Joe Greengard

My mother’s side of the family was German-Jewish and settled in Seattle in the 1890s. Mom’s father, Nathan Degginger, whom we called Papu, was in the liquor business with his partner and brother-in-law Edward Friend. His father, Simon Degginger, joined the family in Seattle in 1895 and was a founding member of Temple de Hirsch. He came to New York from Germany in 1849. He had served for the North in the Civil War and had homesteaded in South Dakota.

My mom was born in Seattle in 1895. Dad was born in St. Paul and went to work there for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad at a young age. He eventually worked his way west with the RR and ended up in Seattle as the Assistant Treasurer. Mom and Dad met here and were married in 1925.

This was the home of my first memories. I was one year old when we moved there, and I was in kindergarten when we left. Now it is all rebuilt, with a street closed (taken over by the Epiphany School buildings and playgrounds).

My mom’s brother and his wife, Uncle Leonard and Aunt Marie, lived a block and a half up Howell Street. Those were still the days when all generations and members of families lived together. Up until he was married in 1934, Uncle Leonard, along with Mom’s parents, Dolly and her husband, Nathan, Papu, all lived with us.

We moved to the Crescent Drive neighborhood in the middle of my kindergarten year. Because there was no kindergarten at what was to be my new school, Stevens, I had to wait out the rest of that school year at home. Then I began school all over again at Stevens in the first grade.

Crescent Drive is where I made early friends –Bruce Stern, my earliest lifelong friend; Jimmy and Mary Ellen Greenfield. Mary Ellen became one of the most influential political women in the country. She was the Political Editor of the Washington Post for many years and the best friend, confidante, and travel mate of Katherine Graham, the Editor/Publisher of the Post.

I went through grades 1 to 3, and we moved on to Madison Park. 

Our home at 3804 E. Howe St. was a large 4300 square foot Madison Park home. When I received some 1937 research papers on it, it listed the rent as $45.00 a month. No wonder Dad had always preferred to rent.  

3804 was a large house, and Dolly continued living with us until Aunt Marie died and then she moved to Uncle Leonard’s. Our yard was filled with fruit trees: two cherries, a plum, two apples, and a grape vine over the garage. I used to climb the trees and eat the fruit or fill bags of it for Mom. 

I started 4th grade at McGilvra School, a block away. There were lots of new friends. Jimmy Ladd, my closest friend, lived across 38th.

1562 E. Garfield was the first home Dad ever bought. It had been owned by Colonel Bickford and his wife. She had become crippled, and they had a devoted attendant for her. The Colonel wanted the attendant to have a lifetime income from the mortgage. Dad bought the house and each month made the very reasonable mortgage payment to the attendant. It was a very fair and generous arrangement for everyone, and Dad couldn’t turn it down.

It was a big, beautiful house with two large Monkey Trees in front. The backyard went down a steep slope into the Arboretum. We had two narrow terraces at the top where we planted a victory Garden and grew carrots, radishes, tomatoes, squash, and even rhubarb. Merle and I tended it with Mom’s supervision. Dad grew beautiful roses in front of the house and Amaryllis in the basement. 

The ‘corner grocer’ was only two blocks away, and I’d often have to go to the store to get a 10-cent loaf of bread, a bottle of milk, or whatever might be needed to finish preparing a meal.  

1562 is where I lived during my high school and college years. I lived here from 14 until I married at 23 years old.

A fun thing that stays in my mind is we’d get 2 or 3 cars in the street, all tuned to the same music station, roll down the car windows, and dance in the street.