this problem. He would hand Dad a bottle of something and say, “Harry, if this does not work, I will come over to your house and personally, with a shotgun, take care of those live’. My sister Frances, also acquired these nits, Mother knew that they belonged to me since the lice had a red dot on them, the color of my hair.

Noting was ever thrown out, everything ‘hand me down’, or used in some fashion. The cloth salt bags were used to drain clobbered milk, in the making of potted cheese. The cloth flour bags, from our grocery store, became dish cloths our curtains. The clothes worn from one kid to the next. If the left overs couldn’t be made into a stew it was transformed into a soup.

The dish cloth for washing dishes was an old piece of unusable material. If mother did not like the fat remark, that old dish cloth would come flying thru the room and hit you smack in the face. One time she aimed at Jack Smiths, Pete’s friend, and got it wrapped around his face, Jack just stood there stunned.

We did not know much about the Jewish language by Harrison had it down pat. Rose Siegel chased him down Ridge Avenue with a large butcher knife, screaming that he was sweating in Jewish, at her.

Women only washed their hair two times, each year. In between washing they used beaten egg whites or corn meal, rubbed this thru their hair to clean it.

No one in their right mind ever heard of a cold cut, fried squash was our lunch.

In the meadow, TYPINK, where we played, we climbed up a wild cherry tree and bent a large branch over, swung up and down. Played golf with our Dad and shot the rifle.

Little girls carried an empty shoe box, within was a 3” plastic doll with moving arms and legs, we made doll clothes out of the left over sewing materials. Little boys carried fire works in their shoe box, or a pen knife to play mumbly peg or marbles. The girls often joined the boys in their games. Dad would plat, pick up Jacks or Tiddlywinks, with us, on the front porch. Mother would read to us to tell about the birds making their nests from her colorful embroidery thread. Birth of a calf, was a big occasion, across our meadow in a barn yard.

Many folks did not have inside toilet facilities. Ms. Rose, who lived across the field, sat on an open hole, in her outhouse, the school boys use to tickle her rear with a straw.

Helen Beyer’s father, Abraham Beyer, had a large barn that backed up to our chicken yard. The loft was filled with the sweetest smelling hay. We would lie in this hay loft and dream about tomorrow and sort of hide from the world.

The Gunderson’s were Holy Rollers and were not allowed to play card games, with us. We fixed that, pulled down the window shades and played cards.

Dad cleaned his teeth with his open pen knife – never had a toothbrush. Each morning, in their young life, Grandfather Brown would take Joel and Harry to the water pitcher pump, that was on the road side of their home. Give the boys a cup of cold water and asked if the water tasted good, if so, he considered them well enough to go to school, if not, they went back to bed.

Iodine was used for skin sores, dried mustard for mustard plasters for conjected lungs, tea bags placed over the eyes, wet, for good sight, tincture of violet to wash out a sore mouth – and – Lydia Pinkham to help women become pregnant. “Abraham Beyer took off his stockings and put on his shoes”, Pete followed Mr. Beyer, everywhere singing this song. In fact, Pete thought that all Jewish boy’s names was Abie.

World War I bugle blew a demanding call, over our meadow, for us to get home – it took all the strength that Mother had to blow this horn.

Snow top bread rolls graced the table for many special occasions, even for the gathering on Carr’s Tavern Road after the funeral of Grandmother Brown. We purchased these rolls at Pearce’s Bakery on Est 4^th.

Since we had a large dinner after church, Mother served home made rice pudding or white bread with sugar and milk for Sunday supper. Wednesday afternoons, in the summer, was the time that we had to learn to swim, in the Metedeconk River. Didn’t have much of a bathing suit, the boys had a woolen suits that may have had a moth eaten hole. I would swim in my petticoat or an old dress. My sisters, Frances and Helen may have had a bathing suit. Mother had one of those Chambray swimming dresses with a white weit, as decoration, around the bottom of the dress. When she went into the water, she went nuts, and told us that she was dizzy – to help her out. Dad, who never swam a stroke, in his life, would sit on a sawed off tree stump and yell, “swim”. Pete and Haddie leaned to swim down in back of the Gas House, Laurel Avenue, with the rest of the neighborhood boys.

How peaceful the ocean looked with the fishing boats out there an s how round the world looks. There was a safety pond at the Manasquan Inlet where we went swimming or at Jenkinson’s salt water pool. We would buy candy sticks and watch a person squeeze fresh orange juice, walk on the hot white sand and dig for little crabs that buried themselves, in the water flow.

On Sunday afternoon, we would all ride, with Dad, to the Point Pleasant Beach, the wooden board walk was placed on the sand. Mother met her friends and rocked in the chairs, the fathers stood and smoked cigars, all the children played together in the sand, Sunday clothes and all.

Each year, as years rolled by, the Cookie man and Dad would agree to take the two families and go Deep Sea Fishing, every year, either or both families were expecting a new wee one, so we never took that boat trip.

Odd Fellow Lodge sponsored several boat trips down the Barnegat Bay – we, as a family would go with them. I sat down I the engine room to keep warm.

The Thomas’ arrived with their son Junior, on our Avenue, a sight to behold. Ms. Thomas was a large woman and consumed Lavender to keep up her strength, her husband didn’t stand a chance. Junior Thomas played the classical music on his Victrola, in the summer months when the windows were wide open, ‘til the neighborhood went mad. Peggy Campbell, hearing his music, would place her music record box on her porch and play, “OH DADDY, OH”, – “GIVE ME DIAMOND RINGS AND EVERYTHING”, – to cure this situation, the neighborhood folks loved it.

There was a butter and egg man, bicycling up and down our Avenue, with not an item in his basket.

Olly and Alice, lived across the railroad tracks, they were a scream. One time, I was at Efros’ store shopping, Alice was in the front section, she yelled at Olly who was in the back section, “Olly, I need bloomers”, Olly replied, “No bloomers, today, we need taters.”

Olly had a wooden farm wagon with large spoke wheels but he didn’t own a horse, so, Alice got in between the wooden wagon shafts and pull the wagon, around town, with Olly sitting on the seat behind the whiffletree that guided the strapes. Down Simonson’s alley, across from our house, there were two small houses, attached to each other. Horowitz, at one time lived here before moving across the Avenue. A gal name Hatchet lived in one of these small homes. She had a husband but her boy friend, Hulse, would sit in the trees, behind the house, and whistle like a bird for Hatchet to run out and be with him.

There was a state of confusion on Ridge Avenue, Two Harry Brown’s, Dad and another Harry Brown that was a mortician who rode a bike back and forth to work. He had a sister, Alice – neither one ever married.

I must not forget to tell you about Doffy Patterson Clayton, she gave birth to a very large family, her husband was not capable enough to support, his family. So, Doffy, found Scottie a wealthy lady friend who gave Scottie more than needed to feed his children.

Sweetcake Thomas lived next to the Patterson’s across from our first grocery store. Every time Dad would get in an uproar about a local bank, he would take twenty thousand dollars out and hide this in his leather jacket to place in another bank. For protection Dad would take Sweetcake Thomas with him for a ride. This happened more than one time.

REMEMBERING: Cheddar Cheese & boiled Salt Pork, Sardines & Uneeda Biscuits, fried Squash & Jersey Tomatoes, Baby Chicks & Marked Eggs, Squabs & Chicken’s without heads, Peanut Butter floated in oil & Potted Meat, Olive Spread & Herring Salad, Cashew Butter & Candied Fruit, Little Pickled Onions & Lamb Tongues.

Margaret Theresa Brown Forsberg