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Why Photos Matter

30th August 2010

I have a lot of fond memories from my growing up years in suburban New York. Photographs have helped me recall many of these memories.

About four months ago, I was preparing for our bi-annual family reunion. My project was to design an album of family members to be auctioned as part of the reunion fundraisers. I looked through hundreds of Mom’s “shoebox photos” from the 1940’s and 1950’s and found forty or so pictures for the album. I carefully scanned each photo, chose the layout for each album page through an online service, completed and ordered the album online and received the finished photo book by mail in plenty of time for the reunion.

This by itself is reason enough to demonstrate why photos matter, but this article goes a step further.

While looking through Mom’s photos, I found one that I put aside. A few weeks later when I had some free time, I again retrieved the photo.

Here was a picture of Mom, my sisters and myself and a familiar face from the 1950’s.

We knew this lovely woman on the left as “Aunt Rita”.

Looking closely, you’ll notice that we are standing on a boat. To be precise, we are standing on “The Amoy”, a Chinese junk that she and her husband Alfred owned and lived on. They raised three sons on the Amoy.

The Nilson’s moored their boat a few blocks from our house. Somehow, Aunt Rita had befriended my mother and we would frequently visit the Nilsons on their junk.

The photo also reminds me of the painting gifted by Mrs. Nilson. The still-life painting graced our living room wall for so many years with her signature neatly tucked at the bottom, right-hand corner of her artwork.

I searched the Internet by googling “The Amoy”. One entry linked me to a postcard of the same Chinese junk that brought back even more memories.

I bought the postcard which helped me recall the exact coloring of the junk and also reminded me of the boat’s dark teakwood finish and many “interesting” rooms below deck.

I am now trying to track down one or more of the Nilson’s three sons (success, please see Comments below).

Postcard caption: Chinese junk moored at Echo Bay (New Rochelle, N.Y.). As an aside: the Nilsons later moved their boat from Echo Bay to the Bronx along the Hutchinson River Parkway near the defunct Freedomland.

Photos matter to be because they help me reach back to memorable times of the past. They’re a constant reminder to me to take lots of pictures and show them to the world!

Written by Arnie Lee

Post tags: Amoy, chinese junk, memories, New Rochelle, Nilson, photos

Posted in: events,informational | | Comments (27)

27 Comments »

Very cool story! Let me know if you find the actual boat!

Comment by Dan — September 2, 2010 @ 8:19 am
Have just chanced on this website. growing up in NR (’67), I remember this boat at the harbor. It wasalways a point of interest. Amazing that you have dug all this background up. Will keep posted on your findings.

Comment by Riki Evans Johnson — October 14, 2010 @ 1:48 pm
Here’s an email that I happily received. It was forwarded to me from Bob Nilson, one of Rita and Alfred’s three sons:

“Thanks for getting in touch. Loved the photo. Dorsie Lee was (is) much beloved by our family. She took care of us kids when Mom (Rita) was working. I have pleasant memories of visiting your family in your house on Franklin Avenue. Tommy, Manny and Harry are the names I recall. (I think it was Manny who introduced me to eating cold noodles with sugar.) The Amoy was lost in a storm near Cape Hatteras in 1961 (after my parents had sold it). My parents lived in Florida until they passed away: Dad in 1964, Mom in 1986…. My love to all the Wongs.”

NOTE: Dorsie Lee is the author’s mother. Tommy, Manny and Harry (Wong) are the author’s uncles.

Comment by Arnie Lee — December 1, 2010 @ 1:54 pm
February 23, 2011
I just found your article. I have been looking for the Nilson family for many years and just two weeks ago I located Bob Nilson. Here is the email I sent to him through Mr. Altschiller at Seacoastonline.com.
Dear Mr. Altschiller,
While trying to find information on the Chinese junk Amoy, I came across an article about Bob Nilson who grew up on the Amoy.
Back in the ’50’s, after Captain Nilson appeared on Edward R. Murrow’s “Person to Person”, I drove to New York from Philadelphia to see the junk. As luck would have it, while taking photos, Captain Nilson came out to get his mail. To make a long, wonderful story short, I spent the day with him and his wife Rita.
I still have the photos of both of them and the note she wrote giving me the name and address of a family member to keep in touch with her.
I would very much like to contact Bob Nilson and share these items with him and to hear more about his parents and the Amoy.
Could you please pass this email on to him? I would appreciate your help and hearing from him.
Thank you,
R.Garofalo
RG666666@aol.com
After reading your story, I now know that what Rita wrote was not a family member but YOUR family. Bob and I have been been emailing back and forth and I will be sending him the photos and the note from Rita. Please contact me as I’m sure you would like to see Rita’s note.

Comment by Robert Garofalo — February 23, 2011 @ 6:36 pm
I am in Fuzhou（foochow） and Xiamen（Amoy） in China to study Chinese junk and make the models.
My friends who love Chinese junk and I have been looking for the experience of reached the United States of “The Amoy “and the present situation.We hope to get your help and contant to Bob Nilson.Look forward to your reply!

My E-mail:yuen_sail@126.com

Thnak you!

Comment by 东方瀚海 — March 3, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
It seems that I have a collected photograph of this Junk “Amoy” taken in the mid 20’s. After doing a little research I came across your site. Had no idea there were so many images of this vessel around. I am in Burbank, CA and apparently the boat was on the West Coast for some time.

Comment by Bill Stetz — June 10, 2011 @ 9:18 pm
I am the grandson of Alfred and Rita and my father is their youngest son, David. I am glad to see the interest in the Amoy continues. I am surprised by the number of people who remember seeing or touring it while in New York. My Uncle Bob has been the historian of the family and while much older, the family is still alive and well. We still have a family reunion every 3 years. One cousin has researched the wreck and is trying to locate it. The artwork was unremarkable.

Take care,
David

Comment by David Nilson — September 7, 2011 @ 1:01 am
Hi David (grandson). I’m very glad to hear from you. FYI I had made contact your Uncle Bob a few months back. I will tell Mom that the Nilson family is still “connected” with the Amoy. Be well and please let me know what your cousin finds.

Comment by Arnie Lee — September 10, 2011 @ 8:03 am
I fell into this website when I put the words “Chinese junk Amoy” into the Google tool “What Do You Love?” And what do I see, but a photo of my Grandma Rita and the Amoy just as I remember from my childhood!!And I remember my Dad, Charles, and uncles talking about Dorsie Lee.
That photo of the Amoy is from a great view, and the color is like I’m right there, not looking at an old album. Someday I would like to find the remains of the Amoy in the Neuse River in North Carolina. My husband Glenn works with underwater ROV’s (remote operated vehicle) and scientists using sidescan sonar. He has helped to recover parts of the Civil War ship Monitor, so maybe …
I remember the artwork well and it was remarkable.

Comment by Didi Nilson-Taylor — September 22, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
Hi Didi. It’s certainly wonderful to hear from another member of the Nilson family. Are you David’s daughter? I hope that your husband has the time/resources/inclination to rediscover the Amoy in its resting place. Maybe the colors are still nice and bright like you remember 🙂

Comment by Arnie Lee — September 22, 2011 @ 9:49 pm
I am the youngest son of Alfred and Rita and father of David and Holly (Nilson) Rhodes. I was very surprised to get this email with the Amoy in Echo Bay, New Rochelle, NY. I remember Dorsie as our baby sitter and the Wong’s house on Franklin Ave. I also remember chores such as filling the water tank, filling the kerosene jugs for the stoves,cleaning and painting.
Currently my wife, Carlene, and I live in Franklin, TN to be close to our daughter and our grand kids Ivy and Nash.

Comment by David M. Nilson — September 26, 2011 @ 10:12 am
Hi David,
It’s amazing that a short little story can draw a little attention from people that were once so distant. When I told Mom that I heard from your brother Bob, she was amazed. Now I’m able to let her know about you and several other of Aunt Rita’s and Uncle Alfred’s grandchildren. I certainly have fond memories of visiting them on The Amoy – it’s like a fairy tale that really happened to us when we were kids. Mom, my twin sisters Elayne and Ellen and I all have families mostly in Michigan. Regards to others in your family. Be well, Arnie

Comment by admin — September 27, 2011 @ 5:41 pm
Hi, Arnie,
Reading all these comments has brought back a lot of memories. Including one about the B/W photo of you and your sisters.In the background about a third of the way from the left is a light building, the office of Polychron and Kikus who rented small boats from their dock. Just in line with the building and in front should have been the houseboat UNO. One fall the UNO sunk never to float again. This photo was after that time. I don’t remember the year. Don’t be surprised about the interest you have generated. Our best to you and your family.
Dave and Carlene
.

Comment by David M. Nilson — September 29, 2011 @ 10:31 pm
Hi-
I’m the youngest daughter of Charles Nilson the oldest of the 3 boys.
Loved seeing the pictures and and reading your story.
Nanci Rita Nilson

Comment by Nanci Nilson Uliano — October 4, 2011 @ 5:05 pm
Hi Nanci. Love your middle name! I’m so happy to have this little reunion here, it brings me fond memories of your grandparents. My mother (Dorsie) is so amazed by the number of Nilson family members that have visited here. Be well.

Comment by admin — October 4, 2011 @ 7:14 pm
In speaking with my wife today about the benefits of camphor wood, I was reminded of my first experience with it and searched for the Amoy. Growing up in the Bronx, in the mid to late ’50s three or four of us boys discovered the Amoy, moored perhaps three quarters of a mile from where we lived. We soon met Mr. Nilson.
Along with the distinctive smell (just like moth balls) my strongest memory was of how kind the Nilsons, especially Mr. Nilson, was to a pack of ten year olds. He not only showed us all around his magnificent vessel, but told more wonderful stories than we younsters could fully grasp. His description of coming through the Panama Canal still stands out for me.
But more than any of that was his open hearted generosity, allowing us to put out in the sampan whenever we cared to come around.I hope those of his descendants who read this will accept a long belated thanks to the warm and wise man who shared his remarkable experiences with the neighborhood urchins.

Comment by Bob Phillips — December 10, 2011 @ 12:25 am
Thanks Bob for your story about Capt Nilson. I remember him as a jolly soul who would feed us candy from below the deck. I’ll bet his family has more stories like yours.

Comment by admin — December 15, 2011 @ 9:58 pm
Interesting to read all the comments about this Chinese Junk. Has anyone read the long out of print book about the Amoy and its travails with a captain george waard in the 20s and 30s? I would love to speak with the family historian about the selling of the Junk in 1961.

Comment by Chris Sheridan — October 1, 2012 @ 1:52 am
From 1951 or 1952-1955 I lived in the Davenport Garden Apartments in New Rochelle, NY, across the street from the Amoy.I recall visiting it once or twice, but since it cost $.10 I didn’t go on board too often.However before we moved, I did come up with $.25 to purchase a foldout black and white postcard album complete with a brief history of Chinese junks, their specifications and the history of the Amoy. I also have a piece of paper on which Mrs. Nilson wrote her address, phone number and signed in Chinese. As a young child I was fascinated by idea of living on a boat and such an unusual one as a Junk. I am “editing” my papers etc., so if anyone would like these, I’d be happy to give them to you.

Comment by Gail (Norris) Maginnis — October 5, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
Thx Gail. Yours is an interesting story. I will let the Nilson family know about this history.

Comment by admin — October 5, 2014 @ 5:05 pm
Gail, some Chinese yachtsmen and historians in Amoy (Xiamen), Fujian, China, where the vessel was constructed and named after, are longing to collect some information about the Chinese junk Amoy. They would appreciate your postcard album with the history, specification of the Chinese junk. Please let me know if you are willing to provide the documents.

Comment by Ning Cai — December 4, 2014 @ 5:07 pm
Please feel free to email me at ningyunc@yahoo.com if you can provide photos and information about the Chinese junk, Amoy. Some native Chinese are making effort to study Chinese junks. As boat making in China are rarely documented in text and drawing. They are looking for model boats.

Comment by Ning Cai — December 4, 2014 @ 5:23 pm
Good morning,
What memories came back with this site. All mine though will be of an earlier time; maybe a generation before; the late 30’s and 1940’s. Remember our school days Charley, Robert and David? Trinity Grammar School (now leveled) and Isaac Young High School (I doubt if you’d want to attend there now!) We kids of the neighborhood thought ourselves the luckiest kids in town. Almost free run of the Junk, especially for swimming. Why not, we were their playmates right through to high school years. Of course if we stepted out of line (as kids are known to do), and didn’t behave, we could expect a growl from the Captain. We’re all well grown or gone now; Bill Hanson (your mother’s favorite among us kids), Howey Demarco (N.R. P.D. Captain), Sonny Meyer (a little kid who fell in the water between the junk and the wall and couldn’t swim a stroke), Tommy O’Shaughnessy (livced up on corner of Euclid and Franklin. Had a pretty blonde sister with pigtails), Harry Wong and Jimmie MacFarland lived further up Franklin. For an added attraction your father had taken a long 2×4 beam and attached it to the top of the main mast at right angles. At the other end he had tied a rope to swing out over the water and drop in !! Boy! Were we lucky. Of course it had to be high tide or we had to be plucked out of the mud! And there’s nothing like the smell of “low-tide mud !!” And the naval battles. They never lasted too long. The guys with the dingies usually won. Our “warships” were generally just converted from vegatable crates and didn’t stand a chance against your “cannons” of buckets of water. Do you remember an outline of the buttom of a small shack in the mud off the starboard bow of the junk? You could only see it at ‘dead low.’ My mother use to tell me that that was where they had “kept bad boys.” She was just kiddin’ wasn’t she? We use to have our own touch football field and roller skating rink in the seldom used parking lot next to the junk. More memories keep coming back. I’ll give it a rest for now. Maybe I’ll hear from one of you later……. if your memories are as sharp

Dicj Crawford

Comment by Dick Crawford — January 13, 2015 @ 3:29 pm
Dick – Thanks for your stories. I’m guess that the Nilson brothers may remember some of these tales. BTW, Harry Wong was my Uncle, we lived at 63 Franklin along with a lot of my other aunts and uncles.

Comment by admin — January 13, 2015 @ 3:48 pm
I have watercolor painting of the Amoy, and My Home on Hudson Park Road Painted by “Uncle Alfred”. I remember him taking My brother and I to the radio studio in NYC. I memory serves 60 years it was RCA, or NBC? Not sure.

Comment by George Geisel — September 5, 2015 @ 11:54 am
Oh David! I remember the the HUDSON or Nash with the radio antenna over the windshield. I can smell the Camphor, and remember Fatso and rubbed him for luck! It worked. Im alive at 69 years old.

Comment by George Geisel — September 5, 2015 @ 11:58 am
The three Nilson brothers, Charles, Robert and David (my father), are sitting around the table reading this and reminiscing about Echo Bay, the Amoy and friends they knew. THis weekend is an impromptu reunion. I am amazed at the number of people who remember the Amoy. Thanks for sharing everyone.

Comment by David Nilson — August 11, 2019 @ 9:15 am