Roger Norman

The year was 1941, and except for the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, it was a pretty good year. That was the year that many of the Pearl River Class of 1959 were born. I came into this world on July 9. Of course, I don't remember that particular day except when it rolls around each year and we celebrate another birthday. As of now in 2017, I have celebrated that day 76 times. Where oh where has that time gone.

My parents brought me home to my new address on John Street, just two blocks south of the Pearl River School. This is where I grew up and had many a good time. On our block, we had quite a few kids all about the same age. There was Mary Jane Friedel, Arlene Larsen, Richard Gruel, Richard Paska, Dave Manchetti, Bill Kinley and Christina Naugle to name a few.

One of my first memories was getting married to the little girl across the street. Her name was Mary Jane. I believe I was 4 and she was 3. Our sisters and their girlfriends wanted to have a wedding and poor Mary Jane and I were dragged into the ceremony. My sister June and Mary Jane's sister Jeanne, plus Nancy Buckley and Peggy Quog performed the honors in our back yard. They even had flowers and a photographer (at least one picture). These girls were all about five years older than us and tended to push us little kids around.

Another memory of our back yard was the chicken coop. My family raised chickens and we would go collect eggs for breakfast. I'm sure at some time we used to eat the chickens, but they never allowed me to see how that process worked. (Thanks for small favors). Also, an early memory was the milkman delivering milk to the front porch. We would put out the empty bottles the night before and he would bring full ones the next morning. In the winter, you had to get out on the porch real early; otherwise the milk would freeze and frozen cream would push the cap off and form what looked like a volcano coming out of the bottle. There also was the man on the 3-wheel bike who would ride down the street selling and sharpening knives. You could hear him ringing his bell and if you needed knives sharpened you would take them out to be sharpened. Then, later on, we used to get soda delivered by the soda and beer man. I guess you could say, "Dems Was De Good Old Days."

I remember playing many hours in the back yard. We had a big back yard that was about 200 feet deep. It was big enough for us to play baseball, kickball and football. We would even set up a badminton court some of the time. But when it got too hot we would go to our front porch which always seemed to have a pleasant breeze and shade and play games like monopoly, scrabble and card games. Our first swimming pool (if you could call it that) was an old cement mixing trough. It was about 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and a foot deep. Just enough to lay down in and get wet. Years later, we got a 12 foot above ground pool and then even later we moved up to an 18-foot pool. By the time we got the 12-foot pool, the chickens were all gone so we put the pool where the chicken fenced in area had been located.

Behind our property was an area we called the swamp. It was just a swampy area of trees and underbrush. But we, the neighborhood kids, made trails and forts back there. It was a good hideout area if you were trying to avoid someone. After I graduated from high school, a real estate guy named Fred Spreen bought the land, ran pipe down the middle to drain the swamp, put in a street (aptly named Spreen Drive) and then built houses on each side of the street. That really upset my folks, because for years they just had woods behind us and now houses were being built. But I guess that's what they called progress back then.

One of my earliest recollections of School in Pearl River was Kindergarten. It was show and tell day, so I brought my "wife" Mary Jane to school to show her off. She was 4 and didn't realize what was going on. Other than that, the rest of my school years are a blur. (Not really). I really enjoyed my years at PR.

In 3rd grade, my friend Richard Gruel talked me into going to try out for the chorus. Well as fate would have it, I made the chorus and Richard didn't. But we remained good friends until his family moved out in 5th or 6th grade. Richard was also the first family on the block who had a television and every Saturday I would go to his house to watch the Lone Ranger. It took us another year before we got our BIG 12 inch RCA.

My early memories of downtown Pearl River, were going shopping with my mother at Theises and Browers department stores and Angelo the barber on Main street. My father worked for the First National Bank, so he was downtown all the time. I don't remember where we grocery shopped until the Grand Union store opened. That was really something. All those canned goods would slide into place when you pulled one out. That was quite an awakening for sleepy Pearl River. Most of the town was concentrated on Main Street, Central Avenue and William Street. All just a block from the School. At that time, the school housed Kindergarten through 12th grade. As the town was growing new elementary schools were being built and slowly the elementary classes were moved out of the building and into their new schools. The old building became known as Pearl River High School. Our class seemed to stay ahead of the growth and we remained part of the school all the way through graduation.

My family lived in Pearl River almost all their lives. In fact, my Mother was born in the house on John Street and lived her entire life in that house until she passed away in 1984. My Father was born in New York City but his family moved to Pearl River when he was very young. They built a house on Crooked Hill Road which is where he lived until marrying my Mother. At that point, they moved into the house on John street. Some years later they bought the house from my Grandmother and she continued to live with them. Both my parents graduated from Pearl River High School as well as all their siblings.

My Dad had a brother and a sister and my mom had two brothers and a sister. My Father graduated from the old school on the south side of Franklin Avenue. I believe that building is still standing and is now an apartment building. He Graduated in 1922, I believe, and was a member of the Basketball team that won the county title that year. My mother graduated in 1929 and was one of the first...