Today's Featured Biography

 
Ginger Ward Cohen

College Days
    After high school, I attended Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC. While at Salem, I was amazed that RJReynolds provided free Winstons, Salems, and (I think) Kools to the students.
    The Spanish teacher spoke Castilian Spanish - slowly - had a lisp, and always sounded tired; I didn't even recognize myself when she called the roll -- apparently I was "Then-yor-rita-Ward".
    We must have had a terrific high school, because I coasted through college and still graduated with honors. I sang in the choir, worked on the school newspaper, worked in the library, played a lot of bridge, and maintained an A average so that I wouldn't have to attend classes.
    One college summer I went to live with an aunt in Cartagena, Colombia. I was hired by the Centro Colombo Americano as a bi-lingual secretary, but knew I was in trouble when the first phone call came in. I picked up the receiver and froze; apparently I can only speak Spanish when face-to-face. So the Centro switched me to teach English to some adult classes – because I had been living in NC, my students learned English with a Southern accent.
    Another summer I lived in a residence for women and studied at a Hotel School in NYC. A fun summer. Learned to tell the sex of a lobster among other things - important because females have more tender flesh. While in NYC I turned down a job offer to be a bunny at the Playboy Club.
New York City, Marriage
    After graduation from Salem in 1963 with a degree in English, my college roommate and I moved to New York City, and got an apartment on the upper East side. I began work at The International Center as a receptionist. Moved up to Director of Volunteers, then Assistant to the Director. Great(!) job.
    I met my husband (Harold) when my roommate and I threw a party and invited everyone in the building to come so no one would call the cops. Harold and his roommate lived directly above our apartment. As Harold came in, he told me I had a beautiful smile and then asked to see the palms of my hands. Wh-a-a-t??? He was an investigator for the NYC Health Department and wanted to see if I had syphilis or gonorrhea. Very strange pick-up line, no?
    At the time I was dating a grad student (Peter) at the University of Pennsylvania, and only saw him a couple of weekends a month. My job provided free tickets to concerts and Broadway shows for the foreign students we served. Staff could also use them, and I began inviting Harold to join me when Peter wasn't around. When Peter, who was from Germany, was in town, Harold played German march music as loudly as possible, hoping to annoy Peter. Truthfully, we never heard the music.
    When Peter returned to Germany, Harold and I began seeing each other more often. We married in 1966. Harold was - and is - the funniest person I've ever known; not in a joke-telling way, but in a seeing-things-from-a-different perspective way. He is Jewish, so neither set of parents approved of the marriage, although both attended. We didn't want a City Hall ceremony, and there were no justices of the peace in Manhattan. Fortunately one of the board members of The International Center knew a judge who agreed to officiate. Harold is a Harvard grad, with a Masters from Columbia. He moved on from the venereal disease job to several administrative jobs with health agencies and hospitals.
New Jersey, Children
    In 1968, I was pregnant with my first child and we decided to buy a house in Teaneck, NJ. By this time, Harold was director (non-medical) of the emergency room at Albert Einstein School of Medicine/Bronx Municipal Hospital/Jacobi Institute (a huge complex). On his first day of work, a patient died in the emergency room; the patient had been brought in on a stretcher . . . unconscious . . . and didn't speak up, so no one paid any attention to him.
    Our daughter, Elizabeth, was born that fall, and fifteen months later our second daughter, Margaret, was born. I wasn't working and money was tight, so we took in a male border from Iran who was a student at Fairleigh Dickinson. He really only used our home as a mail drop; spent most nights with girlfriends.
Ithaca, Careers
    Harold was offered a job as a professor of health care administration at Ithaca College in 1974, so we moved to upstate NY. Ithaca is a lovely town; it's set on Cayuga Lake and surrounded by hills, waterfalls and natural beauty. Cornell University is here, so the libraries, theaters, social service agencies, medical personnel and facilities, etc. are all excellent, plus we have a very diverse mix of people.
    We rented a little house in the country – with sulfur water and the worst driveway ever: tow trucks got stuck in it while plowing and had to call other tow trucks to be rescued. After another rental, we bought a large home built in 1904 for a saloon owner. We have done little to fix up the place – live in shabby gentility, but have lots of space.
    When the two girls were old enough to be in nursery school, I became a Welcome Wagon representative for the county. Welcomed a man in a condemned house, a woman who fell asleep while I was talking with her, a man whose electricity had been shut off and who had a large portrait of his dead wife in a coffin on the wall across from the couch, a man who met me at the door wearing only a towel around his waist, many local VIPs, etc. Flexible hours, met hundreds of interesting people each year, even made a little money - really enjoyed the job.
    Health issues in 1977 finally had me calling our doctor because what I had thought was a tumor began moving several times a day. Yep - pregnant!! Our son, John, was born just two months after that doctor visit.
    I spent years and years doing PTA work while my children were in school. Also was elected to the local Board of Education, but left when my term ended and went back to the PTAs where I felt more useful.
Vacations
    My college roommate was from Rehoboth Beach, DE, and I had often visited her there. Now, Harold's family vacations consisted of driving from 5am to 10pm with stops where they could either see the attraction or get something to eat. I was not interested in that type of trip, so persuaded him to try my way: going to the beach and doing nothing. He converted instantly, and we went to Rehoboth Beach every year until Harold read an article saying that people in our income bracket could not afford to take vacations. !@#$%^! We argued, but he was adamant.
    In 1989, I won a week's stay at the Tamarijn in Aruba and my sister (a travel agent) gave us free flights. Harold was still sticking to his "can't afford vacations" idea, so I took the kids (ages 12 to 20) and we went without him. I loved showing them the island even though I missed Harold.
    The next year my sister offered us discounts for a Caribbean cruise on the Norway along with her family. Again we went without Harold. The cruise was truly relaxing. When we returned I asked our family doctor for a prescription for cruising because my blood pressure was so much better. He wouldn't/couldn't comply. Darn!
    Harold and I again had "the talk" about vacations, and he decided he'd join us in the future. We checked Rehoboth Beach and found that it was now too pricey, so decided on Ocean City, MD, instead. I was still with Welcome Wagon, and through the company was able to get a week's stay at a 2-bedroom oceanfront time share unit for $200. We weren't sure what to expect, but thought "how bad could it be?" B-A-A-D! The windows were covered with wooden boards, glass and debris covered the floor, etc. We went back to the rental agency and discovered that a new agent had mistakenly assigned us to a unit that had been severely damaged by a hurricane. Of course they gave us a different unit, and we ended up in a great apartment with great views.
    We now go to Ocean City twice a year for two weeks or more. We've found a unit that we particularly like - 3 bedrooms, so we can have relatives and friends visit. Earlier this year we were there for two months (mid-Feb to mid-Apr), and will return for two weeks this fall.
    Harold and I spent three months of his last sabbatical in Ireland and Great Britain; the trip of a lifetime! Each of our children (now adults) visited us while we were there, and we have wonderful memories.
    My daughter Margaret and I went to Greece for two weeks last year. Harold's health wasn't up to all the climbing, so he went to visit a friend in Chicago. At the first hotel, in Santorini, my bed collapsed the first night -- my butt was at floor level, head and feet still at normal level. It was a picture(!); Margaret and I giggled and laughed til we fell asleep. [We'd put extra pillows under my bottom, so it wasn't really uncomfortable.] The next morning we told the hotel staff who said not to worry and promised to take care of it; indeed the bed looked normal when we returned from sightseeing. But the darn thing collapsed every(!) night we stayed (4). And we laughed every night when it happened. The Greek islands were enchanting! Didn't much care for Athens, although the shopping there and on the islands was excellent. It was a fun trip.
    We've also vacationed in California, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, Virginia and Rhode Island.
Careers, Community, Children
    I resigned from Welcome Wagon in 1999, when the company changed to a mail-order program rather than a face-to-face program. I had already been volunteering for the Tompkins County Public Library, the Finger Lakes Library System, the Friends of the Library Book Sale, and the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce; now I had more time to give them. I'm proudest of coordinating the Book Sale (which makes hundreds of thousands of dollars annually) several years, and working for the Chamber of Commerce's annual auction. [Check out our Book Sale web site: booksale.org.]
    Apparently 2006 was a good year for me: I was given the first Friends of the Library Meritorious Service Award "for over 25 years of tireless effort on behalf of the Friends", and the "key person of the year" award by the Chamber of Commerce. These are the two I most cherish although I've received other recognitions: Tompkins Trust Company - community volunteerism, Friends of the Library lifetime membership, PTA lifetime membership, etc.
    Harold retired from Ithaca College in 2004, and is enjoying the lack of pressure (except for checking the stock market twice or more each day). He reads, watches TV, uses the computer for research and for games, lunches with former colleagues, and is meeting lots of new doctors.
    We're proud of our three children and pleased that they're settled, self-sufficient, and happy. None of them met their spouses in traditional ways (church, childhood friends, etc.), but it's a different age.
    Elizabeth graduated with honors from Brandeis University; she met her husband on match.com, and married him three months later. She and her husband live in Dallas; he's now an executive with Match.com
    Margaret graduated with honors from Ithaca College; her husband was a bartender but went on to continue his education and become a high school physics teacher. Margaret, now amicably divorced, owns her own business (PR and marketing) in Hornell, NY. We get together almost every month and every holiday, of course.
    John also graduated from Ithaca College; he met his wife through a science fiction fan club. John is the Director of Volunteers for the county library; his wife is a nurse – and they live in Groton, about 20 miles north of us, so we see them frequently. Currently John and I are co-chairs of a committee planning a first-ever joint event for volunteers and staff of four library groups.

    I have never been computer literate, but with this new project of creating our reunion web site, I'm learning new skills, though it's incredibly time-consuming. I will add photographs when I figure out how to do so.

I am eagerly looking forward to the cruise next June.
Just wish that everyone could go!

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