found mom's 1st savings deposit book

[lazygood4nothinbum]

on october 5th of 1938 mom deposited $1.

with a quarter here & a dollar there, by december mom already had 4 bucks collecting interest. at 3% inflation that's $30.75 in today's dollars just on the principal, not bad for a 6-year-old.

mom loved to make money. her favorite job in the office was collecting on bills. she considered that work a challenge and the reward her due. she even loved making money from when she was a child. instead of heading off to hebrew school after regular classes like her parents had instructed, she got herself a part-time job and skipped the extra schooling so she could work and make money.

i still remember mom bringing me to the bank when i was a little kid to open my first savings account. but as i was not diligent in my life about the task, i do not still have my first deposit book. unlike mom, i never did like work. i never cared for making money. but at least the smallest bit of mom's good financial sense rubbed off on me that i grew up responsible about money and have been only rarely wasteful of it.

i think it is a wonderful tribute to her respect of currency that although mom most certainly spent her first dollar, she kept a record of it.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

ooops. sorry for the double entry (see, i never was good at balancing the books).

moderators please delete. thanx.

 

[dumpster56]

Lazy the old building on the corner of springfield and bergan is still there.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Thanks for the memories, Lazy. Sad to think why you might have access to that neat passbook.

It brings back assorted memories. I had a similar book started in the early ‘50s; around 1985 I contacted the bank to claim the small remaining balance and visualized them pulling it out of State funds or some such.

My parents moved to Newark around 1940 where they lived in a fifth floor walk-up Broad Street until my dad was drafted in 1945. My dad worked as a photographer on assignment for newspapers in New York. I think it was the happiest time of their lives.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wow, some of those bank managers had pretty tough names.

 

[Outtahere]

Wow that's really neat! Aaah the days of the passbook savings account.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Wow, some of those bank managers had pretty tough names.

ya, and i noticed none of them are jewish.

thanx newguy, i was wondering about that. i googled the bank and found some references. also pics of it in historical society records but didn't know if it was still there.

mom lived in hillside, near newark. as the handwriting in the book looks like mom's, more legible than later in life but still recognizable, i wonder if she didn't make these deposits personally even at such a very young age. or more likely maybe my grandfather took her to the bank. mom's mother was manic-depressive and so mom was often in charge of her little brother and of taking care of the family from a very young age. i know from another cousin (mom's best friend growing up) that by the time they were 10 or 12 they were going into even new york city by themselves. i don't think i was sneaking off there until i was at least 13 or 14. must have been a different world then.

thanx cuppajoe, i have all of mom's things now. hadn't even thought of checking to see if the funds are still there. don't think the bank is in existence. would the state be keeping this in an interest bearing account? i actually found florida had a few hundred bucks for me in their account. don't know how it got there but it was from my x-employer. weird.

ya outtahere, that was way before the internet.

 

[dumpster56]

Lazy

did you also grow up in NJ?

Or had she moved before you were born?

The bank is one solid building. It was a Howard savings bank up until the mid 1980s then the bank was sold. I believe it is a Bank of america bank as of today.

 

[ladelfina]

I looved the names!! Frankland! Wynant! Waldon! Archibald! C. Weston!

I don't see why a Vanderpool or a Frelinghuysen couldn't be Jewish.. Plus about 1/2 the Jewish folks I have known have changed or shortened family names: Miller, Jackson. Berez, etc.

Here ya go:

Rep. Frelinghuysen served in the U.S. Army in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam in the 93rd Engineering Battalion (Const.). ... He is a Member of the American Legion Post 59, Morristown, NJ, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 3401, Morris Plains, NJ, and a patron Member of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S., Post 213. Rodney Frelinghuysen and his wife, Virginia, reside in Harding, New Jersey, with their two children.

Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen

Hope you feel better now!!!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

newguy, i was raised in bergen county nj, st croix usvi & south florida. three different high schools. i associate now with grads from new jersey high school because i was with them from the playground up. we have a 50th birthday party reunion in new york this september. will be very fun.

ladelfina, ah, i see you googled the words frelinghuysen and jewish. my sarcasm stands corrected but my suspicion that everyone's a wise-guy remains assured.