Joseph Samuels

Bio

Although my family moved out of Manhattan when I was 12 the City always drew me back like a magnet. My family's roots run deep in New York. Four of my maternal great-great-grandparents left Ireland in the 1840s to escape the potato famine. They not only found a better life in New York, they found life! My paternal grandparents left Poland in the 1890s and settled in Blackstone Massachusetts, upon their death at an early age, my father and some of his siblings moved to Brooklyn. As the oral story teller of my family I recently started to write them down. I have many more to tell, and hope some may appreciate them as I do.

Stories

Yorkville 1960s–A Neighborhood in Transition

From Yorkville about high-rise, immigrants, Mr. Softee, railroad apartment, stoop, street games, Upper East Side, Yorkville
Published on: 06/06/2021

Recent Stories
- Selected Observations on Urban Fauna
  by Peter Wortsman 01/23/2022
  Illustrations by Aurélie Bernard Wortsman __________________________ A contemporary take on the medieval bestiary, featuring the actual and apocryphal creatures that share our constricted urban space. The following is the first installment in a series of observations on urban fauna, text and image gleaned from the lifelong perambulations on asphalt and cement by two native New […]
- A Trio in Search of a Blech
  by Jerry Garfield 01/16/2022
  As my plane landed at JFK, the third day of Hanukkah gave way to the night before Christmas. Wise men and Maccabees, manger and menorah, holy night and holy light all merged on the taxi ride to Brooklyn for a winter holiday vacation visit with my sister Rivka. Fortunately, there was room at the inn; […]
- Shop Around
  by Susan T. Landry 01/09/2022
  My mama told me, “You better shop around, (Shop, shop)Oh yeah, you better shop around” (Shop, shop around)— Smokey Robinson & Berry Gordy, Jr. The store on East 23rd was my favorite Salvation Army Thrift Store, although there were several I visited often. Most Saturdays I spent the whole day walking the streets of the […]
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Joseph Samuels

Bio

Stories

Yorkville 1960s–A Neighborhood in Transition

Recent Stories

Selected Observations on Urban Fauna

A Trio in Search of a Blech

Shop Around

Categories

Archives