My grandparents emigrated from eastern Europe, and my parents lived through a world war – my father sent overseas while my mother worked for the Army on the homefront. (See Parkchester, Celebrate Me Home) And like all families there were skeletons in the closet, and there were suicides on both sides that were whispered about, and the tragic drowning of the relative for whom I was named. And a great-uncle I had never heard of who appeared at my grandmother’s funeral, and my...
A working woman who’s also a wife and mother can often feel like a juggler in a three-ring circus. I was working at a job I loved when I discovered I was pregnant, and I happily applied for a maternity leave to start two weeks before the baby was due. My years on leave with my child were precious, but all too soon it seemed he started nursery school, and happily but with some trepidation about leaving him, I went back to work. (See Stay-at-Home Mom) And then the juggling act would...
We’ve been affected by hurricanes twice – by Irene in the late summer of 2011 and by Sandy in the autumn of 2012. Hurricane Sandy caused the most destruction – our Manhattan apartment building is near the East River and the storm caused it to overrun the adjacent FDR Drive and our street, East End Avenue, and to flood our building’s basement. Then the force of the surge pulled an oil tank from the basement wall that crashed on the concrete floor. The toxic mix of raw sewage...
Until it closed in 2020 the large, 3-block long Fairway supermarket in Harlem had a famous “cold room” that held the store’s meat, seafood, dairy, and beer. On the wall outside that vast refrigerated room were pegs holding quilted vests for us shoppers to wear before entering with our shopping carts. And whenever I was there I’d smile at the memory of another cold room I’ve known – although one not nearly as large as Fairway’s. It was the walk-in fridge off the...
I’ve shared many memories of my years on the faculty of Jane Addams High School in the Bronx. (See The Diary of a Young Girl – for Ana, Magazines for the Principal – for David, Educator of the Year – Remembering Milton, and The Great Jane Addams Library Flood) Another sweet Jane Addams memory was of accompanying our students on school trips. For many years the teacher who ran the Future Business Leaders club took her students to regional conferences in...
Welcome to my blog World Thru Brown Eyes! Enjoy the read and please leave a comment and tell me how this old world looks thru YOUR eyes!
