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Playlist: Margaret Poethig's Portfolio

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Chapter 1 - The Making of a Political Consciousness

From Margaret Poethig | Part of the On the Sidewalks of New York series | 24:25

Richard receives an early political education from his Socialist cigar maker grandfather, by hearing over-the-counter conversations at the butcher shop, from the Franciscan priest at the Hungarian parish where Richard made meat deliveries.

Sidewalks_artwork4-300x300_small 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.

Chapter 2 - The Sidewalks as Playground

From Margaret Poethig | Part of the On the Sidewalks of New York series | 20:18

Richard’s first ten years on First Avenue lay the foundation for life ahead. Within a three-block radius were the essential building blocks for integrating life and preparing for the future.

Sidewalks_artwork4-300x300_small 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 82nd Street there is an elementary school, on 80th Street and Second Avenue a Sunday School for religious education, on 79th Street a public library for exploring the world. For Richard, these were the essential building blocks for integrating life and preparing for the future.

Chapter 4 - The Games We Played

From Margaret Poethig | Part of the On the Sidewalks of New York series | 18:01

Friendships on New York City streets are made and solidified by the games young Richard plays after school and on Saturdays. Which game is played depends on how many people show up on the block.

Sidewalks_artwork4-300x300_small Friendships on New York City streets are made and solidified by the games young Richard plays after school and on Saturdays. Games are played on the numbered side streets where traffic is less intense. The games are mostly street versions of baseball and are played with a “spaldeen”—the street name for Spalding, whose trademark is on a hollow rubber ball. Which game is played depends on how many people show up on the block. The games begin when two are ready to play handball. When four are present the game is point ball off a tenement stoop or a building ledge. If eight, the game becomes box ball with a rectangular “diamond” chalked in the street. If ten or more show up, stickball becomes the game of choice. Stickball is not appreciated by the tenants in the apartments nor by the local police officers who are ever on patrol. 

Chapter 5 - Making a Day of It

From Margaret Poethig | Part of the On the Sidewalks of New York series | 12:19

Plagued by her tuberculosis, Richard’s mother yearns to raise her children outside the city. On special days, she takes Richard down to Penn Station in the early morning to board a train for Newark, New Jersey—a whole new world.

Sidewalks_artwork4-300x300_small Plagued by her tuberculosis, Richard’s mother yearns to raise her children outside the city. On special days, she takes Richard down to Penn Station in the early morning to board a train for Newark, New Jersey—a whole new world. In downtown Newark they take the trolley ride to the outer suburbs where the Rehling cousins live. The warmth of the Rehling family lifts his mother’s spirit and opens Richard’s view to life outside of New York. On the return trip, Richard reflects on what life would be like for his mother to have a place like the Rehlings.

We Sing

From Margaret Poethig | 22:58

A documentary about a family hymn-singing tradition

Playing
We Sing
From
Margaret Poethig

Eunice_blanchard_poethig_small My mother Eunice was a hymnologist. This documentary tells the story about the importance to Eunice (and to her family) of hymns: at dinner, at the lake, in the Philippines, for her theology, and for tradition. I created this documentary about my family's hymn singing tradition in 2012. I am publishing it now, in 2018, in memory of my mother, Eunice Blanchard Poethig, January 16, 1930 - March 25, 2018.