Comment

 E-mail

 Print

Research

Flashback Friday Archive 2021-22: Flashback Friday: Week of April 16

April 15, 1871 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

HOBART BERRIAN
       Under its appropriate head in this week’s Journal, we record with sorrow the death of Hobart Berrian, brother-in-law of Gen. Daniel Ullmann, and for a long time a faithful and valued contributor to the pages of this paper.
       Mr. Berrian was one of the ripest scholars of the age, and his familiarity with the writings of Persian, Hebrew and Greek sages enabled him to enjoy many hours in the latter part of his life in communion with them.
       During the administration of Abraham Lincoln he held a high position in the government, and the affairs of his office were conducted with the most scrupulous fidelity and exactness. For years he has occupied his leisure moments in study and literary pursuits, and has left behind him some valuable works on the authors above alluded to.
       During our acquaintance with him, the state of his health was very precarious, and he was compelled to use extreme caution in regard to exposure from changes in the weather.  his fatal illness was consumption, and he was called hence when a little past the vigor of manhood.  May he meet with that reward which is promised to a consistent and righteous life.

April 15, 1921 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland News

HOME FOR CHILD’S WORKERS ACQUIRED IN MONSEY
       For the use of sick and disabled employees the Childs Company, owner of a large number of restaurants in New York city, has purchased the Heidgard estate in Monsey.
       The estate covers 17 acres and includes an old-fashioned house, outbuildings, and groves of trees. In addition to affording a retreat for employees who are convalescing from illness, the grounds will serve as a recreation center.

WOMEN MOTORISTS IN PERIL
       Mrs. G. N. Dickerson of Nanuet and a lady friend were in peril last Saturday afternoon when a car driven by the former turned on its side on Cedarhill avenue. Mrs. Dickerson lost control of the car while shifting gears and it backed down the hill into a ditch.

HURT AT PRINT WORKS
Christopher Dorl, of Haverstraw, employed in the Garnerville print works, had his arm caught between two copper rollers in a machine known as a dryer, and badly injured, although the bone was not broken.

April 16, 1971 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

ISN’T IT MARVELOUS?
[Image: Helen Hayes as Mrs. Ada Quonsett in Airport. In 1971, Hayes won the Academy Award (best supporting actress) for her portrayal of Ada Quonsett.]
       At 70, Nyack’s most renowned citizen wasn’t sitting up in her parlor on Broadway last night just to wait for the Oscar returns.
       She was in Washington, D.C., working at her craft.
       “Isn’t it marvelous?” she exclaimed when she heard the news.
       “I can’t believe this is all happening. Wouldn’t it be awful if they called me in the morning and said they got the wrong envelope?”
       Miss Helen Hayes was named best supporting actress in Hollywood last night at the 43rd Oscar awards for her role in “Airport.”
       She is in Washington for rehearsals of Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographic play, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
       “God bless those people,” she said happily.

NAOMI WAS BORN AT HOME
       Naomi Camilleri’s birth recently did not send her sisters scurrying off to relatives, her mother was not whisked into a hospital ward, and her father did not pace . . . he washed his hands and delivered the baby. Naomi was born at home.
       Naomi is Stephanie and Charlie Camilleri’s fourth daughter and the second to be born at home on Oak Tree Road in Tappan. The two other girls were delivered in a maternity hospital in Spain—“with a minimum of fuss, no drugs and no nursery,” Stephanie emphasizes.
       Rising hospital costs, soaring insurance rates and infections spread by hospital equipment have made childbirth more of a worry than a joy for many young families, who have turned to at-home deliveries as an answer.
       “I look at it this way,” Stephanie says, “having a baby isn’t easy. No hospital or drug or doctor or nurse, or $500, is going to make it easy—so I might as well stay at home where it’s comfortable.”
       Stephanie said she would not have tried home birth without relying on a strict system of physical discipline. She does dance and Yoga exercises, eats only natural, unrefined foods, and follows a health plan created by her chiropractor.
       “The physical part is pretty uncomplicated,” she explains, “it’s the emotional part that’s heavy. Being in a hospital doesn’t help that—if anything, it makes it more difficult for many people.
       “Many things that go wrong during birth happen because of the hospital . . . not in spite of it,” she says. “To the hundreds of people who work there, your baby’s birth is only a job—and often one that doesn’t pay enough.”
       Aside from a pre-natal checkup, use of a health care guide and reliance on a doctor’s knowledge of mother’s and father’s medical history, a mother doesn’t need any more for giving birth, Stephanie says. “More than that may be asking for trouble. Hospitals treat diseases and accidents. Childbirth is neither—it’s an event of physical creation like nothing else.
       “Birth is painful the way any prolonged physical creation is painful, but exhilarating and satisfying also. I would rather share it with my family than a bunch of strangers, nice as they may be.”
       Like members of La Leche League and many other concerned mothers, Stephanie deplores the trend in many hospitals to discourage breast feeding, an easy natural function for most mothers, that may be a very important factor in a baby’s emotional development.
       She also has serious misgivings about the nearly automatic circumcision of male children, suggesting that it is possible that psychological problems may be related to this practice.
       Realizing that not having a baby in a hospital is considered unusual today, Stephanie good humoredly defends her decision, saying, “By staying home and relaxing we have the baby in half the time, with twice the pleasure and at none of the cost . . . and we get a reputation for being nuts.”
_____

This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

 Comment

 E-mail

 Print