Comments on: From WIC to West 8: Dutch developments on Governors Island http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/ Unconnected Reports on Garden History | by Henk van der Eijk Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:00:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Richard Carl Thews http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/comment-page-1/#comment-2617 Richard Carl Thews Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:16:47 +0000 http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/#comment-2617 I was stationed there aprox June 1957- June 1959. Worked in Com center near the ferry slip. Army number RA13566596 From the pictues, I see much has changed. Wich I could come back to see Fort Jay again, but I am to far away and getting a little old. rthews@msn.com I was stationed there aprox June 1957- June 1959. Worked in Com center near the ferry slip. Army number RA13566596
From the pictues, I see much has changed.
Wich I could come back to see Fort Jay again, but I am to far away and getting a little old.
rthews@msn.com

]]> By: Edward LAMB http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/comment-page-1/#comment-290 Edward LAMB Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:29:27 +0000 http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/#comment-290 The following is the true account of my experience on Governor's Island, as a U.S. Coast Guard recruit, in 1969. It is an excerpt from the larger story, "Running scared : Memories of a young fugitive..." (consisting of nine chapters, for some 17,000 words) which relates my evasion and the adventures and misadventures in Manhattan and eventually leading me through upstate New York to Buffalo's Quaker community. They courageously conducted me safely across the border to exile in Canada via the Underground Railroad…. I, later, exiled to France, where I have been living for the last thirty-five years… Thank you for your kind attention, Edward Ashley LAMB Le Vieux Presbytère 48160 SAINT JULIEN DES POINTS France e-mail : edward.lamb@hotmail.fr Chapter One Governor's Island 1969 "Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis ?…" The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T.S. Eliot, (1900-1949) The arduous, overstated virility of the ambience Cold, hard and acrid as brass Relentless, constant as the surrounding brackish waters Of the deep, dark Hudson's eternal tides… Like a young man's tearless, unavowed solitude In the lone, Spartan celibacy of a hard bunk Enveloped in sterile, rugged, anonymous sheets And the vague odour of industrial laundry The routine masquerade of starched white uniforms Senseless ceremony in the brisk early morning air Forcing a rigid, meaningless salute Reciting the same empty phrases Supposed to howl "Yes, Sir !" in feigned obedience To some insignificant, masochistic Sergeant In execution of some purely capricious "order" The sole purpose of which is your humiliation Forming straight, disciplined monotonous lines Herded like cattle towards Soulless, saltpetre meals slopped into stainless steel vessels In an atmosphere of utter boredom… Paradoxically, across the Bay, rose Manhattan Island The awesome Apple and her Civilisation and… Freedom Reflecting, at night, her sparkling lights on the water Lady Liberty out there holding her torch to no one's edification On a smuggled radio in the barracks The news related the Woodstock Festival Hard Rock Music and Sex and Drugs Youngsters making Love and not War And protest movements on dozens of campuses Resistors burning their draft cards in the streets Young women's rights protesters reclaiming abortion Publicly emancipating themselves of their now superfluous bras… Tonight, he would make a break for it Somehow sneak onto the ferryboat Leap off on the other side Or perish in the icy waves of the Hudson The following is the true account of my experience on Governor’s Island, as a U.S. Coast Guard recruit, in 1969. It is an excerpt from the larger story, “Running scared : Memories of a young fugitive…” (consisting of nine chapters, for some 17,000 words) which relates my evasion and the adventures and misadventures in Manhattan and eventually leading me through upstate New York to Buffalo’s Quaker community. They courageously conducted me safely across the border to exile in Canada via the Underground Railroad….
I, later, exiled to France, where I have been living for the last thirty-five years…

Thank you for your kind attention,

Edward Ashley LAMB
Le Vieux Presbytère
48160 SAINT JULIEN DES POINTS
France
e-mail : edward.lamb@hotmail.fr

Chapter One

Governor’s Island
1969

“Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis ?…”

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock – T.S. Eliot, (1900-1949)

The arduous, overstated virility of the ambience
Cold, hard and acrid as brass
Relentless, constant as the surrounding brackish waters
Of the deep, dark Hudson’s eternal tides…

Like a young man’s tearless, unavowed solitude
In the lone, Spartan celibacy of a hard bunk
Enveloped in sterile, rugged, anonymous sheets
And the vague odour of industrial laundry

The routine masquerade of starched white uniforms
Senseless ceremony in the brisk early morning air
Forcing a rigid, meaningless salute
Reciting the same empty phrases

Supposed to howl “Yes, Sir !” in feigned obedience
To some insignificant, masochistic Sergeant
In execution of some purely capricious “order”
The sole purpose of which is your humiliation

Forming straight, disciplined monotonous lines
Herded like cattle towards
Soulless, saltpetre meals slopped into stainless steel vessels
In an atmosphere of utter boredom…

Paradoxically, across the Bay, rose Manhattan Island
The awesome Apple and her Civilisation and… Freedom
Reflecting, at night, her sparkling lights on the water
Lady Liberty out there holding her torch to no one’s edification

On a smuggled radio in the barracks
The news related the Woodstock Festival
Hard Rock Music and Sex and Drugs
Youngsters making Love and not War

And protest movements on dozens of campuses
Resistors burning their draft cards in the streets
Young women’s rights protesters reclaiming abortion
Publicly emancipating themselves of their now superfluous bras…

Tonight, he would make a break for it
Somehow sneak onto the ferryboat
Leap off on the other side
Or perish in the icy waves of the Hudson

]]> By: HvdE http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/comment-page-1/#comment-252 HvdE Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:11:05 +0000 http://www.historicalgardensblog.com/2008/01/13/from-wic-to-west-8-dutch-developments-on-governors-island/#comment-252 I could not resist editing this post to add a spectacular photograph of a 1910-1915 garden party taking place at Governors Island. This is taken from the great pool the Library of Congress has made available on the photo sharing site flickr. I could not resist editing this post to add a spectacular photograph of a 1910-1915 garden party taking place at Governors Island. This is taken from the great pool the Library of Congress has made available on the photo sharing site flickr.

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