What we remember about our Felson-Cousin Childhood Visits with One Another
An essay compiled March 12, 2019 by Judy Duchan, drawing from e-mail exchanges among 3rd generation cousins: Judy Duchan, Elaine Vanzant, Jane Brown, Lois Mock, Beth Casey, Julie Abramson, Nancy Felson, and Steve Felson
Over the years the Felson cousins, descendants of Sol and Esther (1st generation) and their eight offspring (2nd generation) have gathered together. These precious memories from such occasions are from 8 of the the 17 third-generation offspring. As children we gathered together as in various venues, mostly in Cincinnati, in the different family homes of parents, aunts, and uncles. Three families lived outside Cincinnati: Two of the three lived in Chicago: Louise and David Abramson, Julie and Beth, and Leo and Evy Felson and son David; and a third family, Walter and Roslyn Felson and children Judy, Elaine and Jerry, lived in Greenfield, Ohio. Besides gathering in one-another’s homes and in parks in Cincinnati we met in resorts: The Dunes, near Chicago, Lake Pike, near Greenfield, Ohio, the Smokey mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, and Turkey Run State Park, near Terra Haute Indiana. (Read about family memories of Turkey Run.)
As grownups, the Felson first cousins have continued to meet in various places. There have been several large family reunions, one in 2003 in Turkey Run, another in 2011 in Cape Cod, and a third in Cincinnati to celebrate the 100th birthday of Virginia Felson. We have also met more recently for special occasions—weddings and funerals. Subgroups of us still gather at Turkey Run, near Terra Haute Indiana, and Hueston Woods State Park near Oxford, Ohio. The recollections below are of those earliest gatherings, ones that took place over the course of 70 or so years, as we, the Felson children, were growing up.
The Dunes, near Chicago
Beth on The Dunes:
The Cape (The Dunes) visit from the cousins was also great fun. We ran as a pack all over the dunes including the sand dune above our house where we all held hands and ran together over the cliff. Of course Julie and I knew it wasn’t very steep, but it really looked scary at the edge. Skinny dipping in the dark with Mother was always wonderful, and when the old open-backed trucks hauling families from their cars at the farmyard came down the sand road and along the beach they would light up the water in the darkness, and we’d duck down into the water. Mother was really liberated that way, which really gave us a sense of freedom.
When the cousins came to visit at the Dunes, I remember we decided to put on a play for everyone. Our friends in the Dunes were also actors in the play. We decided we would invite all the nearby families and we invited everyone in the cottages around us and put the play on at our open porch. The “guests” sat in the sand. The storyline we came up with is that we were on a bus with other people from different foreign countries, and the bus broke down so we decided to entertain our selves while we were waiting. Lois and Julie were French dancers and I’m not sure but I think they also sang a song. Aunt Edie had sent hula hula skirts from Hawaii and Nancy and I were hula hula dancers, until my skirt fell down and I was offended when someone in the crowd whistled. Janie, you were wearing a sexy top and long skirt but I have forgotten what country you were from. Do you remember? To remind you, I have sent some pictures I found (see attached). My apologies for the poor quality. Anyway you all were very special to us growing up.
Janie on the Dunes
I have very happy memories of us girls visiting the Dunes with Aunt Louise. I remember the fun of playing hide and seek after dark, but the most exciting thing to me was that Aunt Louise let us go skinny-dipping!
Lois on the Dunes:
I remember wonderful times with Aunt Lou and the female cousins at the Abramson’s cabin in the dunes near Chicago. Much delight swimming and sunning in the sand. I remember one not-so-happy incident when we girls were messing around with Aunt Lou’s cosmetics and somehow lost or misplaced her tweezers. She got very angry about this and I was mystified at how a tweezers could be so important. I understand a little better today. 🙂
Nancy Ruth on the Dunes:
Beth, did you call the Dunes ‘The Cape’ back then? Or is Cape Cod causing what the Romans call ‘contaminatio’? I remember the country-themed play, now that you’ve described it. So Beth and I were from Hawaii. Janie: Italy? (I had only a dim notion of geography.) I remember skinny dipping — came naturally to me. I also recall Aunt Louise being very relaxed and congenial at the Dunes, with David back in Chicago. For some reason, ice cream cones flashed through my mind.
How did she transport all of us there? Was it one summer or two and how long did we stay? What fun! It was such a relief for me to be with all girl cousins!
Remember Nora, who is (I think) in that photo? Her wonderful sister Chessie resurfaced. She lives in the Regency, where Virginia lived; they were friends. At a VF party some years ago Beth & Julie and Chessie recognized one another from childhood. Amazing coincidence. (Chessie recently visited me in Dobbs Ferry, NY.)
Steve Felson on nothing and nowhere:
I have no such memories. Why? Never invited!!
Beth to Steve about the Dunes:
Poor Steve. Not all female cousins were there either. For some reason it was just Nancy and Lois and Janie. Nancy Paula and Judy and Elaine weren’t there either. Don’t know why. Maybe we didn’t have enough beds for everyone. You wouldn’t have liked it. We had a privy.
Julie on the Dunes and Cape Cod:
I think Beth feels like the Cape substitutes for the Dunes for her so that accounts for her slip. However, we did have a lovely mini family reunion a few years back on the Cape at Beth and Ellen’s. Thanks all for stimulating the memory brain cells that need all the help they can get.
Julie on Louise and Skinny-Dipping at the Dunes:
Our mother was a liberated woman in many ways long before that was even a term. She got the Maywood school district to establish sex education in the 50s and always had very liberal attitudes politically and about how to live your life. Everyone once in a while, I would be startled to bump up against something where she wasn’t so liberal but that was the exception.
She definitely was comfortable in her own body and would be encountered naked, even after she had a mastectomy, in the halls of 916 N. Oak Park Ave. as she was getting dressed. She certainly initiated skinny dipping at the Dunes and would round up a fairly large posse of mothers and children to run into the lake naked. As usual, it was quite cold. I do think it contributed to our sense of freedom that my father disliked the Dunes and had to work in Chicago.
Nancy Ruth on the Dunes:
I remember the Dunes one summer (Julie & Beth: did cousins just go once?) I remember our hula dance performance. I have seen a photo of that.
Julie on which cousins went to the Dunes:
I think Nancy, Janie and Lois came one time together to the Dunes which was great…not sure about Nancy Paula who may have come at another time. Getting together with all the cousins now is wonderful, but growing up, hanging out with the girl cousins was what we looked forward to. We felt so lucky to have them…still do.
Greenfield, Ohio
Judy on Greenfield, a little background:
Walter and Roslyn Felson moved from Cincinnati to Greenfield, Ohio in 1937, three years after Walter graduated from University of Cincinnati Medical School. They bought a house at 357 South Street, on the corner of 4th and South Streets. The house not only was their family residence, but also served as Walter’s medical office. Judy was born in 1939, two years after the move, and Elaine in 1941. In 1942, when Elaine was a year old, Walter enrolled in the army. He spent a couple of years in Italy and returned to Greenfield in 1945.
Following those war years, Walter and Roslyn and their three children (Jerry was born in 1947) often visited the families of Walter’s siblings in Cincinnati. Similarly, those families would come to Greenfield, a 1 1/2 hour drive from “Cincy” to visit their “country cousins.” Some would take the train. Here is what we first cousins remember about those Greenfield visits.
Nancy on Greenfield:
As I compose my memorials, could anyone verify my faint memory that my permissive, laissez faire parents sent me along by train to Chicago and to Greenfield—at what age, I’m not sure. Am I correct in thinking that these trips were mostly for the girl cousins?
Elaine on Greenfield:
Nancy, do you remember visiting Greenfield when we were teenagers? I told you about our necking parties. I think we were going to a party. I had you terrified.
Nancy on Greenfield:
Elaine, I remember hanging out in Greenfield and hearing about necking and being somewhat shocked, though at some point I did it too! You were a year ahead of me.
Janie on Greenfield:
I remember being in the back of a station wagon with some of you, and Uncle Walter driving very fast over the hills on country roads to make us feel we were on a rollercoaster, and we were screaming with joy. I also remember how awed I was to see Uncle Walter’s exam rooms right in the home.
Lois on Greenfield:
I remember many trips over the years to visit the Greenfield contingent in the big white (I remember white–am I correct?) house. We kids would spend time with each other while our parents visited. My memories involve just Walter, Ros, Judy, Elaine, and Jerry with Chippy, Helen, Janie, and I. But there may have been times when larger groups assembled there. We didn’t go too very often, because Dad didn’t like to be away from the phone for that long.
Asheville, North Carolina
Lois on Ben and Ginny’s Cabin:
I also remember good times at Uncle Ben and Aunt Ginny’s cabin in the Smokey Mountains. One summer I got a crush on the boy next door (if I remember correctly, his name was Homer). And I also remember them cutting off the heads of some chickens so we could have fried chicken for dinner. I was horrified and swore I wouldn’t eat a bite, but the chicken looked too good to resist. So much for my principles!
Lake Pike, Ohio
Nancy on Lake Pike:
Elaine, the hula that I remember (and see in the photo) was in the Dunes, not Lake Pike. But I recall some blissful swimming at Lake Pike and remember a feeling of well being I had on multiple visits with your family. I remember Uncle Walter having a cute sense of humor; I was curious about his specimens (Judy tells me he had a preserved fetus) and he was delighted to show them to me. (Perhaps this instilled an aversion to medicine!)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Judy on Cincinnati visits:
The cousins would gather at the different family homes. I think we were between ages 3 and 10. I was usually the oldest at these gatherings. Bob and Alan Travis were older than me, but I don’t remember them hanging out with us.
Aunt Sophie would pull out blintzes from her huge stash in the freezer (downstairs), or kugel, or brisket. We also gathered often at Ginny and Ben’s. One of their houses had a swimming pool in the back yard—a popular activity. Helen and Chippy’s was another hub for us. I remember Chippy feeding a cardinal in his back yard. Irv and Rosalyn lived down the street from Helen and Chippy. Funny—I remember a striking black and white checkered floor in the Irv/Rosalyn entryway, but not much about the rest of their house. Edie was fun to visit because she had a great doll collection. I remember parts of all these houses, mostly the living rooms and dining rooms, where we hung out. I don’t much remember what we did together. Pose for pictures mostly, judging from the snap shots. And there were the occasional trips to Irv’s bowling alley.
Beth on Cincinnati:
Here are my memories: Taking the James Whitcombe Riley to Cinci was a wonderful adventure for Julie and me because we had no relatives in Chicago for most of our youth and surely not 6 girl cousins our age. It was very magical for us to enter that close and loving environment with relatives of all ages being loving to us and especially the girl cousins who were so special and for whom we had an instant sense of warmth and fun.
Nancy to Janie on Janie’s house, Redbud Avenue:
I also spent a lot of time at your place, Janie. I remember walking over and just showing up for dinner or to hand out. It was unceremonious.
Janie on Cincinnati slumber parties:
I also remember the slumber parties at my house, where we slept (minimally) in sleeping bags on the floor of dad’s study. We giggled a lot.
Lois on Helen and Chippy’s in Cincinnati:
We also gathered at Chippy and Helen’s (our) house at times, but in much more crowded conditions. Regarding the cardinal, that bird was my first introduction to the wonderful world of birds, which I am enamored of to this day. We trained the male cardinal to come sit on our back porch railing and let us feed him pieces of cookie (social tea biscuits). He would even come and sing on the railing when he got hungry for his cookies and we would come out to feed him.
Nancy on Helen and Chippy home visits:
Janie & Lois: I now remember the cardinal and definitely your piano in the living room — but who played? I also remember having dinner on the porch, frequently. As I said, I would just show up. Being in a laissez faire household, I’m not sure my mom kept track of where I was. But did I walk there once we moved to Rose Hill (age 15) or from North Crescent.
Elaine on overnight at Dixon Avenue in Cincinnati:
I remember staying overnight at the house on Dixon Ave. didn’t you have neighbors named Greenfield? I think they had a daughter our age and we slept over at her house. It was unbearably hot that night.
Janie on Dixon Avenue house, Cincinnati:
I remember Joanne Greenfield living close by on Dixon, and I thought her older brother ?Shelly? was very handsome and I had a crush on him. I also remember Aunt Ginny sitting on the steps inside, breast-feeding the newest baby-Richie, probably.
Lois on Benny and Ginny’s Rose Hill House in Cincinnati:
I also remember very fondly the many family gatherings at Uncle Ben and Aunt Ginny’s big house on Rose Hill. There was always plenty of room for all around the huge dining room table (with younger kids at a separate table, as I recall). And I remember how we were spoiled by Fanny and her wonderful cooking!
Julie on Cincinnati as a teenager:
Beth and I felt so excited to go to Cincinnati every Christmas vacation. Not only did we not have family in Chicago, we didn’t have connections to a Jewish community, especially when we lived in Maywood; there was a small group of Jewish kids in Oak Park that hung out together and didn’t connect with the rest of the high school at all…boy, was I glad to get to the University of Michigan where being Jewish was so much less complicated that a burden was lifted off my shoulders. It was great fun to stay in the very large house on Rose Hill. I remember being overwhelmed with feeling, as a teenager or in my 20s, when I would walk into the dining room and see all my family sitting around the huge table; these people helped me make sense of who I was because I had so many traits in common with them…so verbal, often all talking at once, assertive (maybe sometimes pushy), outgoing, smart…what else?
Cincinnati Picnics
Judy on Cincinnati picnics:
Here is a picture taken in 1951 at Meadowbrook Park:
And here is another picture of a family picnic, with no date or place indicated. But, judging from the size of Judy and Alan, it is a few years earlier than the 1951 picture above.
Chicago, Illinois
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Elaine on Chicago:
Judy, the picture of Julie, Beth, you and me was in Chicago. I have fond memories of those visits.
Here is another cousin picture at someone’s dinner table, probably in Cincinnati:
And here we are, some of the third generation Felsons, all grown up. A few of us would even qualify as old. Sadly, a few have died (as of May 25, 2025): Bob Travis, Alan Felson, Nancy Brant, Jane Brown, Lois Mock:
First row: Elaine Vanzant, Bob Travis, Virginia Felson, Judy Duchan
Second row: Nancy Brant, Beth Casey, Jane Brown, David Felson, Alan Travis, Mark Felson, Julie Abramson
Third row: Steve Felson, Richard Felson, Ed Felson
First row: Judy Duchan, Alan Travis, Bob Travis, Elaine Vanzant
Second row: Beth Casey, Jane Brown, Lois Mock, Nancy Brant, Julie Abramson
Third row: Mark Felson, Richard Felson, Ed Felson
These pictures were taken at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana in 2003. The names in red are the contributors to this collection of memories. Nancy Felson, missing in the reunion group pictures, is pictured below, separately.
The Felson Family 