The Layout

Updated 2/18  9:30 AM

Swayze Acres was, in retrospect, a small development, especially by modern standards. It was constrained in size by cemeteries to its north and south, a steep ravine to the east, and Middletown Road and farmland to the west. Without counting the houses in Google Earth with my 70 year old eyeballs, I'm going to say there were close to a hundred houses.

They spread across six streets.

As kids, we couldn't be bothered calling the streets by their actual names.  To us, it was the 1st street, the 2nd street, and the 3rd street.  Close enough.

What did we care about addresses?  We had no need.  We also referred to houses by name, rather than numbers.  Say "Take the path next to Miller's house" and everyone knew exactly where you meant.  And where the path was and where it went.  The only numbers I had need of were the ones I needed in school, like my own address and phone number.

The development grew from Middletown Road in, so the oldest homes were on the 1st street (Lea Avenue).  The newest streets were the afterthoughts of Davis Drive and the Craig Avenue extension to the east.  Unfortunately, we had to refer to Davis Drive as Davis Drive.  We ignored the Craig Avenue extension and pretended it wasn't there.  It was only a place during trick-or-treating.

There was a large field to the south of Swayze Acres owned by St. Mary's Cemetery.  It was here that we kids spent much of our time either playing baseball on the one level spot, or sleigh riding on the hill in winter.  St. Mary's was also the location of the much coveted St. Mary's dump, which I'll describe separately in future chapters because of its prominent status as a treasure trove.  We found treasures there, and in another industrial dump which I will cover later.

Now, for argument's sake, let's round off the houses to 100.  That would be 99 moms (one house, the Yaeger house, was vacant).  A small handful worked.  So although there were a few hundred of us kids, we had around 95 moms watching us.  We had to work at getting away with things.

What is Swayze Acres?

Author's note:  This blog entry, like all, will be modified as more information is gathered.  If you have anything to add, please enter it in the comments.

What is special about Swayze Acres is that, in the 1950s, there was nothing special about Swayze Acres.  World War II had ended, and hordes of discharged servicemen were invading suburbia.  They wanted to make up for lost time and were eager to claim their American Dreams of homes and family.

Swayze Acres was named after the developer who began it, Mr. John Swayze.  He built his development a mile north of the village of Waterford, New York in the early 1950s.  Note- Need more background here.  He had little problem in selling his modest homes.  Most were two or three bedroom, with one bathroom and an eat-in kitchen.  Extras, like garages, were rare and usually added later.  Prices were advertised from $10,300 to $13,500.  With $575 down, a veteran could buy a house with a $68 a month (including interest and taxes) mortgage with CERTIFIED ADEQUATE WIRING for full HOUSEPOWER as certified by the Eastern Adequate Wiring Bureau!  Electric wiring that will bring comfort and convenience... modern lighting... plenty of conveniently placed outlets... and the use of as many electric appliances as you wish!  Call ARsenal 3-4832.

My dad, like most all Gibson relatives of mine and tens of thousands of others, worked for General Electric. After graduating from high school in 1947, he couldn't get admission to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his school of choice, even though he was a straight A student and president of his class.  Veterans were going to college on the GI bill and had preference over non-veterans. So he joined GE's draftsman apprentice program. Like all of GE's apprenticeships, the pay was horrible. But he met my mom there, so there was some benefit to being poor.  Marry a poor farmgirl.  She was a keypunch operator in building 273. They married on January 1st, 1950 and moved into a one bedroom low income apartment in Steinmetz Homes, in Schenectady. I was born on September 19, 1950. Whew. Cutting it close there.

My mom stopped working when I came along. Most mothers didn't work. Some did, but most were "stay-at-home" moms. They didn't work at all. Just house cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, making beds, washing clothes, ironing clothes (no permanent press), washing windows, ordering groceries on the telephone, cooking every meal, cleaning up after every meal, gardening, raise the kids... just your usual laze around the house stuff.

My parents bought their first house in 1955. I was five years old and about to enter kindergarten in September and my dad wanted a good school district for me. He also wanted to be close to his family in Lansingburgh.  He chose Waterford.

Their house was a Cape Cod, the other style available being a ranch. The attic upstairs was unfinished, as was the basement. Like most all homes in Swayze Acres, it had village water, a septic tank, hot air oil heat, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. A garage would have to come later, as did a paved driveway to replace the gravel one.

I don't know the terms of my parents' mortgage, but with 20% down a $8,240 mortgage for thirty years at 5% interest, he would have had a payment of $44 a month. Knowing my dad, he probably pushed it at twenty years and a $54 a month payment. Or maybe even fifteen years at $65. Who needed vacations?  My dad was very conservative financially.

By comparison, here are some cost of living figures from 1955:

Typical house: $9,100

Average income: $4,137 yr / $80 wk

Rent:  $87 mo

Ford car: $1,606-$2,944

Cadillac Model 62: $3,977

Tuition to Harvard:  $800

Milk: $.92
Gas: $.23
Bread:  $.18
Postage stamp: $.03
Sirloin chops: $ .69 lb.
Pot Roast: $.43 lb.
Eggs, doz.: $.61
Coffee: $.93 lb.
Milk, ½ gal. $.43
Potatoes, 10 lb. bag: $.53
Starkist Tuna, 6 ½ oz. can: $.25 lb.
Oreo cookies, 11¾ .oz pkg: $.39
Potato Salad, pint: $.29
Cracker Jack, 24 pac: $1.49
Apple cider,½ gal.: $.49
Gum Drops, 1½ lb. pkg: $.29
Ivory Soap, 2 bars: $.29
Mickey Mouse lunchbox: $.88
Slinky: $.88
Nylons, pair: $1.00
Home permanent: $1.50

Baseball Glove: $9.95

Bicycle:  $30

Movie ticket:  $.75

• source- Google

And to complete our dads' and moms' families came the rest of us baby-boomers.  Our parents had a lot of children in a relatively short period of time.  Swayse Acres had close to 100 homes, and with few exceptions, each had two to four offspring.  That is a lot of kids packed into a small area.  What could go wrong?

Reflecting back on those days, it was indeed a special time.  For our parents, and for us.  We had something special, although we didn't realize it at the time.  We had unique experiences growing up that not too many had before us or after us.  And we had the title.  Baby boomers, a term coined by old folks who wondered where all these children came from?

Introduction

I am a writer.  First it was magazine articles about boating.  Then it was a very successful blog about boating called Trawler Drift Away.   When my then wife and I gave up boating and became dirt dwellers, I started Bleecker Mountain Life.  An accident between my head and a tree (the tree won) cut that blog short.

Along the way, I started writing books.  First was a book about our encounters with our local Sasquatch (Bigfoot) that compiled entries from the Bleecker blog.  It is titled Living Among Sasquatch:  A Primer.  That led to more books about Sasquatch and about cruising down the east coast on my trawler for a few years.

I am lucky enough to have stayed in contact with several Waterford NY schoolmates.  Bob V. and Bob M. and I met for lunch.  The topic of writing came up, and Bob M. suggested that I give up on writing about my Sasquatch (only 15% of Americans are open to the idea that they might even exist) and suggested writing short stories.  My response was that I don't know as if I could write short stories since I tend to be very wordy.  My two 80,000 word novels only took me three weeks apiece to write.  I laughed at the idea.

But this morning I got thinking about my two blogs.  The entries are actually very short stories, which combined made several of my books.  Could I meet somewhere in the middle here?  Write short books, or long blogs?  Hmmm...

And what would I write about anyway?  I am best about writing about what I know.  What do I know besides living in the forest with the Forest People, or boating and living on a boat?  Well, over lunch, the two Bobs and I relived our youth.  We talked about what a great place Swayze Acres was to grow up.  That's it!  I could write about our childhood, and how the experiences we had were truly unique, for a number of reasons.

The only problem is that my memories have been clouded.  By time, old age, and a couple of brain injuries caused by concussions.  Hey, but that's OK!  I can just make stuff up!  Who's to know?  The only ones who might call my stories into question are my old buddies, and they're as old as I am!

Let me emphasize that this is not a historical tome.  It is better thought of as a historical novel.  It is an accurate portrayal of what it was like to be a kid in post-WWII America, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent and the facts twisted because I have rose colored glasses.

So, for better or for worse, here it goes.

Oh?  You wonder why I'm writing it in a blog instead of just writing it?  Several reasons.  First, my entries are automatically backed up for me "in the cloud".  Second, this blog will exist long after I'm gone, and when no one is interested in my books.  Third, blogs allow people to comment, like other folks who also grew up in this 1950s and 60s kid paradise.

So let's see what happens.

Dave Gibson