Post-1959

1959 became the beginning of many changes in our lives. We had decided that it was desirable that our children grow up in a Jewish environment. Momma started to look. One afternoon in early 1959 our friend, Irv Abramowitz stopped in the store between appointments. We discussed moving. That evening, his wife, Grace, called Momma. Her parents were empty nesters and lived in a six bedroom, 2 ½ bath house at the corner of Merville Avenue and Ken Oak Road. This is one block north of Rogers Avenue and six blocks east of Park Heights Avenue. Grace told us that they were anxious to move to a small house on Glen Avenue. We made an appointment to see her parents and the house. The house sat on a ¼ acre with a two car garage behind it. There were four porches, three covered, in front and in back, of the first two floors. There was a very large entrance hall with a breakfast room, kitchen, pantry and half bath behind it. To the left was a living room with a fire place (gas) and a dining room behind that. The living room had parquetry wood floors. The walls were plaster covered by linen cloth and painted. There was molding on the walls to make a center frame. Grace’s mother said that she had had a seated dinner for 100 guests in that house. From the entrance hall, stairs led to the second floor. Three bedrooms, a den and a full bath were on the second floor. The den opened up to the covered rear porch. The front bedroom opened up to the uncovered front porch. Momma and I were in the front bedroom, Risa had one bedroom and Phyllis and Amy shared the other bedroom.

The third floor held two bedrooms and a full bath. There were eaves alongside each bedroom. Marc had the small rear bedroom and Larry, Arnold and David had the front bedroom. Marc established a workbench under the eaves where he promptly disassembled anything he could spirit upstairs. When the toaster went missing, it appeared disassembled on Marc’s workbench. There was a full basement with two rooms. I used one for and office and we used the other one for storage. The walls were two feet thick made of stone.

The Zervitzes asked $12,500.00 for the house. Momma and I walked out onto the front porch, looked at each other, nodded and knocked on the door. We moved in May, 1959. Northern Parkway was due to be built alongside the house, but it only took a small triangle from the southwest corner of the property. One night about four o’clock in the morning, we heard a loud crash. Am employee driving to work at Koontz Dairy, located at Northern Parkway and Reisterstown Road failed to make the turn and ended up against the tree in the front yard. Both the tree and the employee survived; the vehicle did not.

One afternoon, Marc came running down the stairs shrieking, “They got pictures of naked ladies hanging up.” Momma and I trudged up to the third floor and saw no such hangings in the front bedroom. Marc reached up and pulled down the window blind. Larry had taped a Playboy centerfold to the inside of the window blind. When it was up, the picture was not visible. I seem to recall that we permitted them to keep it there. The boys bathed in the tub on the third floor. Arnold hated to take a bath so he threw dirt in the water. “Of course I took a bath and washed,” he said. “Can’t you see how dirty the water is?” David did not go to summer camp but spent uncounted hours in the backyard with Glenn Gibson building roads for the many matchbox cars that they had accumulated. There was always a pool in the backyard and the neighborhood children always found their way there. We always had animals. I recall a dog, Lucky, who ran out into Northern Parkway and was struck by a vehicle. He did not live up to his name. I believe that our children feel that Merville Avenue was among the best years of their lives.

Risa transferred to Arlington Elementary School where I had attended some twenty five years before. One of her teachers, Mrs. Wallenstein was my sixth grade teacher. Small world! Larry and Arnold and Marc went to the Talmudical Academy. Phyllis and Amy went to Arlington. I spent nearly an hour commuting to the store, but it was worth it. We lived in a Jewish environment. Ben Leibowitz, my sister Ruth’s husband, taught Momma how to drive and we acquired the “tired monster.” After the children came home, Momma left them with Risa and came to the store. Sometimes she came down to the store after they left for school and came back when they came home. Everyone pitched in and helped. With seven children, there was just too much to do for just one mother and one father.