Among the additions to the Coney Island History Project's online Oral History Archive are the following audio interviews recorded by Charles Denson, Jiangxin Jin, Julia Khanina, Kaara Baptiste, Ruonan Zheng, and Samira Tazari. Please listen, share, and if you or someone you know would like to record a story, sign up here.
Bensonhurst native Ralph Avella was 16 years old when he became the youngest member of the Coney Island Parachute Jump's operation crew in 1961 after graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School. This interview is probably the best description ever of how the Jump operated and what it was like to ride it.
Crystal Isley shares memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses in the 1980s and '90s. After a happy childhood growing up in a close-knit community, things started to change and ducking from gunshots became normal. "Either people saw Coney Island as the end-all, be-all, or they wanted more. I was one of the people who wanted more," recalls Crystal, who now lives on Ocean Parkway but says Coney Island will always be her home.
Yi Xin Tong is an artist from Mount Lushan, China, where he grew up learning calligraphy, poetry and fishing from his grandfather. At Coney Island Creek, which he describes as "the place that I can feel closest to home in New York," Yi Xin spends his time fishing for striped bass and flounder and creating videos. He recorded two interviews: one conducted in Mandarin and a second in English.
Khonya Epstein, 91, author and leader of the Holocaust Survivors Group at the Marks JCH of Bensonhurst, is a Ghetto Survivor and World War II Veteran. A native of Mogilev, Belarus, he tells the harrowing story of how he escaped the Nazi massacre of the Jewish ghetto and joined a partisan brigade at age 13. This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian and includes a Russian transcript and an English translation.
Connie Scacciaferro, 86, remembers going to Coney Island Beach as a child in the 1930's and a teen in the '40s. Among her childhood memories are her youngest sister getting lost and finding her eating ice cream at the police station; a cousin being saved from drowning by her father and uncle; and rides on the L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway and the Cyclone.
Jewel Hough lives in Brighton Beach and has been working at Coney Island's Deno's Wonder Wheel Park for the past 18 years. She describes her favorite rides ("The Tilt-A-Whirl, I love it!") and the process of making cotton candy and candy apples at Deno’s Sweet Shoppe.
Ahmed Hussain, 24, has spent every summer since he was eight in Coney Island helping out in his family's stores in the amusement area. What he enjoyed most about growing up in Coney was his friendship with the operators of Faber's Fascination Arcade and Shoot Out the Star, whom he describes as his mentors.
Alito Hernandez shares memories of learning to breakdance as a young boy in the 1980's and the history of Fresh Kids crew in Coney Island. “They would break till dawn when I met them. I was a baby. I was inspired by them," recalls Alito, who says the Polar Express was the crew's stomping grounds and they practiced at Our Lady of Solace schoolyard.
Olga Lozar is a Sea Gate resident and Coney Island Polar Bear Club member. She talks about the pleasures of winter swimming and first learning to swim in the alpine lakes of the Caucusus Mountains. This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian and includes a Russian transcript and an English translation.
Song Xin is an artist who used traditional Chinese paper cutting techniques to create Tree of Life, a public art work in the Bay Parkway subway station in Bensonhurst. “The place is a new immigrant hub. I am one of them," says the artist, who moved to New York from Beijing in 2000. This interview was conducted and recorded in Mandarin and includes a Chinese transcript and an English translation.
The Coney Island History Project has over 330 oral histories archived online. Most are in English, with long-time or former residents, workers or visitors. In recent years we began recording interviews with immigrants and foreign-born New Yorkers both in English and other languages including Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish and Turkish who live or work in Coney Island and adjacent neighborhoods in Southern Brooklyn.
