Two Hams on the Road

Monday, June 20, 2016

We are at Liberty Harbor RV Park, which advertises itself as the closest RV park to New York City.  It’s actually in Jersey City, NJ, across the river from Manhattan.

And while the view out the back window is nothing to write home about:

you can see Lady Liberty from the front of our rig if you try hard enough.

The view does get better in the evening.

The park is a paved parking lot with water and electricity available.  It serves its purpose well and has a prime location.  I was all for avoiding New York City but Steve wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.  This park is near the ferries to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and Castle Clinton (which preceded Ellis Island as an immigration center).

Named after an early governor of New York, Castle Clinton originally protected the city.  Until the 1850s, there was no regulation of immigrants.  Castle Clinton became the first immigration center.  Steve has ancestors who came through Castle Clinton.

Steve figured out all the ferries and explored Castle Clinton on Sunday after we arrived.

Monday our first stop was Ellis Island.  This is where your ancestors were processed if they came through New York between 1892 and 1954.

This is the hall where the immigrants were evaluated physically, mentally and legally.

On most days, they processed 3000 immigrants.  Their biggest day was about 12,000.  Most immigrants were processed the same day they arrived and were on their way.

Our next stop was Liberty Island, the home of the Statue of Liberty.  I hadn’t been here since I was 3, and Steve hadn’t ever been.  She’s a beautiful lady, who welcomed millions of immigrants, many of them refugees, to this country.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

- Emma Lazarus

Most left bad conditions in their homeland – police and religious persecution, conscription of young boys into the army, and famine, among others.  Others fled for their very lives.  They gave up everything and everyone they knew for a chance at a better life.  Many traveled hundreds, even thousands of miles to get to a port to catch a boat.  They came with the clothes on their backs and, maybe, one satchel, bag or basket.  For most, whatever future was ahead would be better than what they left behind.

They saw the lady with the lamp and knew they had made it to America.  They had reached their goal.  And many had no idea what would come next.  But at Ellis Island they were processed quickly, fed, and given a bed if they could not be processed that day.  It was quite a change from a harrowing 15-day sea voyage with little to eat.

They gave up everything to come to this land, as millions before and since have done.

Steve and I both have ancestors who came through either Castle Clinton or Ellis Island.  They ended up in Wisconsin and Indiana.  Other ancestors came even earlier, on even more harrowing journeys.

Most people haven’t come to this country lightly.  They come for a better life.  We had a Russian student (who is now our daughter) staying with us when 9/11 happened.  As we watched the twin towers burn, she turned to me and said, “I still feel safer here.”

Deb