Art, Sister Alberta Keebler

Sister Alberta Keebler

Volume 1, Issue 2 | Winter/Spring 2018 | THE BEACON 3

Robert Christian

New York City, with our home in the Bronx, was an interesting, stimulating, fun place for us to live, 1949-1966. Our four children, three girls and a boy were born there and experienced “New York City life.” Our fifth child, another girl, was born later, in Hong Kong. We enjoyed the Italian neighborhood where we lived. Our Italian neighbor’s home was right next to ours, separated only by a narrow sidewalk, walkway. The neighbors could look right into our kitchen, from their kitchen window into our kitchen, and vice versa. On Saturdays, they were always cooking up a big Italian meal for use on Sunday, when members of their family came from different parts of the city to visit them, and we could always enjoy the wonderful odors of their cooking. The man of the house next door grew his own grapes in his back yard, making his own wine, and storing it in a “wine cellar of his house.” There also were children in that house, with a family name of Lamentino, good playmates for our children. One year there was also the “hoola hoop” craze, and our children had the hoops too. One evening after dark, I too took a hoop, and was determined to make it work, but I soon got the answer from a voice from the dark back yard next door, which said, “Mr. Christiaanson, You no ‘shakeda so good’.” Our children also enjoyed the museums of New York City. In fact, our oldest daughter, Ann, age 10 or so, would take her older brother and two younger sisters on the bus and subway to visit some of the museums and other places of interest. Some of the things we enjoyed in the city was shopping in the big Department Stores downtown such as Alexanders and Macy’s. When downtown, we would often eat at an Automat, giving each of the kids a handful of quarters and letting them look into the many small food compartments, all with glass doors, to see what was inside, then inserting a quarter or two, and taking out the foods of their choice. We had major snowfalls fairly frequently in the city, and when this took place over night, Ann, who usually made breakfasts for the family, would get up early, and listen to the radio to see if the public schools were closing. If so, she would tell me, and I

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would go over to the school where I was principal, to answer the phone from parents who were checking if our school, Our Saviour Lutheran, was also closing. Ann would stay at the phone at home to answer the questions from parents who called there about possible school closing. Strikes were quite common in the city, and it seemed that the workers of service organizations would take turns over the years about going out on strike. This might affect transportation services, garbage collections, and other groups. New York City was a big sports city too, especially baseball, where there were three teams for a while, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Mets located in Shea Stadium in Queens. My mother and dad, who were living in Chicago, tried to visit us in New York City each year, and Arleen’s parents, living in rural Iowa managed to come out and help all the way from rural Iowa, traveling by bus or train, when each of our four children was born.

My dad was a staunch baseball fan, especially rooting for the Chicago Cubs, and one time when the Cubs were in town to play the Dodgers, I took him to the Dodgers Ebbets Field to see a game. In the 7th inning, the score was still zero to zero, when the first batter up for the Cubs hit a double. Well, New York City people were generally very friendly, but dad found out this was not true relative to baseball. When that Cubs runner got on base, my dad stood up and boldly cheered, only to find that the man seated in back of him took his rolled-up newspaper, hit my dad over the head and said, “You are in Brooklyn. That’s the only team you cheer for here.” All in all, The Bronx and New York City were good places for us to live. Our children had many playmates and our family altogether had many helpful friends. New Yorkers also had their own language twists and phrases too, and we somewhat adapted to that. When we left New York City and someone asked us where we had come from, I said we lived 17 years in the Bronx, and they might say, “Yes, your speech betrays you.” … Additionally, the years in New York City, with the varied cultures and experiences there, served as a place from where the transition to later living in Hong Kong was noticeably assisted.

Volume 1, Issue 2 | Winter/Spring 2018 | THE BEACON 5