A Trip to Chappaqua

In about 1957 ,my sister and I decided to visit our relatives who lived in Chappaqua, NY.  Our Uncle Bill lived in Chappaqua and had invited us to visit him. Mary and I decided to take him up on his generous offer..We packed suitcases and flew out of Cleveland Hopkins Airport to New York City,

We were very excited to be visiting NY and to be flying...We did not fly very often and considered the trip a great adventure...We were not very well mannered and cultured girls or we would have given some warning to our NY relatives that we were coming..I know that Dad must have warned his younger brother that we were coming, but Uncle Bill and Aunt Anna had 8 children, so they were probably not wildly excited by our visit, although they did come up with some activities for us. We did not have access to a car and were not sure how we were going to get around in the "Big Apple".

We wanted to go see all of NYC in about 3 days..Very naive' . Uncle Bill did get us tickets to a NY play and he gave us a tour of the NY Herald Tribune and explained about printing in as much as we were capable of understanding. (He was the chief editorial writer for the NY Herald Tribune).

We took a train into the city and Uncle Bill  pointed out a town where Maxwell Perkins (Thomas Wolfes' Editor livead) He also pointed out the UN building . Later he was to take us out to eat at an Upscale Restaurant, where Mary and I were able to order Alcoholic Drinks for the first time..(Mary was 18 and I was just 21) We felt very sophisticated. As a side note we did not know the name of any of the Adult Beverages at the time. I had seen people in the movies order Manhattans or Martinis..Uncle Bill said "I do not think you will like either of those drinks to go with your dinner.
Might I suggest a red wine?" We took his advice and really enjoyed our dinner at the restaurant he took us to visit.

We were in love with Aunt Anna and Uncle Bill's beautiful home in Chappaqua,,It was a huge white frame house and it really reminded us of homes in the movie " The Stepford Wives" (which we were to see much later..)

Uncle Bill was a wonderfully fun Uncle to visit and he helped us track down celebrities  in the New York Play that he gave us tickets to see..We got the autographs for Anthony Perkins , Hugh Griffith and Jo Van Fleet..who were featured in the play "Look Homeward Angel"..He even helped us run down Hugh Griffith on the streets of New York..Uncle Bill was 6'6" tall and had very long legs that were very suited to running.

Mary and I had a lunch at the Automat..We loved our visit to New York back in the 50's.