"Laylay byebye Rooney"

I am told I referred to my daddy as "Eee" and my mother as "Laylay." I am told that we had a somewhat unsavory janitor named Rooney at our apartment building (in Jackson Heights or Flushing, NY). One day my father came home from work and found me in the apartment but no immediate sign of Laylay. "Where's Laylay?" he asked. My response was, "Laylay byebye Rooney." It was a big family joke for years. I only know it by hearsay, and I never did hear where Laylay actually was, but I have the impression that I was mistaken about her being byebye with Rooney.

I do have at least one direct memory from those apartment days. I remember locking myself in the bathroom, then being unable to unlock the door. I think it was Rooney who finally got the door open and got a tearful, very frightened Philip out.

The Farrells

It was a bit later when we became friends with the Farrells who lived in an apartment across the street. The Farrells had a son, Jim, who was six or eight years older than me and a daughter, Barbara, who was just about my age. Barbara and I played together and she became defined as "my first girlfriend." I have pictures of us playing in the snow and I seem to recall playing "house" in her apartment. I quite vividly remember listening to "The Shadow" on the radio, because it was her brother's favorite program.

My parents kept in touch with the Farrells. Although I don't remember it, I find photos of them visiting us when we briefly lived in Bellerose with my mother's sister (Frances Schuler Cook) and her family.

Then in the WWII years they moved to Tuckahoe, not far from Eastchester where we were living in one of the first "Garden-type" housing developments, Interlaken Gardens.

By that time, at age 11 or so, the concept of "girlfriend" had some relevance for me. I thought we might renew the old relationship. However, when our families got together for an afternoon at the lake, I discovered that Barbara could not swim -- in fact, she wore water wings to stay afloat. The possibility of romance sank, never to be revived.

An important outcome of our family friendship with the Farrells was on the religious side. They were Christian Scientists, and they got the Sidels to venture into that world formulated by Mary Baker Eddy. Ostensibly, an understanding of our true perfection and infinite mind would rid my father of his very debiitating arthritis. My father went once or twice, then gave it up entirely. My mother and I continued to attend and to read "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures" much longer -- I continued through high school.