Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and '50s and fun summer jobs
Born in 1941, Stuart Waldman grew up in Coney Island on West 32nd Street and Neptune Avenue. He shares memories of school days - PS 188, Mark Twain, Lincoln High School, and Brooklyn College - and vividly describes a series of fun summer jobs he had...
Content type: Oral History Item
A longtime resident of Haber Houses and leader of the Russian-speaking community
This interview was conducted and recorded in Russian. Read Julia Kanin's Russian transcript and English translation below. Интервью проведено и записано на русском языке. Вы можете ознакомиться с траснскриптом и переводом Юлии Ханиной ниже.
Sofya...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of Coney Island in the 1950s and a family's candy factory on Mermaid Avenue
Liz Unger was born in Brooklyn in 1944 and divided her time growing up between Baltimore, Maryland, and Coney Island. She spent every summer and every holiday staying with her aunt and grandmother, who lived on West 30th Street. Another aunt, uncle...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of living in Coney Island from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s
Born in 1940, Jerry Omanoff lived in Coney Island from the late 1940s to the mid-60s. His family lived first in a bungalow on West 32nd Street, then in an apartment in a three-story house on West 33rd Street, and finally in Sea Gate. He shares...
Content type: Oral History Item
Writer and playwright who grew up in Coney Island from 1943 to 1956
Carol Polcovar is a writer and playwright who grew up in Coney Island from age three through sixteen. Her family moved from Brighton Beach to West 35th Street next to P.S. 188, where she longed to go to kindergarten. The home that she remembers best...
Content type: Oral History Item
Mystery artist who carved faces into rocks on the shoreline at Brighton Beach
John Philip Capello is a painter and sculptor who grew up in Bensonhurst in the 1940s and '50s and now lives in Sag Harbor. This oral history is the culmination of the interviewer's 12 year search for the mystery artist who carved faces into rocks...
Content type: Oral History Item
Rachel Simon recalls her family's Deli Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue
Rachel Rosenberg Simon's grandparents owned and operated Rosenberg's Kosher Deli Restaurant on Mermaid Avenue from 1917 to 1975. It was considered the finest deli on the Avenue as all the food in the restaurant was homemade. Rachel's entire family...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s and moving to Luna Park Houses in 1962
Born in 1930 in Coney Island, Frieda Schwelke and her family lived on West 36th, West 29th, and West 32nd Streets. In February 1962, she moved with her husband and son to Luna Park Houses when it first opened, and lived there through 1970. Schwelke...
Content type: Oral History Item
Sharon Tera's family operated Ethel's Restaurant on the Boardwalk in the 1940s and '50s
Born in 1947, Sharon Tera lived in Coney Island for the first 14 years of her life. Her parents, Ethel and Ise Tera, owned Ethel's Restaurant on the Boardwalk at West 19th Street. "Between my mother being Jewish and my father Japanese, we had a...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of Ocean Tide Baths and Coney Island
Jane McNeive Ennis, 91, grew up in Bay Ridge and recalls going to Ocean Tide Baths as a teenager in the 1940s. She has fond memories of renting a season locker at Ocean Tide with three girlfriends and painting and decorating the locker which was the...
Content type: Oral History Item