A reconstructed apartment in The Tenement Museum
Photo from the Tenement Museum
What
an oxymoron! They just shouldn’t schedule Valentine’s Day on a Monday. In fact,
I may become an activist for rescheduling all those Monday holidays. I know,
what I don’t need is another cause when I have Texas politics (and national),
banned books, dogs … let’s see, what else?
I didn’t
so much have the blues today as the blahs, and or no reason. The day was sunny
and almost warm, though the temperature drop between four and six this
afternoon was dramatic. Sophie did get me up early—twice, so I missed my
morning doze. But my work went well, and I got my thousand words written,
though they were what I would call transitional words, trying to get the characters
from one problem to another. Now I’ve left them at a dinner party—can’t wait to
see what will come out of that dinner, and Henny is nervous about it. She’s
serving her homemade pasta, which is definitely not one of her signature
dishes.
Zenaida
was here this morning, so the cottage is sparkling and clean. Other than her
cheery presence, there wasn’t a highlight to the day. I tried to create one by
watching a Zoom special on love in the tenements. I follow the Tenement Museum
at 97 Orchard Steet in Manhattan’s Lower East Side (I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged
about it before, so if you find this repetitive, please bear with me). The
building housed waves of immigrants from the 1860s through the 1930s—the Irish
fleeing the potato famine Lutherans from Germany, Jewish people escaping the
violence of eastern Europe, eventually Italians and Hispanics. The immigrants
did not mingle—one wave followed another, so that for a time the building was
almost exclusively Irish, then Jewish, etc. It’s like a mini-history of New
York City. Rescued from demolition in the late 1980s, 97 Orchard Street is slowly
being refurbished, and “model” apartments are stark reminders of the shabbiness
of poverty and the lack of amenities.
Tonight’s
program featured just a few couples in love and probed the question of how you
find out about love in history. The part about a Jewish couple featured quite a
bit about traditional matchmaker and the decline of their business early in the
twentieth century.The pictures were fascinating, along with interesting chat
comments. But I so want the museum to do some training of their presenters.
Tonight there were two—a woman who was so animated as to be almost frenetic;
she talked too fast so that she was hard to understand; her constant playing
with her long hair was distracting. (Yes, I had my hearing aids in and my
auxiliary speaker turned on—still not good.) She was partnered with a young man
who was just the opposite—laid back, soft spoken, lacking her obvious spark. I
don’t know which is better—or worse. A side note: each was identified by name
and pronoun preference. She preferred she/her, and he identified as he/him. But
I thought it interesting that they felt it important to include that information.
One of
my colleagues on a writers’ listserv just recorded some demo work hoping to get
voice-over assignments, and she shared the demos with the group today. I was
impressed by the range and variety of her voice and by the fact that whether
she was doing a voice for an animation segment or one for a corporate
presentation, her speech was clear and understandable. I want her to run up to
NYC and teach the Tenement Museum staff. I know they operate on a shoestring
and the staff may even be volunteer, but I think if they upped the quality of
the programming, they’d get more contributions.
My
recommendation, if you’re interested in this history, is to read the book, 97
Orchard: An Edible History of Five Families in One Tenement, by Jane
Ziegelman. Or check out the website: the
tenement museum - Search (bing.com)
Christian
is fixing a new version of carnitas for Valentine’s Day, and I’m being
reclusive—I guess the blahs have made me lazy. I declined an invitation to dine
in the house—they can have a candlelit dinner. I’m waiting for a plate of food.
Tomorrow
is a new day!
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| Christian's carnitas Just delivered and delicious! |
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