Norwalk, Connecticut is located on the Long Island Sound, between two major cities, Stamford and Bridgeport. It is about a one-hour distance from New York City so many people commuting by rail into The Big City for work.
Norwalk was my home twice in my growing-up years. I have very fond memories of it. It is a typical New England colonial town, complete with a town square, white-steepled churches, and the General Putnam Inn.
The first home that I really remember in my life was on Ludlow Manor in the eastern part of Norwalk. It was a quiet street, with a line of white Cape Cod houses, and a short distance to the beaches. I guess I was near four years old when we moved there. I was three years old when the family first moved to a house in Rowayton from Ohio, where I was born.
My brother was born shortly after we moved there (9-8-1939) and I remember that clearly. Then within a year’s time, we moved again to Meridan, CT. Meridian was more woodsy, at least the big old house we rented was surrounded by woods. It was a big house and the thing I remember most about it was the huge grated furnace area on the floor of the living room. It also had snakes in the grass lawn and I managed to step on one barefoot one day. I still have an aversion to going barefoot in fairly deep grass.
Meridan, CT
I seem to have more memories of Meridan, not a lot, but not all good ones. The memories all seem dark. I don’t think we stayed there very long, but I did start school there. And I had my first ballet lessons there. I remember those pretty clearly as the instructor was a very stern older woman. She would try to bend me in directions my body didn’t want to go in. I also remember being stranded at school after a dance class. I rode the bus and one time there was no bus after dance class. We didn’t stay in Meridan long Maybe a year and then we returned to Norwalk.
Back to Norwalk, Connecticut
This time we were on the opposite end of Norwalk off East Avenue and beyond the village green. I began second grade. The school was a walking distance from our big white house, which had a huge back garden/play area. In this house, my life became bright and sunny again, although I think I had measles and mumps and who knows what else that year. My Grandmother, my father’s mother, came to live with us that year. The house as I remember it had a strange upstairs. One side was a huge room that was my Grandmother’s. On the other side was my parents’ room and the “room” where my brother and I had our beds. In my memory, it doesn’t seem as much a “room” as an annex or alcove off my parents’ room.
We only stayed in that house for about a year also, but then my parents bought their first house. It was on Sherry Street just off East Avenue and close to the High School. I had to change schools again, but this time for the 3-7th grades.
The town of Norwalk is laid out in quadrants with the Norwalk River bisecting it. There were two main shopping areas called Norwalk and South Norwalk. Picture a square with a river running thru the middle. Many of the stores in the Norwalk shopping area were built OVER the river. Many years later in 1955, the river flooded and some of these buildings were lost.
Growing Up
There were four main quadrants. East Avenue and West Avenue on either side of the river. Going to South Norwalk required going across a draw bridge. The whole rectangle was not vast and in my youth, I walked from my home to each of the shopping areas. When I was in 6th grade, I even marched in the Memorial Day parade from the Railroad Station in South Norwalk down West Avenue to the Library in the Norwalk section. Through the Norwalk shopping area and up the hill to East Avenue and the Village Green. It was probably five miles.
The Library was always a favorite destination of mine and the soda fountain at the Rexall Drug store in the downtown area. While there were buses, I always walked everywhere. To Fitch School for five years. And on Sundays, I walked to the First Congregational Church on the Green to sing in the junior choir.
During the summers, we belonged to the Shore and Country Club. Our summer days were spent on the beach or playing tennis or shuffleboard there. There was also a lovely clubhouse with a great ballroom, live music, and dining room. Sunday night dinner at the club with my parents for the Tea Dance happened often. I learned to jitterbug with my Dad, but my brother always got the lobster.
Relocate to Ohio
This was my life until two months into my first year (7th grade) of Roger Ludlow Junior High School. I had a second brother that year (1947) and my father had a new job. We were moving back to Akron, Ohio. But the move gave me my first airline trip. A United DC-3 prop plane from NYC to Cleveland, Ohio. I will write about the next few years in Ohio on another page.
Return to Norwalk, Connecticut
We stayed in Akron for five years, before we once again pulled up stakes and moved back to Norwalk. This was between my Junior and Senior year of High School. Although I loved Norwalk, I was not happy to change school again that year. But I was returning to graduate with the kids I had gone to grade school with.
My senior year in Norwalk High School was a strange mixture of things. While I remembered many of the kids, they had grown, changed, and made new friends. As for academics, it was a mish-mash. Senior history at NHS was what I had had as a Junior in Ohio. I repeated it but that meant I never had a course in the other History. The same was true with Math. The senior Math was a repeat of what I had had the previous year so it was a breeze. However, then came some stumbling blocks just before graduation. I had never had a Health Course, which was required for graduation. I was given the book to study and the exam. Fortunately, I passed. I think there was also some problem with my driver’s ed program, but that got fixed also. I graduated.
College
When in Ohio, I had planned to attend Akron University as a day student my next year. Being now in Connecticut, the college had to be re-evaluated. I ended up going to Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA as a boarding student. I went as a Medical Technician student, but that sure wasn’t my field.
The summer after my first year at CCC, my father once again changed jobs and the family was moving back to Ohio. I balked. I had had enough of the moving and I wasn’t keen on going back to Cedar Crest. So I went out looking for a job and was hired by a dentist as a chair-side assistant. Unfortunately, I knew zip about dentistry, but he said he would teach me and he did. I worked that job for five years, lived in a women’s boarding house, and met my husband.
Married Life
Then I got married in Bedford, NY in May of 1955. My husband was 13 years older, but we were both competitive roller skaters, which is where we met. We had a lovely home in New Canaan, CT. A year later I had my son and we built another house back in the Norwalk area. I took a couple of years off from work, but when my son was three, I went back to work. I took a job with Pitney Bowes in Stanford, CT. It was as an Accounts Receivable clerk and I found my niche. I loved accounting and it followed me the rest of my working life even into my computer years. Having worked AR was a positive attribute on my resume when it came to designing computer systems for these same departments. I understood the work.
Exit Norwalk Connecticut
Also at the same time, my husband got a second job working as the Skating manager in a new facility called the Bollerskate. A combination bowling alley and roller skating rink. With both of us working full-time jobs, me taking care of a three-year-old and a house, and my husband working nights at the skating rink, the marriage fell apart. I reluctantly went back to Ohio to be with my parents and start another new life.
