Generation 13: Grandpa (the early years)

Robert grew up in a house off green street in Ithaca NY where he lived with his mother Laura. Recently I asked him to share some stories of his younger years with me and I decided to include them on here.

Robert with his two kittens
Source: Private Collection

The first occurred when he was probably in 1st grade. It was after school one day and he was walking home from school with a little girl who was in his class. They got to the little girl's house and she asked him in to play. He thought she was pretty and agreed; however the girl's mother told him that he needed to go tell his mom where he would be. Now Robert lived about a block away and he didn't want to waste valuable play time by going all the way home so he went around the corner of the house and stood there out of sight while he pretended to have a conversation with his mother about going to play. After standing there for what he felt was an appropriate amount of time he went back around to the front of the house to play. Robert and the little girl played together until dinner time when her mother sent him home. So he started home on the way a police officer on a motorcycle with a side car came up to him and asked him where he was heading. When Robert replied that he was heading home the officer offered him a ride home in his side car, like any little boy would do he jumped on in. As the officer drove him home, Robert noticed that a lot of the neighbors were out in their front yards and waved at him as they went by, he quite felt like he was in a parade. It wasn't until he finally made it home and saw his mother that he realized his mistake. She had been so worried when he hadn't come home from school that she had alerted all the neighbors and called up the police. The town was small and the officer knew all the local children opting to give on little boy a ride to remember on the way to reuniting him with his mother.

Robert (blue arrow) class photo
mostly likely 3-4th grade
Source: Private Collection

The second story he told me about his childhood happened around 1st or 2nd grade. He was playing baseball with some neighbor kids. Another kid was up to bat and Robert was standing a bit to close to him, so when the little kid swung the bat it ended up knocking Robert smack in the forehead. The impact caused Robert to fall to the ground, the other boy thought he must have really hurt him and ran off before even checking on him. Some other kids came up to Robert, helped him up and helped get him home. Once home he told his mother that he just wasn't feeling too good and went to lie down on the sofa to rest. Years later during a doctors appointment the physician asked Robert about what appeared to be an old fracture on the front of his skull.

Robert (in sailor hat) with his mother Laura (standing in middle)
and his grandmother Hattie (sitting on bench)
Source: Private Collection

Robert (blue arrow) class photo 5th-6th grade
Note: dog that appears in both class photos belonged to the photographer
Source: Private Collection

At some point in his childhood, Laura got a job at IBM working on the assembly line at which point Robert went to live with his grandmother (Hattie Synder). This can be seen in the 1940 census (he would be 16 years old). It is recorded that the Hattie Synder was the head of the household, other members included her son (James, 40 years old), her father (Frank, 92 years old) and Robert (16 years old). She was a shipping clerk for a furniture store, the census claims she made $1,144 in wages for the year.  

Source: 1940 Census
Robert can be seen listed with Jerome and Hattie Snyder

Laura Synder is listed a few pages over, as living in Pennsylvania. She is recorded as working as a cook in a restaurant earning a yearly wage of $416.

Source: 1940 Census

Robert would continue to live with his grandparents until his high school graduation. 

Robert at his high school graduation
Source: Private Collection

Robert received his first typewriter for
a graduation gift
Source: Private Collection