
age: 1/13/65
born: Fort Monmouth, NJ USA
neighborhood: Highlands
speaks: English, German
Early Days
I grew up in a middle class town in New Jersey. My father retired from the Air Force after 20 years service and worked for General Motors. My mother was a traditional mother — she stayed home, cleaned house and took care of the family.I have two brothers and two sisters. They are all older than me. My oldest brother is 13 years my senior and sister who is closest to my age, is 5 years older than me. Karen, who is the one closest to me in age, tortured me. Of course, I wanted to be with her every second of the day. This created conflict and I usually ended up crying and Karen ended up in trouble. Of course, now we are very close.
I went to public schools. My best friend, Janet, went to Catholic school. I wanted to go to Catholic school with Janet, mostly because I liked the pleated skirt that she wore.
The neighborhood was almost entirely made up of Catholic kids. Most of us went to public school together all week, then CCD on Saturday morning and we saw each other at church on Sunday. When I got to the Junior High School, I was absolutely shocked to find out that there were many other kids who were Protestant and Jewish.
The core group of kids that I played with were my best friend Janet, her brother Joey, and Bernard who lived in between us. We played all kinds of games: tag, hide and seek, red light/green light, mother may I?, as well as weird games that we made up. The more hurt we got, the more fun the game.
Janet and I also played Barbies. We were very serious about Barbies. I remember when we were 12 or 13 having a serious discussion that we were too old to play with our Barbies and we should put them away. It was tough. We also played make-believe games. The favorite was “Teenagers”. Of course, our fantasy life of how teenagers lived was no where close to reality, but we had fun anyway. It seems our fantasy teenager games closely resembled the fantasy life that our Barbie dolls had. Rich, famous, glamorous careers, and a boyfriend in the background.
In high school Janet and I had tons of friends. There was always something going on. Looking back I’m amazed that we did as well as we did in school, because socializing was a big part of what we did.
Working
My parents were big believers in making us earn our own money. I started babysitting when I was 12 and have worked every since. When I was 14, I started working for my sister’s boyfriend. He has a landscaping business. I used to keep the garden beds weed-free. Then I worked in a record store at a flea market for several years. The best job that I had was working at the 7-11 convenience store. The 7-11 was on the way to school and we’d stop there for candy on the way home. And Daddy always stopped there for cigarettes or milk. Sometimes he’d buy us Slurpees. Well, I got a job there when I was 18.
Joe, the owner, was the best. He was from Sicily and he literally lived at the store. When he needed a shower, he’d go to his niece’s house. Joe was a real easy going guy. He wanted to be sure we had fun while we were working. He especially liked me. He used to call me his daughter. Sometimes he’d send me down to the nearby liquor store to buy amaretto to make our coffee more interesting. I worked for Joe until just before I graduated college. I loved it.
Cultural Heritage
My mother’s parents immigrated from Poland to the US around the 1910s. My father’s family goes way back to colonial days. Apparently some of my father’s ancestors were Germans hired by the British to fight against the colonial rebels. Even though a couple of distant cousins from my father’s family have done extensive research in our geneology, we didn’t talk too much about family history. My mother’s parents died when she was 10 years old and she and her sisters and brothers just didn’t talk too much about their family. I think it was mostly because of the grinding poverty they lived in; they just didn’t want to talk about anything from their childhood.
Living Lowell
My husband and I moved to Lowell in 1997. Lowell and Lawrence were the only towns we could afford to live in when we moved here from Georgia. I liked what I saw in Lowell — it was a city that was improving and had a lot going on.We bought a house in the Highlands. I love it. It’s just like the neighborhood where I grew up. Lots of working class families, kids who play out in the streets and the people are friendly.
In just the five years we’re living here, we’ve seen our property values go way up. I think much of that has to do with all that’s going on in Lowell: baseball, hockey, theater, art galleries, the National park, the Textile Museum, the Quilt Museum, Boott Mills, etc.
I’ve been very impressed with some of the renovations that have happened in town: the artist lofts, the buildings on Merrimack St. and the library. The festivals are fun, too: Winterfest, Be a Tourist in Our Town, the Folk Festival. They are all great. Family and friends come and visit to particpate in them.
Present Days
I wish I could say that my days were routine. My job with Habitat for Humanity has me on the road quite a bit. I am the regional representative for eastern New England so I travel to the local HFH affiliates up and down the coast of New England. I am also involved with church activities and I help some are nonprofits in my spare time!
Fast Forward
As if I don’t have enough going on… I hope to start working on a Masters degree this fall. I want to get a degree in Social Work so I can better serve the low income community. If I ever stop working with Habitat, I’d like to work with young girls and find ways to help them succeed.Lowell is a great city. My husband and I have no plans to leave. We’re both very involved in the community and want to see it grow and improve.