It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by our teacher Mrs. Matlock over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." Today we are studying the letter "W" and it just so happens I grew up in a little town in New Jersey called WESTWOOD. I've been gone from WESTWOOD for many years, but thought I'd take us all on a trip to my old hometown.
WESTWOOD is located in northeastern New Jersey and is a suburb of New York City. The population is around 11,000 people and it hasn't grown much in recent years because they have run out of room to grow. New Jersey is the most densely populated state.
My mother was born in WESTWOOD in 1920 in an apartment above Volz Hardware Store. The store was her grandfather's place and he and his wife lived above the store. He originally came over from Germany, settled in New York City, and then moved to WESTWOOD.
This is a picture of my mom Carolyn "Betty" Morris being held by her father John P. Morris in front of Volz Hardware Store around 1921.
Her dad had a gas station on Center Avenue and the gas station property backed up to Volz Hardware. Grandpa built the station himself out of cinder blocks. That's grandpa pumping gas.
My mom first lived with her parents on Bergen Street in WESTWOOD. She once told me that her father bought this house before he married her mother in 1919.
Then they moved to Lexington Avenue in WESTWOOD. This is my mom in the backyard. (Edited: I made an error. This picture is of the backyard on Lexington Avenue, but it's actually my mother's cousin Bobby Volz standing by the flowers. I was in a hurry and couldn't find a picture of the front of the house. I know I have one somewhere, but couldn't find it in time. So, I quickly inserted this one in the post and realized later it was Bobby and not mom.)
My dad was born in Jersey City in 1918 and moved to WESTWOOD with his family when he was three years old.
This is the house dad grew up in on Seventh Avenue in WESTWOOD.
Standing in front of the house is my dad with his father and siblings. From left to right is his brother Robert, his father William P, his sister Mildred, and dad William J. Durgin.
After my parents got married in 1943 her parents converted the upstairs of the house on Lexington Avenue into an apartment for them. It was during the war and dad was in the Merchant Marine and gone a lot. My sister and I were both born while they lived here. Here we are with mom on the front porch in 1947.
Then mom and dad built their own house on Mill Street in WESTWOOD. We moved there when I was three. This is a picture of my mom on the front porch. I'm assuming this was taken shortly after we moved in.
This is a picture of the house that I believe was taken in the 1960's.
When I was growing up Mill Street was a beautiful street with many old trees. This is a picture of Mill Street taken during the 1950's. I believe it was taken during a political campaign (my dad was involved in local politics). I think that's our 1956DeSoto and they were trying to show how difficult it was for cars to pass if someone was parked on the curve. The telephone pole in front of the car had the fire alarm. Does anyone else remember those?
This is a picture of my parents in the yard on Mill Street in 1999. They're standing in front of a shrub (that grew into a tree) that we used to decorate for Christmas with lights in the 1950's. We used a step ladder. Needless to say, it grew considerably over the years.
This is a picture of Mill Street that my mother took after a snow storm in 1999.
Over the years the street didn't change that much. WESTWOOD is still a town with many pretty old homes.
It was a nice place to grow up in during the 1950's. My friends and I used to play in the woods at the end of the street during the summer and go home for lunch when the 12:00 o'clock whistle blew. We'd spend hours building forts so we could fight the boys. I really don't remember any fights happening, but we sure had fun planning.
We would walk to our friends' homes and play with our Ginny dolls for hours on end.
When we got older we would walk downtown and shop at Woolworth's and have a chocolate Coke at Conrad's. If you've never had a chocolate Coke you're missing something. Conrad's is still there, so it's not too late.
WESTWOOD is still a pretty old town, but there are a lot more people now, the woods are gone, and times have changed. My mom died in 2001 and dad moved here four years ago. We no longer have any family in WESTWOOD. My husband and I do own property in WESTWOOD though. We own plots in the local cemetery and someday will return. :)
I did find this You Tube video about WESTWOOD if you'd like to take a look. It's very short, but does show a little of the old downtown area and other landmarks.
Thank you for visiting and now head on over to Mrs. Matlock's blog so you can visit some of the other students.
