Libertarian Concerns

The article on the Statue of Liberty triggered memories. During the years from 1931 to 1935, my father was assigned to Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York Harbor, but we, along with a number of other families, were quartered on Bedloe’s Island (Fort Wood) at the foot of the statue. We took the excursion boat to school each day; supplies were delivered to the island by Army mules pulling a wagon. In the winter we used to hitch our sleds to the back of the wagons (forbidden, of course), and in the summer we would hang on to get slivers of ice when it was delivered.

Some of the best times were had in the winter when the bay was filled with broken ice and the excursion boat could not get through. We would be marooned for a day or two—once for three days. No school! My mother, who is now in her nineties, does not remember our life there as being fun, but it was a great place to be a child during the Depression.