Cavalari Family History
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NEW! In 1977 Chris had a school assignment to "interview an immigrant." The cassette tape he made has surfaced. The quality was pretty rough. After all, back in those days it was just one of those cheap portable recorders sitting on the kitchen table picking up whatever sound was in the room. But we took it to a sound guy who was able to clean it up and remove some distortion. It is better than it was and much better if you listen to it with ear buds. Still, it was a shock for me to hear GP's voice again. I realized that I had forgotten what he sounded like. He sounds like someone out of The Godfather. In the background you can hear Nana pretty good. Chris and my mother are also on there. BE PATIENT. For the first minute it is mostly Nana who sounds far from the microphone. Plus in the beginning people are talking over each other. About one minute in it settles down and you can hear him pretty good. Send me an email for a link to the photo gallery Email: flagguys * aol.com (replace * with @ and use no spaces. This keeps out robot spammers) AUDIO INTERVIEWS: Cavalari Family First Day At The Meadowbrook Lodge It Was All By Accident
This post card is from the time when The Palmers owned The Lodge. That is the family who sold it to GP. The card is a generic drawing that a salesman could sell to any business owner whose message would be imprinted at the top and bottom. Note the cool phone numer
3/31/21 NEW INTERVIEWS ADDED WITH UNCLE JOHN: Unk names the six different streets they lived on One house had no indoor plumbing; he says there was a fourth sibling, a girl who died as an infant. For these interviews I visited him in the basement living room around cocktail time when he was sitting in that favorite chair. Listen to the ice clinking in his glass of scotch as he jiggles the drink Describing in some detail the car wrecking business Also explains that Joe Veneziano was a customer in Brooklyn, then became a summer guest at the Lodge, then bought the land from GP to build his house next door.
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| Driving Oil Trucks To Make Ends Meet |
| Summer Resort Social Directors Uncle John Becomes One |
| Bulldozers and making the ponds |
| Frankie's First Job |
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Uncle Frank tells about Tony Bennett's summer of 1950 working at
the lodge Tony Bennett, Uncle John's recollection
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| Uncle Frank's Homemade Lemon Cordial My January 2011 visit in Florida with the world's greatest host |
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Runaway 20 year old Uncle John takes it on the lam to Florida John Meets Joan Follow up on the Florida road trip
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Al's Auto Parts Uncle John tells about GP's original business venture To give you some sense of the time line, there are references in these interviews to Model A Fords. Uncle Frank talks about one as the family car, and Uncle John talks about wrecking them in the car wrecking business.
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Scroll down to see some family lore updates
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A guy from a rail road history organization gave this photo to my mother. He said that when they built the Rt 94 bridge over the O&W railroad tracks that used to run by the lodge, they photographed the neighborhood and the job site. He thought this was taken in 1936. But Uncle Frank says by that year they were already taking their yearly vacations from Brooklyn upstate to The Lodge. He says that the cabins were always there during the years they were visiting as tourists. There are no cabins in view here where we should see them which means either this is much earlier than 1936 or Uncle Frank is mistaken and the cabins were added after they began making their trips. In this image you can see the rail road embankment and what looks like smoke on the tracks that are maybe from a train. Uncle Frank's hill is there at the left and that would be Stenglein's hill in the background.
GP's house, 1908. This postcard was mailed from Times Square to Deposit, NY in Broome County and post marked December 22, 1908. A collector we know found it at a show where we were set up. He knew that is our neighborhood he and was all proud to show it to us. He didn't know it is our family home. He paid $19 bucks for it. I offered him $50 and he wouldn't take it. This is a photo card which means it was made in very small numbers, likely only a couple. Back then when the Brownie camera came out, even home made post cards became possible. This is likely the only one of these that exists. At least he gave us a scan. Note the dormers have not yet been added to the second floor.
A letterhead from GP's famous aluminum chair business
James found this article about GP's conviction and "prison" stint. Someone put the time in to finding out if there is a mug shot from his arrest!
Here is the address where he was living at the time. In Google street view I was able go in close enough to read the address above the red door on the building to the right of Parkside auto shop. The building to the right of the blue building is 580 Union St and it sure looks like a building that would have been there in 1914 when the 18 year old GP was arrested. Check out the two dudes in front of the auto shop waving to the Google Maps camera as it went by.
Here's a map showing 580 Union St and also the Bergen St F train station where I lived. I think Dave lived there in Carroll Gardens
January 26, 1981 My first day in the flag business. I was home for a visit from Germany when the Iranian Hostages were suddenly released. The first American soil they were to touch was in New Windsor where the landed at Stewart Airport for the bus ride to West Point. My father had been dabbling with selling flags out of his law office and he sent me down to the factory in New Jersey. We stocked on on these stick flags and set up a table over in that vacant lot by the Thruway bridge over Rt 207. We sold a ton of flags and I've been selling them ever since. Dad had a good idea and it gave me a living.
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