A Lesson in History

Michael, Nina and I spent yesterday afternoon at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. What a fascinating experience that was -- you get to visit several actual apartments of immigrant families in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the home of Adolfo and Rosaria Baldizzi, a tape recording of their daughter Josephine plays on which she describes daily events in the little apartment (the family's actual dish towels -- donated by Josephine -- hang from the rack over the sink). For a second I almost felt like I'd been transported back in time to 1928 as she told stories of her mom cooking at the stove and of playing games with her brothers and father at the kitchen table.

Aside from my initial bitterness of the "slum" apartments being way bigger and nicer than my current abode, the lesson learned from our rather terrific tour guide is that throughout history there have been many variations of Lou Dobbs -- and many "targeted" groups. Or as Jerri Blank would say, the names and faces of immigration change, but the hassles are just the same. Nonetheless, immigrants have always persevered.

Being of Irish descent, I'm curious to back to visit their upcoming unveiling of a new apartment that belonged to the Moore family from Ireland.