2023-10-21_Sheila_Bernie.txt

I'm proud of myself.
Yeah, good work.
And I just got to do one other thing real quickly
to make sure that I get this.
So give me one second.
And then I'll be back with you in just one second
if I can make this work.
OK, hold on one sec.
I'm just telling it what to record right here.
OK.
OK, so can you still hear me all right?
Yes.
Very well.
Awesome.
So if you could each just state your name,
or you can decide if you want to each go at the same time,
or if one of you wants to answer a bunch of questions,
and then we can move on.
But if you could state your name and where you live now
and where you grew up, and it can just be your first name.
OK, Sheila, I grew up in the Bronx.
Do you want the address?
No.
Oh, just in the Bronx.
And where do you live now?
Oh, I live in Manhattan.
OK, awesome.
And if I asked you to describe the communities
that you are part of, how would you answer that question?
I don't know.
I think it's important.
I'm not.
I'm not.
I think it's important.
If you're in a knitting circle and you feel very
in the Bronx, that could be an answer.
Are there any communities that you feel part of?
No.
OK.
Do you identify as any or one or more ethnic, racial,
or religious, or national communities in one of those?
Yes, Jewish.
OK.
And then we got together, Rose, would that be better?
No.
No.
I'd like to do one at a time.
I think that may not.
OK.
All right.
OK.
So then, can you tell me about any historical moment
that you remember?
Is there anything that comes to mind?
And can you tell me a little bit about what you remember about it?
I remember 9-11 very clearly, because I had been called to jury
duty, and I was downtown when this, when it happened.
And it was very traumatic and very awful.
Bernie and I sat on the couch and watched people stream across
the 59th Street Bridge.
It was the most terrifying and glorious day at the same time
to show what Americans were capable of doing and coming
together.
It was pretty special.
So had you not yet gone downtown, you were still at home
when it happened?
No.
I had already left the house.
I was on the bus when it happened.
And the bus driver said, we should get off the bus myself
and one other person.
And I was afraid too.
I was new to the city.
And I said, I'm not getting off the bus.
And we went further downtown.
And then we heard that all bus drivers
needed to come to the tower.
So she said, you have to get off the bus.
And at that point, we got off the bus.
We walked to First Avenue where a bus full of people
stopped for us, thank God, because we were just two people.
And when we got to the UN, the second tower was hit.
And there was such a red limon on the bus.
The bus driver made us get off the bus.
And I walked home from there.
It wasn't a big walk.
We live on 59th Street.
And at that point, Bernie had been asleep.
And so he didn't even know about this.
So it was really quite a terrible day.
It was amazing.
I would imagine.
I would love to possibly talk with you more about that
another time.
I don't want to delve too much into it now.
But if you're willing, that would be a surprise.
Sure.
Thank you for sharing that.
OK.
And on a different topic, was there
anything that a favorite food or meal
that you had growing up that you particularly remember?
And who made that for you?
That's very good.
That's a very hard question.
Why is it hard?
Well, because my mom, like your grandmother,
always had to have the emergency chicken on the side.
In case someone didn't like something.
So my mother, while she wasn't the best cook,
she was the most gracious cook.
And we've tried to please very much.
And so there's no real one food.
I mean, I just say that, yeah, I think anything
my mother made was wonderful.
And the last question I have is, who is the oldest or ancestor
that you know about?
And what you know are a member about them.
So the person highest up in your sort of industry
that you know.
That's the most important question.
Oldest person, ancestor.
Yeah.
So I mean, someone that you have some memory
or some story about, who is that person?
Maybe my grandfather, I guess.
OK.
But he's gone many, many years.
And I just remember him living a few blocks from us
and coming to watch television when it was new.
He watched the Cisco kid, which was a big thing for him.
And when I would come home from school there,
he would be in my room watching Mrs. Go Kid.
And then when you joined him in watching it.
I did not.
I don't know why that was, but I didn't.
OK.
Well, thank you so much, Sheila.
Welcome.
I would love to talk to you more.
But you just want to keep these sort of brief.
Bernie, is this something, just those same questions,
is that something you'd be interested in?
I know.
People have questions, one at a time, because I know that.
Of course.
If you could just state your name.
And where you grew up and where you live now.
OK.
I'm Bernie.
I grew up in the Bronx and in Queens.
When I was a boy, I was actually
born in Manhattan, Ireland in a hospital.
But my parents lived in the Bronx until I was 8 years old.
And towards the end of the war, my father
was making enough money to prepare
for his board of house in Queens.
And I lived there until I got married.
And then Sheila and I lived for five years
in fleshing into very nice apartments.
And board a home in Long Island, which
was two states and 33 years.
How did that happen?
So I was always, I was always at a nice childhood.
I did.
I have no complaint about it as a boy.
One of the things that I remember very clearly,
which is what you're asking, I think,
is that during the last year of the war,
and I must have been 1944 or 45, my parents
sent my brother and me to a, to a day,
a summer camp, a sleep away summer camp.
And I was in Poconos, which I hated,
because it was too religious and it was,
it was insects eating me the whole summer.
But I remember the most, it's 1945,
that woke up one day.
Everybody was running around the camp screaming.
It was the end of the war, the last day, the war rounded.
And my vision, my visual recollection
is instead of having a flag on the flagpole,
there was some woman's brazier than the flagpole.
The celebrate the end of the war.
I was almost nine years old, but I'm saying, yeah, okay.
That was a moment.
I'd there were so many others at a moment
that just creeped into your head for no reason.
Then I, there is no reason for that.
And I do remember during the war,
living in the Bronx and having to listen to the sirens
when we thought the Nazis were coming,
looking out for, having blackouts,
where you had to have blackout shades.
So then if they, if they came over with bombs,
they couldn't tell there was anybody home,
because they couldn't see anything like that.
They were scary.
Every kid wore a dog tag in school, did you know that?
If that was in case, in case you die, you got killed.
They could identify the body.
Every kid wore a dog tag.
I do remember purpose of it.
Having a year old kid wearing a dog tag.
Pretty fucking scary.
And well, we forgot the rest of it.
And since they're mixed, you and I
have had some moments together,
which are really outstanding places
that we have gone.
And it's saying to us that this was like a dream
because I know it's what it would be in these places.
And having children, the day that Nancy was born,
especially the first time I've done,
it's very, very, things that,
there were a lot of moments like that.
I can't pick them out so easily right now.
Well, I would love to follow up with both of you.
So if in the meantime, you think about anything
and you want to jot it down or send it to me.
Awesome.
Bernie is a fraternal twin.
I have a fraternal.
I had a fraternal twin brother.
He died 20 years ago because he didn't take care of himself.
But one of the nice things about having a brother
is there was always somebody to play with.
You didn't have to look for a ball.
Maybe we would go out in the street
and just play ball in the street.
It's all of us sometimes.
And we were very different people.
As we got older, we became more different.
But he was still my brother.
And everyone said, well, I think about him.
Did you always live near each to each other?
Or how was your geography?
Did we live near him?
Yes.
Yes.
We both lived about 10 minutes away.
I'm going on my far away.
Eventually, he moved to Arizona.
And we moved here to the city.
I live in Manhattan now for 23 years.
I love my life here.
And I'm very good lucky to have somebody with me
who makes a social life for me.
I'm always a social person.
But it's become more of an effort.
So she was done that for me.
And we have enjoyed going, especially
I think going to the theater.
I had a project a few years ago that I was
going to save the playbills from all the theater
productions that we went to.
And there was so many that was just clogging up space.
Hundreds, literally hundreds of playbills from the theater.
So I cut them all up.
I just keep the cover page and the list of the actors.
And I have this.
But that's something that's not a hobby.
And we still do that.
We enjoy the, what would you call it?
The, the, that kind of life in Manhattan.
Well, we enjoy what Manhattan offers.
We try to take advantage.
Yeah.
And I worked with 33 years for the school system
and all kinds of varieties of positions.
Eventually took a pension and they still sent me
the pension 32 years later.
I don't know.
I love you.
Yes, not a lot of money.
It's not a lot of money.
But it's 32 years.
So that's nice.
And I feel very fortunate to be where I am.
I never thought I would be this old.
This age.
No, I didn't ever.
When I was a boy, I remember that.
It's also in 1944.
There in the war.
I had a vision.
You know, I don't do that.
But I had a vision of how wonderful could it
be if I could see the year 2000.
I would have to be 64.
64.
I'll never make it.
That takes quite, I don't know quite right the word,
but like four thought to actually picture self-adaptive
and realize that I don't know.
That's very interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because 2000 was such a...
As far as my grandparents grow.
Yes, I know.
I'm named after my mother's father.
So I never met him.
My mother's mother died when I was only about eight or nine
years old.
So I only have very vague.
But I do remember my parents, my father's parents,
we were never really going to have a close.
We were anything like that.
But they lived across the street from us in the high rise
building on a sixth floor.
They had a dog called Blacky because he was Black.
That was a clever name.
And the old lady was like a little Russian lady with the print
dresses and a hair and a bun.
And the old man was a dynamical communist.
Really?
But I do remember them.
I do.
And one of the sad things in my life was when my parents
finally gave up and separated because I had to.
It was a question about it.
But I was in a boat by then.
You handle things.
And right now I just feel like every day I get up
and I look at the clock and I say,
I'll do another 20.
Like to help.
So Rose, what's going to happen with this?
Well, let me stop recording.
Hold on one second.
Thank you very much.
You want to do me?
My favorite foods.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah.
OK, sure.
I would love to hear about your favorite food.
What was your favorite food growing up and who?
Growing up.
Gee, I don't know if I had a favorite food growing up.
One of the things that my brother and I did,
and you could take this, but you want.
Every once in a while my mother would make hamburgers.
She would fry them in a pan.
So she had this rummy.
She mixed it up with red eggs and a little salt and pepper
and maybe some chopped onion.
And my brother and I would go, well,
it's not eating the meat before she cooked it.
I still have survived.
Yeah.
Yeah, no.
Well, you know what?
To this day, if I have an offer of a really good steak tartar.
Steak tartar.
I'll have it.
I like that.
I still like a good steak, which I don't
mean have very often anymore.
But we always got a variety of foods.
I have no idea.
I was very lucky to do that.
And my father taught me how to eat forwards
at my mother's never rate.
My father taught me how to eat clams and oysters
and all kinds of other things.
And it's not a rejoice.
But I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed learning about how to do all these things.
And I still like that.
So what's your favorite food now?
Gee, I think if I have, I don't know if I have a favorite food.
It's not chicken.
I can tell you that.
A good piece of fish.
A really good fresh piece of fish.
I really love fresh fish.
I'm going to go with the fresh fish.
I made it a very simple way.
And the only I will need are gourmet concoctions.
Just something simple.
I still like simple foods.
I'll go with the fancy foods.
But after a while, I think it's just a way
to cover up something that's not so good.
So I like just playing simple.
Yeah, that's me.
OK, thank you.
I will have a beer once a while.
I'm not a drinker.
But I enjoy a beer with a hot dog or a hamburger.
Just sitting around.
Maybe once a week or twice a week, I'll just sit in there.
I like that.
And do you prefer it a glass or in a bottle?
It glistens.
And I don't drink beer out of a bottle.
The other thing I would do is I will have a glass of wine.
I must have been about 35 or 40 years
or when I got interested in wine.
It's become quite a hobby.
I can tell you a lot about wine.
When you're in the mood, you ask me some questions.
And I'll give you some tips.
And enough that when we go out with friends to dinner,
and if there's a bottle of wine to be boy,
everybody turns to me and says, what should we get?
Yes, that's true.
And it's very nice of them to do that.
Most of the time, they're very pleased with what I choose.
Because I have 50 years of experience doing it.
And I don't have nothing about wine.
So I will take you up on some lessons.
Any time.
And really, I enjoy talking about it
because there's a lot of chemistry and biology.
It's a big science thing.
And wine.
OK.
Where is the place that your favorites wines are from?
What region?
Where are your favorite wines from?
Well, I think I like French and Italian wines.
There were some great American wines coming from here.
It's called the Pick One.
I can't pick one.
But I think by and large, I have stuck
with what are called the great vinifera,
the Cabernet and certain grapes.
And most of them coming from France and Italy.
But I've found places in the world when I'm making wine.
That's surprisingly good.
Yeah.
So I think we'll go now.
I love the tour.
It's another time.
Yeah.
OK.
Hold on one second.
Let me stop the recording.