Coney Island during the Great Depression and World War II
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...
Content type: Oral History Item
Boyhood memories of visiting Coney Island in the 1930s and getting lost on the beach
Norman Finkel, 94, grew up on 48th Street and 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, where the candy store was the social center of the neighborhood and he played stickball on the street. He shares memories of visiting Coney Island with his family during the 1930s...
Content type: Oral History Item
Girlhood memories of visiting Coney Island in the 1930s and '40s
Toby Deligdish, 92, grew up in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. She shares memories of going to Coney Island at around age 10, when her family rented a room in a home for the summer, and returning as a teenager with friends from school....
Content type: Oral History Item
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
At age 103, Coney Island resident shares her memories and secrets to a long and happy life
Born in 1920, Jeanette Bigelson grew up at 62 Cannon Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when it was a neighborhood of working-class immigrants. She shares memories of her mother's homemade challah and noodles; friendly neighbors who kept...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island and the family business, Shatzkin's Famous Knishes
Mort Shatzkin’s family owned one of Coney Island’s most beloved eateries, Shatzkin’s Famous Knishes. They operated stores at various locations in Coney Island from the 1940s through the 1970s, and Shatzkin's Coney Island Knishes at Kings Plaza ...
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
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
Growing up in Gravesend and going to Coney Island in the 1940s and living there today
Esther Delgado (née Scarlino), 88, recalls living in a bungalow on West Eighth Street in Gravesend when she was a child in the 1940s. In 1929 her maternal grandparents first rented the bungalow for $33 a month because they thought they could walk...
Content type: Oral History Item