Growing up in Sea Gate and Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s
Born in 1938, Larry Marquit grew up on Laurel Avenue in Sea Gate when some of the streets and sidewalks were cobblestone. He shares memories of World War II, day camp, movie theaters, and his first jobs as a boy shining shoes in a barbershop and...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and going back four times a year
Stanley Shapiro and his family lived at 2841 West 20th Street in Coney Island when he was a boy in the 1940s. "My heart is in Coney Island," says Shapiro, who goes back four times a year to walk the length of the Boardwalk and have a Nathan's hot...
Content type: Oral History Item
Mary Hood came to Coney Island as a child and worked on the Bowery well into her 90s
95-year-old Mary Hood (a.k.a. Mary Fish) was a regular at the bar at Peggy O'Neill's. She was either working long hours as a ticket taker at the Eldorado Skooter or she was drinking into the wee hours. It was hard to pin her down or to keep up with...
Content type: Oral History Item