What was your first big trip?

by Jim Stamp on January 11, 2022.

The first BIG trip that I remember was a trip in August of
1950. We headed eastward and stopped in Philadephia to
visit Henry and Dorothy Forsythe. The Forsythe’s were
dear friends of my Grandparents, Roy and Nova Andre.
Grandpa Andre had been employed for a period as the farm
manager at Dunwoody Farms in Newtown, Pa. (Philadelphia)
I remember going to the Meeting House that the Forsythes
attended. It was so large I think it would have held about a
dozen of the Winona Meeting House. (Quaker)

    This is the Quaker Meeting House on Arch Street in Philadelphia – 1805.
    This might be it!

From Philadelphia we went to Brooklyn to visit the Vaccarinos.
Mom’s sister, Ellen, was married to Peter Vaccarino whom she
met in the Army during WWII. Aunt Ellen, my Mom’s sister,
was a Registered Nurse and a Second Lieutenant in the Army
married Army Medic, Peter Vaccarino. Uncle Pete was a florist
in Brooklyn before the war. He tried to enlist but he was told
that he was too old. So, he joined the Medics where he met
Aunt Ellen. Before the war, WWII, he had a huge florist business
with many delivery vehicles. He gave it all up to serve America.

After the war, Uncle Pete and Aunt Ellen had to rebuild. I was
amazed at the clothes line that Aunt Ellen used. Her clothes line
went from one of her windows across the street above the cars.
I think it must have been on some kind of pulley system so she
could retrieve her laundry. This set-up covered the street.

    The ingenuity of people doing what they need to do…

Uncle Pete built his Florist business bigger than it was prior to
the war and they moved to Long Island. He became the florist
of choice for a group of people collectively known as the
“Mafia”. He had delivery vehicles that may have been the
precursor to the Chevrolet El Camino. Funeral and wedding
arrangements were so huge that they would not fit in an
enclosed delivery van so they were delivered in an “El Camino”.

When Uncle Pete and Aunt Ellen came to Winona to visit
Grandma Andre, they would spend a couple days with us
on the farm. Small town Winona and the farm bored Uncle
Pete to tears. To entertain himself he would climb the ladder
on the windmill several times. Just bored. But, he was a
really fun and interesting guy.

Our next big trip was to Ft Lauderdale to visit Bill and Betty
White (Dad and Mom’s good friends, formally from Winona.)
Bill had worked for Jenkins Nursery in Winona so he relocated
his family to Ft Lauderdale – then almost a new frontier, and
started his own nursery. We went to Cypress Gardens, Bok
Tower, Ponce De Leon Fountain of Youth in St Augustine and
the Spanish Fort at St Augustine – Castillo de San Marcos