Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston: Schools and Playgrounds

At some point, the New York City Public School system began to operate summer recreation programs at various city parks and playgrounds. The 16 July 1921 New York Age announced the opening of such a program at the P.S. 89 playground, where Granddad Ralston was already coaching basketball. These programs included organized sports, phys. ed., and—surprise!—activities in the fine arts.

Granddad Ralston was named principal of the entire summer program at the playground, and, considering that he was not yet thirty years of age, this seems a signal recognition of his leadership abilities above and beyond his technical skills with Xs and Os as a basketball coach.

Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston at P.S. 89

When last we looked in on Granddad Ralston, he was juggling a new family and the positions of "physical director" at the Boys' Welfare Assocation, basketball coach of the P.S. 89 Buffaloes, all while still competing in the occasional track meet for St. Christopher Club.

But of all these careers—besides his family of course—the one he was apparently most invested in was coaching basketball at P.S. 89. And, as I mentioned earlier, it was as a basketball coach that he became most well-known and respected during this period.

As it turns out, one of the players on his earliest teams would go on to considerable accomplishment and recognition, first in basketball and then as a social services and local government worker. His name is George Gregory.

Cheesy Grits: Excursus: David Mannes and the Music School Settlement for Colored People (Part 2 of 2)

The Music School Settlement for Colored People opened initially as part Lincoln House Settlement sometime around 1911. Given that it initially charged but 25 cents per lesson, it should come as no surprise that it was pressed for funds from the outset. But David Mannes was nothing if not well-connected, and fascinatingly enough, well connected to the African American music community.

And indeed, it was his friend James Reese Europe, conductor of the Clef Club Orchestra (and later of the renowned Fighting 369th "Harlem Hellfighters" Marching Band) who proposed to Mannes that the Clef Club play a benefit concert for the new Music School Settlement. More ambitious still, the venue proposed was nothing less than Carnegie Hall.

Now Reese's Clef Club itself was rather an odd group: while it could be called an orchestra, it was what could be called a "pick-up" orchestra, in other words, a group of freelancers/spare-timers. Given that there were far more musicians in Harlem than venues for them to play, Europe had hit upon the idea of simply gathering them together to play whenever and wherever. It was as much a matter of the opportunity to keep their musical chops in shape as it was to play for a paying audience.

Cheesy Grits: Excursus: David Mannes and the Music School Settlement for Colored People (Part 1 of 2)

We know of David Mannes today mainly through his New York City namesake, the Mannes School of Music, which is now affiliated with the New School. Mannes himself was born in New York City in 1866 to Polish immigrant parents. He began violin lessons at an early age and joined the New York Symphony in 1891. He became concertmaster of the New York Symphony in 1898.

Because Mannes was himself the child of immigrants, he never lost sight of the plight of those who had arrived here in the U.S. with little or nothing and who worked in sweatshops so that their children might have better. He decided to cut back on touring so that he could devote more time to providing music lessons for these immigrant children. After a time of involvement with the University Settlement music school, he purchased two houses on E. Third Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side and formed the beginnings of the Third Street Music School Settlement, as a branch of the Henry Street Settlement. His Third Street School is still in operation today.

Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston has many irons in many fires

The period from 1919-1924 appears to have been an extremely busy time in Granddad Ralston's life. He had just taken on the job of director of the phys. ed. program at the new Boys' Welfare Association in Harlem. He and his wife Audrey had just begun their family, starting with Jane's mother, Audrey in 1918, adding young Myrtle Renee in 1920, followed by Vera in 1922. And, it appears, he was also deeply involved in the sports programs at P.S. 89.

Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston and the Boys' Welfare Association

Granddad Ralston's reputation as a successful leader, coach and teacher at Lincoln House had spread.  Six months after he and Audrey were married (in 1918), he received a job offer from the YMCA to become physical director at Camp Upton for $125/month, which was at least $25/month more than he was making at Lincoln House. While Camp Upton was a military camp, the War Department had contracted with the YMCA to provide phys. ed. programs for recruits and soldiers passing through Camp Upton, and they wanted Granddad Ralston to lead the program for African Americans.

But, six months after he and Audrey were married, there was also another factor to be considered: Audrey was pregnant with their first child. Given that Camp Upton was out in Sussex County, Long Island, some 60 miles east of Harlem, it's not hard to think of reasons why he might have declined the offer. (There are some inklings in his correspondence with the Henry Street/Lincoln House board that he was having some health problems of his own as well.)

Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston: The Changes in a Man's Life

Granddad Ralston was starting to come into his own as a basketball coach at Lincoln House. His teams were the Tigers, the Pioneers, the Bullets, the Cubs, and the Tanks. Teams at this level were ordinarily divided up by both age and weight, but I've not yet seen the specifics for Lincoln House basketball teams.

And his teams won:

"Last evening at St. Cyprian's Gymnasium, the Lincoln House Tanks defeated the St. Cyprian Tanks in a very interesting game by a score of 17 to 4. The visitors led from the start and were never in danger...."