I have to thank my grandson Joey for his suggestion to write my stories into a log. It has forced me to recall the past and examine the decisions made by choice or by fate and how one’s life was affected.
During this period, we were experiencing the Wall Street depression and the severe unemployment. Franklin D Roosevelt had been elected President. In Europe, we saw the emergence of Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. It was really a difficult time. And as I compare the present with those past years, I see a similar situation. We are presently seeing a new election to choose a new president who will be burdened with solving the current economic problems and also with the overseas problem of war in the Islam nations with it’s fanatic Anti-Semites. History seems to repeat itself . During these past four years FDR was busy shoring up the economy and Hitler was busy building an invincible army, warring with Spain and occupying neighboring countries. England, France and the US stood by and watched.
I am sure that this atmosphere of depression, war and anti-semitism which reached the US and stirred up by Father Coughlin in New Jersey affected my psyche. I felt the need to help at home , which I did by working at the family business , but I also needed to think of my future. I had been drawn to the photographic world as a means of expression and art. I really was interested in portraiture and hoped to move to Hollywood to do portraits of those gorgeous movie stars, whose photos inspired me.
So I enrolled in the NY Institute of Photography, located in the Empire State bldg. I went there evenings for 2-3 years and studied with Morris Germain, who specialized in portraiture. He later opened up his own school. The NYI school was run by the Falk brothers who were news photographers, working for the NY Times. The training I got influenced my later years in the Army Air Force and in my occupation.
During this period, actually my late teens 17-21 yrs of age, I was experiencing night life and partying with the female sex. I had many male friends, naming a few, Norman Weisenfeld, Bernie Wolff, Phil Nissenblatt, Sid Grossman and many others. We had very little money, but we had set up in our home basement, a dance floor with decorations and an RCA Victrola. We had great recordings by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw , Duke Ellington and others. We had great times dancing and a little necking. Well, one date made by Phil Nissenblat a double date, blind for me. This was the custom in those days. Girls would date in groups of 2 or more for safety
reasons. I don’t recall where we went , possibly to a movie in Boro Hall and Ice cream in a German Ice Cream Parlor. Any way the image I still maintain is the scene in the train, we were riding in, on the way home, is of one of these young girls swinging around the post of the train as it was going towards their station. We had the car to ourselves and she was having a great time jumping and swinging. And I turned to Phil and asked him How old is she?. He said about 16, why.? ” So, young”, I said.” ” She is advanced for her age. Out of High School and working”. ” Phil”, I said, don’t date such young girls for me I’m about 4 yrs older than she”
As fate would have it’s way, this young girl turned into a gorgeous, hot babe, when she approached me on a dance floor of the Menora Temple in Boro Park, two years later. I was seated on a chair, away from the crowd and she said “I know you from somewhere. Did we ever meet?, And I replied” Hey, that’s my line. What can I say, but no I don”t remember”. But let’s dance. And while dancing, she asks me, “Do you know Phil Nissenblat?
Well, there you see how fate and chance play a big part in one”s life. After living with this amazing girl I realize that she has a great ability to remember faces and names of individuals after a single meeting.
