Chapter Two

 I am still trying to get a handle on how to populate "my blog" with things other than the prepublication of the commentary on Crossword Corner. So I am going to add some content here and see what you can see, and then we will see what we will see together.

My earliest memories of life in Putnam are not my memories but stories I was told and some pictures I have still in my possession. I will return to the journey my paternal grandfather made which led the family (Hyman, Herman; Leona, Lee; Morton, Unc; and my favorite, Ralph, Roy, Dad) to the small town in the northeast corner of Connecticut where my brothers and I were born. 

Roy and Irene were star-crossed lovers; he was older and Jewish and she was young a superstar for the local nuns who had taught her and let her teach younger kids once she was 11 years old. Her entire schooling until she finally went off to nursing school at 18 was in the Catholic schools run by the priests and the nuns. The nuns adored her and assumed she would one day join their ranks and become a brilliant teacher and Mother Superior. I have to do more digging to get those pictures out, but today we will begin as she was off to Nursing School.

As you can see, she made friends there and clearly looked the part of very serious nurse to be standing in front of the 1930s Pierce-Arrow. She was not allowed to start nursing school until she was 18 (September  20, 1940) so she need a job. Her mother who knew how smart her daughter was and who taken her family see Dr. Morton Chapnick since the early 30s mentioned to the Doctor the problem she had with Irene unable to go to nursing school for two years. The Doctor who had been Irene's doctor since she 10 or 11, suggested that he he could use her as a receptionist in his Main Street office. and yes you guessed it, that is how she met Dad. We will relish more details but this was not a happy event for the Chapnick pr LaBrec families. Both tried forbidding them to see each other. Didn't work. Both thought that once Irene went away to school, the romance would end. Didn't work. The war in Europe was raging and both Irene and Roy enlisted. Didn't work. Dad had flat feet and Dr. Chapnick interceded preventing Irene from enlisting as necessary personnel for the safety of the community. Thus began the odd role mother would have in the Chapnick family even before she was committed to Roy. 

They did not see each other for a year or so, but passion burns bright even in the dark times of war. They wanted to marry, but how to overcome the religious and age difference. Luckily, my father had an "error" on his license which made him younger, so the age difference could be ignored, but what about raising children? It was the end of 1944, and her brother Harold (Uncle Brec) was home on leave from serving in France and North Africa. He told her he had seen what the Nazis were doing to Jews, blacks, the Gypsies and he knew it did not matter if the people were religious or not, if they were thought to have any Jewish blood they had to be "exterminated." She told her, if you marry him and you really seem to love him, you must raise the children as Jews so they will learn their heritage and if they face oppression or bigotry, they will understand why and be proud of their heritage.

So the decision was made, and on the anniversary of my grandparents wedding, February 1, 1945,Roy and Irene went off to the Courthouse at the Windham County seat in Willimantic and in a foyer (described by mother as a coat closet) they were wed. Since they were both still living at home, they agreed not to tell the family until they could find an apartment and move in together. They each went to their parents' home and mother kept the secret for almost 45 minutes. The shit hit the fan and they moved into 30 Gilman Street. It was bumpy but 13 months later David was born, and so the story continues.