Kurt Vonnegut, although a nationally recognized author at the time of his death in New York City on April 11, had some early roots in our community. 

   He and his family lived in the house on Hill Street now occupied by the Gary Vedder family for three and a half years while General Electric employed him.

   Kurt joined the Fire Company about 1947 and the experience carried through his many writings with references to volunteer firefighters.  Earlier this year he tracked down the Company and sent the autographed plaque shown here. His dedication reads: 

“Dear Alplaus Firemen: I was once one of you, way back in the early 1950’s, and I give you this silk screen print by me as a token of my respect for all you are and do in emergencies.  Cheers!  Kurt Vonnegut”

   There are very few folks around now who recall the Vonneguts, but their memories of them are vivid, particularly those of Jack Ericson and Kirk Herrick.

   More remembrances of Kurt Vonnegut by past and present Alplaus residents are presented on the next page.

Snippets Remembering Kurt Vonnegut

                                    compiled by Cliff Hayes

            Kurt and Jane Vonnegut and their two small children, Mark and Eadie lived in a very small house at 17 Hill Street in the late ‘40’s. While Kurt worked in A&SP at GE, he was doing a lot of writing of short stories for Liberty, Saturday Evening Post and other similar magazines. Many with a homey touch about people and places, about hamlets like Alplaus and one could easily identify the characters as reflections of residents we knew as neighbors. The fire department was another source of material for Kurt’s homespun stories. We all waited for the issues that might have a Vonnegut story.

            Meanwhile in 1950 we moved from Troy to a flat in Schenectady and Gloria and Jane worked as volunteers from the Junior League at the Ellis Hospital Psychopathic Ward. At some point Gloria mentioned to Jane that we were looking for a house and apparently Jane “lit up” and said we should come out to Alplaus and look at their house, because they were ready to move to Cape Cod.

            Well, we fell in love with the house and area (as who wouldn't) and agreed to buy. We became very friendly with the Vonnegut crowd and every time Kurt sold a story for about $200 they would throw another wild party and as Jane would say “then we were back to eating cereal until the next story.”

            Well, we finally got our huge mortgage approved and with Harold Bolton handling the Vonnegut side, we closed and said goodbye to a “very rich couple.” (They bought at $7000 and sold at $10,500). I’m saying this because the young couples of today would have trouble understanding our generation. Our GI mortgage with tax escrow was $59 per month and it was not easy going at the start.

            

                The bathtub has been previously described, but even more exotic and indicative of this couple and again in the tiny little bathroom, when sitting on the "John" peering at you from over the wainscoting on the opposite wall were hand drawn characters in heavy black paint--they were Paul Whiteman, Thomas Dewey and Ishkabible (phonetically spelled).  We should have captured this on film.                     Gloria and Jack Ericson  

 

 They were our neighbors & Jane with her infants along with the Maynards, Morrisons, Van Aukens. & other families would walk to the post office on a summer day.  On the return trip home we would stop at Cheney’s for a treat.                                                                                                             Mary Herrick

 

Many nights I would sit in Kurt’s living room at meetings with other residents discussing the future of the Alplaus school district.  Kurt was concerned about the education for his children.             Carlyle Herrick

 

 I would say hello as the family members passed by on Hill St., but was more familiar with Bernie’s family as they were practically living in our back yard.                                                                  Emma Speide

 

He certainly made a name for himself--smoked like a fiend and like so many learned people messed up. He certainly made some good points about life however---                                                                Lynn Stote

 

            Kurt had an apartment at Cheney's gas station and later moved down Hill Street.  I delivered his afternoon paper.  I was 12-13 at the time.                                                                          Doug Clements

 

            Bernie Vonnegut's house was right by the Alplaus creek, first right before the bridge.  He was a meteorologist at GE, responsible for the invention of silver iodide cloud seeding.  I remember delivering the Schenectady Gazette to Kurt's place, down on Hill St.                                                              John Bundy

              I’ve read all his books and in just about all of them he mentions Schenectady.           Linda Hayes Babb

 

            "It ties the loop for us," Culver says - "a loop that began when Vonnegut worked as a P.R. man for General Electric in                Schenectady."                                                                                                     Bob Culver

 

         "It had the legs on it - the old type of tub and the legs on it, and the toenails were painted red."                                                                                                                                                Jack Ericson