The Waltons television series was created by Earl Hamner, Jr., also based on his book. It was about a sappy happy family, but was set during the depression and war time and there were serious story lines. I know I cried every episode, either being so happy or being so sad. The Walton family was close, a bond that couldn't be broken even during hard times. I've written how blessed I am to have been born into a wonderful, loving family, I've gone on and on in fact. It's just the truth and I know I'm just one of the lucky ones. My family has gone through some tough times ourselves and may face some hard times in our future, but we have each other, that's always a given in my family.
After first getting to know my family, my sister Debbie's husband Mike said we made The Waltons look dysfunctional. What a compliment! Mike loved our family right away and we loved him right back, we're just those kind of people. Again, I'm just lucky (and blessed).
I was born in Brooklyn but three months after that my family moved out to Deer Park, Long Island. We didn't live there very long, I was only a few months shy of turning five by the time we were back in Brooklyn, but again, one of my beliefs, I think we were meant to be there, we met the Young's.
The Young's were our neighbors. When we first moved to Deer Park I was the youngest of 4 children in my family and Laura was the youngest of 3 children in the Young family, but over the years both families grew to 7 children each, and we all became family. They became my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom, my cousins Tommy, Steven, Laura, Elizabeth, Anthony, Theresa and Susan. And Aunt Ruth is my sister Linda's godmother and to be honest, I was always a little jealous of that!
There was pretty much a match up for everyone in our family to have a buddy in the Young family who was our age or close to it. My three older brothers and my cousins Tommy and Steven were all about the same age and my sister Linda and Elizabeth are only 3 months apart and they were always best friends. Aunt Ruth told me that Linda taught Elizabeth how to climb out of her crib, something I'm sure Aunt Ruth wasn't too happy about having three kids running around and now Elizabeth is popping out of bed whenever she wants. Laura, who is 2 years older than me, might have found me to be a bit of a pest at certain ages, but at other times we too were the best of friends and when Laura thought she was too old and too cool to hang with me, Anthony, though probably 3 or 4 years younger than me, became my buddy. Even the Oniskeys, the Young's cousins, became our family. I remember Barbara and Helen Oniskey coming to our house in Brooklyn to stay with us too. More kids in the house, just what my parents wanted right? Yeah, actually they did. When we had the Youngs or Oniskeys around, or if we were at the Young's house, we left our parents alone, we didn't need anything, we were too occupied having fun.
The Young family really makes the Walton family look dysfunctional. They are an amazing family and having them in my life, I know, has made me a better person.
I don't remember living next door to them, but both our families always visited back and forth from Brooklyn to Long Island and their home is forever etched in my mind. We were always told on our way out to their house not to ask to sleep over, just as they were told when they were heading into Brooklyn to see us. No one was staying and no one was coming back. It never turned out that way. We begged and begged and they always gave in, we got to stay, someone came home with us, our parents could never win on that one.
I remember having dinners in the Young's kitchen. Our parents would set up a card table in the living room and eat in there and leave us in the kitchen. At that time Anthony Young was the baby, both our families still didn't have the two new additions to our family's as yet, so there were nine kids at the table and Anthony in his highchair. Anthony was Superbaby. The boys started that with him, my older brothers and cousins. They told Anthony he could do anything, he was Superbaby! One dinner there was spaghetti everywhere! Superbaby was egged on by the boys and it got out of hand, we all joined in and my parents, aunt and uncle never came in, they just ignored us. With that many kids, unless there was blood they just sat and enjoyed their dinner and figured whatever we did could be fixed (including our behinds!) or cleaned later.
To this day, Tommy, Steven and Laura all tease me about how when the ice cream man would come (close to dinner time of course) and we would all run inside and ask for money for ice cream. We were told no, it's dinner time or there's ice cream in the fridge for later. I would sit on the stoop and cry and the ice cream man felt so bad he would give me free ice cream. I don't remember at all, but they have told me so many times. I really must have drove them crazy sitting there having my ice cream and their tears couldn't do a thing. There's that actress in me, I started young!
My first time to a drive-in movie was with the Young's, my first samore (toasted marshmellow in between graham crackers with a chuck of chocolate...mmmm), my first time to McDonalds, my first time camping out (the shed in the Young's backyard where we lasted an hour or so until the boys, again starting trouble, would scare us out of there). Reading. Laura was into reading before I was. I remember begging her to play while she was reading a book one day and she told me to read. I idolized Laura. If she said read, I was going to read. Laura opened up a wonderful world for me which I'm sure I would have gotten to eventually, as my mom was a big reader too, but Laura started me young and I was hooked. It was one of the Nancy Drew books and after one, I had to read them all.
We sang in the car when we drove with the Young family, always. No radio. Those were the best rides, even ones that took ten minutes. There's a song by John Denver, Grandma's Feather Bed. We loved to sing that one and I remember Aunt Ruth got a kick out that song.
Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom actually got us all hooked on Billy Joel's music. It was during the eight track days and they bought the tape thinking it was just nice piano music, no singing. I don't think they disliked Billy Joel's music, but knew we would probably like it more than they did. And we did!
Laura had dolls, her aunt bought them for her and they were meant to be for show, but oh I loved to play with those dolls. I'm sure I ruined them. They were dressed in outfits from all different countries and I would be lost for hours playing with them, and if not the dolls, Laura's costumes. Laura went to dancing school and was in so many recitals and had tons and tons of costumes. I would try them on and dance and sing all day. I remember Aunt Ruth telling me not to make a mess, to put the dresses back, but a mess I made and Aunt Ruth never yelled, never got angry, just told me the next time, don't make a mess.
Eventually the Young's moved from Long Island to the Catskills upstate and visiting them there was even more fun. They lived in the mountains, by a stream. Lots of land. We had an adventure every day when we were there. Hide and seek would last for hours. Our walks by the stream always ended with us falling in on purpose and even on the hottest summer day the stream was icy cold. There was a big hotel within walking distance, The Pines, and we would go up there and use the pool in the summer, ice skate and sleigh rides in the winter. Riding a bike up there, you really got a work out going up those hills but going down, whoosh, so fast, catching a high and getting energized for the ride back up the hill.
At that time Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom owned a restaurant and we would help out in the kitchen from time to time, washing dishes and doing little things around the kitchen and eating something all the while we were there. On the nights we weren't at the restaurant we'd be hanging out watching old movies on TV and would call whoever was closing the restaurant that night and ask that they bring us a pizza. If we were still up we had hot pizza and if we fell asleep cold pizza the next morning was a great treat. And the cheesecake, they made the best cheesecake. We have a great recipe in our family and I really love it too, but in my memory, the Young's is my favorite. It was totally different than the recipe in my family, I'll have to get their recipe and try it now, it's been years since I've had it. Or better yet, I'll get my sister Linda to do it as she's a much better baker -- or cousin Chrissy too. When I was at the restaurant I was always going into the walk-in fridge to slice off a piece of that cheesecake.
Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom volunteered at a home for mentally disabled adults when they lived up in the Catskills and about once a month they would invite a few of the patients over for a Sunday BBQ with the family. Just good people, so far from rich, but always giving everything they had, things, their time and especially love.
Aunt Ruth's Aunt Teddie was great too, I remember visiting her house in the Bronx and she would make these little cheese hors d'oeuvres, so simple, but we all couldn't wait til they came out of the oven and they would fly off the plate as fast as she was serving them.
Aunt Ruth eventually went back to school, I don't know maybe in her late 40s/early 50s and she got a nursing degree. She's one of those people that was meant to be a nurse. Smart and more, so compassionate. Even after she retired, which she really didn't want to do, she continued to volunteer and would go to the hospital and spread her love. Aunt Ruth is a grandma and great grandma now, those lucky little ones getting all that love from her beautiful heart.
Uncle Tom unfortunately passed away, quite a few years ago, but even his funeral was filled with the Young family love touch. Steven built his father's coffin. My uncle was laid to rest in a cradle of love. When I walked in to the funeral parlor, the back room was filled with kids coloring, the grandchildren were all there and when anyone went to pay their last respects and pray by Uncle Tom, Steven was there and he asked each of us to tell him something about his father that he might not know. I told him his dad called me a little Pocahontas because of my long dark hair hanging down when I was a kid. As sad as that day was, it was a celebration of his life and the love he spread.
The Young's all live in Rhode Island now and their family has grown way bigger than mine and that's pretty big! If you know them, your life is better for it. If you meet them, hang around, you wont believe how good they can make you feel. They just climb right into your heart.
The picture I doctored up above to look like The Waltons is from one of the reunions we've had with the Young family. There's been a few reunions since that picture was taken, but this picture means so much to me because it's basically the originals, the start of this family always connected in heart. It's also the last time some very special family members were with us.
Goodnight Mom.
Goodnight Bo, my Poppy.
Goodnight Michael.
Goodnight Aunt Teddie and goodnight Uncle Tom.
Always in my heart.
2 comments:
Now I'm just sobbing...
A really beautiful tribute.
It's amazing how love grown and never subtracts.
Beautiful memories....thanks for sharing...
How true Kathy! And you're welcome.
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