The Immigrants at Lake Compounce, 1964

These look like great times! Are you and Ruth related?

Deborah Lundbech 10y
Janet - not technically, but we sure have known each other a long time!
My family moved to 23 Woodlands Avenue when I was three and the Browns were already next door at #25. Ruth and I were the same age (OK, she's a month younger!) and played together from the start. Sometimes a little roughly we've been told.
In 1963 her Dad convinced my Dad to emigrate and the two Dads came over to the States in 1964. My mother, brother and myself moved into a tiny house on Brocksford Avenue in Rayleigh with Ruth's mother (Auntie Vera) Ruth and her older sister Frances and then we all joined the Dads about five months later.
We lived close by in CT for years but now Ruth and Auntie Vera are in your neck of the woods - Floridians!

Penny 10y
This is an amazing story. I wondered how you ended up in the US - I didn't realize you immigrated. It must have been overwhelming, especially for you - you would have been 10 or so? What was it like for you?

Deborah Lundbech 10y
Neato1, it's difficult to convey the enormity of it for all of us - it was a severing so complete (we had no money to return) and it affected everyone of us differently but deeply and permanently. The culture shock was massive - the two countries were vastly different in the 60s, - and we all had various ways of coping with the confusion and homesickness.
No matter what situation immigrants leave, and no matter how their lives are improved my heart still goes out to people who leave a culture behind - (I am in awe of those with a language barrier too) because it's a hellishly difficult thing to do.

Janet S. 10y
Deborah, you have a rich heritage! Thanks for the background information. It's hard for me to imagine, since my family has lived in the same area for generations. So Ruth and Auntie Vera moved to a warmer climate - I love Florida!!

Penny 10y
Thanks for telling us about this, Deborah.

flaky mine (deleted) 7y
Love this photo. I'm not suprised they all moved to the States. A much better life.

Nori (Nóra Mészöly) 7y
Loved to meet your photo again, here in Celia's new group. Loved the story too - I'm sure our family certainly might have been happy to emigrate to England too, not only in the US in the 50s or 60s, if we'd get passport from Communist authorities. Of course we didn't get - only in mid late 1970s, when détenete came in Cold War.(And only to Eastern Block! Authorities reckoned our family always as an oppositionist.)
Love this grouping - a cheerful and carefree company!

Deborah Lundbech 7y
Nori (Nóra Mészöly) It must have been so hard, Nori, back then. but it's also hard to leave your homeland, no matter how desperate the circumstances. You spend your life feeling like a misfit - to a greater or lesser degree - always torn between two cultures and two emotional allegiances.

Nori (Nóra Mészöly) 7y
Deborah Lundbech I can imagine that, Deborah. How old were you when you left your home? It must have been hard indeed.

Deborah Lundbech 7y
I was only ten, so it feels like it should have been easier, but it wasn't.
Yeesh, I feel like I'm whining here. I survived and I have had a good life. It's not like I'm still grieving : ) just that it' was harder than it would seem - and was for all of us.