Just Kids From the Bronx by Arlene Alda Read Free Book Online Page B

to travel to and from work, which made her days very long. So at age ten I took over the cooking for the family. My father had been emotionally destroyed by the events of the Holocaust and was a manic depressive. That was the diagnosis at the time, but I can’t really say for sure. My mother was very loving and my father loved me too, but he was very disturbed for a long time and couldn’t deal with reality. So it was tough on him but also tough on everybody else.
    That particular kind of disease has ups and downs so when he was in the active mode he would be violent, which meant you had to stay away from him. Sometimes we just abandoned the house. My mother had a friend who lived on the east side in the Pelham Bay area, where the neighborhoods were much better. I used to seek refuge there. It was hard because Hunter High School was even farther away traveling from there, but despite that I recognized I was doing pretty well in school and that kept me happy. I’m still that way. I really like what I’m doing, in that I wake up in the morning excited about doing it. And I was that way when all this trouble was happening.
    When you grow up like I did, you’re at a big advantage because you’re already taking care of yourself. You’ve been on your own. Nobody made it happen for you. You were making it happen yourself. So when you go to college or whatever you do, you have your own inner drive and confidence. I work in a man’s world. But … I’ve always worked in a meritocracy. And I’m still working productively—because I love doing it.
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    Note: I saw Mildred Dresselhaus for the first time in Oslo, Norway, where she received the prestigious Kavli Prize for her original work in nanotechnology and carbon molecules. The king, Harald V, was present when Dr. Dresselhaus, in her acceptance speech, talked of her immense gratitude for the honor. She then announced that she was going to give her prize of $1 million to young scientists for basic research. She encouraged others to do so, as well. I was immediately taken with this brilliant person who had such a spirit of generosity.
    A few months later, I took the train up to Boston to record a conversation with Millie, as she encouraged me to call her. We met at her offices at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she sat at her desk behind a mountain of papers. She apologized for working on some recommendations for students, which were due later that afternoon. The Bronx accent and down-to-earth manner were familiar to me. In the course of our talking together, Millie told me that she was less interested in the perks of seniority, such as a larger office, than simply doing the work that she loves.

 
    REGIS PHILBIN

    TV personality, actor, singer
    (1931– )
    Our neighborhood had mostly apartment buildings, but my great-aunt Victoria owned this two-family house and that’s where we lived. There was an empty lot next door to us. I think it’s a parking lot now. My family planted corn and tomatoes there. I loved it. I had a great childhood. I even delivered the Bronx Home News right up Cruger Avenue to all those houses, and up and down Pelham Parkway to the apartments that faced Bronx Park East.
    My great-aunt was a tough old Italian woman. I could hear her going down the stairs into the cellar to turn off the heat every night at nine o’clock. And I said to my father—my father was Irish and he didn’t understand those Italians at all—I said to him, “How can Aunt Victoria go down into that dark cellar? Isn’t she afraid somebody’s down there?” And he said, “Well, if I was a guy down there, I’d be afraid of what’s comin’ down those stairs.”
    On cold winter nights when I was really young I used to listen to the radio. That’s when I discovered Bing Crosby on WNEW, which was the premier radio station in town. They had a half hour of Bing every night from nine thirty to ten. And I just—gee—I was attracted to his voice, the