Author Archives: Margaret

Chapter 2 – The Sidewalks as Playground

Richard’s first ten years on First Avenue lay the foundation for life ahead. Within a three block radius of his tenement is a whole world. Eightieth Street and the sidewalk are his playground—where he makes “hot mickeys” with a lump of coal and a purloined potato. The shops on the block provide everything his family needs: a bakery, a grocer, a fruit and vegetable market, an ice cream parlor, and his own optometrist. On 82^nd Street there is an elementary school, on 80^th Street and Second Avenue a Sunday School for religious education, on 79^th Street a public library for exploring the world. For Richard, these were the essential building blocks for integrating life and preparing for the future.

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Chapter 1 – The Making of a Political Consciousness

Born in 1925 in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan’s East Side, Richard grows up in a working class German-American family surrounded by immigrants from the now defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. Scenes of the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler in Germany, and anti-Semitic sentiment become etched in his memory. Richard receives an early political education from his Socialist cigar maker grandfather who emigrated from 1880s Germany, by hearing over-the-counter conversations about European politics at the butcher shop where Richard worked on Saturdays, from the Franciscan priest at the Hungarian parish where Richard made meat deliveries, and through his aunt Augusta Wagner, who in 1937 returned to Yorkville while on furlough from occupied China, where she was a professor of economics at Yenching College for Women in Peking.

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Look for Our Podcasts

We will be posting podcasts of Richard Poethig reading his autobiography, punctuated by music that emphasizes the humor and drama in the stories.

Getting Set Up

Hello everyone. This is Margaret. I’ve spent the weekend getting this website and blog set up so I can show it to my dad. It’s been a bit tricky because I’m not a pro, and I don’t fully understand blogging and how to set one up. I’ve noticed that when I run into a problem that I can’t figure out how to fix, taking a nap usually helps.

There are many pieces to this production, but I’ve made a lot of progress over the past few days putting them in place. Next, I want to introduce dad to blogging, get the Facebook page up and running, and figure out how to post podcasts of On the Sidewalks of New York to the blog. Eventually I’d like to put a trailer on YouTube and upload the podcasts to iTunes–none of which I’ve ever done before. By the time I’m finished with this, I’ll be an expert.

Stay tuned!