Article about Jacquelyn and Morganne in the Times Herald Record

By Ken Mcmillan Posted: August 06, 2009 - 2:00 AM POUGHKEEPSIE — Jackie Klein and her sister Morganne have shared a lot over the years, and it's no wonder they have developed similar work ethics and swimming styles. Though four years apart in age, the Kleins, of Campbell Hall, have competed for the same high school and club teams over the course of their careers, and even in the same medley relay events, Jackie diving in for the butterfly portion just as Morganne touches the wall on her breaststroke leg. It's been a rewarding experience for both, but time marches on and all good things must come to an end. Jackie is headed into her final season at Rutgers, and she doesn't expect to be competing much beyond the end of her senior year. Morganne will be a senior at Washingtonville High School and is looking forward to her shot at the college life, perhaps at MIT or RPI. So this weekend's USA Swimming Eastern Section championships in Buffalo will be one of the final times the sisters will be able to compete together as members of the Marist Swim Club. The bond as teammates is strong, but the bond as family is forever. "I know her better and I know her swimming better and I know what she reacts to better than a lot of my friends,'' Jackie said. "We have that different level of communication. She can tell me certain things and I get it, where other people might not understand.'' There was never a sense of rivalry because Jackie was always older and bigger and Morganne excelled in events different from her sister. "She can beat me in the breaststroke now,'' Jackie said with little resignation. "That's OK, since that's my worst stroke.'' Having lived and trained together for so many years, it's no wonder the Kleins are near replicas. "They are formed out of the same mold, almost identical, although they don't look alike,'' said club coach Larry Van Wagner. "Their approaches to training and competition are extremely identical.'' Van Wagner said the sisters aren't physically blessed with long, lean bodies, but they make up for any shortcomings with a determination and tenacity second to none. "We motivate each other,'' Morganne said. "We work really hard at what we do. Since we swam on the same club teams growing up, we developed the same habits. Plus, I want to work hard to be just as good as her.'' In a sense, Jackie has always been Morganne's touchstone. "There have been some practices where I didn't want to go, except she was swimming in the lane next to me, so if she's in the pool I have to keep on going,'' Morganne said. "When she won states, that instantly became my goal.'' Both have their goals established for the following year. Jackie wants to attain the Rutgers record in the 200 butterfly and score points at the Big East championships. Morganne wants to lead her Washingtonville team to a Section 9 title and medal in the 100 breaststroke at states. The future is exciting for the sisters, but age will play a role soon enough. Jackie finds retirement hard to face, and Morganne said it probably won't hit her until next summer when her sister is not around. "It's hard to talk about, my last year of swimming after doing it for so many years,'' Jackie said. "I know she's going to miss me in the pool and I am going to miss swimming with her a lot. Going into this last year, I want to be able to enjoy it, have a good time, set a good example for her to follow the next four years.'' kmcmillan@th-record.com

Alice K. Cullen (Klein) was born St. Mary's, Pa. August 27, 1913 to Katharine Hurley and Victor Klein, Shortly after Alice was born, she was stolen away by our Grandmothers family (the Hurley's) to be Baptized a Catholic. Alice married Francis Egbert Cullen May 20, 1937 whom she met while working at Gimbals Department Store in Manhattan. Alice and Frank, had two children Victor born May 9,1939 and Kathleen (Kathy) Born November 1,1942. Alice was rumored to have played in two movies and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine during WW-II. Frank was touted as the next Rudolph Valentino and was working as a Broadway dancer part time. My earliest recollection of Alice was when we lived in Woodside, NY in 1942. I was always driving her nuts, running away exploring, even at 4 years old. My Mom eventually had to put a harness around me and attach me to the front railing of the house while she hung our clothes on a line. I was known to disappear in the blink of an eye. Mom and Dad moved around quite a bit as I can remember. After Woodside, we moved to Oceanside, NY followed quickly to, Alexander, VA 1st time , Binghamton, NY, Richmond, VA then back to Alexandria 2nd time. They took Kathy and I to the White House a couple years in a row for the annual Easter Egg Hunts as well as one time to Mount Vernon for their Easter egg hunt. One time around during a winter storm 1947, or 48, my Mom couldn't find Kathy or I anywhere around the house. As it had turned out, we had just one to town by ourselves to see Santa Claus. The police found us crossing a bridge and took us home. I thought Mom would kill us, but no Alice after a small crying spell just hugged us and laughed about it everytime she told the story. My Mom also had a tendency to mix up words one time she was talking to some friends about how well our cousin Peter Holmes was such a good skier, she said 'we should see Skeeter Pee". My Mom was a beautiful women, especially when she dressed as a cigarette girl for Halloween party when we lived in Binghamton, NY, I can close my eyes and see her to this day leaving for the party.. While we were living in Alexandria VA 2nd time, Mom and I were in the apartment just hanging around when Kathy who was playing outside came running in. She never said a word, just ran to the sink and got a cup or water and went outside. This was repeated a couple of times. Mom then asked me to follow her, so I did into the woods near us. What did I find Kathy doing, she was trying to put out a forest fire she and her friend started. We all went home and called the fire department. For once I wasn't in trouble, our Mom was furious.. Our Mom was also a psychic, one time when I only had a learners permit and Mom went to visit a friend, I took the car and of course had to drive right past the house she was visiting. Big mistake as I drove back into the driveway, there was Mom standing there, took me by my ear and up to the bedroom I went. There was another time she used her psychic powers and a little help from Kathy. I was grounded one Friday night ( I was supposed to go to a party), well Yup I snuck out again and went to the party. I have no idea how she caught me, but about 1 hour into the party who was staring thru the window motioning me to come out. After a few times of me saying no, I went out and again up to my room I went. Mom always wanted to go to Hawaii, She and Dad had a bottle she used to throw money into for the trip. Unfortunately my Dad passed away before they could go. Mom was terrified of flying, but in 1995 I dared he to go with Jeanette (my wife) and I to go to Hawaii. She had a great time, we had lunch at the Hotel southern end of the island in Wailua ... Resort in Princeville, overlooking Hanalei Bay (where South Pacific was filmed). She had her blue drink on the patio. We all had a fantastic time, to her just being where they filmed South Pacific was a dream fulfilled.

My Red Jersey Dress

I don't remember the reason why Nauni made that dress for me. It had long sleeves, a high neck, fitted torso to midway on my hips and floated away in gathers. It was American Beauty Rose Red. I was 14 or 15, weighed about 100 lbs. and it fit me like a glove. It was my first "grown up" dress. I loved it. Mom loved it. Nauni loved it. Dad absolutely hated it. It wasn't funny then, but it is funny now. Poor Dad. All my other clothes were little girl clothes in insipid pastel colors. Combine that with braids crisscrossed over my head and little flat shoes with socks and I looked about 11 years old. It must have been a shock to Dad to see me decked out in that little red jersey dress wearing high heels. His little girl wasn't so little anymore. It's amusing to make a comparison between tweens today and when I was one. No makeup allowed. I remember secretly buying a tube of tangee lipstick and putting it on when I got to school and wiping it off before I got on the bus to come home. (I didn't fool Mom - mostly because that lipstick kind of stained your lips - she gave me hell and forbid me to wear it until I was 16) No polished toes or nails. No pierced ears (or anything else). No tattoos. No exposed midriff, no two piece bathing suits. Of course I felt it was terrible, unfair and old fashioned and I sulked!! When I was older, I was glad that I didn't get to experiment with those enhancements at an age when I wouldn't know good taste if it ran into me. And it turned out that I loved changing hair styles, makeup and fashion. When I was 19, I found this outlet that sold one of a kind dresses designed for fashion models. At 104 lbs. I wore a very tiny size and my closet was so stuffed full of clothes that my Mother would stand there and laugh when I opened the closet doors and everything kind of puffed out. She laughed even harder when I tried to close the doors. (She laughed a lot in those days) But with all the clothes I bought I don't think I ever loved any of them as much as I loved that red jersey dress Nauni made for me.

Dad's Electric Shock Prank

Back in the 1950's Dad was a Construction Superintendent for these two guys Joe Trackman and I can't remember the other guys name. They were homebuilders who hired Dad. They had daughter’s named Sharon and Elaine and called their development Sharlane Gardens. Dad had this jeep that was wired with this electric device that had a wire go under the seats in the from and back. There was a button on the floor that set off an electric shock. Dad was riding these guys around the construction site one day and decided to hit the button, of course everybody in the jeep except the driver got shocked. I imagine it was pretty funny. He did it several times before he confessed up. Oh yes he also tried it on us kids. Bob

MARGO AND DAVID

Margo was a real beauty, a pedigreed boxer with a loving and affectionate disposition and gentle enough to put up with the shenanigans of a houseful of kids even the one kid who was a little mixed up because he thought he should bite the dog instead of the other way around. Now this little kid did grow up to be a pretty intelligent person so that goes to show that you can't judge how a person is going to turn out if they bite dogs. But back to the heroine of this story Margo.......David was constantly biting Margo's legs. His little teeth were sharp and Margo would yelp and jump away but David was persistent and besides she must have been tasty. One day, Margo just had enough. We heard David crying his little heart out. We rushed to the living room and found Margo gently but firmly sitting on the side of his head. Yup, she was sitting on his head. That was the only way she could keep him from biting her legs. We all laughed so hard we almost cried. Now this dog was so fiercely devoted to us kids that she would do anything to protect us. Dad was rough housing with Vickie on the couch and turned him over his knee as if to spank him. He no sooner got his hand raised in the air than Margo had her jaws fastened over his face. She came up off the floor so fast that she was a blur. She held Dad for a split second until Mom yelled at her and then she got down. Mom wanted to discipline her but Dad wasn't having it. He actually praised her for protecting Vickie. While Mom was furious but Dad told Mom that was exactly what he would want her to do if any of his kids were threatened.

OOPS GRANDPOP VIC IS DRIVING AGAIN

Gene tells me that when in his eighties, Grandpop Vic was driving through Suburbia and decided that he wanted to get the ball game on the car radio and became so absorbed trying to find the station that he completely forgot he was driving and sideswiped two cars and with hardly a glance at the wreckage, drove home. The owners of those two cars called the police with his tag number. The police promptly arrived at Grandpop's house. Now Grandpop did not remember one thing about it and called Dad. Dad jumped in his car and went to see what was going on. When the police explained to Dad what Grandpop did, he went to the folks who owned the cars with Grandpop's insurance information. Needless to say, Dad took his father's car keys and the battery out of the car, the DMV took his license. That was the end of the Grandpops driving days not because he didn't have another set of keys, but because he always thought the battery was dead. As a matter of fact, he kept asking his Grandson Gene to put a new battery in the car and Gene told him there was something else wrong with the car that he couldn't fix. Grandpop didn't seem to have a problem with this because by the next day he forgot what Gene told him. Dad became a part time chauffeur but Grandpop and Grandmom had no problem and enough money to call a taxi whenever they wanted to.

The ZIP

Once again, the dangerous, dynamic duo decided it would be "neat" to build a zip gun. Gene is not going to tell anybody how to do it except to say that there was some similarity to the "Rocket" construction only on much smaller scale. One piece was fastened to the wood and loaded and when it went off it would shoot a pellet just the way a gun would shoot a bullet. Now this wasn't built for any other reason except the natural curiousity of young boys to see if they could actually do it. Gene doesn't remember how he and Bob found out how to do it and they had no particular plans for what to do with it when they finished. Unfortunately, it worked better than it should have. Gene and Bob were sitting in the back seat of Dad's 1940 Chevrolet. Bob was enthusiastically loading it when it when off and shot a hole through the back of the front seat of the car. Gene says with a smile "that the hole was so small that it was never discovered and they got away with it."

The Rocket

Gene is sitting here telling me this story, which is one among many of the escapades he and his brother Bob got into. So for all of you kids and grandkids out their who only see a couple of gray haired conservative and cautious senior citizens, don't ever judge a book by its cover.........Sometime between 1955 and 1957 Gene and Bob decided to build a rocket. They took a foot long, one inch diameter copper pipe and bent one end over and started to fill it up with match heads. Not the whole match, just the cut off heads. Now this took about two weeks or so to "find" enough matchbooks. They packed them all into the pipe nice and tight and set the pipe in the middle of the field by the garage in Millville. Then they poured a line of gas from the rocket to the garage which was about 30 feet away. They lit the gas and ran like hell into the garage and looked out the window waiting for the rocket to take off up into the sky. Unfortunately, it didn't take off, it just exploded like a stick of TNT and blew the glass out the window closest to it and cracked the glass in the others. Dad came running out of the house and was absolutely furious, not so much about the window but that they could have killed themselves. Gene and Bob were confined to their room but heard Dad laughing as he was telling Mom what happened.

When I went missing in New Jersey

It was a spring day in 1958 when I went missing, well, for a few hours anyway. Of course I knew exactly where I was, the problem was that Mom and Dad had no idea where I was. The story goes like this. There was this girl in my 7th grade class, her name was Judith Bebe (I think) she invited me to her birthday party. I came home that day and told mom I was not coming home from school and was going to a birthday part. The only problem was the party was at least a month or two away. The day of the party I went to school not saying anything. The school day was just a typical boring day of teachers trying to teach me something. The only thing I had on my mind was going to this birthday party with Judy. The school bell rang; Judy and I went directly from school to her house. As I remember she lived in a big rancher on a farm with a barn and a few horses. There was also an Artisan Well wheel in the back yard. I can't remember much about what we did, rode horses, played games etc. Mean while back at the Klein house, pandemonium set in. I can't imagine what must have been going on. Mom and Dad never really expressed what they felt during the time I was partying it up at the Bebe house. Around 9 o'clock at night the party came to and end and Judy's parents were taking me home. As the car turned off of Cumberland road on the short dirt road where we lived there was an array of flashing red lights. Police cars were everywhere. I had no idea what was going on until the car stopped and I got out. Somebody yelled there he his, mom came running over, now I am sure she was glad to see me, but boy was she mad. Where in the hell have you been, she said. I explained the best I could where I was but nobody seemed to care, except for the police. They wanted to know where the party was, who were there, etc. The next day everything got back to normal, or at least that is the way I remember it. Bob Klein

Dad and the razor blade factory and more

Way back when we were young (before Vic and Dave and maybe even Bob) Dad worked in a razor blade factory. During the time he worked there he was incorrectly diagnosed with an aneurism(sp?) involving his heart or maybe the aorta. He was told he couldn't continue to work and was out of a job. It was a devestating situation - no money, no jobs and a wife and children to support. Mom told me this but I can't remember her finishing the story. If anyone remembers more about this, please comment. It could maybe be around the time when we lived in Delaware and Mom sent Bob off to live with Nauni and Poppa. I know we were pretty poor around that time. I remember Mom making oatmeal for breakfast with water because there was no milk. On the other hand I have the feeling that the razor blade factory story happened much earlier. When they were first married I know that Dad drove a bus in either Bayonne or Jersey City. Poppa Principe was a bus driver then and I'm sure he helped get Dad that job. When we lived in Milliville I remember Dad worked for Wheaton Glass Company as a glass blower. For practice he would heat the glass pipettes over a flame and make the most beautiful ashtrays and candy dishes and other things in the basement of Nauni and Poppa's house. I remember one other thing he did in that basement and it was a surprise for me. He made little teacups, saucers and a teapot out of pennies. I really wish I still had them but somewhere along the line they disappeared. Dad was a carpenter, later a builder of houses and commercial buildings. For fun he made furniture, wooden toys, and stained glass. While he had the talent to paint and draw (he really liked to doodle cartoons) , he only did one piece that I know of and it is in my living room. Three paintings on glass of oriental figures. He developed a real love of photography. He took my wedding pictures and hundreds of family photos. He had a darkroom in the house where he developed his prints and stored his negatives. He was a member of the Baltimore Camera Club and won awards for his work. For years and years, you could never catch Dad without a camera. Some of his kids groaned and frowned every time he asked them to pose. Everyone has to be glad now that he thought it was so important to take family pictures and save family pictures. They bring back a lot of memories. .