Impressions of 1950’s New York BY MARK DREISONSTOK, PM, EDITOR
Preface to A Washingtonian in 1950’s New York City “ …fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side… transients in abode, transients in heart and mind.” – O. Henry, “The Furnished Room” (1904) My father Erwin M. Dreisonstok was a lifelong resident of the Washington, D.C., area, though he travelled widely in his life, living in Hawaii, Korea, Japan, Bolivia, and Guatemala. Earl, as he was known, joined Bethesda Masonic Lodge #204 (Maryland) in 1943 at 21 years of age. America was then in the midst of World War II, and he had already enlisted in the United States Navy. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 94. He spent 74 years Labouring in the quarries of our Gentle Craft. A lifetime Washingtonian and a graduate with a B.A. from the District’s George Washington University on the GI Bill, he always aspired to become a professional writer. He felt that studying English and Psychology were the perfect preparation to be a writer, as he found strong links between psychology and literature in works such as his favorite novel, Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. My father spent most of his career in a government position in the Washington area, which rendered him unable to publish during his lifetime. Only in his 90’s did he publish remembrances of and humorous poems about Masonry in Masonic publications.
at the heart of the teachings of Freemasonry. Photographs he took while in 1953 New York writing this piece as well as postcards sent to my mother in 1943 (which lay beside these pictures) accompany the following article. The recreation of the scultpure/relief at Rockefeller Center suggesting the Grand Architect of the Universe with Compasses measuring his creation was painted by his granddaughter, Cordelia Dreisonstok.
W Bro. Dreisonstok (PhD)
A Washingtonian in 1950’s New York City by Erwin M. Dreisonstok Behold! how swiftly the sands of the Hour-Glass run… New York on New Year’s Weekend was more than the narrow confines of a few streets in Manhattan usually seen by tourists. New York was more than a play; a trip to Rockefeller Center; a visit to Radio City Music Hall; a sight of fabulous Times Square. On Sunday, New York was Unreality. A tremendous fog hovered over the boroughs, and the grisly outlines of skyscrapers seemed spectral in appearance. There was an ineffable quality that produced fascination and awe.
After Erwin M. Dreisonstok died in 2016, I found New York was McSorin his papers a sketch he ley’s Old Ale House on wrote of New York City East Seventh—McSorwhich he wrote during a ley’s wonderful saloon visit in the early 1950’s. where in bold letters on My father had shown this a large stain over the bar piece to me a few years Photograph of 42nd Street by Erwin Dreisonstok. 1953 is proudly proclaimed: before his passing. At the “Good ale, raw onions, no time, I thought what a fine writer he was and what a shame it was he ladies.” An elderly man plays on an accordion such tunes as “My did not write and publish until the end of his lifetime. It was also of Wild Irish Rose” and “East Side West Side.” It is the atmosphere interest to me, as professor of English, I regularly teach a course on of Duffy’s Tavern1, with sawdust on the floor, corned beef and cabthe presentation of the city and the rôle of cities in literature. bage cooking in the kitchen, and the bartender giving free advice to argumentative costumers. The customers are a heterogeneous group Only after his passing did I realize the full meaning of what my composed of Bowery derelicts, displaced persons of several counfather had written and that it relates very closely to his life as a tries, a small share of tourists, and people of the working class. And Mason. In his description of life in 1950’s New York, my late father is a glass of ale is still ten cents. aware of the transience of life (a lesson realized in the Third Degree in the Emblem of the Hour-Glass). I first comprehended the poignancy of this after the passing of the writer himself. There is also a focus here on the common thread of humanity within the diversity of New York, that diverse yet common human experience so much
New York at another bar sees an intellectual bartender translating French for uninformed customers. In a hotel further on, a white and a black soldier from the same outfit are seen walking from a room
1Duffy’s Taver – radio show of the 1940’s and early 1950’s set in a tavern in Manhattan. For many listeners, the show epitomized life in New York City
26 The Voice of Freemasonry ISSUE 4, 2019
