Oral History Archive

Filtering by 1980 - 1989 back to all
Jeanette Bigelson
At age 103, Coney Island resident shares her memories and secrets to a long and happy life
Jeff Brooks
Tales of unusual dark rides, riots, the Tornado, and the Bowery
Keith Suber
Community activist and reformed gang member
Zohra Saed
Poet and writer from Afghanistan who grew up in Southern Brooklyn
Khonya Epstein
Author and leader of the Holocaust Survivors Group at Marks JCH of Bensonhurst
Frank Gurrera
Machinist at MTA's Coney Island Overhaul and Repair Shop and oldest active TWU Local 100 member
Anthony Wang
Resident of senior housing in Coney Island was born in Shanghai and survived the Cultural Revolution
Josephine Gargiulo Cassata
Daughter of Gargiulo's founder was born in an apartment above Coney Island's famous restaurant
Shavon Meyers
A poet and storyteller on growing up in Coney Island at Gravesend Houses, the beach and Astroland
Gabriel Valencia
Twenty-five years at Gregory & Paul's and Paul's Daughter on the Coney Island Boardwalk
Lorraine Ross
Resident of Coney Island for 47 years and retired transit cleaner at Stillwell Terminal
Lu Zhao
Calligrapher recounts his artistic journey from China's Guangdong Province to Brooklyn's Bensonhurst
Tim Law
Bilingual educator and founder of Chinese American Social Services Center in Bensonhurst
John Hunt
Model builder of roller coasters and amusement rides including the Cyclone and Deno's Wonder Wheel
Juanhua Zhao
Tai chi teacher at Coney Island's Seaside Innovative Senior Center shares her life story
Alisa Minyukova
Brooklyn artist who emigrated from Russia as a child is drawn to Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach
Steven Feinstein
Reflections on running Wilensky Hardware, a 100-year-old family business on Mermaid Avenue
Steve Campanella
Collector of 1950's and '60s memorabilia whose Bensonhurst home is known as the Statue House