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STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH LOCAL LIFE INDUSTRY
RIVERSHORE OF NEW YORK CITY
by 'Saul Levitt
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New Taft
NAME OF WORKER $AUL Levitt
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
617 Hamilton Terrace. mew York City
Sopte 24 1938
STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH LOCAL LIFE AND INDUSIM RIVERSROM,
qr MR TOM
1. Date and time of interview 14440 246 and OCritirttilld on Smirt• SI
2. Place of interview
Freemen S rest and Westehester Avenue. (West
Ferns Creek)
Otto Welteamo, Premium Street sad
3. Name and address of informwe
to:heater Ave* Meet Perms Creek.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
X
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. grattratifirlrairiait iiirunlilidoXilikteallOh winds westward frost the
Nast River. and is otherwiee known as the Bronx River. At this
point the break has bean widened. Derrieka sod barges, fishing
boats make up the *hors end water pieturs. Mabee of green on the
slope toward the Creek stand out spinet the gray namatene of the
Creek's industrial if. mad the eomerete ramparts of a bridge whidh
crosses the Creek at this point. Direetly below the Bridge is a
shag*, ones used esspier as and storeroom, having nev$ehimney
which climbs out of the wooden wall, and it is here that informant
resides. The Creek is about ISO ft wide at this paint, its waters
are auddr•brown. and the rifting bests, ranted white and orangs.
with trhs lines, lie on the Creek like a pi* ribbon on a sows qr.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
.2. FORM A CONTINUED
DESCRIPTION OF ROOM, HoUSE, SURROUNDINGS, etc.
The interior of the shack is ohockful of shier rubbish
amidst which the bare necessities of living such as bed, table,
chair have to be carefully noted as they have acquired a kind of
protective col:)ration and nondescript quality which, *partially
judged, makes them an integral part of the collection of odds
and ends.
however there is a good battery radio set in working order;
there are several old calendars on the walls, of this year and other
years, a tray full of rubber balls, in one corner an enormous heap
of old newspapers* several marine pictures on the walls, a boat
name plates Herbert Ws On the table in the center of the room
is a kerosene lamp* on the far side of the shack a rusty metal
bed with blanket and mattress but no sheets; and also in the shack
are an ancient orange.00lored plush armchair a streight.backed
chair, and a stoves There are some half.dosen pails standing on
the floor end on heaps of stuff, several of them containing -water.
At the threshold is an overhang of wood and a bench below it,
making a sort of porticos
STATE
NAME OF V AK York
ADDHESS
DAIE
SU6JECT
27 Hamilton Terrace, New York City
Sept 21* 138
STORIES OUT CP LOCAL LIIJEs RIvERSHOESS Oli" NEW YOUK
1. Ancestry
FOPN
Personal History of Informant
SAUL LEVI_
FOLKLORE
NE,, YORK
Gems=
2. Place and date of birth
3. Family
HaMburg* Germany, 1873
NO LIVING PAM -LY tS FAR is INFORfl'NT IQrO1S.
4. Places lived in, with dates
Hamburg, Germany, (Childhood)
City Island* Uount Vernon* and present address.
5. Education, with dates
Some primary school oducation
b. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
Has worked around local
waterfront, (on Creek and City Island) for some forty•five years.
As a 21197.uotS,3.43 rIpilwksEep time as plumbar. On watier!'ront ha has
7* boliffWaroVitiliteio-lisitidAan• pilot on fishing boats.
At present acts as caretakor for the UcCormeck coal Company* which
8.ormumfateg, pratertteyaentAgamaiii shore of creek at this point; had
no partibular interest axoept to be near und around boats, working
on than anu buildini; small boats.
9. DescriAMPAtii"MiYhte
Noted at once are briGht and sparkling brown eyes* Informant
10. uhstrAmly Wsogewbat, In comp). art s dark brown ltke
a alm.baked t s noes Is big, jaws sbmewnat lonF, faculties
are all alert, and he is pleasant except that he has an animosity
for small boys who, he says, *got some kind of wildness in them.*
when asked questions, he said he was willing to talk but he could
garely conceal an agitation and a melancholy and did not do more
than answer in monosyllables for about a half an hour after whigh
FORM 13 C171'1117' ED
n7IPTTPTTNM OF =FORMANT
be spoke at a great rate of speed like someone mho has been
still fors very long tirs; and he would not regard cues intended
to take lam off his main theme which was the astonishing and
strange ohmage* that had come over this country and the acrid
since he was a boy and a young maim' He exhibited a tolerance
in finally stating that he guessed R/t was general conditions
which ere responsible for people being whet they are these days.
Dog eat dog..
STATE
NANT OF
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
Tt of I-,Lerviow
New York
wo',En Saul Levitt
27 Hamilton Terraoe, NOV York
Sept 14, 1230 (oontinued on Sept. 21st)
STORIES _OF LOCAL LI?Es EIV12:STIORES Of NEW YOTIA
FOLKLOBE
YoRli
How do I like living around here? /f you like to rough it
it's OK otherwise it's better to be in an apartment. I like it
alright, I've been here fortyyptive years. (Informant through first
brief interview walks up and down narrow pierways surveying Oreek,
puffing rapidly on a cigarette down to the last half inch and brush.
trig an imaginary spook of dust off interviewer's tie) I like it
allright. Yeah.yeah. Do I feel melancholy sometimes? When I don't
feel right I just go upstairs, (indicating flight of wooden steps
which climb bank from the Creek edge to the roadway above), and go
over to a show. I used to build boats but m getting old now.
No, I don't want a drink but I used to drink, I'm too old for that
now. Yeaholsah. Too old. How was it around here thirty years ago.
There were estates up here. Yeahl it was beautiful. I'm the only
one that lives here, I guess, but I hear there's some new..00mere
up near starlight Park. Come back sometimes, sure, I don't mind,
and I'll give ye' some dope.
On Sept. 20, interviewer, who had been there several times
without locating informant, clambered across a low tideflat near
one 'hawk to a houseboat Galled Venida, scuttled on flat. Together
with friend, be pulled himself aboard vie a length of piping slung
over the side, and found there amidst wreckage, broken windows,
the skeletal remains of piano and broken bedsteads in what were
evidently living compartments, several letters be.ameared with
river mud and smelling to hith heaven, addressed to Mr. X from
girls in New York and Virginia
Legible fragments of letters found on houseboat Venida on West
Parma Creek:
Lurray, Ve,
Oct. 25, 1937.
Dear Mr. X
I will answer your letter which I received just a few
minute ago. I wigs real glad to he r from you. I am well and
happy and truly hope when these few lines reaches your hands will
fine you and wife well and happy.
(ten lines illegible)
tole ma that you loved me and know that you sent me money and
wanted to buy me clothes she wont love you so dam good Marry I
lve you make know diffort-nt who you marries or what you do. But
I have a boy friend that is true to me and be don't (illegible)
you said that you love me if you did you would never marry
an another glrl that show how you 1,)ve me don't it? Harry if
you are marry I wish you all the happies in the world but there it
one think I am going to ask you and if you like me at all you will
tell me who has been writing to you and t ening you all the think
you have been talking about and than I will be sadisfide and when
04110
you come in next summetr andb ring your wife I would love to see
but what did you fall for her or her name it is so beautiful
like it but guest she is a luckily girl to get a aloe boy like you
and Darling I want you to sh-w her the letter that X wrote you
to let her know know how muoh I loved you and to think how you
trots to ma it is enough to hurt the feolings of a dog but Ium
a human as well as you are but you much think X am a dog but
the way you write to me I am surprise at you harry I am going to
writ, your wife a letter end tell her how you told me that you
love me. And then if she love you I will be happy and always
stay happy to think another girl marry the Boy I real end truly
llved and please show her the letter that 1 wrote you I want her
to know the isnot the only one who loved you. And you can laugh
at me all you want to but mein' someday I hope you will shed just
on. tear over me Any way if not throw a brick in on me I want
to sleep for ever with somethink that my sweetheart gave me. And
that would bo the only think that you would like to give me when
die parling put a rose in my hand.
And think of how you done me and how you huve talk to
mop and think of how X loved you. And now that I am gone aarry
Darling why don't you set end think of how much you told me you
loved and how I told you I loved you too and do you think for
one minute I would go out wtth Any other nosy Harry how can you
say that about me when you know better your Self you oulit to
know that Mother wouldn't let me And you ought to know X wouldant
for I love you I know you will laugh when you read this but
don't oare 1 love you and don't oare you know it. But if you sro
.4.
marry I will always love you and I want your wife to know it
will tell her so if I ever see her. So Harry you such have fell
in love very quick and learned to love her enoucht to marry her.
So lies my heart is brokinc Lnd you don't like to reed my letter
I will °Ilse for this ti e hop!_n to heer from you reel soon and
a reel lon,g letter for love you to hear from you even if you
are marry tell your wife for me and tell her that I love
you too hear is some little songs I went you to learn for me
and remember me when you ,..(Illegible)..•agoalBoy
Prom ?our
Friend ellen I)
Tuesday January 14, 1936
..Te5P.,
Received your letter and was more than pleased with it.
I will forcive you for not writing that Tuesday as I find
yor cato%30 satisfactory* T. shall see how good your promise is
for Jan, 30 /*I not Dec* 30, I'm not been sarcastic* just
correcting you on ycur mistake you made in the date in your last
letter* It struck ma so funny I laughed all day* 14 the way I
will permit you to see me Deo* 30 that is if my health still, holds
out. low's the girl friend is the still Ilealous of you? I hope
not' And I hope you used your mann/eh technique in curing her
disease* It always works if you go about it the riOat way if you
don't your just stuck with a dame you can't get off your shoulders*
Excuse the aleng its lust one of my habits* I sure hope you will
excuse it. That's enough of that. How's the club oominr, ng?
How's are the boy friends and 7trl friends?
How's your mother the whole family. I sure would like
to meet them that is if I'm not being too bold* I hope they are as
sweet as your estimation Does* As they say regardless of how mean
a mother may think her eon he always has a place in his heLrt for
her. Don't you think I'm ri7ht? I hope to tell you I am*
I tried hard to continue writing but I find it impossible
as I'm very tired shout to flop in bed*
There isn't snythirr also to say so I close here hoping
you keep your neck clean*
Signing off until my next letter
Station
P S answer soon Hoping soon to hear from you, your friend
Mickey Mouse, Meaning Kitty
11616110
0
Interview oontinued with informant Otto Walters on
Sept* 210
anformant was stand/ng near end of the narrow pier ighleh
runs some thirt7 feet out into the Creek and tying rope throat by
a deekhand from the fishing boat Ventura coming in. After tieing
upbeat he came forward toward shack and recognized interviewer
but wzis ill at sae.* Be finally opened door of Shook* The Captain
of the fishing boat who was addressed as ineptate cane along the
pier to the &oak end in ',newer to questions laughed and said I
*Sure, there's plenty of stories hers, and Otte knows a lot of tholes*
You tell Masa Otto* VW tell you the best flab story you *MP
heard yet. le went out for verkfish up to fteaution Light lest
week and there was a feller on board didn't witch a fish 3l day*
But about the time we sere going beak be pulled up a watch right
throudh the aye which was nothing because the feller next to bin
quick as a flaah pulls up another watch end whates were it had
the richt time on it. Yea, Otto knows a lot, he's been around
here a long tIne* Tell bla about that seam captain* This soww
captain, be liked his drinks you know, and he went off one night
and must have gotten a big one on becauselemak he came beak
Dee. there's a specs between the shore and the boat and he fell
in* (Captain is laugUng and Walters nods his heed). The next
morning he comes floating down ridht here to the shuck rnd
Otto fishes him out and there was a lot doing around here* Polies
and all that stuff* Yeah, Otto's always nothing something out se
the Creek, every year there's sone boys drowned swimming here* Did
.7
you go swimming here? Well, young feller, you're just ludic,'"
you're around here, that's all...So long as they keep that war
and that fighting over there that's all we care about. When they
oome over here we'll take care of them. *Yeah, Otto knows a lot
of stories, you tell him, Otto.*
(After °Captain" left, informant and interviewer sat
in shag*, It was quite dark. In answer to questions, informant
merely replied categorically for some fifteen minutes, and then
without answering, rummaged through pile of odds and ends and
emerged with a brown manilla envelop* containing photographs.
Photographs were dated in back in crayon and pencil, dates covering
years 1882.down to some five years ago.
no 1341 good ti en years ago. Yeah -yeah. Youp It's diff-
erent now. What do they do now? Dog eat dog. (Goes out to shout
at boys on bank and drives them off.) Boys are wild now. They
don't get a licking, that's ghat. That's what they did years ago.
A licking. ?ethers and mothers don't count no more. Yeah -yeah.
They're not supposed to c,ive 'em a licking these days. That
picture? Yes, that's me in the middle,. (Picture dated 1890,
showing several people grouped about a pierhouse and facing earners
broadside is a rowboat with three young men in it. The people on
the pier are wearing bowler hats and high collars. On the wall
of the pierhouse are signs reading New England Pies. Boats Rented.
The young man in the center, in picture is wearing a cap with
visor, shirt, and pants rolled to knees, and he is sitting on
pier with legs dangling in boat.) What happens around here.
nothing much happens now. Vie used to have times around here,
nice tiles. We had lots of young people Doming here. The girls
were dIfferent. Don't tell no they weren't different. They
were quieter and maybe they used a little powder but not like
girls today. tell you it's different Goday and I don't know
what's going to happen. (Whenever informant makes reference to
"today" he faoe grows longer, he becomes fretful and peers out
on the Creek.) The automobile did it. Yeah.yeah. And the
movies, don't forget the movies..Where do you think they get their
ideas from. Holdups. Yeah.yeah. The movies. Beer five cents
and *event cents a pint. You could get a meal for 20 cents and
raise a family on 20 dollara a week. Now a man needs fortyi
fifty dollars a week. Can he get it? Yeah, that's right, and
he can't got it. (Pulls out studio photograph from bag, showing
young boy about eight years of age, with curly dark hakr in
Little Lord Fauntleroy style). That's one of my sons, they're
all dead, he'd have been thirty six years old today if he lived.
(Informant runs out to chase off boys playing on bank of Creek).
It was nice here, it was all wooded, you bet, very nice. (Shows
another photograph, this one of three young felle,ws about eighteen
years of age). They worked for me. Do any of them ever come
around to see me? They're all dead. They were good boys. I
had my own boat here, (shows picture of small motorboat with
canopy over it, and name.plato near bow, Herbert W). Nice times
those were. Yeah...yeah. Well, sure lots of things happened
around here. Some old songs? I remember them but I can't sing.
You know them all: Sure. They play them songs now only different.
I guess I'll keep on living here, ?eller took a girl out in a
rowboat before he went off to the War. I mean the Spanishi4Amerioan
War. They looked nice. Now it's dog eat dog. About this &sae
feller that the 'Captain' mentioned? Oh, they're all alike, most
of them ain't married. This feller that fell off was Irish, he
wasn't married. That boat out there? (Interviewer points to
Venida.) Up to four years ago that was used. Yeah. Parties
on it and they roomed people. Right there on the boat that's
right. I had a sailboat when I was young feller maybe eighteen.
It's not like the b,utomobile. That's something you have to work
with. Sure an automobile is allright I once had a oar myself for
business but nowadays a man won't walk he gets in a oar to go two
blocks and what's more he don't own the oar. When I was a plumber
in Mount Vernon I had to walk aeven•poight miles to work, seven to
six at night. Yeah.yeahe There's no fishin in, the Creek now
there used to Le all k'nds, weakfish, floundere, these fishing
boats go up sways as far as Execution Light, (Asked about picture
of three men with background of Creek and wooded shore) True blue,
old friends of mine, yes that's me on the left. My father had a
boating place up 44 City Tslandi That was different now its
restaurants and streets it was nice once. Yeah -yeah. This wasn't
the Bronx once it was Morrisania, Melrose, West Farms I walked
from 110th Street. I guess I'll go to a show there's no use
hanging around here. No, you're not keeping ma but I'm going
to a show later.