0:01

Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History

0:03

Class from works dot com.

0:11

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

0:13

Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And

0:16

in our previous episode, we shared the first

0:18

part of our interview with Dr Annie Pollen,

0:20

who is Senior director of Education and Programs

0:23

at the Tenement Museum on New York's Lower east

0:25

Side. And Annie told us in that

0:27

first episode about the discovery of the building

0:29

that would eventually house the museum and

0:31

the neighborhood there on the Lower east Side as it developed

0:34

from the eighteen sixties to the nineteen thirties.

0:37

Today, we're gonna learn some more about the ongoing

0:39

research that's happening at the museum,

0:42

along with programs and plans

0:44

for the museum. We're also going to talk a little

0:46

bit about one of our favorite topics, which

0:48

is food as it relates

0:50

to telling the story of immigration in

0:53

New York. Yeah, there's

0:55

some really fun stuff coming up. Do

1:01

you have a favorite story

1:03

or stories of some of the residents that

1:06

lived at ninety seven Orchard. That

1:09

is such a hard question because I think

1:11

for all the family, you know, every family is

1:13

fascinating, you know, it's kind of like

1:16

picking who's your favorite child if

1:18

you had like seven children and had to pick one who

1:21

was the most interesting. So well,

1:23

you know, the one of the woman

1:27

who fascinates me the most is a woman

1:29

named Goldy lust Garden and

1:32

she and her husband Um

1:35

ran a kosher butcher shop at

1:38

Orchard from approximately eighteen

1:41

nine to nineteen o two. Um

1:44

she was the mother of six children.

1:47

She raised her children in an apartment right

1:49

behind the butcher store. She

1:51

probably worked six days a week alongside

1:54

her husband. In fact, we have a picture of the

1:56

Lustgarden family UM standing

1:58

outside of their shop, and all of them,

2:00

every one of them, I believe, is wearing an apron,

2:03

including their little five year old son

2:05

William. So this

2:07

was a family that worked together. And

2:10

Um, I'm always fascinated by

2:12

her thinking about how she'd be raising

2:14

her family while also helping

2:16

to run a business. And the story becomes

2:19

even more complicated because Um,

2:22

in May of nineteen o two, the price

2:24

of kosher meat went up. The

2:26

wholesalers raised the price, and

2:28

the retail butchers tried

2:31

to um Big boycotted. They tried

2:33

to get the whole salers to back down

2:36

because they knew their customers couldn't afford

2:38

that steep rent. That's the that's

2:40

the price increase, UM. But the

2:43

wholesalers didn't back down, and the retailers

2:46

many ways really had no choice but to start selling

2:48

the meat again because they were in a vulnerable

2:51

position. They had to pay rent for their spaces,

2:53

they had to you know, keep their businesses going. So

2:56

they opened up. But the women of the neighborhood

2:59

UM, they organized and they started

3:01

boycott. And so the women in the neighborhood

3:04

are able to effectively, you know, give

3:07

speeches, rally everyone basically

3:09

to stop buying meat. They get the attention

3:11

of newspaper reporters, both the Yiddish reporters

3:14

and the reporters uptown, and so they

3:16

carry out this really intense,

3:19

really powerful consumer

3:21

protests and consumer strike and sometimes

3:26

at some point in in UM the protests

3:29

became violent. And we know that in May

3:32

of nine two May seventeen, nineteen two

3:34

UM, someone attacked the List Garden shop

3:37

because we have a picture of orchard

3:40

with the window broken, UM.

3:42

And so I think about what it was like for Goldie Liftgarden

3:45

two in some ways

3:47

really understand why the women were

3:49

striking because she herself was a woman who

3:52

had to manage the funds and provide

3:54

for her kids. And she probably really understood

3:56

the vision that the Hall of Lives were in

3:59

and protesting that rent increase and

4:01

I'm sorry and then that price increase, but she

4:03

was torn because she had to run her store.

4:05

So I I just think that she must

4:07

have been a really um interesting

4:09

woman and that she had to deal with a lot of complicated

4:12

um subjects. And really she stands

4:15

in for all of these immigrant women who

4:17

were raising children, but they were

4:19

also business people, whether they

4:21

were running their own shops or simply managing

4:24

a family household meant that you had to be

4:26

business minded because a lot of these women, in

4:28

order to afford the rent for the apartments

4:31

um needed to act as many

4:34

landladies in the sense that they found borders

4:36

who would rent a space within the

4:39

apartment and pay the house

4:41

life as the kind of the sub land

4:43

lady of the apartment. So everyone took on

4:45

borders and able to make rent. So the

4:48

housewives were not only taking care of the borders,

4:50

they were taking care of their children. And then

4:52

Goldie lust Gardens on top of that is taking

4:54

care of the store. And then she has to kind of deal with

4:56

this political protests. So she's

4:58

kind of my here out in the sense

5:00

of thinking about someone who's able to deal with

5:02

a lot of um stress.

5:05

That's such an amazing story. She could

5:07

be a whole episode of Ours on her own, it

5:10

could, you know, and then the story to

5:12

kind of and I we don't know too

5:15

much about this, but um,

5:17

we always like to find out what we can about the

5:19

descendants and um.

5:23

Goldie lust Garden's oldest daughter, her

5:25

name was Fannie, and she got

5:27

married and she and her husband

5:29

and Mr. Gribard, ran a

5:32

restaurant for many years on the Lower East Side.

5:35

They had several children,

5:37

one of whom was a daughter

5:40

named Blossom, and Blossom grew

5:42

up to become a lawyer, and she worked for

5:45

city government and in the fifties and sixties.

5:47

So it's kind of amazing to think, like a strong

5:49

woman in nineteen hundred is a housewife

5:52

and maybe running a store, but by within

5:54

two generations a lawyer.

5:57

And I think that tells the story of

5:59

American opportunity me um, and

6:01

what American education can do. I

6:04

love it. I love it, um,

6:07

but do I love it. I get so excited about those stories.

6:09

Those are the kind of stories that Tracy and I both

6:11

just really glom onto when we're doing research. So

6:14

I understand your enthusiasm completely.

6:16

Yeah, and it gives and it's kind of fun to me in some

6:18

ways that question what's my favorite story? Sometimes

6:21

my favorite stories are the ones that we

6:23

find out about but we haven't yet been able

6:25

to interpret. Because seven thousand

6:27

people lived at ninety seven Orchard, but we can't

6:29

tell all of their stories right. So

6:32

it's a careful decision process is

6:34

made about which story to tell at what time. We want

6:36

to make sure we're representing different immigrant waves

6:38

and um, different kinds of stories

6:40

emerged. We want to be able to tell stories

6:42

that represent the range of occupations. You

6:45

know, all sorts of considerations go into

6:47

selecting a family apartment

6:49

to interpret. But we came across

6:52

recently UM

6:54

a newspaper article from nineteen ten that

6:56

describes a baker who lived at

6:58

ninety seven Orchard who was so distraught

7:00

over his unemployment um and

7:03

that he jumped out the window and committed

7:05

suicide. Now that story would

7:07

be a really hard story to tell for a number

7:09

of reasons, but I think it's an important story

7:12

because it speaks to the levels

7:14

of stress that these immigrants endured.

7:16

And of course the headline of that

7:19

story was life sails to stop husband's

7:22

you know, jumped to death because the

7:24

wife had come in and tried to stop him from

7:26

he had like a knife and she tried she pulled the knife

7:28

away from him, and then he ran to the window and jumped

7:30

out the window. But what that woman then had

7:33

to deal with after losing her husband, losing

7:35

for you know, potential source of income, and

7:37

then you know, even if she had to see that newspaper

7:39

headline that say she was the one that present prevented

7:42

him from from the suicide. Yeah,

7:47

that's what I mean, those

7:50

sorts of discoveries. I'm sure like that you

7:52

have that combination of this

7:54

is so cool but also really tragic, but also

7:56

really cool but also really tragic, right right

8:00

eight I mean, and then we also try to as much

8:02

as possible link our

8:04

stories to contemporary issues.

8:06

So the Baldiezie family,

8:09

Um came to

8:11

America in the nineteen twenties. Um

8:15

Delpho came in worked

8:17

as a carpenter, and then he sent for his life Rosaria

8:20

and she comes over. But yet there's

8:22

no documentation for her because by the

8:24

time he sends for her, those laws have been

8:26

passed the National Origins Act. I'm

8:29

sorry that the Johnson Read Act makes

8:31

it really difficult for Italians to get in. But

8:33

yet we know she gets here, even though there's no record

8:35

for her in Alice Island. We know she gets

8:37

here because they have children um

8:40

in ninety eight and a year

8:42

later, and so um Rosaria

8:44

we can tell undocumented

8:47

immigrants. And so it's interesting to kind of tell

8:49

that story and be in the home of the Baldiezies

8:52

Um and then have visitors kind of bring up

8:54

their questions about the topic

8:56

today. So we don't want to preserve

8:59

history just to kind of lock it away in a box,

9:01

or to think about our building as a kind

9:03

of dollhouse that's quaint and nice

9:06

to look at. Rather, we want, um,

9:08

you know, the richness of the layers

9:11

within our building to be paired with really

9:14

intricate, thought provoking stories based

9:16

on primary sources UM and told

9:18

through UM, engaging stories

9:20

that really get visitors to make connections

9:23

between their own lives and the stories,

9:25

and between past and present. That

9:28

might be the answer to the next questions I

9:30

was going to ask you, which is since you

9:32

run programs and education, like, what is

9:35

the most important takeaway

9:37

for visitors for you? Like what is your

9:40

priority and goal for your education and

9:42

tour programs. I think there

9:44

are a couple of goals, right, I mean, I think we

9:46

want first of all, we want

9:48

people to engage with history.

9:51

We want people to be exposed to

9:53

the richness of the details and history.

9:55

We want people to hold primary sources

9:58

in their hands and trying to analyze

10:00

them and to let them know that they

10:03

too are historians, right that with the

10:05

proper documents, with the proper information,

10:08

with you know, knowing what other historians

10:10

have said about general trends, we all

10:12

are able to interpret and analyze history.

10:14

So history is not just um

10:16

something historians should do. It's something that

10:19

we all can engage with. So that's

10:21

one thing I would think. Another thing is

10:23

to really think about the idea of maybe

10:25

applied history. Once we know this

10:27

history, what do we do with it? And it's not

10:29

up for the museum to say, now that you know this history,

10:32

you should vote this way or do this thing.

10:34

But now you know the story, you know that there are many

10:36

sides to a story. You know that stories are complicated

10:39

and apply that way of thinking to everything

10:41

that you engage with in in society. So

10:43

kind of teaching people to look at things from

10:45

a variety of perspectives is I

10:47

think another goal. UM.

10:50

I think you know

10:53

another thing that we don't. It's hard to

10:55

describe, but our museum is very unique

10:58

because rather than have pep will

11:00

walk around on their own, we have them

11:02

take tours with others. They're they're led

11:04

by educators, and I think that's one

11:06

of the most you know, in addition to the building, it's

11:09

the educators that are our most valued

11:12

um asset at the museum because

11:14

our educators are the ones that bring the story

11:16

to life, but our educators are also

11:18

the ones that help people forge connections to

11:20

one another. So the tours are like

11:22

a community. You know, all of a sudden you

11:24

have to like be in a group with fourteen other

11:27

strangers, UM, and you're going to learn history

11:29

together. And how how often

11:31

are adults put into positions where they're

11:33

with other strangers and they're going to learn together.

11:36

And I think there's something really valuable about that

11:38

you can't really plan it, UM. And I

11:40

think that's that kind of spontaneity

11:42

and excitement. Also, UM,

11:44

is part of the tour. So I guess one of the goals

11:47

of our tours is to kind of think of ourselves

11:50

as members of a society and

11:53

listen to each other with respect and um

11:55

learn and learn from each other

11:57

and the stories that we all have to

12:00

recognize that each individual has a story, which

12:03

is kind of a nice mirror of really what was probably

12:06

going on in the tenement building, like that

12:08

people that did not know each other were suddenly there

12:10

together figuring things

12:12

out, absolutely

12:15

right. So now, yeah, that's the great thing. We're not going to make

12:17

you move into the three hund foot

12:19

space with one another, and we're not going to collect

12:21

rent from you, but we're going to give you the

12:24

ability to like be in a room with a bunch of strangers

12:27

that maybe came from different parts of the world,

12:29

just like you know, people living in the tournament would have been

12:31

exposed to people of different cultures. That's

12:33

going to also happen on the floor. That's a really good point.

12:49

What sorts of ongoing research projects is the

12:51

museum involved in. I know you're constantly researching

12:54

the people that lived there, uh

12:56

and sort of those stories, but what else do you guys

12:58

branch out into So

13:02

yeah, So you know, we've been talking a lot about

13:04

ninety seven Orchard, but ninety seven Orchard is

13:06

only one venue in a way, for

13:08

the for the stories that we tell, we

13:11

now offer five walking tour, So

13:13

we not only research our building, but we

13:15

research different sites in the neighborhood, and

13:17

we tell UM an array of stories

13:20

based on the built environment that surrounds

13:22

us the Lower east Side. So there's a way in which you

13:24

could say the Lower east Side is our is

13:27

our playground as well at least our interpretive space

13:30

UM. And so we have UM and I

13:32

think one of the best ways to experience the museum

13:34

is to go on a building tour and then go

13:37

on a walking tour, so that you're able to kind

13:39

of put those two things together. Because

13:41

even the people who lived in the tenements in nineteen

13:43

hundred, or in nineteen twenty or in eighteen eighty,

13:46

none of those people would have spent their whole life in the

13:48

in the tenement, right, especially when it's so

13:50

crowded, you're gonna want to get outside. So our

13:52

walking tours UM give us

13:55

the opportunity to kind of trace the steps

13:57

of some of the people who might have lived in ninety seven Orchard

13:59

to see the civic societies

14:01

or the newspaper buildings, or the synagogues or

14:03

the churches, or the schools or the movie theaters

14:05

that they would have spent time in as well. And

14:08

UM. One of the nice things about the Lower east Side

14:10

that you ours is not the only historic

14:12

building. There are many historic buildings on the Lower east

14:14

Side and you can get a sense of the street scape.

14:17

UM and so you can kind of use

14:19

the Lower east Side to imagine the

14:21

past. But at the same time,

14:24

and this really kind of builds into our mission

14:26

of connecting past to present. We can tell

14:28

stories of UM contemporary

14:30

immigrants who are in the neighborhood today, UM

14:33

and contemporary shop keepers who are in the neighborhood

14:36

today. So it becomes a really dynamic

14:38

experience when you're walking through the neighborhood

14:40

and you learn about the past, but you're also observing

14:42

the present. And I would say

14:44

the last them in another frontier of

14:46

our research is that we

14:49

are going to be interpreting UM

14:51

one oh three Orchard, which is a building UM

14:54

the Museum owns on the corner of

14:56

Orchard in Deoliancy and it's UM been

14:58

serving as our shop and it's been serving

15:00

as a place for classrooms where fifty

15:03

school children aren't able to learn UM.

15:06

But we are now doing research

15:08

on the third floor of that building

15:11

UM, and we're researching stories of people who

15:13

lived in that building UM post

15:15

World War two years. So, you

15:17

know, seven Orchard, we can only tell the

15:19

stories of families who lived there UM

15:23

before five, because after nineteen

15:25

thirty five no families lived there, although there were

15:27

stores. But the story of family,

15:29

immigrant and migrant life picks up

15:31

right at one three Orchard. And that's what we're trying to

15:33

do, is extend our narrative to be able

15:35

to tell the story as we move into

15:38

more you know, more recent decades.

15:41

We're also able to diversify the stories

15:43

that we tell. So we're able to tell

15:45

the story of a family UM who survived

15:47

the Holocaust and came here to start a new life.

15:49

We're able to tell the story of Puerto Rican

15:51

migrants UM, and also the story

15:54

of Chinese immigrants who came after

15:56

nineteen sixty five. After the

15:58

quota laws from the nineteen needs we're

16:00

taken away and UM America

16:03

again became a much more welcoming place.

16:07

You have a lot on your plate. I

16:10

know I'm getting stressed talking to you, but

16:12

it's so like to go back to my desk,

16:15

but it's so exciting, Like I I love

16:17

the idea of seeing like the post World War two stuff

16:19

develop and where that's going to go.

16:22

Do you have any other exciting future plans or

16:24

does that that's plenty to talk about our Well,

16:28

you know one other thing I wanted to talk about, just to give

16:30

a little bit like a little bit more kind

16:32

of like an angle on how people experience the museum.

16:34

One of the I think in New York

16:36

today of

16:39

the population is immigrants,

16:41

and if you include immigrants and children,

16:43

you get closer to So we're really

16:46

aware, especially the work that

16:48

we do with our school children, that immigration

16:50

is a story that is really important now.

16:53

And UM we have a program that we're

16:55

working on with UM school children

16:57

where they tell us their

16:59

immigrants story as well, and we're

17:01

creating a website in a virtual tour

17:04

of all of these objects, so the students

17:06

come, they experienced the museums through the

17:08

tours. We then send educators

17:10

back into their classrooms and

17:13

we review how they

17:15

learned about immigrant history through objects

17:17

of the family, and then we transition

17:19

into the students sharing objects

17:22

are trying to brainstorm objects that tell

17:24

their own family histories UM

17:26

and so kids come up with the most exciting

17:29

and unusual things. Last year

17:31

in a school in Brooklyn, you know, one classroom

17:33

had students from UM,

17:36

Barbados and Malaysia and

17:38

China and Russia and Poland,

17:41

UM and Bangladesh and Pakistan and

17:44

as well as UM students who are the descendants

17:46

of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants.

17:49

And they come up with an array of objects,

17:51

including, you know, an Ecuadorian sheep whistle

17:53

that was used to call feet together

17:55

from the girl's father had done this. A Polish

17:58

girl brought in an easter basket that

18:00

that she had brought over I think as wow. UM.

18:03

A teacher brought a teacup that his UM

18:06

grandmother had brought over from Italy. UM

18:09

people brought in lockets, people brought in picked

18:11

her Someone brought in an airplane ticket because

18:14

that immigration story was so recent

18:16

that that ticket told their story. People

18:18

also brought in recipes, UM recipes

18:21

for sweet potato pie from North Carolina

18:23

to include the migration story. UM

18:26

people brought in prayer mats,

18:28

so Muslim prayer mats that were

18:30

that are used for prayer or five times a day, and the

18:32

boy said that when they use it,

18:34

they can sometimes smell the grandparents

18:36

that had used it before coming

18:39

from Banglades. So really like tactile

18:42

um OECTs an array of them

18:44

and it's fascinating because you start

18:47

to see these individual stories that the

18:49

students have, but when you put them all together,

18:52

you kind of see that no matter where

18:54

people came from or what time period

18:57

they arrived, that there's a lot of commonality

18:59

in themigrant experience because a lot of it is

19:01

dealing with, you know, adapting to America, thinking

19:04

about how to preserve traditions, thinking about how

19:06

to become American. Um. So this

19:08

project is really really fun and so we'll be

19:10

able to exhibit it on our website.

19:12

We're calling it Your Story, Our Stories. I

19:15

love that whole idea because one

19:18

of the things that's important to me is we're all making history

19:20

all the time, right And

19:22

I feel like this this project

19:24

and it's time consuming, and you know,

19:26

it takes a lot of like you know, multi

19:29

sessions, and that I mean the children

19:31

have this time to develop their story,

19:33

they're able to write about it, so it meets curriculum

19:36

needs, they're able to upload it, they're able

19:38

to take a photo of it, and they

19:40

kind of become historians UM.

19:42

And then we have on an exhibit at the end

19:45

where the students are able to exhibit their work

19:47

and their parents come and then their parents are able

19:49

to see their story as part of an American curriculum.

19:53

That's so cool. If

20:06

we have a free program. We have a

20:08

free program at night called Tenement

20:10

Talks, and a Tenement Talks were able

20:12

to take a lot of the issues that come up in the Tenement

20:14

during the day with our visitors and explore them

20:16

in more detail. So we have

20:19

tonight, for example, what we have UM

20:21

people talking about immigrants, food ways, we

20:23

have people talking about New York architecture.

20:26

We have UM authors talking

20:29

about their new books. So this is UM Tenement

20:31

Talks and the public program absolutely

20:34

free, and we invite you to check us out, all

20:36

of you New Yorkers, and for those of you who aren't in New

20:38

York. UM the recordings

20:40

of the UM of the Tenement Talks

20:42

are also online on

20:45

our website. And I come

20:47

UM and come to those and I think

20:49

there's been a have there been more than one about

20:51

food because that's in my wheelhouse for sure.

20:54

Yeah, you know what we have. We just finalized

20:57

one for the season. We've done ones on food.

21:00

UM. My favorite one was we did

21:02

there was a Yiddish cookbook author um,

21:05

and we looked at her cookbook and then

21:07

from nineteen o one and it was we

21:10

cooked some of the recipes from that as well.

21:12

But there's one coming up this season

21:15

on June three, in which we have

21:18

a cookbook that's been newly translated

21:20

from the Yiddish. It's the Vilna Vegetarian

21:22

Cookbook written in ninety

21:25

eight UM. And the recipes are

21:27

astounding because it's being you know, this one

21:29

was using like silariac and she was using

21:31

on Jerusalem artichokes in her food. And

21:34

so we're gonna discuss. We're

21:36

going to discuss and explore the history with

21:38

the woman who translated the book. But then we also

21:41

have Amanda Cohen who's the owner

21:43

of Dirt Candy, which is this amazing

21:46

vegetarian restaurant on the Lower East Side. So we'll

21:48

be looking at vegetarian food, the

21:50

women who cook it and the women who write

21:52

about it. Um, all together, past

21:55

and present. I love it. We

21:57

have lots of listeners that love our food episodes, so

22:00

I knew they will be interested in that, and

22:03

we have. We have Jennifer

22:05

eight Lee and her new documentary, and

22:07

Jennifer and her new documentary

22:09

and I'm general Too's chicken on April

22:12

one, So that's another great food story.

22:14

I think I have heard her speak about that. She did a Ted

22:16

talk about it, didn't she Yes, she's

22:19

great, It's excellent. It's so good if you're

22:21

into again food at all. It's

22:23

just fascinating on the history of how that came

22:25

to be. So I'm sure that is going to be an

22:27

awesome uh little

22:30

uh my brain just exploded.

22:33

I literally got so excited

22:35

thinking about chicken. Uh.

22:40

So that's gonna be an awesome and delectable

22:42

little bit of info. I'm sure. And

22:45

I know that you kind of think in these terms,

22:47

um all the time. I read

22:50

an interesting article that you wrote for Huffington Post

22:52

last year about what a tenement museum that

22:54

opened in four would look like and

22:56

how it would reflect today's immigration,

22:59

which is a great read. I recommend it to all

23:01

of our listeners if they're even marginally

23:04

interested in this. It's a really good way to kind

23:06

of look at it and contextualized. Like

23:08

I said, we are making history all the time, every

23:10

day. Um

23:12

Annie, this is such a delight. Thank you so much

23:15

for sharing all of your information with us. You're

23:17

like an encyclopio. Oh

23:20

I loved it, UM.

23:23

And I know the Tenement

23:25

Museum website, which we will link to

23:28

in our show notes, has no joke.

23:30

I'm not exaggerating when I say a

23:32

wealth of information. You

23:34

guys have so much educational material

23:36

there. There is a podcast there

23:39

that people can listen to if they want to. Uh,

23:41

where can they find you online? What are

23:43

great ways to kind of contact

23:46

the Tenement Museum and you if you want that,

23:48

uh and kind of so

23:52

UM. Our website is www

23:55

Tenament dot org. UM.

23:57

And what you also should do with stay tuned

24:00

for late we'll be putting up a virtual

24:02

tour and that your story our stories UM

24:05

exhibit will be online as well, so keep

24:07

checking back. But our website is a great place

24:09

UM to find information. And I think the best

24:12

way to experience the tournament is

24:14

to come visit us. If you want to contact me, UM,

24:16

my email is a pollend at

24:19

Tenement dot org. And we're

24:21

interested in your immigration and migration

24:24

stories as well or not just collecting the stories

24:26

of the students. They want to hear your

24:28

stories too, so you can be in.

24:31

If you have a story you'd like to contribute,

24:34

UM, you can email me that as well.

24:37

Fantastic UM.

24:39

Again, thank you so much for spending time

24:41

with us today. And like I said, you're a busy

24:43

woman. You've got a lot going on, so I really appreciate

24:46

you. So

24:54

I I think I was out of the

24:56

office when you did this, uh interview.

24:59

Yeah, I got to listen to it with

25:01

totally fresh ears as though I were a podcast

25:04

listener, and I really really enjoyed

25:06

it, and I hope everyone else did also. Annie's

25:09

amazing. She just she's such a wealth

25:11

of information and because history is her background,

25:14

like you can just hear

25:16

the passion of of sort of all of their projects

25:19

when she speaks. I really had a great time talking to

25:21

her. And now I have some listener

25:23

mail. This is from

25:25

our listener Amber and it is about our Leo

25:28

Bakeland episode. She says, recently,

25:30

I was listening to your podcast about the father of

25:32

plastics. Fascinating fellow. I think

25:34

I would have liked to have met him me too. Uh.

25:37

And finally, I had something worth your time. She's

25:40

earlier in the email, she mentioned she had yet

25:42

to find the perfect thing to write to us about. She

25:44

said, I am enclosed a picture of something which I

25:46

inherited, my great grandmother's nineteen

25:49

fifties bake light radio. It's fully

25:51

restored and in perfect working order. The

25:53

gentleman who did the restoration said it was quite

25:55

rare to find a colored piece and to be very

25:57

careful when cleaning it. When I first

26:00

received it, I was rather nonplussed, But now

26:02

it is one of my most cherished possessions. Having

26:05

an understanding of the historical importance and

26:07

having it in working order has changed

26:09

it in my mind from an ugly pink radio

26:12

to an amazing bit of technology that cannot

26:14

be replaced. I hope this reaches you. Well, uh,

26:17

that's such a cool thing. She sent us this picture,

26:19

and it's a lovely little kind of pale

26:21

pink radio. It is very

26:23

exactly what you think of when you think of nineteen

26:25

fifties styling. And I'm

26:27

so sort of blown away that it's working

26:29

and she's had it, you know, looked at, and that it's

26:32

it's uh not just a perfectly preserved

26:34

piece of history, but a perfectly preserved

26:36

and working piece of history. I love it.

26:39

If you would like to write to us and share your historical

26:42

connections, either through your magical bag

26:44

light collection or anything

26:46

else you'd like to talk about, you can do that at

26:48

History Podcast at household works dot com.

26:51

You can also find us on Twitter at missed

26:53

in History, at Facebook dot com, slash

26:55

missed in History, at missed in History

26:58

dot tumbler dot com, and at pinterest

27:00

com slash missed in History. We are

27:02

also at missed in History dot spreadshirt dot

27:04

com if you would like to purchase your very own

27:06

missed in History goodies. If

27:08

you want to do some additional investigating

27:11

about the Tenement Museum, you can find them I

27:14

began he mentioned at the end of that interview, but

27:16

we'll do it again at www

27:18

dot tenement dot org and on Twitter

27:20

at Tenement Museum. UH.

27:23

If you would like to do a little bit of research

27:25

about related topics, you can go to

27:27

our parents site, how stuff Works. Type in the

27:29

word landlords in the search bar and you will get

27:31

an article how landlords Work. If

27:34

you would like to visit us on the web, that address

27:36

is missed in History dot com and we have an archive

27:39

of all of our episodes, show notes

27:41

for all of the episodes since Tracy and I have joined

27:43

the podcast, as well as once

27:46

in a while we'll post a little something as a blog

27:48

and if you would like to visit

27:50

us, we highly encourage you to do so. So those addresses

27:53

again are missed in history dot com and

27:55

how Stuff Works dot com

28:01

for more onness and thousands of other topics.

28:03

Because it has to have works dot com