The Decker Brothers - Part 5

Whenever I’ve relived those terrifying minutes in my mind, I’ve also wondered what exactly precipitated this horrendous brawl in the first place. I imagined that the guys were fighting over who was going to be with who. You know, I imagined them saying something like “I want Sharon” or “ I want Dorothy”. I guess I was lacking in self esteem because I never imagined any of the guys saying, “ I want Mary”.  I was just beginning to emerge from the rather awkward "between childhood and adulthood stage" and I felt lanky, and ugly.  I could picture Golden, Lyle and Stanley expressing strong preferences over which girl they wanted and when an agreement could not be reached, I pictured them slugging it out to see who would “win”. I’ve heard that guys do things like that. Whatever the reason, it was a rather violent confrontation - a real knock-down, drag out fight. This was something I had honestly never witnessed before in my short life and, as you can see, it frightened the hell out of me and left a lasting impression.
I had one other scenario that played out in my brain. And, this was it: Since there were other young males hanging around this dilapidated old house in the back woods, could we possibly have been viewed as three young girls ripe for the picking? I’d like to believe “our three young man” were defending our honor. At 16, I was still very naive and innocent, albeit a bit stupid!
I don’t remember exactly what happened next, although I have a rather vague recollection of us yelling desperately towards the house ( we left the hood of the vehicle momentarily - it was tiring holding onto a smooth surface with no handles and we needed to stretch ourselves out to recover our strength).
There followed some rather dramatic begging on our part, we cried out in desperation, “ oh please, please take us back, we want to get out of here. Please, please, take us back now. “ I think we were praying and I was probably crying!
Our prayers and our pleas were answered as the guys circled back around the weeds in front of the house, and we ascended to our perch on the hood of the car and headed back down the road. When we reached the part of the road where we first met the “Hillbillies” ( the name they were given when our experience became a Family Legend ), we insisted they stop and let us off the car. There was absolutely no way we wanted our family to see us driving on the hood of a car! We dismounted our “ chariot” and walked hastily towards Scott’s Farmhouse in the distance, all the while excitedly discussing what we had just experienced together.
The story is not over yet. So what happened next? To be continued....

The Decker Brothers - Part 4

When it became obvious that we were not budging from the “safety” of the car hood ( as if that somehow protected us ), the boys got back in the vehicle and we began to move again. Us girls exhaled a combined sigh of relief as we drove past Blueberry Lake and onto another slightly larger road, assuming we were on our way back “home”. We were looking longingly for any sign of civilization, when the car pulled hastily up on the shrub grass alongside a rather dilapidated old house. We came to an unexpected and abrupt halt and before we could ask any questions, the guys jumped out of the car and ran into the house. Sharon, Dorothy and I looked at each other and realized we all wore the same expression of total and complete terror. Being alone for the first time since we began this “adventure”, we quickly began discussing a plan for our escape. Our conversation stopped midstream, when all of a sudden we heard a loud and boisterous brawl coming from inside the house. The next thing we witnessed was a couple of guys being literally punched out the front door and knocked to the ground.  If you think we were scared before, it was nothing to what we were feeling now.
To be continued....
P. S. One of these photos above may or may not have been the Decker Brothers' House back in the era of 1961.  When a person is in shock, she doesn't think clearly.  These houses, however, were occupied by "Deckers" and are located on H.Decker Rd. in the vicinity of Blueberry Lake.  

The Decker Brothers - Part 3

Within a matter of seconds, we began to regret our decision.  We were not feeling a “ thrill on Blueberry Hill “ ( i. e., Blueberry Lake Road ) but rather a strong sense of foreboding.  As we clung to the hood of the car in any way we could ( not an easy task in case you never tried it! ), the road got smaller and smaller very quickly and eventually turned into  not much more than a rocky dirt path. ( The photo at the top of this Blog entry was actually taken on my recent trip back to Blueberry Lake. )

Golden, Lyle and Stanley stopped the car at one point and tried to entice us off the front of the vehicle. “ Don’t you want to get a closer look at the Lake? “ they coaxed us as we looked through a thickly forested area of  trees slopping down to a well hidden lake below.   “ No, that’s okay, we can see just fine from here.”  Having no idea where we were or if we would we live through this hasty, poorly-thought-out decision, we added as calmly as we could, “ We should probably be heading back to the Farmhouse as our family might be wondering where we are.”  Even at the tender age of 16, the truth of the matter was, we still had brains in our heads.  It didn’t take us long to realize that we were sitting ducks for any number of terrible outcomes - rape, murder, and total disappearance off the face of the earth.   We were completely lost and out in the middle of nowhere, not one person saw us hop on the hood of the car, we knew absolutely nothing about these three young guys who had literally “picked us up” along the side of a secluded, deserted country road.    We were at their mercy and powerless. They were stronger than us physically and were now basically in complete control of our lives.  

To be continued....

The Decker Brothers - Part 2

(Golden, Stanley and Lyle Decker L to R, August 1961)

After a few minutes of chatter the boys asked us to go for a ride with them.  “Oh no, absolutely not” we answered emphatically. “We’re forbidden to get into a car with boys”.   Yet, we didn’t want to let go of this opportunity for some excitement and “romance” and we couldn’t bear the thought of passing up on this adventure.  After all, the scenery and fresh air alone gets a bit boring when one is 16 years old.  But, how could we get around this dilemma - we didn’t want to disobey a direct command from my parents.  So the three of us girls huddled together off to the side, discussing how we could handle this situation while the Decker Brothers waited patiently and threw in a word or two of encouragement.  They mentioned their exciting plan to take us to a nearby lake known as “Blueberry Lake”.  The lyrics of a popular song started running through my mind, “ I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill...” It seemed providential! 

No worries”, they said, “it is really close by and you won’t even have to disobey your parents, you can just ride on the hood of the car instead.” When you’re 16 years old and on summer vacation at a Lake, and three handsome young men magically appear, this solution sounds totally reasonable.  So, we hopped up on the hood of their car, and before you could wink an eye, down some country road and deep into the woods we went.

To be continued.....

The Decker Brothers

The summer of 1961 we came up from Brooklyn, NY for a week at Scott’s farmhouse on Lake Oquaga.  I just turned 16 years old that March and was feeling so grownup and ready for some real “adult” excitement.  My parents generously allowed me to bring my 16 year old cousin, Sharon,  and my 15 year old life-long friend, Dorothy, along for the week.  We willingly jammed into one double bed in a tiny little bedroom on one side of the farmhouse.  There was one window overlooking the field to the left of the house and we initially spent a lot of time gazing out this window, sharing our dreams of a future that stood wide open before us.  None of us had a driver’s license yet but since we were already well into our teens, we were allowed to wander around the lake pretty much at will. Our only real instructions were that under no circumstances were we to get into a car with any boys.  “Okay, we’ve got it” we said as we left the farmhouse to do some exploring of the local surroundings.  Down the Oquaga Lake Rd we walked heading past Scott’s Family Resort as we talked incessantly and admired the beautiful trees and green countryside and fresh smelling air all around us.  We eventually stopped for awhile along the side of the road.  A few minutes later a car drove by heading up the hill.  The next thing we knew, the car had stopped and was beginning to back down the hill to where we were sitting on the guardrail.

The three young men in the vehicle started to talk to us and eventually pulled the car over to the side of the road and got out.  Sharon, Dorothy and I were delighted with their attention and responded enthusiastically with coy smiles and naive flirtations.  They told us they were brothers and that their names were Golden, Lyle and Stanley Decker.  I don’t know how the guys figured out who was interested in who but almost immediately it seemed that three couples had been established - Golden was for Sharon, Lyle was for me and Stanley was Dorothy’s fellow.  I was delighted with this arrangement since Lyle was the guy that made my 16 year old heart melt.  I thought he was adorable and I couldn’t believe he might be interested in me.  Who knows, possibly I wasn’t really the one he wanted but even to this day, I’d rather believe I was his pick!

The Night we fled the Cottage in Terror

Sharon, Diane and Renee, This is the cottage we fled with butcher knives drawn, when, one dark, eerie summer night Marie thought she heard a prowler circling the cottage. We ran frantically from the cottage to the car, screamed to each other to lock the car doors and miraculously escaped stabbing each other.   I laid on the floor of the back seat of the car shouting out the rosary as we tumbled all over each other on our way around the lake to the farmhouse where our Grandpa TJ O’Donnell was staying with other family members. TJ was annoyed as hell when we woke him up in the middle of the night.  Sharon and I refused to go back to our tiny cabin in the woods and stayed the rest of the night in the farmhouse. Brave Diane and Renee and my Aunt Marie went back to the cottage with the Prowler! I believe my Dad and or Uncle Bill Foulkes went back with them to make sure the coast was clear.  This was an event in my life that stuck securely and clearly in my mind!!

Sharon, Diane and Renee, This is the cottage we fled with butcher knives drawn, when, one dark, eerie summer night Marie thought she heard a prowler circling the cottage. We ran frantically from the cottage to the car, screamed to each other to lock the car doors and miraculously escaped stabbing each other.   I laid on the floor of the back seat of the car shouting out the rosary as we tumbled all over each other on our way around the lake to the farmhouse where our Grandpa TJ O’Donnell was staying with other family members. TJ was annoyed as hell when we woke him up in the middle of the night.  Sharon and I refused to go back to our tiny cabin in the woods and stayed the rest of the night in the farmhouse. Brave Diane and Renee and my Aunt Marie went back to the cottage with the Prowler! I believe my Dad and or Uncle Bill Foulkes went back with them to make sure the coast was clear.  This was an event in my life that stuck securely and clearly in my mind!!

A Sad Story

Came across this photo in a basement clean up this week. It was taken 5 Aug 52 at Headquarters First Army, Governor's Island, Lt. Gen. Willis D. Grittenberger, Commanding General, First Army, Presented Mrs. Marie O'Donnell wife of the late 1st Lt. Joseph t. O'Donnell, with the Distinguished Service Cross ( Post-Humous) which was awarded her husband for extraordinary heroism on 13 Oct 51, near Mun-Dung-Ni, Korea, on which date he was fatally wounded. Lt. O'Donnell was a member of Com A 38th Inf. Rect., 2nd Inf Div.
Mr. and Mrs. T.J. O'Donnell, parents of the Lieutenant, look on while Mrs. O'Donnell shows the medal and citation to her two daughters, Sharon and Diane.  Marie was 26 years old at the time of her husband's death ( He was 29).  Although a young and attractive woman, Marie never remarried.  I remember her signing a song with these words in them, "I'd rather die young than live old without you". Tragically, she was killed at age 40 while getting into her vehicle in Freeport, LI.  Marie and Joe had 7 grandchildren.  Sharon has four children and Diane has three sons.  Marie and Joe would be so proud of their descendants.