Descriptions of Places

Schunnemunk Mountain is two parallel ridges of conglomerate bedrock. It is located maybe ten miles west of the Hudson River in Orange County, New York. The ridge tops have some large exposures of glacially scoured bedrock with only dwarf pitch pines growing between the cracks. The views from here of the surrounding country are expansive: the Hudson River and Hudson Highlands to the east, the Schawangunk and Catskill Mountains to the North, rolling terrain of Orange County to the west, and the rugged areas of Harriman and Sterling Forest State Parks to the south. The shape of the two parallel ridges is also cool. The inward facing sides have steep ledges and talus slopes above a long, narrow, moist, flat, deep-soiled inner valley. Tulip poplar, yellow birch, sugar maple, and various oaks attain good size down in there. Little streams drain either end of this valley, and there is a swamp at the northern end. The mountain has a distinctive wedge shape on a map. The northeastern slope is

There is a photo of my great grandparents, Sam Topal and Rhea Gallay, sitting in a hole in the sand on Rockaway Beach. They look like they are maybe 25 years old. Sam's arm is around Rhea but his brow is furrowed with what seems like worry. Rhea looks at ease and happy. What was on the minds of these children of immigrants in working class Jewish Brooklyn? My grandma told me her father Sam had a difficult family life, and career difficulties too. Rhea had very close, loving parents, who my grandma remembers helped raise her, and she describes as the center of family life. Rhea was known for her warmth and caring. My only memory of her is her laughing as my cousin crab walked across her living room in her Brighton Beach apartment, as part of a game of charades. Nevertheless, her life cannot have been all easy. I would like these young New Yorkers, trying to make a life together, to know across the generations that whatever they're worried about, whatever they struggle with