FROM "FRIEND" AT THE CATSKILL'S BUNGALOWS TO "FRIEND" ON FACEBOOK
On October 1, 2020, a Facebook notice caught my eye. The family of one group member had owned Sunny Glade bungalow colony in White Lake, New York. Their grandchild posted a picture of the main house, which left me spellbound.
My friend Leah Gevirtz Amler suggested that I join the rapidly growing Facebook group, People Who Went to Catskill Bungalow Colonies, wisely started by Trudy Gewirtzman Malmut. Leah and I know one another from the days we stayed at Mountain View Bungalow Colony in Livingston Manor, which my cousins owned. Our parents were friends at the bungalows before I was born.
For the rest of the year, the upper end of Stratford Avenue in the Bronx was home to Leah and her parents. My cousins, who owned and operated Mountain View, lived at the lower end of the street. The older generation of my cousins, co-owners of the bungalow colony with their daughter, lived right next door to Leah and her family.
Until last October 1, I never saw anyone post about other colonies we stayed at after our cousins sold Mountain View when I was seven. Still, frequently logging on to enjoy Catskill memories brought back wonderful reminiscences of such things as blueberry picking, splashing in the Willowemoc Creek, catching fireflies, and other fun mountain activities from the heyday of the Borscht Belt.
Imagine my excitement when I clicked on the group page and spotted the picture of Sunny Glade. That was one of the colonies we vacationed at after my cousins closed Mountain View. Immediately, I commented by asking what years the family had owned Sunny Glade and which summers she stayed there. She replied that her grandfather built it, and her grandmother Lena and Aunt Belle ran it.
The reason I was so intent on learning the years was the dutifully written identifying remarks my father jotted down on the back of old black and white photographs. One of them reads, “July 1967 Sharon and friend walking to house at night, in Sunny Glade, N.Y. White Lake.”
This note had me wonder if the woman who posted could be my “friend” from so many bygone years? She could have at least been the other girl in the car with us on a day the owner's son drove us to town. She replied about the years in question, “Yes, I’m very sure I was [there].” My reaction was bingo!
Her reply sent me scurrying to retrieve the few other photographs taken by my father at Sunny Glade, in 1967, which I had recently uncovered in his collection. One picture shows my mother sitting on the porch of the bungalow where we perched. In another, my father and my brother Stu are playing cards with an unidentified man, and in the background, two other men are standing nearby. I was eager to know if they were relatives of my “friend."
One of the men appeared to be the middle-aged or beyond, son of the bungalow colony owner. I'm sure he was the one who drove my “friend” and me to town one afternoon when I ended up feeling embarrassed.
Part of the summer mystique at the Catskills included the abundant cornfields and signaling to the cows grazing. On the return ride, I spotted a herd of cows and expected my “friend” to join in with a hearty “mooo.”
My “friend” tauntingly refused to join in the fun with me by shouting out a burst of “mooo” at the cows out in the summer sun. That playful activity had been part of our family ritual as we drove by any cluster of cows during those glorious summers up the mountains. Flustered, the man, who, I believe, was a relative of my “friend,” calmly tried to mediate. Understandably, he did not want to ruin the outing for the daughter of a paying guest.
The most telling photograph from the time my family stayed at Sunny Glade is one that I used in my November 10, 2020, blog post. Unable to quickly find a picture of my mother wearing one of her "uniform" half-aprons to post as an example in My Mother’s Half-Apron, I found the perfect substitution. The operator of Sunny Glade bungalows dressed wearing her apron was the sought-after descriptive photograph.
When I saw the posting of a picture of the main house of Sunny Glade on Facebook, it gave me pause. Lena and Belle, I thought, must be the two women in the photograph my father took, which has an informative description written on the back by him, sans their names. I had already scheduled the picture to post with my November 10 blog, specifically to show the woman donning a half-apron, as it added a visual to the subject of the blog post.
As it turned out, the two women in the picture were nostalgically standing outside the main house at Sunny Glade. I could hardly wait to get the verification from my “friend” that it was her Aunt Belle wearing the apron.
It took quite a while before my “friend” again posted her picture of Sunny Glade on the Catskills Facebook page, on December 29. I quickly responded a second time. This time, I asked her to look at the photo in my November 10 blog post. On December 30, in a letter sent to my website address, she thanked me for the picture and filled in the names of her aunt Belle and grandmother Lena Belovin.
In many ways, social media is tearing family and friends apart. On the contrary, the group, People Who Went to Catskill Bungalow Colonies, has successfully brought together “friends” from past generations. Saving the pictures of those unnamed “friends” from some of the best days of my life, minus one skirmish that I have not mentioned to my “friend” from Sunny Glade, was fortunate. She was probably in the car with us, but not the one taunting me.
My bungalow/Facebook “friend” who stayed at the homestead of her family many complete summers, was unlikely to remember me or our outings that spanned merely weeks over a summer or two. Upon seeing the picture of my mother, however, she asked her name. Then, she shockingly replied to my response that she remembered the name Ida!
Additionally, my “friend” said that her father played cards all the time, and she thought he was the man with the hat, photographed playing at the table with my father and brother. These revelations had me eager to share more photos with her. I just knew that she would appreciate seeing these mementos.
She followed up on the Facebook trail by saying that her brother asked my age. As it turned out, my reply supported my theory that she was my “friend” and maybe is in a picture with me. To her surprise, she is my age, and her brother is a year younger.
When I “mooo” at the sight of cows with our grandchildren, currently a favorite animal sound of our baby granddaughter, even if they are only plastic toy replicas, those magical Catskill bungalow summers flash through my mind. While I wait for more answers from my "friend," I marvel at the connections made through old photographs, stored memories, and social media.
Brother Stu (center) and father Benjamin Mark (right), playing cards at Sunny Glade with unknown man on left 1967 White Lake, N.Y.
Mother (Ida Mark) seated on front porch of bungalow colony at Sunny Glade White Lake, N.Y. 1967
Sharon Mark Cohen (right) with friend at Sunny Glade White Lake, N.Y. 1967
Description of above photo written on back by my father
Nostalgically, I am starting a new round of traditions of "mooing" with the cows as I look forward to spending days up the mountains with our grandchildren. While the familiar scene of large black and white Holsteins and smaller brown Jersey dairy cows are a rarity in the Catskills these days, maybe our grandchildren will be lucky, as their grandmother was as a child, and they will have the opportunity to milk a cow. These are fun memories worth making for a new generation.