Where to begin? - Relatives

Well, let's see. I grew up in Vails Gate (or Vail's Gate, depending on your preferences), New York, the son of Beatrice and Victor R. Vitek. We lived in a stone house that my father built working nights and weekends when not on his construction job. Ranch style, two bedrooms, one large bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, and an on again, off again playroom that was really outside the house.

My father's family was the larger- an Aunt Mary we rarely saw because she moved to the east side of the Hudson when she got married, and then the Newburgh/New Windsor Viteks- Claudia, John, Marty, Ann, Ernie, and Steven. My aunt Claudia I think worked in pocketbook factories, of which there were several in the area. Uncle John worked at IBM in Poughkeepsie, Uncle Marty owned and drove a dump truck (more on him in a bit), Aunt Ann also worked in a pocketbook factory and was an avid smoker and bowler, Uncle Ernie was a plumber, and I'm not sure what Uncle Steve did. Of those, only uncle Steve is alive (I think, we last saw him maybe two years ago in Wappingers Falls but his home was still in Newburgh), and uncle John's wife aunt Tillie was still in Newburgh.

Uncle Marty was a bit of a hero to me. He was on the shorter side, but the story was told how one time he lost his brakes coming down a mountain (I think it was 9W on Storm King) and instead of trying to get out while the truck was still going relatively slow, he rode it all the way down so he could avoid cars and warn other drivers. He got a punctured lung out of it, so he was always short of breath (and living with Aunt Ann the smoker probably didn't help), and he was somewhat of a curmudgeon, but underneath he was very warm.

Because Uncle Steve and Uncle Ernie lived in the town of Newburgh, we didn't see them as much as we did the others; while Uncle John also lived "out there" in Middlehope, he was more gregarious and his backyard had an awesome hill for sledding. Aunt Claudia, Aunt Ann, and Uncle Marty all lived on John Street in New Windsor, across from Diamond Candle Company where my mother worked. At one time, my parents lived in the house that was later occupied by my Uncle John and his wife, and then by Aunt Claudia and her family. Ann and Marty lived in one half of a two-family brick house. Their half was maybe 20 feet wide and 40 feet long and two stories tall. The living room was dark and the couch was a dark, velvet type. When I was going to summer school during 4th, 5th, and 6th grades my mother would pick me up and bring me there so I could make lunch (Swanson TV dinners in the aluminum trays); I would then go to the candle factory when it was almost quitting time.

It was my Aunt Ann who gave me an accordian for one birthday (which just about dwarfed me in size) and, more importantly, my first dog- Lassie. Lassie was my companion for years, an indoor/outdoor dog that was very much loved. But since that starts getting us over to where I grew up, I'll save more of that story for another time.