1. Oral History Archive
  2. Rita Kaminsky

Rita Kaminsky

Coney Island during the Great Depression and World War II

Interviewer:
Charles Denson
Interviewee:
Rita Kaminsky

Languages

English

Periods

1950 - 1959
1940 - 1949
1930 - 1939

Interview Highlight Bookmarks

  • 2717 Surf Avenue
    •
  • Father's "shell shock" in World War I
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  • Railroad Avenue trolley
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  • Singing "Remember Pearl Harbor" with the Victory Trio
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  • Swimming nuns at the Surf Avenue orphanage
    •
  • Grandmother's Coney Island store
    •
  • Life on the beach
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  • The Great Depression: "We didn't know we were poor."
    •
  • The Surf, Mermaid, and RKO Tilyou movie theaters.
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  • The Bolsheviks and the Workman's Circle
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  • The saloon on West 25th Street
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  • Honeymoon at the Half Moon Hotel
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  • Mermaid Avenue during the Great Depression
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  • Coney Island "cat house"
    •
  • A terrible cook
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  • A good long happy life!
    •

     95-year-old Rita Kaminsky describes growing up in Coney Island during the 1930s and 1940s. Rita was born at home in the family's apartment above her grandmother's store at 2717 Surf Avenue. In this interview she shares memories of life during the Great Depression and  Coney Island during World War II.  

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