 |
Grandpa Dick |
Return to
Whitaker page
|
|
Grandpa Dick |
When he was 84 years old, Dick wrote an autobiography which he wanted shared with his family at his funeral. What a wonderful gift that was to all of us. Through his own words, we learned about Dick and the times he live in. This page includes excerpts from that autobiography.
Birth and Family
I was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 12, 1921. I was the oldest of four children: a sister and two brothers. Soon after my birth, I went to live with my aunt, uncle and grandmother. My grandmother’s name was Adolfina Nyland. She never spoke any English and came to this country from Finland. As a result I became fluent in the Finish language.
Uncle Frank
My Uncle Frank , was a lineman with the N.Y. telephone Co. He died
when I was very young. Two things that stand out in my memory of him were
“running the growler” to the corner bar. The growler was a tin pail and for one
dollar the bar would fill it with beer. The other was his taking me to Ebbets
Field on Saturdays when the Dodgers were in town. We sat in the bleachers for
fifty five cents.
Aunt Selma
My Aunt Selma, was responsible for almost 100% of my upbringing. She was divorced and worked as a designer for the National Blouse Co. Eventually she opened her own design service and called it Gemini Modes due to her interest in astrology. At this point she changed her first name to Stella.
She became seriously involved with a guy named Teddy. They were planning marriage and were setting up an apartment. He was a super guy and I loved the apartment because you could look out the window and see center file of Ebbets Field. It all came to a crashing halt when Teddy dropped dead of a heart attached.
After Teddy died everything began to go downhill for my aunt. The year was
1928. I was seven years old. Gemini Modes folded. She eventually took work as a
seamstress in a garment factory. Along the way she developed cancer in both
breasts and self treated herself with rubbing alcohol for God knows how long.
Remembering my aunt and grandmother
With all my aunt endured through those hardship years I was never made to do
without. Wing tip shoes had to come from Dominick's in Manhattan and, of course,
you had to own a camel hair coat. To be a part of the “in crowd” you had to have
them. Where she got the money from I’ll never know. All I know is I got them.
Let me jump around a bit with the years and give you a couple of instances where
I needed something she couldn’t afford. One was shoulder pads for playing
football. She made them. The other was a suitable ensemble for leading a “big
band” on one of my better engagements. A powder blue jacket with fabric from my
job.
Looking back at my childhood
We moved from apartment to apartment to apartment.
I began my education in the first grade at P.S. 138 which was considered the “model school” in the city of New York.
I loved sports and while growing up through the later years in elementary school there were several games we played. There was stickball which was played using a broom handle as a bat and hitting a rubber ball which the pitcher threw toward the plate on one bounce. A good hitter could often hit the ball the length of two sewers and was therefore dubbed a “tow sewer man” which was akin to being called a slugger or long ball hitter in baseball. In stickball the street was fair territory and the sidewalks foul. Of course a foul ball could be caught on a fly for an out.
Alexander Hamilton High School and Music
I had graduated from P.S. 138 and went on to Alexander Hamilton High School. At this juncture I was taking clarinet lessons at Wurlitzer Music Co. where my aunt had bought me the clarinet. Hamilton High, in addition to its good academic reputation, presented outstanding programs in athletics and music.
In my freshman year, I opted for two periods of music, while at the same time trying out for the baseball and football teams as well as shot-put on the track and field team. I had to drop out of the athletic programs on the second day of tryouts. The problem was the conflict with the music program. Both programs required after school practice or rehearsing. The music came first. Hamilton produced many students who went on to great careers. Basketball sent Dolly King to the pros and Tom Seally to the Globetrotters. Prior to being called Hamilton it was known as Commerce and gave the Yankees Lou Gehrig. Many music students went profession. A fellow student of mine performed in Carnegie Hall on classical piano. I should also mention that the director of music could be found in the evenings as a studio musician in a major network orchestra.
In my second year, I was playing clarinet in the Hamilton High Concert Band and we were invited to play twice at the 1939 Worlds Fair. On one of those times we played behind Kate Smith singing God Bless America. Also in my second year you might say I made it to the football filed as part of the Hamilton High 140 piece marching band.
By my third year, I was playing my clarinet in Hamilton’s Symphonic
Orchestra. By then I was taking lessons on a tenor saxophone my aunt bought for
me again at Wurlitzer’s. From Wurlitzer’s, I auditioned for the foremost
saxophone teacher in New York City and advanced my studies with him.
Senior Year
In the City of New York, there were what was known as the all city high
school concert band and the all city high school symphony orchestra. The best
music students from all the high schools in metropolitan New York were honored
by being selected to be part of one or the other of these musical units. I’m
proud to say I played clarinet in the concert band in my senior year.
By this time a few of us were getting together and forming a band. There were 5
or 6 of us and we rehearsed in the parlor or front room of the apartment where I
lived. They didn’t call them living rooms in those days. We got our first public
engagement playing in the back room of Finnens Brick Bar. We were paid $2 each
and criticized for playing too loud.
There was a movie theatre in downtown Brooklyn called the Fox Theatre
where every Monday night they would feature an amateur hour. I applied to
perform with my 5 piece band and was given a date to appear. We played our
arrangement of a Larry Clinton tune called Study in Green and took first prize.
After High School Gradduation
After I graduated from high school, I took a job in the Wall Street Sector as a runner. I didn’t like it so I moved on to a 2 week temporary position with the DuPont Corp. Both jobs paid $14 a week. From DuPont, I went to work for a textile firm, Parker Wilder (established in 1820) for $16 a week.
I joined the musicians union and was booking weekend engagement or clue dates as they were called.
Also, at this time I met a girl who I dated and eventually married. Here name was Mary, but everyone called her Mae. We were engaged for almost 4 years, mostly because I was helping my aunt and grandmother as much as I could.
Pearl Harbor and my enlistment
Shortly after this employment began the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor. In early 1942, I enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. I was assigned to their supply section and put in charge of a sizable portion of their 3rd Naval District operation. Among the men under me were 2 outstanding black guys. One was Wallace Xavier Conway, graduate of Howard University and nephew of Duke Ellington. The other was Theopulos Williams whose nickname was “Zeke”. He was a talented artist and in addition to an oil he did of me was commissioned to do a massive mural on the wall in the lobby of the 3rd Naval District Headquarters. It depicted battle scenes of Islands in the South Pacific. Who knows it might still be there some good years later.
We were now at war. I enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard hoping to serve on smaller vessels than the big ships of the Navy. At that time the Coast Guard operated under the Treasury Department, but with the outset of the war, was turned over to the Navy. The Navy, however, was frantically rebuilding and enlarging its fleet and ordered the Coast Guard to set up its own supply system without the Navy’s help. As a result I was immediately assigned to a supply section and relocated 3 times, each time to a larger facility but all in the New York / New Jersey area. I applied for sea duty a couple of times but was told I was “frozen” in my assignment. By wars end I had progressed to the rate of First Class Petty Officer and was up for Chief.
Toward the end of the 3 ˝ years I spent in the service, a group of my friends
formed a band. There were 7 members including me on tenor sax. We turned
out to be pretty good. We played for ships dances, charity functions and wedding
receptions of fellow military personnel, etc.
Married
Mae got pregnant toward wars end and entered a nearby naval hospital where she delivered a baby girl. We had decided on the name Maryann. Unfortunately Maryann did not survive but for a few hours after birth.
Back to Civilian Life
Upon being mustered out of the service I returned to my previous employment at
Parker Wilder, now at $25 a week. Shortly thereafter I moved to a position as an
order clerk and my weekly wage was now $65 a week. I spent about the next
40 years working at the same company, albeit through reorganizations, it had
become Homestead Fabrics by the time I left their employment around 1982.
Mae was back at work at J.C. Penney. Mae became pregnant again and gave
birth to our second child, a healthy girl who we named Anne Mary, delivered by Dr. Emery,
Mae's long time family doctor. Richard Jr. followed and we were now 4 of us in the 1
bedroom apartment, 4th floor walk up. We accidentally found this apartment
around the time we got married. This was war time and apartments for some reason
were scarce. We were grateful to get it even at the enormous monthly rent of
$35.
I formed a small band, most of the time 3 to 5 pieces and on a few occasions it
was expanded to as many as 12 to 14 pieces. On such occasions I would hire a
“big band” and front it as its leader. Now a union member I promoted the “Dick
Lewis Orchestra” for about 8 or 10 years.
Both my aunt and grandmothers health’s kept declining. Both died shortly after world war two. I helped them as much as I could in their last painful years.
Later, Mae’s father passed away leaving her mother alone in her apartment.
Our first house: St Albans in Queens Coutny
In 1950, after Mae's father died, we moved to St. Albans in Queens County and took Mae’s mother with us. We paid $12,000 for the house and Mae’s mother helped us with the down payment.
For the first few years, we still drove into Brooklyn to see Dr. Emery, when one of us needed medical attention.. On some other occasions Dr. Emery, who did not drive, would have his chauffer Willie drive about 20 miles out to our house, in order to check out the whole family. As unbelievable as it may sound, it happened.
Jane and Ellen born while at St. Albans.
Our next child, Jane Dorothy, was born prematurely and was only 3 pounds at birth. Dr. Emery moved her from Presbyterian Hospital to Maldmenides, where they specialized in premature delivery care with up to date incubator equipment. Jan was there for over a month. She had to reach 5 pound weight before she could come home. When that time came and Dr. Emery was satisfied he called and told me I could go and get her.
Well, I went to the cashier’s office to attempt some sort of payment plan for God knows what the bill amounted to. The cashier said there was no balance due. When I questioned her she replied “Dr. Emery has given us our instruction”.
Our final child Ellen Elizabeth was born with no complications.
Unfortunately, soon after that Mae’s mother passed on.
Some noteworthy things in the 50’s occurred. The beginning of Rock and
Roll was one, but more importantly, I went on 2 visits to Catholic Retreats.
Mother was brought up in that religion and most of my friends were Catholics,
hence my interest and eventual conversion in later years.
Bellmore, Long Island.
I was doing well in my job. I had moved into a sales position and had an extensive list of customers in the garment industry. So in 1959, we moved to Long Island and bought a 3 year old home in Bellmore for $18,000. The owner had been transferred in his job and had to move elsewhere.
The last couple of years in the Coast Guard we had formed a service band and while in Queens County I was still traveling to Brooklyn in response to calls from organizations who held monthly dances and I was there steady band or clubs where I had been the house band and included in their catering package. Once on Long Island that all ended and any playing was now at a party for my own amusement.
Family Fun on the Chris Craft Cruiser
In 1962, I was made a partner in the company I worked for. Also around
that time I bought a 27 foot Chris Craft Cruiser at the New York boat show.
Weekends, quite often the family was ready when I got home, a little early, on
Fridays and we would take the boat out to Zachs Bay, throw out the anchor and
stay until Sunday evening. We had a dinghy which the kids would row to shore or
just around the bay. In the evenings we would sit and listen to the music coming
from the Jones Beach Theatre. I was a member of the power squadron and through
their training was able to take the boa, with some friends, out the inlet to the
Atlantic Ocean and with the aid of navigational charts find sunken wrecks,
fishing grounds and deep holes where the fish like to hang out.
Mae's Illness
Around 1964, my wife became ill and eventually died from a brain tumor at
the age of 45.
A helpful neighbor becomes my second wife.
About two years after Mae's death, I remarried.
The new family consisted of her 2 children, one had gotten married, and my 2
children, two had also gotten married. Ruthy, as my new wife was called,
survived 3 serious surgeries but not the fourth. It was complicated by pulmonary
problems which caused her to lose this final battle.
Through my association with Ruthy I eventually became a member of the Bellmore
Fire Dept. Because of my age, I was limited to fire police duties. I,
however, became involved in many facets of fire department activities. Some of
these involvements are as follows.
Move to California
Prior to Ruth's passing, I lost 2 of my daughters. Jane and Anne have joined their mother Mae and others in God’s hereafter. I now have just my son, Richard and my daughter, Ellen.
Ellen had chosen to move to California some 30 odd years ago. At this point and after living alone, for about a year after Ruthy’s death, I decided to join Ellen and her daughter Kimberley.
Thanks for listening and God bless! Dick
Remembering Dick
Grandchildren and in-laws and extended family were grateful to enjoy Dick for the short time he lived in California.
Besides his autobiography, Dick left us a history of music which he narrated on cassette tapes complete with examples that he copied from his collection of 78 rpm records. He called the series One Man's Opinion. It is a wealth of wonderful information especially appreciated by two musicians, who are the husbands of his granddaughters. We have digitized this collection.
Dick died peacefully at Ellen's home on August 6, 2006. Family and friends gathered at his funeral to hear his autobiography and celebrate his life. He was a man we all loved and enjoyed.
This website is a family affair and always a work in progress.
We welcome additional input from family and friends.
email: barjwhit@cox.net
Dick's complete autobiography with many more stories about his childhood and military years is available in our online library.
Also available is the digitized format of One Man's Opinion.
For more information, see Whitaker Homepage