October was a bittersweet month for my siblings and me. We sold our family home in Kauneonga Lake. It has been in our family since 1962. Since the late 1920s, my family has had a summer home in the Catskills of New York. It was not an easy decision.
My grandparents first started visiting the Catskills before my mother was born in 1929. They wanted a place away from the city, a place that would remind them of the home they left. Grandpa from Trzciana, Mielic, Austria (now Poland); and Grandma from her home in Bolesslawiec and Viroshov in Poalnd. Grandpa told me once, that when he was in the Catskills he could think of his family, who perished in the Shoah, and remember happy times.
I don’t know the exact year that they purchase their first place in Kauneonga Lake. But by the 1930s they had a summer home and owned several acres of land directly across from Kauneonga Lake. Soon they started building a small bungalow colony where they would rent bungalows out up into the late 1970s. Eventually they sold off the bungalows individually along a road that is named after them.
Among the people who purchased the property were my two first cousins from the other side of my family. Thus, although, my siblings and I no longer own any of the property. We have family members who still remember the bungalows and are living on the property. Our cousins spent every summer in the Catskills with us, our parents, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles and many people who became more like family than just summer friends.
My grandparents had friends among the other colony owner and locals. We knew the plumber, the egg farmer, the trash man, the electrician and many of the business owners. In the 1960s my grandparents decided that they wanted an all-year house in the Catskills. They purchase a house on four acres that also had a bungalow. The house had been divided into four little apartments. My grandparents began the process of making it one home again. Enlarging the kitchen. Added on a one-bedroom apartment. Fixing the attic apartment and turning it into two bedrooms and a bathroom. They built a garage since they planned to stay there in the winters as well.
The best thing they did, in my mind, was creating the room that eventually became known as the stone room. It was originally an outdoor patio that connected the house and the garage. But in winter it was so cold, that they closed in the two walls and put on a roof. But kept the stone patio floor. The only thing they did that I hated, was removing the little eating nook that had a table and two benches. I loved sitting there. But it disappeared in the renovations and became part of a real dining room. Among the best permanent parts of the house is the wonderful stone fireplace and stone steps.
The most important thing they fixed was the furnace. When they first purchase the house, it had a coal burning stove and an open fire furnace. You could see the fire from the furnace through a grill in the floor. Soon that was replaced with a regulation furnace. The coal burning stove was lovely. They did not get rid of it. It was put in the basement where my grandfather used it to bake.
Everyone at the bungalow colony and in our family called it the Big House. My grandparents moved in and started renting their bungalow at the colony, and eventually we moved up to the bungalow behind the Big House. Leaving the comfort of the bungalow colony, but enjoying more space.
It was in this house that I learned to braid challah from my grandfather. He had moved some of his bakery supplies from his New Jersey bakery there. He baked for us and for the shul. I loved watching his technique. He never measured anything with a measuring cup. He would just put it up in his hand, shake it a bit and put it in the mixer. He taught he how to braid challah with one braid or with two. He showed me how to make a round challah for the holidays. But I never learned his recipes. Mom and I tried to write them down, but they weren’t the same when baked.
It was in this house that we watched the walk on the moon in July 1969. It was in this house that we watched the endless line of people walking up West Shore Road to Woodstock. From our house it was an additional two miles up and down hills to get to the site of the concert. We could feel the ground vibrate and hear the music and the announcements from our home.
Here we would lie on a blanket in the grass and watch the meteorite showers and sometimes see a flash of the aurora borealis, we would find the constellations. On rainy days it is where my friend and I would read Nancy Drew books. Our parents arranged to buy different ones in the series so we could switch when we finished. It was here that my grandfather and dad had a giant vegetable garden, and we all learned how to grow and harvest vegetables.
We would see deer, bears, woodchucks, rabbits, skunks and other forest creatures.
We played cards and mah jong, ate meals and made memories with my grandparents, parents, relatives and friends. The house was our summer world. And all year long we waited impatiently to return.
It was in our house that we sat shiva for my grandmother. She died in August, when all the summer people and the locals were there. I won’t forget it. The plumber, Ab, and my grandfather, Nathan, were best buddies. So great that when my grandmother passed away, it was Ab who took me to the hospital to sign papers and identify my grandma in death. My grandpa and my mom stayed at our house. I will never forget the ride there and the ride back.
It was members of the Catskills congregation of Beth El that prepared the house for the shiva after the funeral. And that the locals and summer people came to tell stories and remember her, along with our family and the summer renters. My grandparents, and my parents and us, belonged to the Congregation Beth-El, where my grandfather was a Cohen, so went to services often. As a retired baker he often made goodies for after service kiddushim. And I know there is a window that they sponsored. I think it is in the balcony area. We always went to the shul in Kauneonga/White Lake for the high holidays.
My grandfather died eight years later. It was November, so we sat shiva in New Jersey. It was 1989. He had over 60 years enjoying the Catskills.
After my grandparents died, my parents became the owners of the house. They remodeled the kitchen, and they added a screened-in porch. They enlarged the master bathroom and added an on-suite bathroom. Every wall they opened they had to update the electric from knob and tube and replace the plumbing.
It was this house that eventually we would bring our children for summer visits. And down at the lake we had a dock where my dad had a ponton boat. My children loved their yearly two-week visit to New York and New Jersey. They got to see so many cousins and go out in the boat and run around outside in the rain.
But since my parents died nine months apart in 2010 and 2011, we have not used the house the way it should be used. One of my nephews did live there for two years during Covid. Then it did have some love and attention. But for most of the time, it was used once or twice a summer for a long weekend. It was not getting the attention or love it needed.
Two years ago, we made the decision. The house needed to go to a family who would actually use it. With our lake frontage, it was the perfect home for someone who liked boating. This year we put it on the market. In August we had one last family weekend in the house as we sorted through everything and packed it up.
Then in the evening, my niece asked us to tell her stories about the house and the summers. My brother, sister and I shared our memories. We laughed, we teared up, we remembered our parents and grandparents. It was a great way to say goodbye to our house.
Even though the house has been sold, and another family now owns it, we have 60 years of memories that will never go away. And with our cousins still at Kauneonga Lake each summer, we have a place to sit on the beach if we like and talk about the past and plan for the future with our cousins whenever we want to visit.
With our children spread out across the country and overseas, our time as the owners of the Big House has ended along with our family’s long saga in the Catskills at Kauneonga Lake.
zicharonot 