Ms. Clara said Bed-Stuy “was not a restaurant neighborhood” throughout their lives. They occasionally went to places like Junior's or got take out at Royal Rib House, though mostly preferred to eat at home. My home is around the corner from their store, so I know the area very well. However, since I didn’t grow up here, the faint childhood stories from my family who lived here for generations aren’t equivalent to the lived experiences of a person who is 89 years old, as Ms. Clara proudly proclaims herself to be. Ms. Catherine mentioned going to Peaches, but “only for a meeting.” They are of a generation where eating home was seen as something more than a chore. Both recoiled at the idea of eating out all the time, or even often. That is completely understandable.
Tax Records and Time Machines: The Property Cards of the Municipal Archives
It was 1933; the American people had been struggling through the Great Depression for four years. Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected president and established the New Deal, creating federally funded relief programs such as the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, resulting in millions of jobs...