Endless Waves… Remembrances of Sayville Alumni. Growing up in Griffiths Boarding House

In the early 1880’s a local businessman, Andrew Foster, bought 18 acres of the old Gordon estate. He built the Delavan hotel at what would be 286 Foster Avenue. He convinced the town to open Foster Avenue in 1883 so guests would have access to his new hotel.

Houses soon lined the avenue from Main Street to the Great South Bay. The hotel was purchased by Dr. Charles Rogers in 1917. The original main building of the Delavan burned down in 1932. Two annexes continued to operate as the hotel under the ownership of the Rogers family and its descendants. It was sold when the last of the family died in 2007.  The buildings remain to this day.

**Mother had two friends, Johnny and Tony, who were brothers who had been blinded by measles as children. These two men were talented musicians who played banjo, harmonica, guitar, and accordion. Frequently on Saturday nights when they didn’t have a “gig,” they would come over for the evening.  Let me hasten to add that Tony was married and his wife did the driving! On summer nights we would gather on the front porch and they would play for an hour or two.

The summer guests would gather on the Delavan’s lawn to listen or to dance in the driveway.

Only once did someone complain. The policeman arrived and joined the listeners for a bit. Then he left with a warning to shut down before it got too late.

Directly across the street the house at 271 was one of two 8-room cottages built on the corner of Terry Street in spring of 1927 by Amos Munsell for Harry Goodman.

In 1930, it was owned by Frank Rogers, President of the Community Trust Company, and rented (probably to summer residents).

In August 1940, Gertrude Griffiths bought the house from Oystermen’s Bank (successor to Community Trust). For the next twenty years it was known as the Griffiths Boardinghouse.

The house was sold in 1960 and has had a number of owners since, a complete renovation in the 1980’s, and still stands approaching its one hundredth birthday.

Gertrude Helena Thul Griffiths: Gertrude Helena Thul Griffiths was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1888 to John and Mary Thul, who were German immigrants. She had 4 brothers and 7 sisters.

John Henry Thul

Marie Wagner Thul

Gertrude attended nursing school at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and worked as a nurse until her marriage.

Bellevue Hospital

Here are some interesting stories about Bellevue:

The Most Bizarre & Inspiring Stories From America’s Oldest Public Hospital & Psych Ward

https://nymag.com/news/features/52176/

She married Robert Christmas Griffiths in 1911 and moved to Port Jefferson, L.I. Between 1912 and 1918 she had four children- Robert, Gladys, Violette, and Claude. Another child, Forrest, died in infancy.  Robert Christmas Griffiths was born on Christmas day.

After separating from her husband sometime in the early 1920s, she worked various jobs to support herself and her two daughters. She had left her two sons with their father because she felt she would not be able to support herself and all four children.

In the 1930’s she opened Gray Kennels with her friend and widower Peter Gordon in West Babylon. They raised collies and showed them at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and other dog shows in the surrounding areas. She and Mr. Gordon were trying to breed an all-white collie. The kennel closed in 1938 after a disastrous poisoning occurred. During the night someone had thrown poisoned meat into the dog pens and all of the dogs were dead by morning. No one was ever arrested although she and Mr. Gordon had their suspicions as to the perpetrator. An investigation was done, but proof was never established.

“White collies are the rarest of the breed. Typically, they are all white except for their heads and sparse patches, which are either sable or tricolor. They are the result of breeding two merles. Part of the reason white collies are rare may be that some breeders originally labeled them as defective, their washed-out coats and pale blue eyes seen as undesirable. Occasionally, some born white also are born blind and/or deaf, though some gain sight and hearing as they become adults.+
https://dogcare.dailypuppy.com/colors-rare-coat-collie-5943.html

** I remember Violette telling stories of weekend trips with mom, grandfather and the dogs piled into the Buick to dog shows on Long Island, New York City, and Connecticut.

** At that time dog breeding was highly competitive. Mom’s dogs were the closest to all-white that anyone had bred. Her dogs were winning ribbons in dog shows and were highly sought after. She wouldn’t sell her puppies to other breeders, only to people who wanted a pet. Often the puppies were not all-white so she didn’t want anyone using them to try to breed an all-white collie before she had perfected her breeding.

There were other kennels also attempting to breed all-white collies without the success she was having. They attempted subterfuge to purchase her puppies, without success.

When her dogs were poisoned, she always suspected one of those breeders was responsible in an attempt to take out the competition. Unfortunately, it worked. Without any of her dogs left, she was unable to continue and the kennel was closed.

In August of 1940 she purchased the house on Foster Avenue. Originally, she took in foster children.

** I was one of the foster children, After she began taking in servicemen, I stayed on, When I was about 3 or 4 years old the State of New York decided it was time for me to be adopted. Mom was having none of that. She contacted my birth mother and between them they arranged for Mom to become my permanent guardian. My name was officially changed to “Griffiths” in the 1950s. Although I had always used that name and the school system went along with it, when it came time to take State Regents exams, the school system insisted I use my legal name. I was adamant that I wasn’t going to do that so a legal name change was made. I forever became a Griffiths.

With the coming of World War II, housing for servicemen stationed at MacArthur Airfield was needed so in 1942 she began providing room and board for them. At one point she rented the entire second floor to an English family. The father was stationed at MacArthur and he had arranged to evacuate his wife and children from London. In 1942 after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the airport was built on Islip Town-owned land for military use during the war
• The airport took one year to build and cost $1.5 million and was originally named Islip Airport
• At the time the airfield consisted of three 5,000-foot runways
• Islip Airport was renamed MacArthur Airport after General Douglas MacArthur
• After WWII the Town of Islip took over ownership of the airport from the U.S. Army Air Corps
• MacArthur airport is currently owned and operated by the Town of Islip
• In 1944 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation built the airport’s first hangar

https://www.longisland.com/articles/02-05-20/crazy-facts-about-macarthur-airport.html

** After the war was over, the family returned to England. They sent me a copy of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. It was my favorite book long before it became popular in the United States many years later.

After World War II ended in 1945, she rented the house. She spent the time from 1945-early 1947 caring for an elderly lady in her home. When the woman passed away, she returned to the house on Foster Avenue.

** I remember that time. The lady lived in a big old Victorian farmhouse near Quogue, Long Island. The house was heated by fireplaces which Mom had to clean out the ashes, haul in the wood and light every morning, It was freezing in the winter until the fires got going.

The house was across the road from a huge Peking duck farm so every day was a cacophony of quacking and the aroma of duck waste. There was no car available and I can remember walking down the dirt road to a path through the woods alongside a stream to get to the town,

“Of course, how does an industry know it’s truly arrived? Why, when a farmer builds a 20-foot-tall, reinforced-concrete duck, complete with Model T Ford tail lights for eyes. The Big Duck, as it’s unoriginally named, was constructed by duck farming Martin Maurer in 1931 as a retail venue for his ducks and eggs, became a must-see U.S. landmark that was later entered into the National Register of Historic Places and even made it to the cover of The New Yorker.” https://modernfarmer.com/2014/12/long-island-duck-farming-almost/

** When I was small the house was heated by a coal furnace. Grandfather was in charge of shoveling coal and ashes. He would shovel the ashes into a small wagon and when I was big enough, I got to wheel it over to spot under the house where he would dump the wagon. Later we got an oil furnace which was so nice! I just knew I would be doing the shoveling if we’d kept the coal furnace. Especially since the height of the cellar was just barely over five feet and I was the only one who could stand up straight in it.

Another problem we had was water. Not drinking water. Rain water, especially when hurricanes came our way. The cellar would flood and the sump pump couldn’t keep up. And when the electricity went off, the sump pump was useless. Mom would have to call a cesspool cleaner company to come pump out the cellar once the storm had passed. Without electricity the oil furnace wouldn’t work either. Fortunately, hurricanes came when the weather wasn’t too cold.

**In 1947 I started first grade. For that year it was just Mom, my sister Violette, grandfather Gordon, and I living in the house. In that one year I managed to go to school for 63 days total. Most of the time I spent recuperating from measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and colds between short “visits” to the classroom.

After getting off work at the Rose Fair in Bluepoint, Violette spent a lot of her time reading to me and teaching me math. Every day she would bring me a rose or a gardenia from work. (I still love the scent of gardenias and have one in my garden.) I passed to second grade “on condition.”

**So what to do without electricity and eleven people in the house needing warmth and food? Our old stove was a marvel. It had 4 gas burners on one side and a wood stove on the other. Mom could cook with the gas and set her pans to keep warm on the wood side. The wood side would also serve to warm the kitchen and dining room when the heat was off. The fireplace also provided heat and there was a rush to move chairs close to it by the boarders. Everyone retired early because mom was not about to have candles carried by elderly people up the stairs and burning in their rooms. During hurricanes and storms, we would gather around the fireplace and cook hotdogs and roast marshmallows. Often a songfest would get started while the wind howled outside. Simple pleasures.

In 1948 she decided to provide for elderly women who needed a home, but did not need extensive medical care. From 1948 until 1960 she continued to do so with only one gentleman as an exception to that rule,

** I remember coming home from school one day when I was in second grade to find a stranger in what was called our “sunroom.” She was our very first boarder and remained with us until just before her death in 1956.

My sister Violette who read to me, worked here.

She became ill in February, 1960 and was hospitalized with pneumonia. The boardinghouse residents were relocated.

After her release from Southside Hospital in Bayshore in April, she returned home in the care of her daughter Gladys.

On May 22nd she was transferred to the Ursuline Nursing Home where she passed away later the same day.

She is buried at The Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York in the Griffiths family mausoleum.

** At the time I was a freshman at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I was planning to return after my exams to help care for Mom. I had returned to the dormitory after my last exam to pack my belongings when the telegram arrived. I left for home that evening.

I believe Mom was a brave and strong woman for her time. She left a marriage that was unhappy at a time when women just didn’t do that. She struck out on her own with her two daughters and did whatever was necessary to provide for them, taking whatever jobs she could find. She co-owned a successful kennel and raised prize-winning show dogs. Eventually she was able to purchase the house on Foster Avenue. I suspect she must have saved the money to do so because it is unlikely that a bank would have given a single woman a mortgage in that day and age. She was able to convince the State of New York to allow her to take on my guardianship even though she was separated from her husband and in her fifties. She ran the boarding house with my grandfather Gordon’s help right up until her final illness.

We never owned a car after grandfather sold his Buick, so errands were run on foot, My Saturday morning errand list included a stop at Fritzsche’s Bakery on S. Main Street. Each boarder was allowed a choice, in addition to our weekly purchase of fresh rye bread. Crumb cakes, eclairs, Napoleons, jelly doughnuts, apple strudel, and cheese and prune Danish were the favorites.

Other stops along Main Street included Thornhill’s Pharmacy for a variety of medications for the boarders, the Sayville Delicatessen for sandwich meat, coleslaw, and potato salad, and Greaves Stationery Store for newspapers and grandfather’s Grainger’s and also Mr. Stein’s Prince Albert pipe tobacco.

Loaded down with my purchases, I made the mile trek home My reward for making the trip was the heels of warm rye bread slathered in butter. Yum!

One of the drawbacks of living with eleven people in the house, was having only two bathrooms. One of which did not have a tub/shower. I usually used the small bathroom downstairs in the morning to get ready for school. Taking a shower was a whole other thing. Either I had to put off eating dinner while everyone else was busy at table or wait until everyone went to bed. My mother tried to convince the ladies to shower in the morning but habit over-ruled her wishes, so they all would descend on the bathroom after dinner.

When I was small the house was heated by a coal furnace. Grandfather was in charge of shoveling coal and ashes. He would shovel the ashes into a small wagon and when I was big enough, I got to wheel it over to spot under the house where he would dump the wagon. Later we got an oil furnace which was so nice! I just knew I would be doing the shoveling if we’d kept the coal furnace. Especially since the height of the cellar was just barely over five feet and I was the only one who could stand up straight in it.

Another problem we had was water. Not drinking water. Rain water, especially when hurricanes came our way. The cellar would flood and the sump pump couldn’t keep up. And when the electricity went off, the sump pump was useless. Mom would have to call a cesspool cleaner company to come pump out the cellar once the storm had passed. Without electricity the oil furnace wouldn’t work either. Fortunately, hurricanes came when the weather wasn’t too cold.

So what to do without electricity and eleven people in the house needing warmth and food? Our old stove was a marvel. It had 4 gas burners on one side and a wood stove on the other. Mom could cook with the gas and set her pans to keep warm on the wood side. The wood side would also serve to warm the kitchen and dining room when the heat was off. The fireplace also provided heat and there was a rush to move chairs close to it by the boarders. Everyone retired early because mom was not about to have candles carried by elderly people up the stairs and burning in their rooms. During hurricanes and storms we would gather around the fireplace and cook hotdogs and roast marshmallows. Often a songfest would get started while the wind howled outside. Simple pleasures.

In the 1950’s mom bought our first television. Terrible reception but still a miracle to everyone. Chairs would be pulled up in a semi-circle to watch whatever the spotty reception would allow. Arguments erupted over which channel to watch. I had homework to do so the television wasn’t something I got to watch. By the time I’d finished, the stations had signed off for the night which was really early compared to 24/7 we have today.

My mother had a thing about sending Christmas cards. Everyone she knew and probably many she had met once, must receive a Christmas card. Cards were inexpensive, postage only a penny if you tucked instead of sealed the envelope. So at the beginning of every December a routine went into play. After dinner the dining room table was cleared. Boxes of cards were stacked at the head of the table. Two or three boarders would settle themselves around the table. Mother would sit down at the head of the table with her “lists” and select a specific card for each recipient. She would write a personal note for each and every card. Then she would pass the card to the person on her right. Using a duplicate of mom’s list, that person would address the envelope and put the card inside. The next person would tuck in the flap, and lick and stick a stamp on it. The last person would separate cards into two boxes according to whether they going in state or out of state and alphabetize them by the town they were going to. My task was to provide bathroom breaks and snacks. It actually was a fun project and lots of lively conversations got started.

Mother also had a thing about Christmas gifts. At Christmas those who had families often left for a few days or weeks. The others remained and mom was determined that they would have the best Christmas. First the decorations came out. There were a ton of them! The living room and dining room ceilings were decorated, The fireplace was decorated. The bannister on the stairs was decorated, The back and front doors were decorated. And, of course, the tree was set up in the bay window and decorated, All the boxes were piled in the middle of the living room and the boarders piled into them. Grandfather did the ceilings, but they did all the rest often arguing among themselves about what went where. It was chaos. It was wonderful.

And after they had gone to bed, mom and I would make Christmas presents for everyone. She crocheted all sorts of things–hats, gloves, pockets to store handkerchiefs, aprons, shawls, and even afghans. I would gift wrap everything. I would make simple decorated felt stockings and on Christmas Eve stuff them with candy, apples, and nuts, No one was left out.

The Christmas decoration thing is probably why until this day, I go overboard. I decorate my living room, den, kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms to the hilt. Outside I do the porch and a large pinon pine that has finally grown out of my reach. Still with a pole with a forked end, I reach as high as I can to string lights. Not willing to climb a ladder at my age. If I get lucky my son might come in from San Antonio and do the top. lol Before the pandemic, I would do big Christmas parties and cook all the food. And I bake cookies and quick breads, just like Helen Fendall did, for family and friends. Hard to break the habits learned in youth.

When I was growing up my “mom” (actually my guardian) ran a boarding house. She started taking in foster children first- I was one as an infant. Then during WWII she rented rooms to military personnel stationed at Mitchell Field. At one point during the war she rented the whole second floor to an English couple and their children

The father was stationed at Mitchell Field and he had evacuated his family from London. I remember after returning to England they sent me a copy of Winnie, the Pooh which became my favorite children’s book long before it became popular in the United States.

After the war, she began taking in elderly boarders and continued to do so until her death in 1960. I remember coming home from school one day when I was in third grade to find a stranger in what was called our “sunroom.” She was our very first boarder and remained with us until just before her death in 1956.

I remember some of them.

L-R: Miss Margaret Sullivan, Mrs. Helen Fendall, Carolyn Ann Griffiths, Mrs. Frances Haer, Mrs. Harriet Cambern, Miss Mildred Shaw, Miss Isabelle Vanderhoff

Peter Menzies Gordon
Mr. Gordon was a Scottish immigrant who came to the United States with his wife Helen and two children, Jessie and John. He settled in Hicksville, Long Island and worked as a mason. His jobs included creating decorative plaster work in many of the municipal buildings in New York City and on Long Island.

After his wife’s death and his retirement, he went into business with Gertrude Griffiths in the 1930’s owning Gray Kennels in West Babylon. When the kennel closed, he moved with her to Sayville.

He spent the rest of his life living between the house on Foster Avenue and his daughter’s home in Hicksville. In early 1960 he was visiting his daughter where he had a cerebral aneurism and died at the age of 93.

** Our Christmas tree was special. My grandfather was always coming up with something. He designed a gizmo to make the tree rotate with the lights on. There was a metal cup that the tree sat in. He wrapped two metal bands around it. Then he attached a piece of electrical cord with a female end to it–one wire to each band. The cord went up into the tree. The cup then sat on a metal post that stuck out of the center of a large music box. The music box was meant to hold a Christmas tree and rotate without lights.

Next, he made a wooden stand with two metal strips and a cord with a male end to plug into an outlet. The cord was separated so that one wire went to each metal strip. It was placed in contact with the metal cup so that as the tree revolved there was constant contact between the metal strips on the cup and on the stand.

Fire disaster waiting to happen. Everyone was in awe though that the tree could turn without the light cords getting tangled up.

**He was a mason who did three-dimensional decorative work like friezes, trim work along the tops of walls and on columns using plaster and then painting/gilding the designs. Really ornate work.

**He also had a green thumb–heck, his whole hand was green. Could grow anything. When I was little, we would take morning strolls through the neighborhood. Whenever grandfather would see an interesting plant or shrub, he would “take a cutting” to bring home. Our garden was filled with his “babies” because everything “took root.”

**He did woodworking.

He made Christmas wreaths and birdbaths to sell.

** In the 1940’s Grandfather had a 1938 Buick Century Coupe with a rumble seat. At Christmas when he had finished making his wreaths, he would load them into the rumble seat. My sister Violette would sit in the passenger seat with me on her lap and off we’d go to deliver all those wreaths to his Sayville customers. Once they were all delivered, my sister and I would pile into the rumble seat for the ride home.

Grandfather’s birdbath ( yeah that’ me age 4) early version, started making tops wider

**He also repaired everything that needed fixing–plumbing, electrical, painting, etc. There was a technique that he used when painting the walls that I saw advertised a few years ago–coming back in fashion? He painted the walls a solid color. Then he would use a piece of tarp that he crunched up, dipped it in a different color paint (usually something just a wee bit darker than the wall paint) and tapped gently on the walls.

My mother was a great cook. One of the dishes she excelled at was crab cakes. For eleven people, you needed at lot of crab cakes, thus a LOT of crabs. Catching those crabs was my grandfather’s job with me along to help.

We would walk down to Brown’s River to do our crabbing. It took quite awhile to get enough, Hours, in fact. We’d bring them home and grandfather was in charge of separating the meat from claws and bodies.

I would have no part of it. Yuck! The meat was delivered to mom who put whichever boarder was handy to work mixing the meat with whatever went into the cakes.

Another boarder would make the patties. No one complained about helping out. They knew that dinner was going to be delicious. Mom made her own secret tarter sauce recipe and no one was allowed to help with that.

This is what grandfather used to catch crabs Tedious work but if he was crabbing mother wasn’t finding other work for him.

** I remember one day when Grandfather didn’t get enough crabs to make a meal, Mother was displeased and told him to take them back to the river, He didn’t want to walk back, so he decided that the crabs would be good fertilizer for his garden. He dumped them in a hole that he dug and covered them up to decompose.

Only they weren’t dead. The next morning they were crawling al over the back yard. Mother was displeased, to say the least. He rounded them up and put them in a covered bucket meaning to take them to the river. He forgot.

A few days later the stench was horrific, Mother was displeased- again. I’m surprised she was ever willing to make crab cakes again.

Mrs. Frances Haer

Sweet lady who tried to teach me to tat. Never got the hang of it so stuck to crochet and knitting.

She helped me make crochet squares for an afghan for a Jr. Red Cross project.

Mrs. Haer was married to Henry Haer and had three children, Hemry, Matilda, and Otto. Frequently, she enjoyed playing cards with her friends at card parties. Mrs. Haer’s daughter was married to Peter Grady, owner of Sayville’s Buick-Chevrolet dealership.

Mrs. Haer moved to the Griffiths Boarding House in March 1949. When she became ill, she moved to the South Shore Convalescent Home in Patchogue where she passed away in 1954 at the age of 90.

** Mrs. Haer was a really talented tatter. She tried to teach me. Her creations were beautiful, mine were a mess. Tatting is made with a shuttle passing in, out and around a loop of thread wound around your hand to tie a simple set of knots. Sounds simple, but isn’t.

She did teach me to knit and crochet. In fact, whenever the school’s Jr. Red Cross chapter decided to make afghans for the VA hospitals, Mrs. Haer and I would spend time together knitting or crocheting squares to add to those other students had made.

“About 2000 years ago, fishermen used a large shuttle to weave heavy cord into fishing nets. About 1000 years ago sailors knew many different kinds of knots to use on the sailing ships. The Bolin Knot was used for the anchor; it was a slip stitch. All these cords were handed down to weavers who used a finer thread to make lace. The shuttle was smaller to accommodate this finer thread and the lace they made was sewn onto satin and velvet. Because the royalty wore beautiful garments with lace, lace making was a thriving business in Europe.

Tatting was one of these laces. Children and handmaidens were taught to tat edgings that were quickly bought up by the weavers who would add the tatting edgings onto the garments and charge a large sum of money for the garment. “

Source:  http://www.victoriana.com/Embroidery/tatting.htm

**There were birthday parties. Mother baked and decorated cakes for every boarder. Each boarder would choose what kind of cake she wanted. After dinner, the table was cleared and the lights turned off. In the kitchen the candles were lit– just a few, after all 80+ candles would be a bit much.The cake was brought in with great fanfare and applause. The cake was cut, ice cream scooped onto each slice, and passed around the table. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” And the birthday “girl” would receive one of mom’s home-made gifts.

Mrs. Helen Fendall

Mrs. Helen Fendall was the wife of Richard Fendall, a prominent Sayville businessman. who owned a carriage repair shop an auto paint store in Sayville and a paint store in West Sayville prior to his death. He also served on the Sayville Board of Education.

Helen and her husband traveled extensively in Europe. She owned quite a bit of real estate in Sayville.

Mrs. Fendall and her husband were extremely active in the Order of the Eastern Star and the Masonic Lodge. She was also involved in supporting St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.

Mrs. Helen Fendall was the wife of Richard Fendall, a prominent Sayville businessman. who owned an carriage repair shop and auto paint store in Sayville and a paint store in West Sayville prior to his death. He also served on the Sayville Board of Education. She and her husband traveled extensively in Europe. She owned quite a bit of real estate in Sayville. Mrs. Fendall and her husband were extremely active in the Order of the Eastern Star and the Masonic Lodge. She also involved in supporting St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.

Source: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll130/id/875/rec/6

She became extremely ill and was transferred to the Sayville Nursing Home in August 1956 where she died a month later. She is buried at St. Ann’s Cemetery in Sayville.

The very first boarder at the Griffiths Boarding House was Mrs. Helen Fendall.

**She was in a wheel chair when she came to live with us. Every Christmas she would take over the kitchen after dinner with me as her helper. She would bake hundreds of cookies to give away to friends and neighbors.

** She had a collection of European postcards that she brought back from her trips.  They are all pre-World War II.  I was delighted when she gave them to me.  I still have them.

** Voting was important to her. With help from her friends from St. Ann’s Church she and Mom arranged for transportation for herself and the other ladies to get to the polls. First, Mom saw to it that they were all registered.

When it came time to vote, someone who could manage Mrs. Fendall’s wheelchair was called in. Then volunteer drivers would load up the other ladies in their cars. Mom and grandfather driven by a neighbor would take the lead.

The entourage would then head down Foster Avenue to the polling place. Unload. Vote. Re-load. And return. It was quite an excursion.

Mrs.Harriet Cambern

She was a tiny woman, She shared a room with Mrs, Haer and they became best of friends.

Mrs. Cambern was married to John Wesley Cambern. She belonged to the Sayville Methodist Church for over 50 years. Mrs. Cambern was the mother of Cambern Oil Company’s owner Arthur Forest Cambern.

She had four other children Harriet, Kate, Laura, and John Raymond. She died at the age of 96 a few days after her son. At the time she was the oldest resident of Sayville. She is buried at Union Cemetery in Sayville.

Miss Isabelle Vanderhoof/Vanderhoff

Miss Vanderhoof lived in Sayville most of her life. She was born in New York and moved to Sayville with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Robert Vanderhoof and her sister, Mary Augusta.

From 1915-1940, she lived with her sister, Mrs. Peter Bishop in Bayport. Her sister died in 1940.

In 1948 she moved to the Griffiths Boarding House.

In 1949 she joined St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.

In 1950 she celebrated her 86th birthday

In 1954 she passed away and was buried in Union Cemetery.

**And then there were birthday parties. Mother baked and decorated cakes for every boarder. Each boarder would choose what kind of cake she wanted. After dinner, the table was cleared and the lights turned off. The cake was brought in with great fanfare and applause. Candles were lit– just a few, after all 80+ candles would be a bit much- and blown out. The cake was cut, ice cream scooped onto each slice, and passed around the table. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” And the birthday girl would receive another of mom’s homemade gifts.

Mrs. Clara MacKenzie
Mrs. MacKenzie was the wife of Donald MacKenzie.

She stayed with us for a short time while recovering from an illness. She then returned to her home on South Main Street.

Mrs. Amelia Peterman
Mrs. Peterman was the wife a local barber, Anton Peterman.

She lived on South Main Street before moving to the Griffiths Boarding House after spending time in a convalescent home.

She stayed with us briefly before her health required that she return to the convalescent home in Patchogue.

Miss Margaret Sullivan

Upon arrival from Ireland, she found employment as a lady’s maid at the Vanderbilt Estate. She lost her position in the mid-1940’s when her vision and hearing diminished.

Vanderbilt Mansion “Eagle’s Nest” in Centerport, LI, NY Construction began in 1910 and it was completed in 1939. It is now a museum.

In 1948 she moved to the Griffiths Boarding House.

“The Social Security Act, enacted on August 14, 1935, provided a new federally administered system of social insurance for the aged financed through payroll taxes paid by employees and their employers. Under the system, which applied only to workers in commerce and industry, people would earn retirement benefit eligibility as they worked. With some exceptions, benefits would be related to workers’ average covered earnings, and workers could not have earnings and still be eligible for benefits. No benefits were provided for spouses or children, and lump-sum refunds were provided to the estates of workers who died before age 65 or before receiving at least the equivalent in benefits of their taxes plus interest. Collection of payroll taxes began in 1937, and benefit payments were scheduled to begin in 1942.”

“The Congress, in 1939, enacted legislation that eliminated lump-sum payroll tax refunds and provided benefits for aged wives and widows, young children of retired and deceased workers, young widows caring for a child beneficiary, and dependent parents of retired and deceased workers”

“A method of measuring whether an individual had worked long enough in covered employment to get a benefit–based on “quarters of coverage” the measure on which today’s methods are based.”

https://www.ssa.gov/history/50mm2.html

**Unfortunately, Social Security retirement benefits were not available when she was working. As a result, once her personal funds ran out, she was forced to accept what was called “welfare” at the time.
The State of New York provided for her room and board, medical expenses, and a very small monthly allowance. Miss Sullivan was in her late seventies when she came to live at the Griffiths Boarding House in 1948. Illness eventually necessitated her placement in a nursing home in Sayville. The State of New York provided for her burial. Sadly, there is no public record as to where she now rests.

** Prior to Social Security, elderly individuals were fortunate if they had their own resources or families to take care of them. The poor and those without families had to rely on charity, if available. Poorhouses existed in some places. And, in some cases, when nowhere else could be found, they were consigned to mental institutions.

**My mother had a thing about sending Christmas cards. Everyone she knew and probably many she had met only once, must receive a Christmas card. Cards were inexpensive, postage only a penny if you tucked instead of sealed the envelope. So at the beginning of every December a routine went into play.

After dinner the dining room table was cleared. Boxes of cards were stacked at the head of the table. Two or three boarders would settle themselves around the table. Mother would sit down at the head of the table with her “lists” and select a specific card for each recipient. She would write a personal note for each and every card. Then she would pass the card to the person on her right.

Using a duplicate of mom’s list, that person would address the envelope and put the card inside. The next person would tuck in the flap, and lick and stick a stamp on it. The last person would separate cards into two boxes according to whether they going in state or out of state and alphabetize them by the town they were going to.

My task was to provide bathroom breaks and snacks. It actually was a fun project and lots of lively conversations got started.

**While researching for this article, I discovered that Mother broke the USPS regulations! The rule stated that you could mail the card unsealed IF you didn’t write on it. Of course, she did. On every one of them. I decided to calculate how much she owed the Postal Service:
200 cards x 20 years x 1 cent= $20.00 x 80 years x 12.5% interest compounded annually=$247,304.37

Mother also had a thing about Christmas gifts. At Christmas those who had families often left for a few days or weeks. The others remained and mom was determined that they would have the best Christmas.

First the decorations came out. There were a ton of them! The living room and dining room ceilings were decorated, The fireplace was decorated. The bannister on the stairs was decorated, The back and front doors were decorated. And, of course, the tree was set up in the bay window and decorated, All the boxes were piled in the middle of the living room and the boarders piled into them. Grandfather did the ceilings, but they did all the rest often arguing among themselves about what went where. It was chaos. It was wonderful.

And after they had gone to bed, mom and I would make Christmas presents for everyone. She crocheted all sorts of things–hats, gloves, pockets to store handkerchiefs, aprons, shawls, and even afghans. I would gift wrap everything. I would make simple decorated felt stockings and on Christmas Eve stuff them with candy, apples, and nuts, No one was left out.

Miss Mildred C. Shaw

I believe she lived in Sayville all her life. She had never married and did not have any immediate family. I don’t remember much about her except that she was extremely deaf.

The photograph to the right is Mildred C. Shaw, from the collection of Webb N. Morrison. Lucille Benners Photograph dated 1909-10, courtesy of the Sayville Library historic photos collection.

Mrs. Hattie Jayne

Mrs. Jayne was a “summer boarder” for a couple of years. Her daughter would go on vacation and have her mother stay with us for health concerns. Because of a neurological disorder, Mrs. Jayne would fall easily if she turned her head too quickly.

She was quite an elegant lady and began each day with her ritual of choosing just the “proper” dress, applying her make-up, selecting jewelry, and getting her hair just so.

She insisted on folding her clothes in one way only and placing them in her dresser in a very specific order. She taught me to how to do it for her, and I still do the same things with my clothes.

Miss Emma Reeves
Miss Reeve was with us for two years. Before coming to the boarding house, she lived with her sister in Patchogue until her sister died in 1933. After that she lived with a niece until the niece passed away in 1945.

She would visit with her extended family often while with us. She became ill and was hospitalized in 1951.

She went to live at the Ursuline Nursing Home in Oakdale where she died when she was 96.

Mrs. Bridget Smith

Mrs. Smith was a resident for about a year. She suffered from dementia and her condition worsened to the degree she needed extensive care. She moved to a nursing home. Her daughter Anne was the wife of Louis Weissberger, Secretary of the Board of Directors of The Beehive in Patchogue and head of the home furnishings department. David Weissberger, his brother, was the Vice President.

Patchogue Store Plans a Building.” New York Times, May 7, 1956: p. 41. — “one of the principal department stores in Suffolk County”.

The Patchogue advance., April 11, 1957, Page 5

Mr. Charles Stein

Charles was one of our boarders. My “guardian” grandfather also lived with us. They would sit smoking their pipes either in the garden or on the front porch.

Both were immigrants (grandfather from Scotland) and they would talk for hours about their journey to America, their early days in the US, and their careers. They also argued about who was the elder. Both insisted they were over 90 and sometimes added a year or two to out do the other.

My grandfather actually lived to celebrate his 90th birthday in 1959 and died the following March. Mr. Stein died in 1958 in our house. When he moved into our home, he brought his dog Watch with him.  My mother wasn’t thrilled, but was prevailed upon to let it happen.

Watch became my constant companion and Mr. Stein would fret about how Watch had deserted him for me even though Watch would spend the nights in his room and stay with him while I was at school. However, the minute I got home, Watch was mine. 🙂

Because Mr, Stein became part of our “family,” I was privileged to ride the ferries to Fire Island Pines and Cherry Grove for free so got to spend lots of summer days on Fire Island.

He also fixed everything that ever needed fixing–plumbing, electrical, plastering, etc.

There was a technique that he used when painting the walls that I saw advertised a few years ago–coming back in fashion?   He painted the walls a solid color.  Then he would use a piece of tarp that he crunched up, dipped it in a different color paint (usually something just a wee bit darker than the wall paint) and tapped gently on the walls.

Watch, the dog with heart.

Mr. Richard Whiting, a Biology teacher at Sayville High School.

Mr. Whiting gave us the assignment to draw single-celled creatures.

As I remember, paramecium, amoeba, and a couple of others.  Most kids did rough sketches.  I got carried away with myself.  Went to the library and found some good pictures.

Then I drew them meticulously, colored them with watercolors, and labeled them.  When something interests me I admit to going a bit overboard.

Anyway,  embarrassed myself again in his class.  He was apparently delighted with them and framed and hung them up.

Do you know how as a teenager, that kind of thing makes you want to sink into the floor?

The row is a narrative template.

** Memories Text in Red