By Doris
Our move to South Orange in 1944 was exciting. Our family now had a new addition, my brother Herbie. When my dad married my stepmother, Joyce Miller, whom he met at the bank, we celebrated at a dinner at a restaurant. My choice from a large menu was grapefruit and spaghetti, still favorites. Their honeymoon was a trip by train to Detroit to visit a cousin! When Joyce married my dad she was 24 years old and now had a ready made family: children who were two, seven and thirteen, plus a live-in mother-law. Not exactly the Brady Bunch, but unusual in our own way. Joyce was from a family of 11 children and went to foster care when she was five when her parents divorced. At 18, she aged out of foster care, moved to NJ, and got a job at the bank while living in a boarding house.
Our “new” family now lived in a nice four bedroom house on a hill in South Orange. One bathroom had a shower of all things! But no bathrooms were on the first floor, so we had one of the first stair masters, climbing the stairs many times a day as nature dictated!
When school started I was placed in third grade, even though I had already had a half year of third grade in Newark, where you could begin school in January. This became a problem because apparently I was bored. Joyce pled my case and after picture IQ tests, I was moved to fourth grade. That change was the foundation of four friendships that have endured for 75 years, through high school, college, weddings, children and grandchildren. One of those friends recounted once that when she met me, she told her mother, “I met the nicest girl today-her name is Doris Ethel Karg.” Evidently she felt it important to use my full name!
I loved school and reading. My dad said I could read before I started school. The first library book I checked out was “Deborah” — no recollection of the story, just the title. The public library was a revelation and I was most anxious to move “upstairs” to the adult library. Reading became as essential to me as breathing. Each week at school we received the “weekly reader,” which was the highlight of the week.
We went home for lunch, ate fast, and raced back to play softball on the huge playground. One of the players who was our pitcher became a cloistered nun. After school we changed clothes and went outside to play. There was nothing to do inside, no TV, no video games, no computers, so it was boring. We played hopscotch, A my name is Alice with a bouncing ball, hide and seek and, of course, softball.
Our backyard bordered a large field, perfect for softball, and a very large house, that originally was bought by Thomas Edison for his daughter when she married. Thomas Edison’s lab was in West Orange. In the summer we cooled off by running through the hose and sitting in a large wading pool. There was no air conditioning, except in movie theatres. Every Friday night my grandmother and I went to the movies, and today I am an expert at old movies in Trivial Pursuit.
And then there was winter. We would take our sleds and go up and down the hill in front of our house, avoiding any cars that might appear. Our town had a pond for ice skating and a warming hut with a fire where you could warm your feet. Night time skating was special under the lights. Ours was a tight knit group of boys and girls who at our 55th high school reunion could recall those days clearly.
Our high school was excellent and most students went on to college, but a common school of thought was that it was necessary for boys but not for girls. Girls would be getting married and wouldn’t need a job, but boys would need to support a family. Economics played a big roll also. In high school I did college prep classes (French, history, math, etc.) although college wasn’t the plan. I loved French and Mr. Fleming, the French teacher. l took French for three years and the highlight was reading Les Miserables. The United Nations was founded then and I thought it would be great to be an interpreter.
High school centered on football games, movies, and slumber parties, where the latest boyfriends would be discussed. We also did a lot of driving back and forth between South Orange and Maplewood; the towns shared Columbia High School. It was true cruising to see who was doing what. The car radio was always playing and those songs are still playing in my head today as I think about high school.
A friend and I got jobs working in a department store at Christmas in Newark. My job was in ladies lingerie, selling nightgowns, robes, slips, and half slips. Few people wear slips today but Vanity Fair was a big brand then. We worked until school ended. I earned money to pay for senior week. I loved working there and could have stayed but didn’t want to work Saturdays!
To top off our senior year was senior week. Most people went to the Jersey shore. Ten of us stayed at a small hotel where we had three meals a day, went to the beach and celebrated graduation to come. Two mothers went as chaperones to see that we behaved; we spent a lot of time avoiding them, they were really good sports. On graduation night, a group of us went to the twilight roof at the Astor Hotel in New York where the Harry James band was playing and Mel Torme was singing. I have the menu still with their autographs and drinks were 25 cents. You could drink in New York at 18. We thought we were really something. We took a bus back to NJ and had breakfast at a classmate’s house to top off the evening. As they say “those were the days,” really great times and memories. And each memory triggers 10 more! More to come.