The Man who invented the Bennetts
We called him
Pop because that’s what he called his father. His Pop, Hyman(Chaim) Benetsky,
was11 years old when he crossed the ocean on the SS Zeeland to make the 10 day
voyage to Ellis Island in New York. He traveled with his older brother, Israel
(Isidore). They arrived on November 12,1907 with $30 in their pockets. It had been a long trip from their home in
the Grodno region of Belarus. Albert’s mother, Jennie Cohn, born 1894 in Lomza,
Poland, came over on the SS Statendam three years prior. They married in May,
1915. Like many other Jewish immigrants at the time, Hyman found work in a
clothing factory in New York’s clothing district. Albert was born on February 5th,
1919. In their New York City apartment his
sister, Lilly, gleefully embraced her tiny brother. Another brother, David,
would come five years later. However, all was not bliss. The children’s earliest
memories are not of a peaceful, happy home.
At a young age Albert wondered why his family did not have the joyful
life that he came to know was possible. His neighbors in the adjacent apartment
were poor too but instead of nightly commotion he heard them making happy music,
telling family stories and laughing together. Hearing their joy, Albert dreamed
of a happy family life like the one he heard through the walls instead of the pitiful
young life he would endure.
In 1926 his
parents divorced. Jennie and the children went to live with Grandma, Gussie
Cohen, who had a small apartment in the Bronx. Soon came the great depression.
Destitution forced Jennie to separate the boys and give them over to the care
of a New York orphanage. Albert didn’t thrive at the orphanage. In fact he was
once hospitalized with ptomaine disease. By 1930 Albert and his sister moved in
with their father and his new wife, Estelle. They would soon have a new
half-sister, Gloria. David remained a
ward of the Israel Orphans Asylum because a foster family was caring for
him.
Albert
attended De Witt Clinton High, an all boys school, where he was known as “Pee
Wee” and enjoyed the Aviation club with his best friend, Harold Q Reiner.
Harold and Albert spent many hours following the baseball games of the NY
Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Their baseball heroes were Lou Gehrig, Lefty
Gomez, Leo Durocher, Al Lopez
and Babe Ruth.
At this time
Albert took on the support of his mother which he would continue
until her death
in 1968. One day when Albert was17 he came home and was surprised to find a
handsome young man visiting his mother.
When he asked about him, his mother replied, “He’s your brother David”. By
this time Albert had all but forgotten his brother. That did not prevent them
from becoming close now that they were reunited.
In the next
years Albert went to CCNY, earned a degree in diesel engineering and worked at
a photography lab. In 1942 Albert left NY to join the Air Corps in the Pacific
war while David served in Europe. Albert flew in a B-24D bomber, the Liberator. Although
he didn’t talk much about the war, Pop loved the way he looked in his leather
flyer jacket.
After
the war Albert got an apartment together with his brother, David. It wasn’t
long before David persuaded Albert to share the legal fees to change their
names to David and Albert Bennett. Their
father had been using the name Bennett for years. In those days many
immigrants’ names were anglicized as a way to cast off bad memories of the old
country, avoid discrimination and to better assimilate.
Albert became a
worker in a photography lab, developing film and delivering completed
photographs to people who left their film to be processed. There were no
digital photos in the 1940’s. When he finally got some time off in 1947, he took
a trip to Houston, Texas. He was anxious to visit a girl that had showed him a
good time while he was in cadet training.
When he got to Houston,
his lady-friend told Albert “I can’t see you tonight. I have a headache.” Dejected,
he went off to the local movie theater to see if he could score with a local
girl. On line at the theater were two women, a redhead and a brunette. He
preferred the redhead. He called out, “Hey Red!” She ignored him because the
nickname “Red” was always a provocation in her youth. Usually quite shy Albert was emboldened for
this woman who looked nothing like the girls he knew in NY. So he tried again.
“Hey Red! Dontcha wanna give a lonely NewYorka a warm Texas welcome?” The New York accent nearly penetrated her shield.
She decided to steal a peek. When she
turned to see Albert in his bomber jacket, she couldn’t help herself and musically
replied in her southern drawl “ Who Y’all talking to? I won’t give ya a Texas
welcome cause I’m not Texan. How eva in North Carolina most Yankees are shot
on-sight.”
Red (Lillian) followed Albert back to NY where
they moved into the NY apartment with David.
Albert
and David had a grand time showing Lillian around NY. They went out nearly
every night. This was the happiest time
for Albert. He had never before experienced such adoration. Lillian lavished
him with affection and love. At the same time he enjoyed the companionship of
his brother. Pity the bliss would not last.
The foster parents that took an interest in David had assimilated to
Maine while he was in the service. Now
they invited David to join them. Albert understood that David was drawn to a
family that truly loved him but, as far as we know, Albert never again had
contact with or heard anything about his brother. Albert was angry and hurt. He
had experienced anti-Semitism and the pain that bigotry could inflict but now
he must lose a brother to it. Although
Albert was proud of his Jewishness we could sense a whiff of remorse when he
told his sons that they had an uncle who abandoned his heritage. All our lives
we wondered about this mysterious uncle.
It wasn’t long
before Lillian became pregnant. Their first son was born on Father’s day in
1948. Lillian’s joy was immense. Two previous miscarriages had her believing
she’d never have children. Albert
considered practical questions. Who would determine the religion of their son?
Would he be Christian or Jew? They made a non-interference pact. Albert always
promoted the independence of his boys. “Let them decide on their own.” From an
early age the Bennett boys were exposed to religious ideas. Their mother sang
hymns like “Rock of Ages” and “Amazing Grace.” Their father performed the seder
at Passover. He claimed to be atheist but he said the prayers in Hebrew and
told people that he did it more for cultural/historical instruction than as
religious indoctrination. Nevertheless, it became our rich family traditions to
celebrate Christmas, Easter and Passover. All the while there was no sense that
there was any contradiction in beliefs. In fact, Albert felt very deeply that
we needed to respect and honor all people and embrace a world where differences
were not scorned and where diversity was valued. Woe to the child who told a racist joke in the
Bennett house.
Following the
Jewish tradition their first son was named after a lost loved-one, Lillian’s
father Daniel Thomas. In January of 1950
Lillian gave birth to a second son, Michael Dean. Contrary to his wife’s belief that nursing was
an effective birth control, Lillian became pregnant a mere two months later. Twin
boys were born in December of that same year. The twins were also named after dear
departed loved ones, Albert’s Uncle Sam and Lillian’s brother-in-law, Roscoe
Closson. The names, Samuel and Roscoe
would not stick. Instead they were called by their middle names, Allen
and Bruce because the ‘A’ and ‘B’ on their birth bracelets helped the young papa
tell his twins apart. So they would be
Allen and Bruce except when they were referred to as “the twins”. Pop insisted
that they not dress alike because he wanted to foster individuality. This made
me wonder why he let people call us “the twins”, or allow the expression we
heard often in our house: “The twins did it!”
He was a proud
papa, but 4 crying babies demanded all the attention of the newlyweds. Still Albert
yearned to give Lillian everything she ever wanted but he could not provide the
girl-child she so longed for. Instead the fifth son was born in 1953.
They would name him Lawrence Victor, an homage to
Dr. Rappaport who had delivered the five Bennett boys.
In
1954 with the aid of veteran’s benefits and Albert’s $100/week salary they
could afford a home in the suburbs. Abe Levitt of Levittown fame, built their
home in the first mass-produced suburb in Hicksville, Long Island, where what used
to be a potato farm. This was a good place to raise a handful of the baby
boomer generation.
Though very
different, Albert and Lillian were tremendously happy in Hicksville. Albert experienced the unconditional love he
never knew growing up. In some way’s Lillian’s love was his redemption. She was
a merry soul and she told Albert and she told her children that she loved them
often. He never knew how to say it but he truly loved Lillian and his boys of whom
he was immensely proud. Visitors always asked Albert to reveal his parenting
secrets. “How do you raise such polite
boys? How do you get them to eat so well?” All Albert could do is puff on his pipe as he
extended his proud chest.
Albert would
set the topic for discussion. He’d thrill us with tales of philosophy, mythology
and Einstein’s relativity theory. He’d fill our young heads with unimaginable
expressions such as existentialism and nihilism. As far as we knew, Nietzsche had invented superman.
Regaling us
with stories and mysteries for us to solve brought a sense of wonder to our
home. However, he was thoroughly unarmed to bring the music necessary to
fulfill his idea of the happy home he dreamt of so long ago. You see when it
came to music we considered Pop to be tone deaf. We giggled when he tried to
join as we sang happy birthday. Our Mom brought
the music. She was a great singer and nearly every day she played an
inexpensive electric organ and we took turns singing with her. Soon came the
violin lessons. Danny, the oldest, decided that would be his instrument and, as
usual, the rest of us followed his lead. Of the five there were three violins,
a viola and a cello. Each time one of us was ready to train Pop re-negotiated
the cost of lessons from our dedicated music teacher, Tom Buttice. We all
played in the school orchestra. Only Danny continued to study music after high
school and he became a teacher.
Albert’s early
dreams of a home filled with happiness, music and laughter had become a
reality. Through his sacrifice, sense of duty and courage he demonstrated that
a man could re-invent himself and invent an entire clan- the Bennetts.
So what did
Albert do with his spare time? Keep in mind there was no entertainment budget.
When he wasn’t repairing his car or an appliance, he would be teaching each of
us kids how to ride a bike or throw a baseball. He’d come to our concerts and
ball games. It was an unusual treat to go flounder fishing for a day, come home,
clean and scale (not fun) the catch and cook it for dinner.
Some weekends
Pop brought home some extra work and we would see how talented an artist he was.
We watched in awe as he used a palette of paints and some cotton balls to manually
colorize a black & white photo. He would transform it into a stunning
life-like portrait. Like this of our Mom:
Albert also
took pride in his garden. Pretty good for a city-boy. He grew beans, tomatoes,
peppers and cucumbers. The cucumbers would go into a huge pickling crock he kept
in the closet under the stairs. Out of it would come the most miraculous
variety of pickled cucumbers and tomatoes. Now that he is gone I can think of
so many things I wished I had asked him about. That salty brine recipe is only
one of them.
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