FRIENDLY GHOSTS OF THE CATSKILLS PAST
Cousin Irvin (“Irv”) is nine years my senior, and he’s known me all my life. It all started with my grandfather making his way to Ellis Island to greet his niece. Irv’s grandmother, Dora, immigrated in 1913. Her father was my grandfather’s brother.
According to the passenger ship records, when she came to America on the Czar ship on January 21, 1913, Dora left her closest relative in Mozyr, Belarus. She listed him as her father, Mayer Friedman.
While Irv’s grandfather called his wife the Yiddish “Dwoire,” my mother, although she was her first cousin, called her “Aunt” Dora. The reason my mother referred to her cousin as an aunt was out of respect because she was a generation her senior. Dora’s daughter, Fannie, Irv’s mother, was my mother’s contemporary. Each born in 1915, Cousin Fannie was two months younger than my mother.
These were our cousins who owned Mountain View Bungalow Colony in Livingston Manor, New York. That was where my family stayed during the summers of the late 1940s and throughout most summers of the 1950s. Irv’s been selling real estate for the past 24 years in the Catskills, which he’s called home over the summers of his youth and year-round his entire adult life.
On a recent short get-away to my happy place, the Sullivan County Catskills, my husband and I planned an evening with Irv. We met outside the resort.
If you were wondering what the papers on my lap were in the cover picture of this blog post, that’s the family tree for Irv’s branch of the family. I wanted to be sure to get all the updates from him.
Like the American Express card, I never leave home without the family tree pages on a visit to see relatives. Currently, I’m doing my best to fit in the time to update all the family trees I charted in the 1990s. At the same time, I'm continuing my research for family history further back throughout the generations.
As soon as we got together, Irv put a smile on my face by reminiscing about my father’s jokes. He remembered my father as a funny guy.
In recent seeming memory, I was actually about seven when Irv rode his bicycle from the Bronx. He pedaled over the Goethals Bridge to visit my family in Roselle, New Jersey. Irv was the one to bring up the subject of that escapade. He said that it was a harrowing experience, and he almost got killed, so he left the bike for my brother Stu.
My comment that his mother told me she wanted her sons to be friends after she was gone caused Irv to smile sweetly. He said that he speaks with his brother Ron, living in Colorado, three times a week. He told me that he’s been to Ron’s home in Denver several times since their mother’s passing, where they’ve gone through boxes of pictures and memorabilia.
I told Irv that I would love to have a copy of the picture that his mother told me she couldn’t find but knew that she had. That was of his mother together with mine when they were young, and both lived in Roselle.
Irv chuckled as he said his mother left notes with the pictures, marking the family members captured in them. He said she made sure to tell him and leave written testimony that my grandfather met his niece, Irv and Ron’s maternal grandmother, as her ship arrived at Ellis Island. I knew that story quite well.
I also interviewed Cousin Fannie at our house in the 1990s and have the videotapes. She and my mother both lived into their 90s. Over the years, we lovingly spent lots of visits rehashing family tales.
Cousin Fannie was an avid reader, and in her retirement, she loved to travel to the places she only read about before. Her postcards were classic as she used every speck of space to write about her adventures. I can visualize her handwriting on the notes she left for her sons.
When we were about to wrap up our socially distanced, masked outdoor meeting of one hour and 40 minutes of pure fun reminiscing with Irv, I couldn’t help but add, “weren’t those summers the best of memories?” Irv concurred, “oh yes, they were,” adding that he keeps a picture of the bungalow on his cellphone. That’s the same barn-turned-bungalow that we snap a shot of each visit to Livingston Manor. We honestly can’t get enough of the memories.
Asking Irv why the rundown barn my family perched at for summertime fun so many years ago is still standing, he explained that’s because of its metal roof. He said if it weren’t for that, the structure wouldn’t still be there. Homes have been built behind it, while the dilapidated bungalow is easy to spot by the roadside.
After filling in the updates on the family tree, as we were parting, appreciating my passion for our family history, Irv told me that his DNA results remain pending. The fact is, I knew that his brother Ron had his DNA tested, and I was able to confirm the connections with other cousins who have also received their DNA results.
Continuing with my research since the visit to the Catskills and seeing Irv, I am more excited than ever for Irv’s DNA results. Upon returning home, I posted on a Belarus Facebook group questioning details about my grandfather, Harry Friedman, from Mozyr, Belarus. In reply, a woman sent me a private message. One thing led to another, and one evening we spoke at length. Before hanging up, she said she wanted to check if any of my relatives matched her DNA.
The wait was worth it. More to come in my October 12, 2021, blog post. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures we snapped this summer with the countryside showing tidbit tales of the Catskills of summers past.
Liberty, New York August 26, 2021. On our three-day getaway we traveled around the surrounding communities to get a glimpse of the ghosts of the Catskills past.
Kauneonga Lake, New York August 26, 2021 Such happy memories of boating from White Lake side to Kauneonga Lake side.
August 26, 2021 Home of the Tuttle Family for many generations on Tuttle Hill Road, Livingston Manor, New York (Sign reads: Do Not Plow Mailbox Out) - in my youth, I watched Mrs. Tuttle churning butter in her kitchen
Barn-turned-bungalow our cousins owned in the 1940s and 50s where we stayed summers - Debruce Road, Livingston Manor, New York August 26, 2021
August 26, 2021 The Sullivan County Catskills countryside Barn with hay
Wildflowers grace the grounds of the Sullivan County Catskills August 26, 2021
Cows along the side of the road - Liberty, New York countryside August 26, 2021 At one time there were more cows than cars