Family History

By Lawrence S. Munson, 2001

A little background on this. I have a bias against writing a history of my life. Both of my brothers made attempts at this in their later years. However, as I read their efforts, I concluded that people have an inescapable tendency to glorify themselves, a position I did not want to be in.

But two things happened to change my mind. First, my daughter Kitty begged me to write it as a birthday present to her. And second, she gave me an angle that saved me from self-promotion and focused on the early years of my life only. "Write about life as you perceived it, with special regard to the quality of life and early technology, or lack of it. You lived before the days of television, hi-fi systems, jet planes and computers. I would like my son to learn about life in those days."

In order to organize my thoughts, and make more interesting reading, I have departed from a purely chronological approach. Instead, I have divided my early life into two periods that overlap in time:

• Larry's recollections
  • Brooklyn 1920-1928
  • Cragsmoor 1920-1935
• Kitty's talk
• Shipley's Talk