Alex: It Started in the Bronx

I was born in the Harlem section of New York City although we lived in east Harlem. My mother gave birth in the Harlem Hospital on Lexington Avenue and 125th Street. Waiting for me to be brought home was my brother Jakie and my sister Lillian. At the age of three we moved to the Bronx. I guess that’s where my memory started to function. I had no idea we were poor. We lived the same as everyone else, from hand to mouth. Momma and Poppa always went to work, came home, fed us, and we went to sleep. We had a lot of aunts and uncles and a slew of cousins. There were lots of parties, family dinners and we were always visiting each other’s homes. All the older children took care of the younger ones while some of the parents worked or took care of younger children. In the early nineteen thirties the elders started a family circle club, “The Fanny Ulrich Family Club.” It was more social than serious. They met once a month and did whatever they voted on doing. Poppa was the president; I guess it was because he was the eldest. It was nineteen thirty-four when we moved to Wilkins Avenue. This story begins when I met my friends and life got in the way.