edward schall -...

Edward Schall Audio Life Chronicle

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StoryKeep Edward Schall

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The enclosed recordings contain histories, memories and stories told by Edward Schall, as well as a series of recordings with his four children: Ellen, Richard, Lawrence and Steven. These recordings were conducted over the course of seven sessions during the spring of 2012 by StoryKeep cofounder Jamie Yuenger. All sessions, apart from one phone interview with Lawrence Schall, were conducted in the home of Edward Schall, at 70 East 10th Street, New York, New York.

The below descriptions were written by StoryKeep founders Jamie Yuenger and Lisa Madison. The recording devices used include a Marantz PMD661 audio recorder, Tram TR50 microphone, Scheops CMC 6 microphone and a Røde NGT-2 micro-phone. The phone interview with Lawrence Schall was conducted over Skype.

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FAMILY RELATIONS

Many of family members listed below are spoken of in the enclosed recordings. This is not a complete record of family relations. The list is organized by generation, with each genera-tion divided by asterisks. Abraham Fishel Schall Father to Edward Schall b. d. Regina Schall (née Mauskopf) Mother to Edward Schall b. d. Married on __________ (date?) in ____________ (location?).

****Ruth Epstein (née Schall) Sister to Edward Schall b. d. Herbert Epstein Brother-in-Law to Edward Schall b. d. Married on __________ (date?) in _______ (location?)_____


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Edward William Schall Primary Speaker b. June 15, 1918 in Yonkers, New York Rhoda Lee Schall (née Miller) b. d. Married on ___________ (date?) in _____________ (location?).

****

Edward and Rhoda’s Children Ellen _____Schall, married to Steve ____Kelban, “Kelly”

b. _______ (date?) in ___________ (location?)

Richard Miller Schall, married to Marie Witwicki Schall

b. ________ (date?) in ____________ (location?)

Lawrence Miller Schall, married to Betty ____ Londergan b. _________ (date?) in ___________ (location?)

Steven Miller Schall, married to Alyce ____ Russo b. _________ (date?) in ___________ (location?)

****

Richard and Marie’s Children Benjamin Witwicki Schall, married to Jeannie Mun b. March 20, 1972 in _____ (location?) Michael Witwicki Schall b. April 21, 1977 in ______ (location?)

Lawrence and Betty’s Children Jaime ____ Schall b. _____ (date?) in ______ (location?) Lindsey ____ Southworth b. _____ (date?) in ______ (location?) Lulu _____ Londergan b. _____ (date?) in ______ (location?) Tyler ____ Schall b. _____ (date?) in ______ (location?)

Steven and Alyce’s Child Nathaniel ____ Russo b. _____ (date?) in ______ (location?)

****Benjamin and Jeannie’s Child Miller Mun Schall b. June 26, 2010 in ______ (location?)


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TRACK TITLES TIME

21 Nathaniel’s Musical 2:0622 Phone Call with Ellen 0:3023 Ellen Lent 4:1724 The Talk 6:2525 Larry Ref lects on His Mom’s Passing 1:1726 Private Eddie Schall 10:47

TRACK TITLES TIME

1 Early Life and the Family Store, Schall’s 6:49 2 Summer Camp 19:20 3 High School Debate Team 3:24 4 Princeton and Harvard 9:28 5 Fort Dix and Courting Rhoda 8:03 6 Beach Haven 4:52 7 Ruth Schall and Seymour Epstein 2:40 8 Family Finances 3:14 9 Misplacing Children & Ellen’s Camp Letter 3:2810 Wilmington, Delaware 7:1911 Hamilton Bar & Grill in Trenton 1:5512 The Knicks, Connie Mack and Princeton 4:5913 Family Life and Special Dinners 9:4614 Discipline 1:5115 TV Repair 1:0316 Representing Mr. Balser 4:0117 Ed Speaks about Rhoda’s Passing 1:0118 Sensational Children 2:3319 Benjamin, Jeanne and Miller 2:1420 Dinner with Grandson Tyler 2:09


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1 Early Life and the Family Store, Schall’s Edward William Schall was born on June 15, 1918, in Yonkers, NY. His parents were Abraham Fishel Schall and Regina Mauskopf Schall. When Ed was one and a half years old, his family moved to Morristown, New Jersey, where Ed and his older sister Ruth grew up. In _____ (date?), his parents decided to open Schall’s, a credit clothing and furniture store that they eventually owned and ran for over twenty years. He and Ruth attended public school until Ed left for college and Ruth became engaged.

Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Richard and Ellen bring over an origi-nal metal sign from Schall’s credit store. Ed explains how his parents’ credit store functioned and names some of the individual men who worked as credit collectors for the store.

2 Summer Camp From the age of ten, in 1929, until his early twenties, Ed attended Camp Mohican, an all-boys Jewish summer camp located on the beautiful, spring-fed Lake Aladdin, situated five miles from Palmer, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Mountains. Camp Reena, the all-girls camp, was located on the opposite side of the lake. In 1935, the rate for the full summer at camp, including laundry, instruction and everything else save transportation, was $250.

Camp was incredibly important to Ed. He looked forward to it all year and made life-long friends at camp. It was a superbly comforting experience for him to be surround-ed by other Jewish children. After services on Saturday, the boy campers were allowed to walk over to the girls’ camp to visit their sisters and girlfriends. Ed remembers one particular girl, “She had thirty-two bathing suits.”

Senior Basketball Team at Camp Mohican, 1934 (Ed is in the seated row, far left)


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Camp continued to be an important part of Ed’s life. In his twenties, Ed became a camp counselor in Maine. In the summer of 2012, two alumni from Camp Mohican made a trip to New York to have lunch with Ed and a few other camp alumni. The group of men had a splendid time reminiscing about their experiences. The camp was eventually sold.

Ed in conversation with Steve: While looking through old yearbooks from Camp Mohican, Ed points out some of his good friends from camp. He speaks of Seymour Epstein, his childhood best friend. (Seymour’s brother eventually married Ed’s sister Ruth.) Ed thinks he was the skinniest of the boys. In 1934, Ed was voted “Best Char-acter.”

3 High School Debate Team Ed was the President of the Debate Team and Drama League at Morristown High School. The team held debates outdoors in the school’s football stadium. As the valedictorian of his senior class, Ed gave a speech at his graduation ceremony. When he joined the Army, he left his high school ring and fountain pen at home with his parents.

4 Princeton and Harvard Ed was valedictorian of his high school class, a student body of approximately three-hundred. He entered Princeton University, forty miles away from his hometown, in 1935. During his freshman year, he lived in a boarding house with three other students. He majored in Government. Over the years, he came to doubt whether Princeton was the right school for him. Princeton was still an all–boys university at the time. He tried out for basketball but didn’t make the team. After graduating from

Ed in Uniform at Fort Dix New Jersey, March 1943


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Princeton, he entered Harvard Law School, one of the top law schools in the nation.

Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Ed’s father hired a driver to take him to and from Princeton. Marie finds Ed’s 1939 yearbook from Princeton, in which the “religious preferences” for each student are listed. There were twelve “Hebrews” in Ed’s class and over two hundred Episcopalians.

5 Fort Dix and Courting Rhoda Ed served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 at Fort Dix in New Jersey. The entire lot of draftees from Morristown was brought to Newark, New Jersey by bus. Most men were then shipped to another base in the U.S. or abroad. Ed was not; he stayed at Fort Dix for his entire length of duty, until World War II ended.

Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Ed’s job at Fort Dix was to interview new soldiers who came through the reception center and locate an appropriate job for each one, based on his skills and abilities. “I was more literate than anyone else going through the Army.” Ed remembers working with a friend to assign jobs to the new recruits. Ed reflects on a photo of himself in uniform, taken by a fellow solider (opposite).

When one of the recruits at Fort Dix was set to leave the base, he asked if Ed might like the address of a girl he knew, a woman named Rhoda. She was a school teacher in Trenton, New Jersey, and had graduated from Michigan. Ed called Rhoda and asked her on a date for that Saturday. After a rather unemotional evening, Ed told her he would “call her the next year,” which he did. He did this for several years, taking her out for one night and then calling her again in a year’s time. He explained to Rhoda that he was “being moved around.” When the war ended, Ed was the only private who remained at Fort Dix. He called Rhoda on the phone and asked if she would like to

get married. She said yes. They had a very large wedding at an elegant

Rhoda and Ed on their Wedding Day, __________


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get married. She said yes. They were married at a venue called Louis Sherry in _____________________________ (city location?). They were married for sixty-three years.

6 Beach Haven Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Rhoda’s parents, fondly known as Pop Pop and Nannie, bought a grocery store in Beach Haven, New Jersey. Ed loved to read the New York Times on the beach. Richard recalls a few occasions when the family took row boat trips together. Ellen remembers the time a fire started at the house in Beach Haven.

7 Ruth Schall and Seymour Esptein Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Ed thought Ruth was a bossy big sister and only concerned with getting married. Seymour was Ed’s best friend growing up. Seymour’s brother Herbert eventually married Ruth.

8 Family Finances Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Richard and Ellen recall how their father used to keep exacting documentation of the family’s finances, something he reviewed with Rhoda and the children every evening after dinner.

Phone interview with Larry: Larry describes the meticulous fashion in which his father kept track of family finances, using graph paper to make rows for expenses and columns designated for each family member. His obsession with the finances was probably due to his intense desire to make sure he could adequately support his family.

Ed and Rhoda in Beach Haven on the Boardwalk


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9 Misplacing Children & Ellen’s Camp Letter Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Richard asks his father about losing his children at various locations around the city. Ellen brings out a letter her father wrote to her when she was eight years old at summer camp.

10 Wilmington, Delaware Conversation between Ed, Richard and Ellen: Ed remembers the family’s move to Wilmington, Delaware. For years, Ed was part of a car pool and became close friends with the men who shared his daily commute. He served as President of the Jewish Federation and an officer in the temple. Both Richard and Larry had their Bar Mitzvahs at the country club. Ed tells the story of when Larry fell off the roof of their childhood home.

11 Hamilton Bar & Grill in Trenton Ed in conversation with Steve: Pop Pop, Rhoda’s father, owned the Hamilton Bar & Grill in Trenton, New Jersey. When Pop Pop was incapable of running the bar, Rhoda and Ed would help out, “drawing beer” and serving the customers. Rhoda loved beer, but Ed always hated it.

12 The Knicks, Connie Mack and Princeton Ed in conversation with Steve: When Ellen first moved to New York City at age twenty-two, she had an apartment in Sheridan Square, across from Village Cigars. Steve and his father would visit Ellen and go to the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Ed would insist that they walk to the game, some thirty blocks from Ellen’s place. Bill Bradley, the American Hall of Fame basketball player, was

Ed and Ellen


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Ed’s and Steve’s inspiration for becoming Knicks fans. Ed also took Steve to games at the Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. They would take the train to North Philadelphia, and then, at Ed’s insistence, walk to the stadium. Ed took Steve and his brother Larry to one Princeton football game each year. Ed also required that they have seats in the end zone or in some other less-than-ideal location.

13 Family Life and Special Dinners Phone interview with Larry: Larry is the third of Rhoda and Ed’s four children. He re-members his father working at the Dupont Company in Wilmington. His dad would leave for work at the same time every morning and arrive home from work at the exact same time every night. “Dinner at the Schall household would last somewhere between five and seven minutes.” Larry recalls the nature of dinner conversations and how his parents raised him and his siblings. He was an athlete, particularly adept at basketball, so before any sports games, his mom would serve him special meals, often a dish much nicer than she would serve the rest of the family. Because of this, Larry became known as “the favorite.”

14 Discipline Phone interview with Larry: One time, when Larry and Steve were young boys, their father asked them to calm down and quiet their voices. They were jumping on their beds and making all kinds of noise. Ed was not the type of father to spank his chil-dren, but after some time, Ed shouted up the stairs, threatening to take his belt out if they didn’t quiet down. Larry and Steve thought the idea of their dad doing such a thing was so improbable that they ramped up their raucous behavior. Exasperated, Ed finally made his way up the stairs to their bedroom. The boys, expecting a spanking, hastily shoved books down their backsides as protection. When Ed entered the room,

Ed, Richard and Ellen


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they turned around and bent over. Ed thought their inventiveness was hilarious and, instead of disciplining them, started to laugh.

15 TV Repair Phone interview with Larry: Ed was not mechanically inclined. The first time he bought a TV, he couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. After three days with a broken television, Ed finally called a repairman who made a careful assessment and deter-mined that the only thing wrong with the television was that it wasn’t plugged into the wall.

16 Representing Mr. Balser Ed in conversation with Steve: In 1964, Ed defended a young African-American man named Thalmage R. Balser against minor criminal charges. Ed won the case, sparing Mr. Balser the whipping post. When the case was over, not only did Ed help Mr. Bals-er find a job at a barbershop, he also brought his sons to have their hair cut by him.

Phone interview with Larry Schall: It was through Ed’s volunteer work with an organization representing indigent prisoners that he came to defend Mr. Balser. The outcome of the case resulted in the Delaware Supreme Court declaring the whipping post unconstitutional. Ed’s work on Mr. Balser’s case inspired Larry to pursue his first career in legal justice.

17 Ed Speaks about Rhoda’s Passing Ed’s wife, Rhoda Lee Miller Schall, died on __________. Ed sat next to her shortly before she died. “We had and have a wonderful family.”

Spartenburg Herald, Thursday, January 23, 1964


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18 Sensational Children While looking at family photos, Ed talks about how extremely proud he is of his children: Ellen, Richard, Lawrence and Steven. He recalls Rosh Hashanah dinners with everyone gathered and they put three extra leaves in the table. Three of his four children married non-Jewish people; only his daughter Ellen married a Jewish man.

19 Benjamin, Jeannie and Miller Ed talks about Benjamin, his grandson, and Ben’s basketball skills, as well as the fact that he is moving to a new apartment and has taken on a new job. Ed speaks about Ben’s wife, Jeannie, and their son, Miller, who is one and a half years old.

20 Dinner with Grandson Tyler Ed in conversation with Steve: Ed’s grandson Tyler is coming to visit his grandfather for the weekend, and Ed wonders what he should do to entertain Tyler. Steve offers some suggestions.

Phone interview with Lawrence: Larry speaks about his four children and about Tyler’s special relationship with his grandfather.

21 Nathaniel’s Musical Ed in conversation with Steve: Steve’s son, Nathaniel, was the director of props in a re-cent musical at his school. Ed remembers having a part in a summer camp production of Snow White before Disney made its own version.

Rhoda and Ed


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26 Private Eddie Schall Phone interview with Larry: Larry traveled to New York for Passover in 2012. During the visit, his father expressed a desire to try on his old Army jacket. Larry retrieved it for him. When the two were preparing to leave for dinner, Ed refused to take the jacket off. On their walk to the restaurant, Ed sitting in his wheelchair, a homeless man approached them and saluted Ed. Larry goes on to read a letter Ed wrote about “being in the Army.” The letter is addressed Ed’s parents, both of whom passed away years ago. It’s clear to Larry that his father was suffering from dementia when he wrote the letter. Larry speaks about Ed’s recent days.

22 Phone Call with Ellen Ellen, Ed’s oldest child, calls him and arranges to have dinner delivered to him.

23 Ellen Lent Ed speaks about his current girlfriend, Ellen Lent. She writes Ed regularly and warmly. She lives in Rotterdam, Holland, and is Christian. She is in her sixties. Even though Ed’s parents are deceased, he feels they wouldn’t approve of him mar-rying her.

Ed in conversation with Steve: Ellen has visited Ed three times and says “We have a major, major, all-hits romance...she goes to sleep someplace else. She comes back the next day.”

24 The Talk Phone interview with Larry: When Larry was in his late twenties, he went through a period of feeling angry with his father for being remote and emotionally disconnected during his upbringing. At one point, Larry decided to try and speak with his father about how he was feeling. The two met halfway between Philadelphia and New York to take a walk. Larry describes the conversation they had that day and shares his own reflections on parenting.

25 Larry Ref lects on His Mom’s Passing Phone interview with Larry: Larry’s mother’s death was difficult because she was not quite ready to go when she passed.

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