Ellis Island

This will probably be a short post tonight since we only did one thing today but took us all day! We got to Castle Clinton in Battery Park to buy our tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Actually, both of those are free but you have to buy a ticket for the ferry to get there! So, like happy campers, we head to the line to go through security and............the line snakes through the park all the way back to the street! Well, let me tell you, in case you don't know, I'm not a very patient person! I've been in that same line TWICE in the SUMMER and the line wasn't that long! Anyway, there was nothing to do but wait in line and people watch. An hour and a half later we are on the boat. First stop is the Statue of Liberty. We stayed on the ferry since I've been there twice and Conrad wasn't interested in seeing it any closer than the ferry. Then it was on to Ellis Island - one of my very favorite places here. We got there at 11:00 and didn't leave until 3:30. I think I read every sign in the building and took a ton of pictures!

I think I got a lot more out of it this time after taking the Tenement Museum tour yesterday. It was sort of like last November when we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway. There is so much to think about and imagine the people of that time. They say it took the ships two or three weeks to make the crossing from Europe to Ellis Island. Many only had enough money to get some space in steerage, the very bottom of the boat. Some of those people left their families to make a better life in America. They brought all they could carry with them - some of their possessions were wrapped in bedding and tied together with rope. Some of the workers at Ellis Island could tell where someone was from by the way they tied their knots or by the kind of luggage they carried. Immigrants were told to put their belongings in a huge pile but some chose to carry it because it was all they had. They were required to have $25 with them so the state of New York would not have to support them. They couldn't have a job already lined up because they could work for less than Americans and take the jobs away from Americans. They had to have a plan of where they were going and a ticket or someone had to come pick them up. Single women could not leave with a man so many were married at Ellis Island and then left. The immigrants had to go through so many different "stations" to be checked. There were interpreters but sometimes it would take 2 or 3 different ones to find a common language. They had to be healthy. If they had some sort of disease that could not be cured, they were sent back to their own country. Some families were separated this way. They had to take an intelligence test. They had to complete puzzles. They had to convert their money to U.S. money and how did they know they weren't being cheated?

I thought a lot about children who came over. Did they travel alone? Sometimes a child was sent back. Who would pick them up? It was such a depressing time but these people thought this really was the land of opportunity. One of the quotes was "I thought the streets were paved with gold. In fact, the streets weren't paved at all. I was the one who had to pave them."

Anyway, you might want to do some reading about this on your own. I was happy that Conrad found it so interesting. I guess one reason that I'm so interested in it is that my mother's dad first came through Ellis Island from Norway. After 2 or 3 years, he sent for my grandma and their 3 children. Three were born in Norway and six were born in Iowa. (My mom was born in Iowa. She was number 8 of 9 children. I can just imagine my little grandma coming with 3 small children and not speaking English. How did you keep up with 3 small ones like that with just 2 hands plus your worldly possessions. I wish now that I had known about all that earlier and had been able to talk to her about it. She died when I was 15 so I'm sure I wouldn't have been interested in that type of thing at that age.

We came back to the apartment about 5:30 and are now trying to decide what to do tomorrow. We've made a list of things we haven't done yet that we still want to do. We have 10 more days to finish our list. The time has gone so fast. I'll leave you with a few pictures from today but most of what I took were of the exhibits and the sign that explained them. We only walked 6.32 miles today. All that standing made my feet and legs hurt though!

The Statue of Liberty

Signs like these offered jobs to the immigrants.

The Great Hall at Ellis Island

Each person had to show they were literate by reading about 40 words in their native language.

It was a great day but the coldest one we've had. The high was 55 and it was windy and overcast all day. I'm sure we'll sleep good though!

Later,

Conrad and Linda