Escapade in Vermont, then Connecticut and New York

 

 

We drove from Quebec City to Essex Junction, Vermont. We adored Bernie Sanders' policies like free community college and public college education and raising taxes on the top. Just being in Vermont with Bernie's influence around us felt good even though I oppose Vermont's #1 business, dairy.

We attended an RV club boot camp and an Escapade, a rally for RVers. It cost $700 for 6 days to stay in Essex Junction Fairgrounds with water, electric and one honey wagon dump. I would not return since I did not feel rapport with the RVers. The topics became repetitive and bored me. I did not meet anyone that I could relate to.

Ethan Allen Museum Curator in Vermont.

 Put out the Fire!  

 

This is a kitchen drill. Climbing out of the bedroom window in an RV is a different drill.  

Fire Drills are VIP.

Road to Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vt.  

Lovely Public Water Front with Antique Sailing Vessels

Good Bye, Vermont

 We drove down the west side of Massachusetts to Lake Waramaug, Ct. State Park. We arrived to spend my 60th birthday with my sister, Billie, brother-in-law Bob and my mom. RV battery died so Bob helped Mike replace it at their nearby Costco. Mike and I met my mom's plane at LaGuardia. Mike was wide eyed by the ferocity of the traffic and the complex and worn conditions of the roads. We had a nice birthday party and pushed the limits of their hospitality by staying over two weekends.

NYC tourism has boomed to 59 million tourists per year since 9.11. 2001. Dick Gingrich suggested that Mike go to Olympia, a famous pool hall in Queens and since my mom's flight was delayed, we visited on a Saturday afternoon only to find it closed.

Olympia Pool Hall in Astoria, Queens is closed this August Saturday afternoon.

Tour Guide brings Visitors to Queens, NY for Vinyl Recordings.

We took boat tour around Manhattan.

Billie on the Boatride

Boat Ride Smiles on a Fun Day 

 

World Trade Center Replacement.

Battery Park City has highest per capita income in NY.

South Street Seaport, I guess.

 

Mike's First Time in Manhattan.



My First House on Sherwood Ave. Ossining, NY from 1981-1985

Photographer Brian McDermott still lives across the street on Sherwood Ave. and restores cars for movies.  

 

 

Dr. Ernst L. Wynder once owned this 22 room Tudor on 3 acres in Scarborough, NY.
 

Dr. Ernst L Wynder

I knocked on the door around 10 am with a worried Mike. My nerve to impose on a stranger concerned him but he backed me nonetheless. Teenage daughters answered the door and summoned their mom, a gracious but casual lady. She said that she had an 11 am conference call and showed us around the common rooms of the house. My mom had wandered away and missed the indoor tour. I didn't dare delay this lady to find my mom since there's a lot of acreage around these houses to cover. Mike was astounded by the mahogany in the house. He'd never seen that much finished mahogany in place throughout the grand foyer and living room. Abe Landsman labeled the Tudor "Walter Mitty's house". (Abe was a drunk, a bully and really jealous of Ernst.) Each room lends itself to a different fantasy. The basement has a bar and tables like a German "Rathskellar". Ernst hung travel posters on the walls in a ping pong table room. The attic features a huge fireplace with a copper hood and a mountain goat on the mantle. A taxidermist restored the once yellowing mountain goat.  
The biggest poker pots were won in that attic playroom of this Tudor mansion. Apparently today's owners work from home with a modern infrastructure.

Property taxes were astronomical in my day, 1977-1981. Abe Landsman's property taxes on 4 acres were $30k. per year. I don't know what they are today. Donald Trump's nearby Briarcliff Manor golf course pays shockingly low property taxes. Scarborough students typically attend private schools since Ossining schools are where their servants attend school.  

Abe and Edith Landsman owned this 32 room Federal Style colonial from 1960-1984.

Liz Landsman in Fall 1979

 These 2 mansions face Scarborough Circle off of Revolutionary Road in Scarborough, NY. They are side by side. The original owners were the henchmen/vice presidents of Citibank's founder, Frank Vanderlip. Tudor's owner had been to Klondike, Alaska for gold rush. My in-laws lived in the Colonial while I took care of Dr. Wynder's weekend house and worked full time with lots of overtime for General Motors' North Tarrytown Assembly Plant's material department.
Dr. Wynder published 100's of scientific studies mostly about the harm of inhaling something on fire (cigarettes). Warning label on the cigarette pack was his idea. Medical students today read his nephew's biography, The Persistent College Student. A skin cancer researcher at University of Michigan was in awe of Ernst when I brought him up. The doctor was offended when I disparaged Ernst while being treated for a melanoma insitu. Ernst took on Big Tobacco. He was a celebrity  playboy doctor who dated many beautiful women, including Barbara Walter and Kim Novak. When Abe Landsman had lung cancer Wynder escorted Abe through Sloane Kettering. A nurse swooned.  If Ernst drove up in his Mercedes ragtop for the weekend Ernst wondered aloud about the causes of cancer and how to manage cholesterol. He coined the term "risk factors" and how to measure and control risk factors. Was Nathan Pritikin correct to go plant based? Today we know Pritikin was correct to get the fat out. The animal fat we eat is the fat that destroys. Wynder had few clues that dairy was carcinogenic. Wynder was certain that red meat is harmful. He had a Chinese cook whose conversations he enjoyed. One weekend while he was showing off his house he introduced us to William and Marcy Shatner (after Star Trek and during the era of a slump in his career and their commercials for Promise Margarine).

How did Abe Landsman make his fortune? His father Joseph Landsman immigrated from Transylvania and was a founding board member of the ILGWU (International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union). After serving as an airplane gunner in WWII Abe manufactured maternity pants. It was his idea to install a stretchy cloth in maternity pants (in place of letting out draw strings as stomach grows). In 1978 or so when the ILGWU voted in a pension he fired everyone in union. He sold to Walmart who became his business customer. Lung cancer was followed a few years later by a heart attack. He could not bear climbing the stairs from his Hudson line train in Grand Central so he sold his partner Marvin his share and retired. When Marvin did not pay him back he had to live off of his stocks and the sale of house for $870k.            


 

Tiered Garden of property I took care of from 1977-1981

My mom visited me here during summers long ago.

 

 

Landsman's 5-car Garage, Chauffeur's quarters above and Greenhouse.

 

This refrigerator dates back to 1920's. It's yuuuge.

Maids' rooms off the kitchen are now open space for sitting rooms.



"Now Gertrude will read the minutes of our last Thanksgiving meeting."



Many family dinners held here. I once sat next to a British lord and relation of Edith's sister Friedel and husband Gabor Levy. I was 22 and asked His Lordship, "How had America changed most over the years?".
Virginity, loss of virginity, he answered.  

Many family dinners were held in formal dining room. Once I recognized Abe's alcoholism I hated those dinners. He'd stand at the head of the table drunk, crying and saying over and over, "Look what we begat." to Edith. Edith was a verbally-abused wife living in a "mink-trap". 
Early on I was seated next to a British lord and relation of Edith's sister, Friedel and brother-in-law and chemist Gabor Levy. I asked His Lordship, "In what way had America changed the most over the years?". "Virginity, loss of virginity." he answered. I was 22 and speechless. I was only 16 when I lost my virginity after all. He was knighted by the Queen for his development of North Sea oil drilling. He was not an hereditary lord. His progressive wife was a midwife and felt that nurses should also expand to become midwives.
When Mike and I say our grace before dinner, we pray for the souls of the departed. I write this with nice departed people in mind like Aunt Friedel and Uncle Gabor. Friedel was very stylish with a Zsa Zsa Gabor accent. She evaluated me critically because of my mother's German family's ties to the Nazis. Edith did not tell Friedel that my mother was a school teacher. They seemingly had no idea that my background was not low class until Ben was Bar Mitzvahed 14 years later. Friedel commented that I "knew how to turn a buck" since I used thrift stores to resell baby supplies like carriages, swing, slide, bouncy seat that I got from my grandmother's clients. I took my Nazi background as a challenge. I learned Jewish prayers and Shabbat piety and enjoyed them. After Ben was born I had a Bat Mitzvah. My Bat Mitzvah chant performance impressed everyone except Ben's father who was jealous of attention not paid to him.     

 

Benjamin Landsman's Bris (Conservative Circumcision Ritual with Rabbis) was in this living room in Dec. 1982. 

Ben had his Bris here 8 days after November 28, 1982.

Fine Beech Hedge, rated #2 back in the day.    

Beautiful Statue stood in this sunroom. New owner has not finished this room.  

In the sunroom where they used to keep a suit of Samurai Armor and a tiger skin rug.  

A kind South American maid allowed us in to look around the first floor.

Fun Times in Connecticut!  

 

Sister Billie took me tubing with these fine friends.

Tubing in Peach Lake in Connecticut

Richie Thelen's 1-year old Danny

Richie, Rose and Danny visited us and Billie and Bob Dolan in Brookfield, Ct.

Billie gave me a nice birthday party. I don't have photos. Old friend Meg Kilgore joined us. Billie's dear teacher friends Nancy and Larry came by too. They purchased a retirement home near Charlotte, NC. Billie works hard not just as a teacher of blind and impaired. Her commute alone is difficult. We enjoyed their lake and boating.  

 

Then Richie Thelen surprised us with text for details on supposed party originally planned for my birthday on August 5th. My mom changed the date and did not say why that I know. I had not heard from Richie so I did not expect him to visit. Young folks are more immediate than older folks. I told Bob that inviting Rose, a Lutheran pastor to their fine home on a lake and far away from Hoboken with Mike's nephew Richie and baby Danny was what I wanted for my birthday. I wanted Bob to meet him and mentor him since they have no Eastern family members. Bob consented. I made a vegan dinner on my birthday and we all left promptly in morning of Aug 6.