5 and 10: A Remarkable Journey

By Charlie Schaetzle

Most of us do not realize, as we move through life, that each step we take can influence our lives in an extraordinary way, positively or negatively, until after we have taken the steps. Then it is often too late to alter course and we must live with the consequences of our actions.
I didn't realize how the multitude of changes I experienced in my life affected my life until I was well into my 50's and I started to look back. Only then did I realize how events and decisions that were made since I was a little boy made me the person I am today. They gave me the strength to survive disappointment and the ability to achieve success. I see the beauty in all living things and all people. I can face any problem, think positively, and hopefully solve it. If I can't, I'm willing to put a bandage on the wound and move on.
This resiliency that I think I have is probably a result of having lived through some difficult times in my life but also having experienced some very positive moments and events as well. But mostly, it is due to the positive and loving nature of my wife of 50 years. She has shown me the way of love - how to express it and how to keep it strong. I would be no one without her.
I wrote the following summary of my life for a couple of reasons. First, having to recall it brought some tears to my eyes but, mostly, it made me happy that it led me to the life and family I have now. Second, I wanted to let people young and old know that negative experiences should never be allowed to darken their lives. Just turn the page, like I did, and move on. Do something positive, again and again, and it will bury the negativity forever.
Walk with me through the rapid changes and unexpected challenges I have faced since I was a very young boy. See what I did right, what I did wrong and how I fought through the adversity.

About the Author
My youth was spent opening door after door and not knowing what was behind each door until it was opened. I was not prepared for the challenges that were laid out before me but, looking back, I feel confident that the results were usually positive and inspiring.
One brief interaction became the greatest event in my life and the most powerful force in my life. And for this I am eternally grateful. It was a miracle that took more than twenty years to come to fruition and has lasted for more than fifty years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891272361

Book preview

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The contents of this work, including, but not limited to, the accuracy of events, people, and places depicted; opinions expressed; permission to use previously published materials included; and any advice given or actions advocated are solely the responsibility of the author, who assumes all liability for said work and indemnifies the publisher against any claims stemming from publication of the work.

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2024 by Charlie Schaetzle

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, downloaded, distributed, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Introduction

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Most of us do not realize, as we move through life, that each step we take can influence our lives in an extraordinary way, positively or negatively, until after we have taken the steps. Then it is often too late to alter course and we must live with the consequences of our actions.

I didn't realize how the multitude of changes I experienced in my life affected my life until I was well into my 50's and I started to look back. Only then did I realize how events and decisions that were made since I was a little boy made me the person I am today. They gave me the strength to survive disappointment and the ability to achieve success. I see the beauty in all living things and all people. I can face any problem, think positively, and hopefully solve it. If I can't, I'm willing to put a bandage on the wound and move on.

This resiliency that I think I have is probably a result of having lived through some difficult times in my life but also having experienced some very positive moments and events as well. But mostly, it is due to the positive and loving nature of my wife of 50 years. She has shown me the way of love - how to express it and how to keep it strong. I would be no one without her.

I wrote the following summary of my life for a couple of reasons. First, having to recall it brought some tears to my eyes but, mostly, it made me happy that it led me to the life and family I have now. Second, I wanted to let people young and old know that negative experiences should never be allowed to darken their lives. Just turn the page, like I did, and move on. Do something positive, again and again, and it will bury the negativity forever.

Walk with me through the rapid changes and unexpected challenges I have faced since I was a very young boy. See what I did right, what I did wrong and how I fought through the adversity.

Charlie Schaetzle

Beginner’s Luck

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I was born in 1942 and my first home was in Brooklyn, New York, where slag from the great melting pot had settled and split itself into sections of White, Black, Brown and Yellow. We called these sections neighborhoods.  

The apartment building we lived in back then was located on 4th Avenue, between Baltic and Butler streets, with an underground subway running beneath the street. Families living on 4th Avenue were all white folks for as far as it ran. Mostly Italians, Irish and Jewish. No black people. But just around the corner, on Baltic Street, all the residents were black. Our parents wouldn’t let us travel down Baltic Street under any circumstances.

Later on in life, I came to realize that the fear my parents and all the other white parents held was based on ignorance. They just didn’t know what they would find on Baltic Street and it scared them.

Our apartment building was three stories high, built in the late 1800s, and you could see the Statue of Liberty from the rooftop. Our apartment was on the ground floor and had three rooms: a kitchen with a sink, icebox and stove; a bedroom; and a living room, all connected and running in a straight line with windows at both ends. The bathroom had a tub and a toilet but no sink. My Aunt Harriet (Mom’s youngest sister) and Uncle Bill and my grandmother (Mom’s mother) lived on the second floor, and my Aunt Dotty (Mom’s younger sister) and Uncle Herman lived on the top floor.

For you younger people, an icebox is exactly that. We would regularly receive a block of ice delivered by a horse-drawn wagon. And that’s what kept your food cold (well, almost cold). If I remember correctly, Audrey Meadows had one in her kitchen when she played Ralph Kramden’s wife, Alice, on The Honeymooners.

Access to our ground-floor apartment was at the end of a long, dark hallway with no lighting. I remember having nightmares about a gorilla who was waiting outside our door in the darkness, which was probably brought on by a Tarzan movie that I had watched. So I always opened the door very slowly, with caution, whenever exiting the apartment.

Mom’s family was primarily of Irish heritage (Hackett) with a little English (Richford) thrown in. Although we were all squeezed into the same apartment building and would see each other just about every day, I cannot remember my mom ever eating a meal with her siblings, or going for a walk together, or just sitting down together to talk. That’s why I later married an Italian girl.

My mom did explain, however, that she and her siblings had a rough childhood. Her mother had twelve children in total, all born in her apartment. Twelve babies sounds hard to believe but remember, there were no TVs until the 40s. Three of the babies passed away at birth and two more passed away within a couple of months after birth. Their father lost all his money during the 1929 stock market crash and subsequently became a broke, unemployed alcoholic. My grandmother was left to feed, clothe and shelter the family of seven children after he passed away.

My mom’s oldest brother, Walter, was the first to earn some money when he became a teenager, so he was the only one to get an egg at breakfast, according to my mom. As soon as they became old enough to work, one by one the remaining siblings got jobs and helped to cover the family expenses. I mention their hardships growing up here only because I thought the hunger and sadness they experienced growing up might be the reason why the Hackett family members seemed to be so cold and withdrawn from each other later in life.

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Schaetzle Cousins Charlie, Johnny and Anna Mae with our dads

Not long after my birth, my father joined the Navy during World War II. My first memory of him comes from a picture taken when he returned from the war showing both of us dressed in Navy Blues standing on the sidewalk in front of our apartment building. I remained the only child and, I’m assuming, our family life was normal for the next few years.

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Charlie in Sailor Suit

I started school at St. Augustine’s on Sterling Place and 6th Avenue. It was a Catholic school totally run by nuns in grades 1 through 8 and then run by brothers in