Robert J. Wilson's "Life on Gedney Way" 1941-1943

written by Robert J. Wilson, Jr. 

Looking up Bush Avenue from what is now called Clinton Square

OK...the year is 1941, and my family had moved into 2 Gedney Way from 29 Bush Avenue. Don Romano had lived in this very same house a few years before we arrived, and remembers it most because as a young lad, he was attacked by a mad dog while living there. The house was owned by Stanley Johnson, the Orange County District Attorney, when we arrived there. For many years after we left, Sam Dabrusin and his family lived there.

At number 4, next door to us, lived the Dr. S. H. Baum, Optometrist, family. Henry B. introduced me to Captain Marvel comics, and the family had a movie projector and a library of early Mickey Mouse films, including "Steamboat Willie", the first sound Mickey cartoon.

At number 6 lived the Matt Devitt, Attorney, family. More than 60 years later, daughter Susan still lives there. Her husband was Terry Kennedy, who passed away in November 2005. And at last report, a mulberry tree still grows there in the middle of the back yard. Susan's late brother Bob, also an attorney, was one of my sister Bunny's crowd (NFA Class of 1944), and used to hang around our house after school. (So many of that gang have gone, now, including my sister, Danny Ahearn, Bob Hess, Norm Greene, Linc June, Carol Baxter, Connie Cavanaugh; but some are still around somewhere: Shirley Harrison, Joan Reed, Don Bott, and Bucky Lewis...)

Kemper Mazz remembers the family of Cole Wilkinson (from up around Rochester way) who lived at number 8, next to the Devitt's, back then. In later years, Dr. Cassidy, the local dentist, and his family lived in that house. Recently, his daughter Tammi has been involved with the Internet, posting short fiction on a site called YesterdayLand, that no longer exists.

In the next house lived the family of Betty Ann Knorr, who I think thought I was the smartest kid on the block because I knew even then that USA stood for the Union of South Africa as well as for America. There may be another house to the east of the Knorr's, I but can't remember who lived there, if it actually exists.

The Fred Froemmel family lived at the northeast corner of Gedney, at Gidney. Fred was an outstanding amateur athlete in Newburgh back then, and was associated with a local beer distributorship. He had his basement fitted out as a mini-rathskeller, with tables covered with red checkerboard tablecloths. Occasionally, he would let some of the neighborhood kids go down there and play like we were grown-ups, sipping Coke as though it were beer.

Across from the Froemmel's, on the southeast corner of Gedney and Gidney, lived Ed Dillon, of Schoonmaker's, his wife Ann, and their family of Ed, Jr., Mary, twins Johnny and Bill (both of whom were star athletes at NFA in the early 1940's), Jeanne, and Father Dick, who is now Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Fordham and lives in New York. The Dillons were sort-of-relatives of mine. My mother's brother Joe was married to Ann Dillon's (nee Murphy) sister Katherine.

Next to the Dillon's, heading west, lived at that time, a young First Lieutenant from Stewart Field, who owned a motor scooter. When snow covered the street, he would hitch our sleds to the back of the scooter and cautiously give us a tow up and down the block.

I cannot remember who lived in the next house to the west, but in the 1960's when Matt and Mary Devitt were still living, Susan and Terry Kennedy lived there. Either just before or after that, I learned recently that Carole Snider McDermott and husband Dave lived next door to the east, in the 1960's.

Next came the Goewey household. Head of household Irv was a high-level administrator in the Newburgh school system, son Bill was a star track athlete at NFA, and daughter Marilyn was the prettiest girl on the block. We all (all of the boys, anyway) loved Marilyn.

The big, main house on Gedney on the south side, and next to the Goewey's, was the Jack Powell (of Burger's Furniture) household of Jack, his wife Mary, and their late son David. This elegant home must have been built by a family named Gedney, because Gedney Way was configured as a driveway serving that home from either Fullerton or Gidney Avenues. In fact, brick pillars on either end of the street mark the driveway, still. Jack was a bon vivant, and once treated the neighborhood kids to an evening at the Carnival on the lot down next to the New Armory near the Recreation Park.

The Bob Barr (he was a local banker) family were in the next house west, and their household included sons Bob and the late Bryce, and a pair of English Bulldogs named Daisy and Pansy. Bryce once accidentally shaved off a good portion of the nail on my right index finger with a wood plane, which wouldn't have happened, had I not been so anxious to point my finger at something he was doing as he worked on smoothing the surface of a piece of 2x4 in a small woodshop my dad had set up in our garage.

Next to the Barr's, at number 3, lived the Paris (and Mildred) Poindexter family, with H. (for Haig) Roger and Sally. Paris was a chemist at the Fabby, and a close friend of my Dad's. In later years, both Paris and my Dad were transferred by DuPont down to the Philadelphia/Wilmington area, and just before my Dad retired, Paris and Mildred lived two blocks away from us in Wilmington, DE. At last report, Paris was still living, in retirement, in North Carolina. Haig is also now retired, and lives in Southern California. Paris's nephew was the Admiral Poindexter who was prominent during the days of the Iran/Contra affair, and bore an amazing resemblance to Paris when they were both the same age.

At number 1 Gedney Way back then, lived a childless couple, Oscar Johnson, his wife and his father, Oscar, Sr. The younger, very affable Oscar ran the Muskegon Machine Shop down on South Robinson Avenue (the structure still stands, in total disrepair), and the Johnsons were actually originally from Muskegon, MI. Mrs. Johnson gained some notoriety in the neighborhood, probably in 1941, when she hung out a quilt to air on the clothesline in her side yard. Neighbors were quick to notice that the quilt incorporated a prominent Swastika pattern in it, and a somewhat embarrassed Mrs. Johnson took it down, and we never saw that quilt airing out again...or at least for "the duration."