By Nicole Falco
"I find those stories of everyday people who lived in Valley Stream before the changes very interesting," said Helen Dowdswell, one of the Valley Stream Historical Society's founding members.
Ralph March told the story of his family's history to Dowdswell on Aug. 14, 1990. She recorded his statements and that tape is now one of 146 tapes available in the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library.
Dowdswell and Historical Society members Agnes Libath and Adele Hagmann, and a few others, decided to preserve the history of Valley Stream through taped interviews of people who grew up in the area.
"A couple of important people in the village had died, like Arthur Hendrickson, a former mayor, and Ira Mumert, a former Wheeler Avenue School principal. I realized we were letting our history die out. I decided we had to start interviewing people who lived and grew up in the village," Dowdswell said.
On Oct. 6, 1986, Dowdswell recorded the very first tape during an interview with Ernest Temple. Temple, a farmer, came to Valley Stream in 1908. On the tape, he speaks about his childhood pre-WWI and his youth in the 1920s.
There have been 168 tapes made since Temple's tape and 146 of them have been available in the library since January 1998, with the other 22 to be available soon. According to Lena Sau, a librarian, "Hardly anyone has used them since I got here one year ago. I've only seen two or three taken out."
Not only are the tapes available, but interested listeners can listen to the tapes right in the library using the library's tape player and headphones.
Others who have been recorded on tapes include journalists Ralph Penza and Mike Schneider, author David Cooke, Father Theodore Lature, former pastor of Holy Name of Mary Church, Bert Keller and his brother Willis, Elinor McAuliffe, former school board member, Dennis Oehler, an amputee who speaks about his efforts in the special Olympics and Chava Krugman who speaks about coming to Valley Stream from Russia.
Dowdswell is so dedicated to making these tapes and preserving Valley Stream's history that she can practically remember a little bit about every tape she has made or else she'll just look the tape up in a logbook she keeps.
As for her own memories of Valley Stream, Dowdswell said she has not gotten around to recording them. "I think about it, but we haven't gotten around to doing it. I'll probably have lost my voice by then," said the 88-year-old Dowdswell.
A tape of her memories was recorded at an Historical Society meeting in 1988, but she hasn't had a formal interview. Interviewers use a list of questions to guide them as they interview their subject. Questions such as "Describe your property" and "What games did you play?" attempt to immortalize a way of life lived by Valley Streamers.
Dowdswell came to Valley Stream in 1919 at the age of 6.
"We came from Brooklyn like many others and lived at the corner of Franklin and Corona Avenue. There was no running water, no electricity, no indoor plumbing and all around there were farmers. My father wasn't a farmer, but everyone else was. My dad was a salesman," Dowdswell said.
Dowdswell was in the first graduating class at Central High School and went on to teach French at Central, Memorial and North High Schools until she retired in 1971.
In 1973, she, Lillian Weaver and Mabel Ackerly were among those instrumental in starting the Historical Society.
Today, you can listen to someone like Ralph March speak about the building boom in the late 1940s. His family sold the first parcel of their land along Central Avenue at Hendrickson Avenue to Central Homes for development.
There are many more tapes to be made. Agnes Libath hopes that she can record all of Valley Stream's past mayors.
