Kendal View, July-August 2017

Kendal Kendal Kendal

View View View

Kendal on Hudson’s Bimonthly Journal Kendalon onHudson’s Hudson’s Bimonthly Journal Journa Kendal Bimonthly Journal

Volume 12 Issue 8 Volume 12 Issue 8

July-August 2017 July-August 2017

FYI

Norman Sissman takes us on an informative stroll among some interesting trees around Kendal and Rockwood Park. Pat Taylor gives us a biography of Joe Kratovil with emphasis on his contributions, as a senior administrator, to the great accomplishments in space of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This is followed by a sidebar briefly recounting NASA’s history, compiled by Pat Taylor. Eugene DuBow reminds us (as if we needed it) of some of the painful aspects of downsizing and moving to a retirement community.

Missy, a well known canine resident of Kendal, tells us about her background and expounds on some of the pleasures of her life here. Frank Neuwirth decribes how he and his army colleagues learned to cope with the myriad dangers of being in the front lines during the World War II Allied invasion of France and Germany. Also going back to World War II, Steve Kanfer remembers its famous cartoonist, Bill Mauldin. Finally, Martin Smolen briefly reviews a mystery novel in which the main detective is a senior citizen with memory problems!

Horst Berger assembled and processed this issue’s color photograph covers. On the front is a red barge going up the Hudson, captured by Horst. Inside the front cover is the ceiling of Carnegie Music Hall in Manhattan, taken by Bert Pepper. On the inside of the back cover is a view of the entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shot by Horst. On the back cover, Bert shows the Hudson behind a row of riverbank trees. Horst took the black and white portrait of Missy that accompanies her article; and Martin Smolin photographed the portraits of Joe Kratovil and the Kendal van drivers.

Correction: In last month’s FYI I misidentified the subject of the photograph on the inside of the back cover. It is a view of the Old Dutch Reform Church, which is a couple of miles south of Kendal on Route 9.

Norman J. Sissman

1

Overheard in the Bistro In last month’s column about my recent illness, I extolled the soothing characteristics of the Clearwater garden. Since I am still in need of succor, this column will continue my turning to nature for solace. Some years ago, I wrote about some of the beautiful and interesting trees around us, but since so many of you are new to Kendal, and this spring has been so congenial to our flora, especially in regard to the copious rain we have had, I feel it is appropriate to repeat and bring up to date some of my old comments.

So, please join me in a tree stroll around Kendal and in Rockwood Park. Even if you cannot get out and participate personally, I hope you will enjoy these observations vicariously.

We will start just southwest of Clermont, where our road turns from its eastern direction to continue north, paralleling the river. Just beyond the wall stand two tall trees worthy of special notice. The one closest to the wall is a yellow poplar; its most sriking feature, though, gives it its more familiar name, the tulip tree. I have been watching this tree ever since we came to Kendal eleven years ago, and have observed that the number of its flowers varies greatly from year to year. This year, it is positively festooned with blossoms from top to bottom. These are slightly larger than actual tulips; their upright petals are pale yellow-green with an orange spot at the base of each; inside these are abundant stamens of a sriking orange hue. The tulip tree also has a trunk that is unusually straight and tall, and the lightness and durability of its wood made it a favorite source material for carving canoes, by both Native Americans and early settlers.

Immediately next to the tulip tree on its river side is an aspen. The most remarkable feature of this species is its leaves. Each is attached to its twig with a stalk, longer than the leaf itself, that is ribbed, so that it rotates whenever a puff of air catches it. The leaves are bright green on top and silvery beneath. Thus the tree seems like a shimmering kaleidoscope of thousands of individual movements and changing shades of green, even, in a light breeze. Because of this, it is called a quaking aspen — an endless delight to watch.

As you walk north along the river sidewalk you pass many tall locusts. Their bark is black, thick, and heavily ridged vertically. They have many small oval leaves extending outward from each other along the

3

course of their tiny twigs. In May a profusion of small white flowers appears; these soon fall gently to the ground, sometimes almost covering its surface and giving off a slightly sweet and very pleasant aroma.

Walk further along the river sidewalk early in the spring and you may spot, on the edge of the riverbank slightly to the north of where the sidewalk turns east, a Paulownia tree, characterized by brilliant purple flowers that bloom before any of its leaves appear. It is commonly called the princess tree and is native to China.

Now it’s time to enter Rockwood Park, where we descend to the Lower Trail and follow it along the river.

As many of you may know, Rockwood was formerly the estate of William Rockefeller. Its grounds were designed by the famous Frederick Law Olmsted, creator of Central Park in Manhattan. Most of the old trees in the park were planted at the time the estate was built, around 1890, making the oldest specimens at least 125 years old. As we pass the first riverside bench (donated, by the way, by Kendal, and sited, along with about six others, soon after we opened, by Jim Wood and Tom Loemker) there is a young oak to our right.

It was planted a few years ago by the family of a former Kendal resident, Bill Shore, who was active in conservation and worked (with the assistance of another former resident, Bill Lichten) long and arduously in the park to uproot the invasive vines that are so widespread and destructive along the entire Hudson Valley.

About halfway to the northern end of the Lower Trail, a diagonal path, called the Middle Trail, descends from the top of the estate to intersect with it. About a hundred yards beyond the intersection, to the right, is a red oak, the largest and grandest in the park. Its trunk is over six feet in diameter and its luxuriant canopy spreads more than a hundred feet in all directions. It always reminds me of the famous oak under which the Magna Carta was signed almost exactly 900 years ago in England!

Next let us slowly ascend the Middle Trail until we come to the top of the park where Rockefeller’s castle once stood. As we gaze to our left at the eastern grounds of the house, we see a circle of ancient copper beech trees rimming the lawn. Their dark red leaves make a striking contrast to the multitudes of green shades surrounding them. Further south along the Upper Trail that we are now on, just past the old entrance to the castle, is a large weeping beech. Many of its branches grow down to the ground and actually send down new roots where they touch. This old beauty seems designed for kids to climb, which most of those who come by are impelled to do, despite printed signs that prohibit it. A unique characteristic of all beeches is that their bark is not able to heal itself if wounded. Thus it is a favorite tree for lovers (and others) to carve their initials and symbols of affection on; the inscriptions will remain as long as the tree lives.

Finally, on the right side of the Upper Trail, along one of the low stone walls that surrounded Rockefeller’s home, is a pale sycamore tree – or is it a plane tree? The two resemble each other closely and several residents and I have debated its identity for years without reaching a consensus. It can be seen clearly from apartments in Kendal, and many of us have informally adopted it as our own special arboreal icon.

For many decades, my enjoyment of trees has been enhanced greatly by a book written in 1948 by one of America’s finest, if no longer widely known, 20th-century nature writers, Donald Culross Peattie.

Prosaically entitled A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, it has been, for me, an endless source of information and pleasure. Peattie devotes a short (rarely more than three-page) essay to each species, seamlessly weaving into jewel-like prose not only the most important physical characteristics of each tree, but its place in the folklore and traditions of Native Americans and early white settlers, with comments on the commercial uses of its wood. Some of the facts in this essay come from Peattie’s masterpiece.

4

We live in an endlessly diverse and wondrous world.

Correction: In last month’s column I misidentified the resident whose idea led members of the Tuesday Morning Club to paint small stones with the names of various flowering plants; these were then put down at appropriate places on the ground of the Clearwater court garden. It was Ann Sand. Many thanks to Ann for her charming additions to the garden.

Norman J. Sissman

One Man’s Space Odyssey The boy lived on a small Midwest farm. In the evening after dinner, he would go out and study the night skies. He learned to identify many of the stars and constellations. He especially admired the moon and wondered why it was dark in certain areas and bright in others. It was impossible for him to imagine that several decades later, he would participate in the great endeavor to send astronauts 243,000 miles to the moon.

Kendal resident Joe Kratovil was that boy. He was born on March 26, 1925, in Cleveland, where his parents and older brother had emigrated from Czechoslovakia.

During the Depression, the family settled on a small farm outside Cleveland. When Joe was 16, he got a summer job at 35 cents an hour in a factory that made bedsprings. He heard about Cleveland’s East Technical High School, which offered a dual curriculum: college prep combined with technical subjects. He passed the test and was accepted as an electrical engineering major. Then he talked his family into moving from the farm to the city.

Joe was drafted directly from high school into the Army in June 1943. He was sent to the University of Nebraska to study engineering before being assigned to the Signal Corps for communications training.

He subsequently participated with the 8th Armored Group in the Battle of the Bulge and the capture of the Ludendorf Bridge across the Rhine River. He was also part of the liberating force of Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

Back in Cleveland as a civilian, Joe attended Western Reserve University as a math major, with dual minors in chemistry and physics. His first real job was in the aerospace industry when he was hired in January 195l as an analyst by North American Aviation, the premier company in applied technology of rockets. By the time he left eleven years later, he was in charge of proposals, pricing, and negotiating contracts for the guidance control systems for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Early in 1963, Joe was approached by the deputy director of the Manned Space Center (MSC) in Houston about joining NASA. The country was reverberating from the challenge laid down by President Kennedy calling for “before the decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” Now thirty-eight years old, Joe moved to Houston to be part of this challenge.

At that time, the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston was one of three centers being built. It was literally a cow pasture between two small towns, with offices in rented space in nearby shopping malls,

5

alongside the freeways and in the barracks of a former military base. It took nearly five years before the Houston MSC became fully operative.

When he joined NASA as Chief, Resources Management Division, Joe inherited only skeletal resources.

His first priority was putting into place the financial management of the new center. This involved establishing overall systems and controls, evaluating current employees on his staff, and meeting with all the other division managers to go over their current and projected workloads.

Once the center’s financial controls were in order, Joe was able to turn to the task for which he was recruited: to establish and operate an organization for evaluating ongoing performance of the Gemini and Apollo programs. These analyses would be based on voluminous data reported from contractors and their subcontractors concerning actual and forecasted expenditures, schedules, and accomplishments. The data would then be communicated to the program management. But first, the methodology for analyzing these data had to be established; once developed, it was found to require massive computational processing.

At that time, computers were in a primitive stage, extremely expensive, and very few were available for use. Fortunately, Chris Kraft, director of the Flight Control Division, was replacing one of the division’s computers and the old one became available. A computer program was written to process the raw data into formats that the analysts could utilize.

What was it like being part of what has been called the most massive engineering project ever attempted?

It was exciting, of course, to see the advances in the Gemini program that made Apollo possible. It also meant long working days and being there during tragic events, as well. For eight years, Joe was part of history in the making.

After Apollo 11, there were four additional manned moon landings, with the last (Apollo 16) in 1972 being the largest payload (a weight of 76,109 pounds) ever lifted into moon orbit. But Joe had already seen the future of NASA: budget cuts resulting in limiting manned space flights to earth orbit projects and to unmanned space exploration.

He left in 1971 and embarked on a brand-new career as Vice Chancellor for Business and Administration at the Board of Education in New York City. But in 1980, he rejoined NASA at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he worked on the shuttle program, which had started out as an earth science project before the telecommunications industry became interested in launching satellites.

Joe and Jane Kratovil were married in 1973 in Hastings. After fifteen years in the Washington area, they lived in Bronxville before moving to Kendal on Hudson in November 2015. From the beginning, they have been active: both volunteer at the Friday Morning Club in Sunnyside, attend seminars and lectures and take advantage of the offerings of the Trips Committee. And no doubt about it: they are one down-to-earth couple.

Pat Taylor

6

A Brief History of NASA On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space, a feat that astounded the world and put the U.S. on notice. In 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established by President Eisenhower as an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government, responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

In the ensuing years, the Soviets laid claim to many other space firsts: the first human in space, the first human to spend a full day in orbit, the launching of simultaneous flights. But NASA began catching up, with two short suborbital missions by Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom in 1961 and John Glenn’s dramatic orbit into space a year later.

Two programs, Mercury and Gemini, provided invaluable data for Apollo, the program designed to reach the moon – and to return. The Mercury program (1959-1963) combined research and development that led to a solo mission, while Gemini (1961-1966) resulted in the first space vehicle that could travel in space rather than just through it, the spacecraft being maneuverable by the astronauts aboard it. As part of the Gemini program, Ed White in 1965 left his spaceship to go outside. This not only bridged the space race gap with the Soviet Union (which had done this three months before) but also led to solving the problem of disorientation while in space.

The Apollo program (1961-1972) started off tragically with a fire in the Apollo 1 on-ground training module that killed the three astronauts (Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, and Ed White) in it. But subsequent Apollo missions chalked up great successes: the first time that three Americans flew in space together (Apollo 7); the testing of the lunar module (Apollo 9) needed to take astronauts from the spaceship to the moon’s surface; the first time (Apollo 10) a manned flight flew behind the moon and was able to maintain communication with Mission Control. And then, the ultimate success: the Apollo 11 mission, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their walk on the moon on July 21, 1969. This was, indeed, a “giant leap for mankind.”

The editors wish to thank Robert Mannion, a member of the Research Department of the Warner Library in Tarrytown, for his help in providing background material for the above.

A Moving Experience What can be more painful than root canal surgery, or walking a great distance with shoes that don’t fit? How about coming home with heavy bundles, putting the key in the door, and having the shank of the key break off?

These are all painful experiences but remedied within a short period of time. I would argue that for anxiety, long-lasting stomach problems, or consistent headaches, moving from one residence to another beats them all.

How come? Moving is a long-term grinding pain that can last for days, weeks, even years. It provides ongoing psychological dysfunction. It’s made for people who love to punish themselves.

The moving experience normally starts long before the van pulls up to the soon-to-be-vacated abode. It begins when you first confront the fact that you have to pull up stakes and live somewhere else. The reasons, such as health, money, and advanced age (there are many more), infect both the conscious and subconscious mind and find their way into dreams. There is usually considerable discussion with others resulting in a mixture of opinions about what you should do. Confusion ensues. Consultation with a psychiatrist is not out of the question.

Sooner or later you cross the threshold of logical conclusion and make up your mind that the deed must be done. Step two is deciding the answer to the question: Where? The process of gathering all the necessary

7

information must be prefaced by a realistic evaluation of your major reason for moving. If it’s age, health, or the proximity to relatives, the answer will be easier to come to terms with. Hating a noisy neighbor only adds to the anxiety. Not a good reason.

The next step is to seek out the place (or places) that fit the profile of the individual. There are many choices. Some people spend months or years going from place to place looking, evaluating, and being romanced by those trying to sell you on their answer to your problem. If an “over 55” place fits the bill, one can get a lot of free lunches or dinners while the sales pitches unfold.

Let’s move ahead and assume our “seeker” is of a certain age and has finally decided on a Kendal-like retirement place. The management wants to know about this individual’s health and financial status. Getting the information together and realizing that so much per month (plus the extras) will come out of his or her holdings, might in itself cause our seeker’s health to decline. However, he or she or he and she or he and he or she and she are made tough. They bite the bullet and sign up.

Does the pain evaporate? Hardly! Two major problems immediately emerge. When will they be able to sell their current house or apartment or get out of their lease? Which agent will they use to handle the sale? This process usually takes time. If it is concluded quickly, happiness reigns (for a while). If it drags on, popping a few “uppers” might be called for.

Let’s again jump ahead. All of the above problems have been taken care of and our tough-as-nails seeker is looking forward to a new life in Kendal-like surroundings. The selection of a moving company is relatively easy, the date is set, but a new black cloud appears on the scene. What and how much can they take along with them? Will the treasured vanity received from Aunt Sadie fit? He has twelve suits (ten of which he hasn’t worn in a long time) that still fit and cost a fortune. What do you do with these things? A house sale?

Get the kids (who have small apartments) to take some of the stuff or just realize and rationalize that some needy person who receives goods from the Salvation Army will enjoy Aunt Sadie’s vanity and Brooks Brothers top-of-the-line suits.

What this wonderful couple does not realize is that no matter how little they bring with them, it will still be too much and won’t fit. However, they will cross that, unhappy bridge when they get to it.

Moving day comes and the movers do their thing. They’re good about putting the furniture where they are told, but then boxes and boxes and boxes arrive and are left to be opened and their contents put away. Most new residents get the essentials put in the right places, but some cartons have a tendency to stay around and almost become a permanent part of the furniture. The closets and dresser drawers somehow seem smaller than in the old house and it dawns on our couple that a second cleaning out will be necessary.

I myself have gone through this set of painful experiences. After two years, though I have come to love Kendal, I still have clothes stacked up on top of dressers due to a shortage of drawer space. On the other hand, the apartment I occupy is really too big for me. I occasionally think about a third cleaning out and requesting a move to a smaller apartment. Dark clouds form in my already overtaxed brain, but I have figured out a solution. Here goes! I lie down until the feeling passes, as it eventually does. Is it a perfect solution? No, but it’s cheaper than alcohol or opioids.

Eugene DuBow

8

Missy My name is Missy. On the remote chance that you don’t know, that’s short for Mississippi. I was found wandering alone, lost, and very hungry, on a road in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina, by Bix and Bill Smethurst, with whom I have lived ever since. I’m quite sure, though, that I am not a Dixie dog by birth.

I have a very thick coat, love rolling in the snow, and my bark doesn’t have that distinctive southern drawl.

I am almost certain that a military serviceman, who had previously been stationed in Alaska, brought me down to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi as a puppy. As you undoubtedly know, the Gulf Coast of Mississippi is full of military bases, probably because of its temperate weather.

I am told that the main part of my mixed breed is Siberian husky, and that this accounts for the warm fur coat I am proud to carry around. I haven’t been asked to strut my stuff at the Westminster Kennel Club show in Madison Square Garden, which appears to cater only to those cranky upstarts who like to call themselves “purebreds.” I wonder how they would do, lost and lonely on the “road not taken” (just wanted to let you know that I read Robert Frost in my spare time).

I enjoy living at Kendal on Hudson where the residents and staff are very friendly and give me a lot of attention and petting. Indeed, I love it. I am especially fond of Gail, Lorraine, Richie, Howie, and Eamon, who treat me like a movie star, even though my name isn’t Lassie. Lorraine and Gail give me dog biscuits every morning when I come back with Bill from our long walks in the Rockefeller Preserve. My pals Richie, Howie, and Eamon are also excellent treaters when the ladies are on the telephone or otherwise occupied. Sometimes if I’m lucky I get a biscuit or two as I finish my afternoon stroll. What a wonderful place it is here for a canine looking for fellowship and an easy life.

I am not a trained and certified therapy dog, as I have the bad habit of barking when I shoudn’t. I try hard to suppress this annoying habit, but I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I am twelve and a half years old in dog terms, which more than qualifies me as a resident at Kendal on Hudson in human years Among my select circle of K-9 friends at Kendal are Suzanne Sadler’s Remie, Mary DeSantis’s Annabel, and, of course, Ace, who lives with Doris Appleby. There aren’t many of us four-legged canines here, but we add a lot of class and affection to the place. I am also lucky that Doris Appleby’s daughter, Karen, takes care of me like doggy royalty when Bill and Bix are away.

Mississippi (a.k.a. Missy) Smethurst

9

Drivers at Our Service

Have you noticed that there are fewer automobiles in Kendal garages than there used to be? More and more residents have decided to give up their cars and turn to our popular drivers Rich, Eamon, and Howie for their transportation needs. Following is a brief biography of the three charioteers – all of whom enjoy driving and all of whom find their KoH passengers “interesting and friendly and likable and usually, if not always, patient.” (That quote comes from one of the drivers, but we won’t tell you which one.) In addition to the sedan that’s used for short trips, there are also two 14-passenger vans. Each van has accommodation for two wheelchairs plus mobile assistance devices.

RICHARD (RICH) SHIELDS is our longest-serving driver. Born in Mount Kisco, he lives with his wife and daughter in Lake Peekskill in a charming old house that he and brother-in-law Coleman Hill (a former KoH employee) spent years restoring from dilapidation. Rich joined KoH twelve years ago after a varied career that included serving as office manager for Thomson Tax Publishers. While working at Kendal he began to grow the luxurious head of long silky black hair that is the envy of both sexes. He says his wife won’t let him cut it. Rich says the drivers sometimes have to refuse a ride to non-Kendal people who ask for transportation from the train station to Sleepy Hollow. He recalls one woman, carrying a floral bouquet, who told him she needed a ride to visit “my mother at Kendal.” When they drove past Phelps hospital she suddenly decided to get out. Since that incident, our drivers question nonresidents more closely to avoid deception.

EAMON BYRNE, as we all surmise from his captivating accent, was born in Scotland. In the town of Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland, which is known as the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie and the burial site of Robert Bruce’s heart. He holds a B.A. in Science and Computer Technology and started his working life as a computer technician. Eamon says he now dislikes computers. He had been working in the New York area as a drug tester for a Manhattan company when he came across a help wanted ad from Kendal. Eamon says he was happy to move from a job where endangered subjects literally threatened his life to a career escorting satisfied Kendal residents who are appreciative of his services. He now lives in Tappan in Rockland County with his wife and two sons.

10

HOWIE TAXIERA was named Harold at birth, but didn’t like the nickname of “Harry” and therefore insisted from an early age on being called “Howie.” He was born in Ossining and has spent sixty-eight years there, including graduation from Ossining High School. Howie worked in that community for the U. S. Postal Service and ultimately retired after forty years. He came to KoH as a part-time driver, then moved to full-time. He retired once again, but made his many fans happy by returning here after a couple of years in Florida. He now drives for us on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. As proof that Howie considers Kendal a good employer, he also works at our front desk in the evening to relieve vacationers. Howie and his wife are especially proud of daughter Jessica, who works in the KoH Finance Department.

New transportation guidelines have been issued recently, and our drivers are now available to carry us to medical appointments within a 15-mile radius. They’ll also drive groups to shopping locations in accordance with a set schedule that is published every week in Spotlight. These include weekly trips to CTown, Stop & Shop, and ShopRite in Tarrytown, Ossining, and Thornwood, plus assorted shopping malls.

The drivers also take residents to the Tarrytown Metro North train station as needed, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

They will meet afternoon trains by request, whenever possible. The last train pickup is 4:30 p.m. To arrange your outgoing trip to the station, sign up at the Front Desk in the book marked “Shopping and Trains” at least one day in advance. For a pickup at the station, call the reception desk (914-922-1000) and tell them your arrival time. (FYI, there are almost always taxis available at the train station. Even if you arrive in Tarrytown at 1 a.m., you’ll see a lineup of taxis waiting for customers. The cost is approximately $10 including gratuity.)

In addition to the above services enjoyed by residents free of charge, our drivers also carry groups to various destinations arranged by the hard-working KoH Trips Committee. These trips, mostly on Wednesdays, are posted each week in Spotlight. We sign up for them in the Trips Book in the hall across from the Computer Room. Trips are based on the cultural interests of residents. They include special exhibitions at museums, Met Opera HD Live performances, historic houses, sculpture parks and gardens. The transportation is free on weekdays; and a trip’s cost is based on extra expenses such as admission fees, tolls, and parking charges.

A few trips are entirely free, such as the visit this past April to Copland House in Cortlandt Manor. Special treats will include the September 27 Walkway Over the Hudson and an October 18 visit to the Storm King Art Center. Rides to the Metropolitan Museum of Art allow travelers to “do your own thing” in New York City until pickup at 2:45 p.m.

Muriel Fox

11

Battle-Ready When my outfit, the 821st Tank Destroyer Battalion, arrived in England, we were told that we were “battleready.” All of us in the battalion felt that we certainly were ready: We had been through the array of exercises, maneuvers (winter, summer, day and night), live-fire courses, and more.

Two factors were not included in our training: Destruction and death. So, while we were considered to be “battle-ready,” we still had a lot to learn.

When we landed on Omaha Beach several days after D-Day, we were bivouacked at a field close by. Our small arms, rifles, carbines, and the large anti-tank cannons had all been waterproofed with a very thick, oilbased paste called Cosmoline and it had to be removed in order to fire the weapons. Tired as we were from our very early Reveille and cross-Channel trip, we were expected to immediately have all of the guns in firing order. We were also told to dig foxholes.

Only a few cowards and ass-kissers dug holes. Most us tough combat-ready guys didn’t bother – those Germans didn’t scare us. When darkness fell and we had no light to work by, we all sat around shooting the breeze. After a while, we heard aircraft overhead and suddenly the whole field was bathed in a strange orange-hued light. The German aircraft had dropped illumination flares that floated very slowly down before extinguishing so the airmen could see whatever moved on the ground while their aircraft remained invisible to us. Then they started dropping bombs and all of us tough guys had no foxholes to jump into. We were learning.

A day or so later when we moved to the front line, we all dug foxholes. Our anti-tank guns were placed in position and we readied ourselves for combat. After dark, a German patrol came through and a firefight lit up the darkness. Off to the side, we heard some yelling and, believing that the Germans were coming, we started to fire our weapons in that direction, whereupon the shouting stopped – good! When morning came, we investigated the area from which we had heard the shouting and found that we had killed one of our own guys: A small crater was found near his foxhole and the explosion probably filled his hole with smoke that he possibly thought was gas – he must have jumped out of the hole yelling, “Gas!” We discovered that “friendly” fire is as lethal as enemy fire and that we must always know who and what we were shooting at. We were learning.

Dead German and dead American bodies began to be seen with regularity as those dead began to include our own guys. The summer of 1944 was hot and wet in Normandy and the dead deteriorated rapidly – the odor of death became very familiar. I remember lying in position with my carbine facing the enemy with a dead American a few yards in front. The heat and humidity were working their way on the body, which moved and appeared almost to be alive – gasses building up from decomposing tissue caused the movement and it was hypnotic. We saw a lot of death. We were learning.

Artillery barrages are a daily and scary event on the battlefield. Remarkably, one can discern whether the shells will fall short of one’s position, pass over it, or hit it. It takes a while to recognize the several sounds of the shells as they travel through the air. We were learning.

When one of our guys heard the sound of artillery shells that were to hit our position, he would yell, “Incoming mail!” and we all would echo the call and duck into foxholes.

Artillery shells might hit our position in three ways: ground bursts, tree bursts, and air bursts. While ground bursts were perhaps the most dramatic, in that they created a crater by blowing a lot of dirt into the air (and made great photos), if they didn’t directly land on a foxhole and kill the occupant, they expended most of their energy cratering, and their lethal field was relatively small. Air bursts were created by detonators timed to explode short of impact. Tree bursts and air bursts created wide, lethal fields of red-hot shards of metal

12

(shrapnel) or, in the case of air bursts, metal balls as well as shrapnel.

Combat brought us all together: Prejudices and other personal dislikes had to be discarded. We developed what the Army called “unit cohesion.” However, we also recognized those few men whom we could not trust, who did not “have our backs.” Among those few were some officers as well as enlisted men.

One officer, my platoon leader, a 1st lieutenant who berated us in the States as being unfit, turned out to be totally unreliable and, in my opinion, a coward. Given my distrust, I determined that I needed maps in order to extricate myself and others should he abandon us (as he once attempted to do) in a desperate situation. Among my duties was to act as his radio operator and messenger. As messenger, I managed to get back to battalion headquarters and to obtain my own set of maps. The maps provided me with the road network and general lay of the land: If necessary and if possible, I had my escape routes should the situation require it.

On the other hand, and since he was aware that I had maps and that I distrusted him, he sent me to deliver messages at night. Night in the combat zone is fraught with danger not only from the enemy but from tense and trigger-happy GIs. Driving without headlights and with only cats-eye blackout lights presented an additional hazard.

Even after acquiring such skills, the battle-hardened soldier needs lots of luck to avoid injury or death. Injury or death comes suddenly and haphazardly.

All this we learned after only about a week of combat. We didn’t know, nor could we know, that we had another ten months to go.

Frank Neuwirth

Bill for Service Going through some papers from my alma mater, Time magazine, I recently ran across correspondence from Bill Mauldin. Millennials have no idea who he was, but people of a certain age remember him well – in his time Mauldin was the most celebrated illustrator in America.

The son of an itinerant mechanic, Bill spent his adolescence in New Mexico in the trough of the Depression.

He had a knack for drawing, but on his way to art school Pearl Harbor was bombed. The eighteen-year-old signed up immediately. After basic training, Private William Henry Mauldin, rifleman, contributed cartoons to the 45th Division newspaper. When the unit shipped to Italy, Mauldin’s bold and sardonic drawings, based on his own battleground experiences, began appearing in the army newspaper, Stars and Stripes. The artist/ soldier’s cast of characters was small: two “dogfaces,” unshaven, battle-weary men known only as Willie and Joe, uttered most of the remarks that served as punch lines for the Best Generation: Willie to a medic: “Just gimme the aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart.”

Joe, digging a foxhole: “Me future is settled, Willie. I’m gonna be a expert on types of European soil.”

13

Willie to Joe, as they slog along, burdened by equipment: “Ya wouldn’t git so tired if ya didn’t carry extra stuff. Throw th’ joker outta yer decka cards.”

Joe, peeking out from his tent at a puppy shivering in the rain: “Let ’im in. I wanna see a critter I kin feel sorry fer.”

Joe to Willie, crawling through mud under heavy fire: “I can’t git no lower, Willie. Me buttons is in th’ way.”

Willie to an equally slovenly and unshaven Joe, as a disapproving sergeant looks on: “He’s right, Joe. When we ain’t fightin’ we should ack like sojers.”

Sergeant to Willie and Joe: “I need a couple guys what don’t owe me no money for a little routine patrol.”

Captain to fellow officer as they regard the Alps: “Beautiful view. Is there one for the enlisted men?”

Asked to describe these “sojers,” the artist wrote: “Their nobility and dignity come from the way they live unselfishly and risk their lives to help each other.” They “wish to hell they were someplace else, and they wish to hell they would get relief. They wish to hell the mud was dry and they wish to hell their coffee was hot.

They want to go home. But they stay in their wet holes and fight, and then they climb out and crawl through minefields and fight some more.”

Leaders of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan assumed that such green grunts, caught in the draft and sent far from home, would become terrified and demoralized in combat, and fall before the well-oiled German and Japanese fighting machines. The enemy never reckoned on the resilience of young Americans, whose grit, loyalty, and mordant humor saw them through the worst.

Mauldin’s gift was the ability to explain these young men to one another and to the folks back home. He had less success explaining them to some army brass, even after he had made sergeant. General George S. Patton, for instance, took umbrage at the portraits of slovenly and sardonic warriors. He summoned the artist to HQ in the European Theater of Operations.

“What are you trying to do, incite a goddamn mutiny?” Patton demanded. Mauldin stood respectful but firm, defending his right to articulate the feelings of American men on the firing line. Old Blood and Guts was having none of it, and stood ready to censor Willie and Joe. But the supreme commander of the European Theater, General Dwight Eisenhower, wasn’t about to let a four-star officer mess with an American NCO/ cartoonist. Ike ordered Patton to back off. Mauldin returned to action, drawing it as he saw it.

Toward the end of the war, the Stars and Stripes cartoons came out between cloth covers, accompanied by a terse narrative by their creator. Americans bought three million copies of Up Front. At the age of twentythree, the baby-faced veteran won his first Pulitzer Prize, for a cartoon that showed disarmed Germans under the guard of U.S. troops. Save for the rifles, there appeared to be no difference between exhausted captives and wearied captors. The picture provided an ironic contrast to the accompanying AP dispatch: “Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners.”

Shortly afterward, Mauldin made the cover of Time. Hollywood bought his volume and then recruited him as an actor in John Huston’s The Red Badge of Courage. But fame brought Bill to the edge of a breakdown, and he retreated to exurbia where no one could, or would, bother him. Then, in 1958, passing through St. Louis, he learned of a vacancy at the Post-Dispatch. Quixotically, Mauldin signed on. The following year he won his

14

second Pulitzer Prize, for a cartoon about Boris Pasternak, the Soviet novelist forced to turn down an award from the West. The cartoon showed two prisoners laboring in the Gulag. “I won the Nobel Prize for Literature,” the tall one explains. “What was your crime?”

Four years later, Bill joined the Chicago Sun-Times and drew the most famous cartoon of the 1960s. The day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the paper ran Mauldin’s portrait of grief: The Lincoln Memorial statue holding its face in its hands. Some 250,000 letters asked for reprints, and Jacqueline Kennedy asked for the original drawing and had it placed in the Kennedy Library. Award followed award, including a postage stamp to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, which depicted Willie and Joe. During this period, Mauldin described himself as “independent as a hog on ice.” He turned off conservatives by showing two government officials leaving the White House. Says the first: “Cable that idiot at the UN and ask him whether he’s working for us or the rest of the damn world.” Then he turned around and exasperated the other side when, after a trip to Israel in the wake of the Six-Day War, he portrayed Israelis in a series of trenchant drawings as valiant fighters surrounded by Arab predators.

Allied with no one, sometimes naive, sometimes overburdened with experience, Mauldin accepted the tributes with a modesty that bordered on bewilderment: Why all this commotion about an ink-stained wretch?

Along with the kudos came sorrows. Mauldin’s second wife was killed in an automobile crash while driving to meet his incoming plane. A third marriage, like his first, ended in divorce. Plagued with illness and infirmity, he left the paper and again withdrew from public life. Fellow World War II veterans, recalling the man who had come through for them in the worst of times, had to institute a countrywide search before they found their buddy in a California nursing home. Word spread about his condition, and grateful letters flowed in until his death in 2003 at the age of 91. The father of seven sons, including a Vietnam chopper pilot, Mauldin was buried at Arlington, among the heroes. It is where he belongs. After all, a great many American battlefield correspondents and editorial cartoonists have tumbled – and are still tumbling – from Bill Mauldin’s old Ike jacket.

Stefan Kanfor

Book Review: in Brief: Elizabeth Is Missing,

by Emma Healey. Harper, 2014, 323 pp.

The detective in this amusing thriller is an elderly Englishwoman, Maud, who is gradually losing her memory and is struggling to make sense of her surroundings. She is quite concerned about the inexplicable disappearance of her longtime friend, Elizabeth. Vague memories from seventy years before suggest another mysterious disappearance.

Maud’s daughter, Helen, wants Maud to give up her own home because she is having trouble managing, and Helen is worried about her. Her caregiver warns her about all sorts of hazards, particularly falling. Does this

15

sound familiar? She has trouble recalling names and words. She writes herself reminder notes, but can’t find them. Where did I put it? She finds odd things: cigarette butts, shells, and the like, and saves them. These are the clues to solving the mysteries.

A perfect tale for Kendal residents. It resonates, particularly the memory part. Maud could be any one of us at Kendal. And in the end, like her predecessor Jane Marple, Maud solves the mystery and exposes the culprit.

A large-print edition is available at the Ossining Public Library.

Martin Smolin

Kendal View Staff Editor Norman J. Sissman

Managing Editor Pat Taylor

Editor Emerita Joan Oltman Editorial Staff Gloria Cooper, Eugene Dubow, Doris L. Eder, Muriel Fox, Edith Litt, Deborah O’Keefe, Sue Phillips, Bill Smethurst Photography Editors Horst Berger and Caroline Persell Advertising and Billing Norman J. Sissman, Bill Smethurst, Jim Wood Kendal View is published by The Residents Association of Kendal on Hudson, a nonprofit organization in compliance with IRS regulations under 501 (c) (3).

It is printed by Accel Printing & Graphics, 128 Radio Circle, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549.

16

BETTY AMICO 914-962-5475 Seniors Transition Services, LLC strans1@gmail.com Reduce the Stress of Downsizing SERVICES OFFERED • Assist You/Your Family in Vacating Apartments • Pack Charitable Donations • Obtain Estimates from Movers • Achieve Maximum Tax Benefit • Work Within Your Time Frame Insured Call for Free Estimate 914-962-5475

Dentistry, as with other health services, is rapidly changing. Technology is constantly improving, allowing us to deliver quality care in less time and with less stress. Most importantly though, dentistry is still an art as well as a science. As a health service, the patient care is provided not only by the doctor, but by the entire office staff. Dentistry as a health service means properly placed restorations and courteously answered phones. Rapidly changing technology will not change this philosophy of service.

Peter J. Zegarelli, DDS - General Dentistry 87 North Broadway • Tarrytown, NY 10591 • 914-631-1800 Website: www.drzegarelli.com • Email: info@drzegarelli.com The Zegarelli dental office has been located in Tarrytown since 1982. We have been serving KoH residents since the Kendal opening day in 2005.

BOSTICK, MURPHY & COMPANY CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS P.C. Individual, Business, Trust and Estate Tax consulting, planning and return preparation We will meet at your home, office or at our location in Mount Kisco William G. Bostick, CPA, CVA Patricia A. Murphy, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHFC, PFS, CGMA 113 SMITH AVE. MT. KISCO, NY 10549 (914) 666-6336 (914) 666-0396 fax pmurphycpa@aol.com

We can assist you with your hearing loss, hearing aids, nasal and throat problems, and allergies.

Michael Bergstein, MD, FACS

Salvatore Taliercio, MD

Board Certified in Otolaryngology, Balloon Sinus surgery and Sleep apnea

Jill Zeitlin, MD

Board Certified in Otolaryngology, Specializes in Hearing Services

Fellowship Trained Laryngologist, Voice and Swallowing Disorders

John County, MD, FAAAAI

Board Certified in Allergy and Immunology

Jessica Comparetto, MA, CCC-A licensed audiologist

358 North Broadway, Suite 203 • Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 Tel: 914-631-3053 • Fax: 914-631-2807

Ear, Nose, Throat and Allergy care in YOUR neighborhood!

Call us today. See us today!

The

Phelps

Community

Pharmacy

One-Stop Pharmacy Shopping Prescriptions Medical Equipment l Sundries Our friendly, professiomal staff take the time to get to know each customer. We do more than fill prescriptions. We provide the best in over-the-counter and post-surgical supplies.

So stop by, say hello, and let us know how we can help you.

Open Monday - Friday

l

9 am - 6 pm

Located on the first floor of the 777 Building on the Phelps Campus Jos

eph

Parking is free!

Pa

ter

no

ste

r, M

S,

P H E L P S MeMorial Hospital Center RP

H

pHarMaCY

777 N. Broadway on Route 9 at Route 117

l

Sleepy Hollow, NY

www.phelpshospital.org

(914) 366-1400

FYO Accounting & Tax Services In-home service Tax Preparation & Planning Bookkeeping Filing & Organizing • Bill Paying • • • •

Owner: Jean Mayer, EA

Serving residents at Kendal on Hudson since its opening.

914-862-2305

jean@crotontax.com

25% discount to Kendal residents.

Pre-Season Tax Special: Provide your prior-year tax returns by January 15, 2017 and receive a free review and no-obligation fee quote.

P H E L P S Donald R. Reed Speech & Hearing Center

Comprehensive care close to home at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center

914-366-3010

Institute for Voice and Swallowing Disorders Craig H. Zalvan, MD Laryngologist

914-366-3636 777 North Broadway Suite 303 Sleepy Hollow, NY

Hearing Testing Hearing Aid Dispensing Comprehensive Care of Voice and Swallowing Evaluation and Treatment of Speech and Language Disorders Van Tassel

Cleaners

Your Great Expectations...

Can Be Filled.

GRAPE EXPECTATIONS

WINE AND LIQUOR MERCHANT

“Better Cleaners For Those Who Care”

Family Owned And Operated Since 1929 We serve over 70 Kendal customers, so you have probably seen our white and red lettered delivery truck making the rounds to all four residential buildings.

Dependable delivery and pickup of laundry, dry cleaning, clothing repairs and adj ustments.

Turn Around Service 631-7787

A few doors from C Town.

Free parking in the back away from traffic.

Knowledgeable and friendly staff will answer questions and help you select from the largest and most unique display in the Rivertowns. ❖ Competitive pricing and discounts. ❖ I look forward to having you join our many Kendal customers.

John Sarofeen, Proprietor

Tel. 914-332-0294

92 N. Broadway, Tarrytown, NY

Westchester’s Finest Clockmaker since 1951

Harnik Bros.

J E W E L E R S

Enrico Hair Care, Inc. Enrico Hair Care, Inc. Tuesday Enrico does hair color/cut Mondays - and styling Sandra doescuts mani/pedi and and waxing Enrico and styles Tatiana consults on color Wednesday Wednesdays Kim doesHairstyling hair color/cut and styling

by Kim Wednesdays through Fridays Thursday Friday Maria does & manicures Tony Thursday does hair color/cut and styling and Fridays Hairstyling by Toni Friday Fridays Maria does manicure Christina does pedicures, manicures and hair.

Call Callfor forappointments appointments 523-6382 523-6382 or or 922-1057 922-1057

Specializing in Watch Repair • Clock Repair Jewelry Repair & Remodeling Battery and Band Replacements Tall Case • Ships • Atmos • Carriages

Museum Quality Restoration Since 1951

All Work Done On Premise Free Estimates Pick Up & Delivery

914.631.3224

Harnik Bros. Jewelers 6 North Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591

WINNER: WINNER:

Top Top 100 100 Chinese Chinese Restaurants Restaurants in in the the USA USA 2007 2007 We’ve We’ve been been serving serving the the community community since since 1990.

1990.

Special thanks to our many patrons Special thanks to our many patrons for for years years of of support. support.

We’ll We’ll continue continue to to serve serve the the best best quality quality & & most most nutritious food with less oil, less salt & less nutritious food with less oil, less salt & less starch starch for for the the years years to to come. come.

“Your “Your health, health, Our Our Mission.”

Mission.”

17 17 Main Main Street Street Tarrytown, Tarrytown, New New York York 10591 10591 (Located (Located on on the the corner corner opposite opposite the Music the Music Hall) Hall)

Monday Monday -- Saturday: Saturday: 11am 11am -- 11pm 11pm Sunday: Noon Sunday: Noon - 11pm 11pm

Tel: Tel: 914.332.1625 914.332.1625 // 1640 1640 Fax: Fax: 914.332.1644 914.332.1644

FREE FREE DELIVERY DELIVERY

Tarrytown Floral Design For For the the past past 8 8 years years Kendal Kendal Residents Residents have have chosen us to have their fresh chosen us to have their fresh flower flower arrangements arrangements delivered delivered to to friends friends near near and and far. far.

Orchids, Orchids, tropical tropical plants, plants, blooming blooming plants, plants, and and kosher baskets, along with some surprises kosher baskets, along with some surprises from from our our new new expanded expanded space space next next time time you you call. call.

Each Each order order is is hand hand delivered delivered throughout throughout Westchester or by FTD Westchester or by FTD all all over over the the USA. USA. Do Do come come in in and and see see our flowers for our flowers for yourself. yourself.

Open Open 7 7 Days Days a a Week Week •• Call, Call, Click Click or or Come Come In In 7 7 South South Broadway Broadway in in Tarrytown Tarrytown 909-6393 909-6393 tarrytownfloraldesigns.com tarrytownfloraldesigns.com

Where Better Hearing 10% OFF Means Better Living Why Why choose choose an an AudigyCertified™ AudigyCertified™ professional? professional?

BBoard-certified

oard-certified doctors doctors of of audiology audiology

C

Comprehensive omprehensive hearing hearing evaluations evaluations Tinnitus Tinnitus treatment treatment Hearing Hearing aid aid orientation orientation

M

Multiple ultiple manufacturers— manufacturers— because because one one brand brand does does not fit all not fit all 75-day 75-day evaluation evaluation period period 3-year extended 3-year extended warranty warranty 3 3 years years of of batteries batteries

the the purchase purchase of of new new hearing aid(s) for hearing aid(s) for Kendal Kendal on on Hudson Hudson residents* residents* * Not to be combined with * Not to be combined with other offers. other offers.

914.290.4849 Julie Julie B. B. O’Shea, O’Shea, Au.D., Au.D., Owner, Owner, Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Patricia Patricia A. A. Martucci, Martucci, Au.D., Au.D., Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Donna Donna T.T. Ronan, Ronan, Au.D., Au.D., Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Debra Debra Skorney, Skorney, Au.D., Au.D., Owner, Owner, Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Jennifer Ratner, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology Jennifer Ratner, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology Lidis Lidis Pacheco, Pacheco, HIS HIS

Visit Visit us us online online at at Hearing-Care.org Hearing-Care.org

785 785 Mamaroneck Mamaroneck Ave Ave •• White White Plains, Plains, NY NY 10605 10605 Free Free Parking, Parking, Handicap Handicap Accessible Accessible

Angels on Call is pleased to announce that we have opened a satellite office located right here at Kendal on Hudson in the main building on Level C

Angels on Call has been a favorite of Kendal

Call 845-628-2255 today to discover why residents for over 10 years

Offering multiple services to augment the lives of you and your loved ones RN/LPN Services In-Home Assessments by qualified RNs Medication Pours HHA/Companion Services Attentive and experienced Home Health Aides carefully supervised and monitored by an RN Assistance with Personal Hygiene and Grooming Nutritious Meal Planning and Preparation Medication Reminders Companionship Respite Care Exercise Additional Services Escorts to Doctor Appointment/Shopping/Errands Conscientious Pet Care and Plant Care General Tidying and Trash Removal* Laundry and Linen Changes

Angels on Call, a passion for providing quality homecare to extend the independence of all Kendal residents

Call 845-628-2255 or email us at info@aochc.com today to experience the best that home health care has to offer

* Angels on Call is not a home cleaning service. However, if such services are required, we would be delighted to make an appropriate referral