There's more to Inheritance than money

My Grandma, Charlotte Baldwin Eke, was born in in England in 1872, a few years after the American Civil War!

Grandma's desk stands in the corner of our living room. When I was small, Grandma kept crayons and paper in its lower cabinet for me to use while the adults talked. When she passed on, I asked for and received the desk as my inheritance. I hoped that it might contain some clues about her life, her thoughts, her hopes; but no records remained in the small upper drawers. Grandma’s life probably seemed so ordinary that she didn’t think it worth recording; but I would love to be able to take a peak into her everyday life.

My life seems pretty ordinary to me too...but, perhaps it would be interesting to someone who follows after. I was a child, teenager, college student, bride, mother, and grandmother during the 20th century. and I am still here, welcoming some changes, rejecting others.

According to Ancestry.com, Grandma was probably born in Aylsham, Norwich, Norfolk, England. I remember her as a slender woman, never topping 5 ft. tall. As a child, I called her “my little Grandmother”. (My other grandmother passed one before I was born.) Charlotte wore her long black hair pulled back, into a French knot. When she was young her hair was black; when I was young, her hair turned white. She lived to see the birth of seven great-grandchildren (Grandma passed away in at the age of 93.)

Grandma and Grandpa immigrated to the United States from England. They arrived so close to my father’s birth that Grandma was immediately taken from Ellis Island (an immigration center in New York harbor) to a New York City “lying-in hospital” where she gave birth to my father on April 18, 1893. The hospital was located where Sterns Department Store later stood. Dad joked that he was born in Stern’s “bargain basement.”

I grew up believing my grandfather’s name was George, like my father, but there was some fuzzy stuff there. When grandpa died, all his papers read “Daniel, known as George.” He and Mary H, entered the US legally in1893 but I never heard of Mary H. Dad’s sister, my Aunt Ella was the only sibling I knew.

I guess there are always a few stories that go around in families that are more urban legends than factual history. With everyone gone but me, I can’t tell which ones are true and which are not. It bothers me not to know the difference; but I’m going to share a few with you.

Grandma and Grandpa came to the United States “steerage.” Grandpa’s brothers left England first and went to Australia. Either Grandma and Grandpa weren’t free to make that choice or they had a poor knowledge of geography, maybe both. Think of this, I could have been an “Aussie;” although, my Mother wouldn’t have been in the same hemisphere, Come to think of it, I might not have been born at all. What slender threads weave our existence!

They started out in NYC's "Hell’s Kitchen," But, one day, the story goes, Grandpa saw a team of runaway horses pounding wildly down a New York street, dragging a fancy carriage. Granddpa "brought the horses down” and stood holding the reins of the sweating beasts when a liveried gentleman came running after them. This man was very grateful that my Granddad had captured the animals and offered to take him to “the Master” to see if he would provide a job for Granddad.

Apparenty this gentleman and his friends were in the process of building a golf course ..so Granddad started with a shovel in his hand, but ended up managing the Shelter Island golf course and, in later years, several others

My Dad went to high school in Rye, NY and sang in the boys’ choir of the local Episcopal Church. Years later I attended a wedding in that same church. When the guests were invited to come forward for communion, I realized that my father had probably knelt at that same rail. It was a marvelous thought...welding us together although he had gone home to the Lord many years before.

Dad’s first boyhood job was driving a horse and wagon delivering bakery goods. Cars hadn’t been invented when Charlotte was born, but they came along while she was still living. Granddad purchased an early “Model T” made by Henry Ford. He used to tell how he filled his car radiator with water from grandma’s kettle. One morning, he put the kettle down on the running board and forgot about it. He drove to town and back and when he got home the kettle was still there.

I don’t know how fast he drove; but my mother later complained that I was speeding if I drove over 25 mph. Last week I drove home from North Carolina at around 60 mph. Of course, the car I drive (a Mazda Protégé 5) is modern and the roads are much improved. Grandpa’s car probably cost around $300. Mine, an inexpensive model for 2002, cost $17,000. It could have been an automatic drive, but I prefer to drive a standard “five on the floor.” It burns gasoline for fuel and gets close to 40 miles to the gallon on long distance trips. Locally, it gets around 30 miles to the gallon..

As George grew up he became fascinated with a new and promising idea…. radio transmission. He continued this interest throughout his life and spent hours in the family attic, first tapping way with a wireless key and later speaking on a short-wave radio, using his call numbers, W2EU.

Grandma enjoyed one of the first crystal radios built by my dad. She also enjoyed early television and even flew on a commercial airplane to Florida.

George (after I became an adult we all called my dad “George“) was involved with the early development of ground-to-air communications. Seated in the cockpit of one of the first commercial airplanes, he noticed sparrows passing the plane, flying in the same direction and accurately predicted that mankind had just begun to develop air travel.

I remember (as a child) running around a big meadow in the Watchung Reservation, moving wires and changing their patterns as small Army airplanes flew over Dad’s experiments.

Years later George and I sat together and watched the TV coverage of the first moon walk. It was certainly a monumental moment in history. Not only did it accurately fill his prediction, but also spanned his life, from a horse-drawn bakery wagon and home-built crystal-set radios to outer space television.

I was in college when the first television sets appeared. My mother and I went down to watch one in a store window. Home sets had very small screens…about 12 inches across…and were very expensive. A few years after they began to be popular, my father was taken ill and confined to bed. I bought a black and white (that’s all there was) television with my summer’s earnings so that he would have something to watch while he lay in bed. Unfortunately, he was afraid to sleep in the room with the cathode ray tube, so the set was installed downstairs in the living room. I spent hours sitting on the stairs, relating what was happening on the TV screen in the room below. After a few weeks the doctor said that he could go down stairs once a day and join the fun.

I was married and had children before the invention of the first personal computers. My husband, Roland, helped install one of the first commercial computers; it took up an entire floor in the AT&T building in White Plains, NY. The portable computer that I’m using has more memory than that giant creation. I doubt that my grandmother even dreamed of such contraptions.

The differences between Grandma’s life-style and mine are amazing and continue to change. Cell phones, GPS’s, Satellites, power tools, jet airlines, submarines, Ipods, etc. Every day seems to bring a new invention.

Even our clothing has changed. I don’t think Grandma ever wore trousers; I live in slacks and “jeans” on a daily basis. Grandma always seemed to be wrapped in an over sized apron, making tea in the kitchen. Until the day he died, Grandpa put on a white shirt, jacket and tie every morning.

My father frequently brought his mother a rose, which she kept in a silver vase. As a child, I remember visiting my grandparents. At that time they managed a golf club near Nyack, NY. My grandmother served the gentlemen who sat in the club bar watching a ticker tape machine, which was connected with Wall Street. Instead of monetary tips, they gave her tips on stock investments. She didn’t have much money to invest; but when we heard that Grandma was buying, the whole family bought. When Grandma sold, the family sold.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived in the United States with the clothes on their backs and their heads full of dreams, hoping that this country would offer them opportunities and it did. They never became rich by monetary standards; but they raised their children with dignity, owned their own home, and were able to support themselves. They lived through the great depression; but I don’t think they ever thought of themselves as poor. They certainly weathered many changes and adapted to them without losing their values.

My grandparents did not enjoy education beyond the basic six (maybe less.) My father was the first high school graduate in the family. A self-taught engineer, his expertise in communications led him work first with Western Electric and later for AT&T. I am the family‘s first college graduate.

After Grandpa passed on, Grandma went to live with her daughter in Florida. My dad visited her regularly. Immediately following his last week long visit she called and asked him to return. He did and they had another few days together. She took a nap after he left, and never woke up.

My dad passed on eleven years later at seventy-seven. His sense of adventure encouraged me to embrace life.