Claire V. Bogdanos

It was a warm spring morning in May 1937 in south Jersey with much excitement and anticipation as today, the 6th, was to welcome the famous zeppelin Hindenburg to the Naval Air Base in Lakehurst.  There was no fencing around this giant landing field that hugged the state road where the huge dirigible was to land.  As would be expected, the entire German American community was getting prepared for the event with blankets and basket picnics.The Angerman household was no exception.  My Nana, great aunt Olga and myself had come down by train via the Lackawanna from Hoboken the day before to stay at the house in Cedarwood Park, still no running water !  Great uncle Otto met us at the Asbury Park train station, trip was  always  fun with food vendors, chanceboard hawkers and novelty sellers keeping conductors busy in the aisles and the riders amused, as the trip took several hours.  Well, here we were now in that square black Ford with the skinny wheels and that huge blimp was just over our heads in the sky, many cars had driven onto the field when suddenly the flames seemed to explode and everyone began to scream, my Nana whispered “der Gott in Himmel” and my great uncle sped that old car out of the grass lickety-split in absolute silence.  No one said a word.  That’s what I remember !                                                                                                      Sincerely,   Claire B.