Monday, January 16, 2006

Fishcake leftovers

My college roommate from the 70's sent me the URL for your web site where I read about Orchard Mansion. It transported me back to the days when I was a busboy, waiter and eventually head waiter at the resort. I even started to write a book about my experiences there and hope someday to finish it.

I started working there when I had turned 14 and lied about my age. I told Herbie I had just turned 16, but I don't think he really believed me. Back then you didn't have to show proof of age or ID. I also worked in the soda shop which was run by Herb's sister the ever-nervous Lena. Max the baker made all of those great rolls and pastries that we all ate (or stole).

I also used to do an entertainment gig for a couple of years at night with another waiter and busboy. We were the Others Brothers and Mike.

Orchard Mansion and the people who stayed there were exactly as you describe it on your web site. Most of the guests were so nice and they took very good care of the dining room staff, by sneaking us extra food.

Herb and Rosie operated on a very low profit margin (which I didn't realize back then), and they didn't want any of the food wasted. That's an entirely different story, but I will say this: there was very little fish in the fishcakes served on Friday, but lots of other stuff, some of which were leftovers from earlier in the week.

I could go on and on, but hopefully I'll do that someday when I finish the book. Thanks for bringing a bit of my past back to me through your web site.

--Paul Shatsoff, Slingerlands, NY

Monday, January 02, 2006

Fresh cream and more in the country


When I was born, in 1921, Moodus was already operating as a sort of resort. I don't know how she ever made contact with them, but my grandmother was already 'vacationing' there, in what everybody called 'the country.' We have a few pictures of her and her daughters taken in Moodus about that time.

As I was growing up, not yet in my teens, I knew that Grandma 'went to the country' every spring, for the month of June. She always went to Harry Greenberg's place. When it became Grand View, I don't recall. I do recall that the 3-story hotel which you see in the brochures was built later, probably about 1930 to 1935. And the swimming pool was built about the same time.

The place was owned by Harry Greenberg, its phone number was "Moodus 1," and it was run by Harry and his wife and their numerous children. I knew them all -- Gertie and George and Maish, the oldest three, and then Rozzie, and Florrie, and the youngest, who was about 8 years younger than I was, "Ginnie." Harry's brother Aaron had a place in Moodus, also, but it was competitive, and I don't think they got along.

Grandma must have been one of their earliest guests, and they treated her like a member of the family, or even better, like a queen. All of our family were treated like family. I remember that every afternoon around 4, Mama Greenberg would "invite" me into the kitchen to sit at the table while she poured milk from a pitcher taken from the refrigerator, and gave me milk and a plate of cookies. Homemade, of course.

Grandma stayed the whole month of June, every year, and we would drive up from New York around July First to get her. She always left before the "tourists" arrived. We were never there 'in season.' Grandma wasn't that kind of a person. When the tourists arrived on July 3rd or 4th, she was gone.

Harry was basically a dairy farmer. All the milk, cream, butter, eggs, and vegetables came from right on the grounds. Out back, behind the 'big house' was a mighty large meadow, and a barn at one end.

The ritual was always the same. Every morning they (Harry and the kids) milked the cows, and then led them out to the field. Late in the day, they went out and brought in the cows, led them into the barn, and milked them again. The milk went into huge cans, I'd estimate maybe 15 gallons or so, and they went into the 'ice box' (a big room next to the kitchen).

Eventually, when it settled and cooled, I imagine that they must have skimmed off the cream, but the milk I got with the cookies was as thick as the 'half and half' that is now served (sometimes) with coffee in better restaurants. There certainly was no pasteurization, but I figure that there was some sort of inspection and certification.

The swimming pool in the brochures was interesting. I was there before it existed, and was a client-gathering addition, "Up the hill, near Banner Lodge," a more swinging and less "haimish" place.

They changed the water in the pool at regular intervals, but I don't know what intervals. I suppose that the water was filtered, but I can tell you that it was heated only by the Sun and the Earth's atmosphere. When they drained the pool and refilled it with fresh mountain spring water, you waited a few days before you dipped even your toe in it.

The 3-story hotel in the pictures had another innovation: indoor plumbing with bathrooms on every floor. I can't recall whether each room had running water at all.

Well, with that amount of recollections, I will close this rambling series of observations.

--William B. Lurie

  I am pleased to announce that the new local history website EastHaddamStories.org is now live. It is a project of the East Haddam Historic...