Sunday, September 30, 2012

Russellton, PA

My mother's older sister Ethel Danziger Zuckerman describes the neighborhood where her family lived when my mother was born in August of 1915. She describes a town with four rows of houses including the one in which Laura Danziger was born.



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The entire Complex consisted of 4 rows of houses -- train-like -- with 4 lanes separating each row of houses.
Now to get down to basics. Our housing facilities consisted of one good sized kitchen with a wood and coal burning stove, a table and chairs. All our meals were in this combined kitchen-dining surface. Directly off the kitchen was a good sized room which could have been used as a living room -- but Mom chose to make this the main bedroom for Mom and Dad and baby Helen. It was also for the convenience as to the location where Mom eventually gave birth to baby Laura.

Upstairs were three rooms -- one for Frances and me -- one for Morrie and Howard -- the third room was used for storage, which by the fall of that year and new year we had picked enough fruit to cover practically the entire floor of that room mostly with apples but also peaches, plums, loganberries, raspberries and cherries were also collected -- freely.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Nikola Tesla - The Genius Who Lit the World

Linda and I went to New York to visit Eli and Natalie and to celebrate Linda's birthday on September 14th. We took the Megabus, which let us off on West 28th Street. We walked east on our way to cousin Martha Danziger's place on the lower east side and we came across a handsome bust of Nikola Tesla at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava at 168 East 28th. The church has a website with a very nice summary of his life and works.

I discovered that Linda and I were married on Tesla's birthday, July 10. He was born in 1856 and we were married in 1976 -- 120 years later. Be illuminated by coincidence.



So, where is he buried? According to the Tesla Society, he was cremated  at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, NY. His ashes were interned in a golden sphere, Tesla's favorite shape, on permanent display at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade along with his death mask.