I talked to my grandparents about growing up in/around Chinatown on the 22nd. My grandpa was born there and was there until he was about 20 or so, and my grandma moved across the street from my grandpa when she was in elementary school, then moved a couple of blocks away, where it was not technically Chinatown and without the “Chinatown feeling” (community and energy).
My grandpa loved growing up there, and has fond memories of wide sidewalks and ordering in food for dinner (food was delivered with real dishes which would get picked up the day after so they wouldn’t have to do dishes). His family shared a building with a dentist, and he remembers patients sitting at the top of their staircase (they really shared the building/very open) and just down the hallway he could usually find his father on the phone with clients -- he was an insurance guy -- in his bathrobe. The hallway was where he and his brother would ride their trikes back and forth, back and forth, and the old man who lived below them would knock the ceiling/floor with his broomstick -- something I thought only happened in movies.
Everything was "just down the block," which made getting to school and church easy, and which created a close-knit community. He didn’t leave Chinatown very often, and felt no need or desire to.
My grandma had a less colorful experience in Chinatown. Just moving from New York after having immigrated from China, her family could only find a tenement in which to live, as it was during the war and very difficult to find a place to live. She much preferred the apartment her and her family moved to outside of Chinatown, a bright and well-lit apartment -- she said she found out after the fact that the reason why her family was able to score the nice apartment was because someone had committed suicide there. That's the Chinatown I had more in my mind -- whatever that means -- so it’s interesting to hear my grandpa change my mind about what it was like to live there, and then hear my grandma’s experience. Chinatown was many different things. And still is.
There were other details shared that are shaping quite a different place than the Chinatown I visited on the 20th.
My grandpa loved growing up there, and has fond memories of wide sidewalks and ordering in food for dinner (food was delivered with real dishes which would get picked up the day after so they wouldn’t have to do dishes). His family shared a building with a dentist, and he remembers patients sitting at the top of their staircase (they really shared the building/very open) and just down the hallway he could usually find his father on the phone with clients -- he was an insurance guy -- in his bathrobe. The hallway was where he and his brother would ride their trikes back and forth, back and forth, and the old man who lived below them would knock the ceiling/floor with his broomstick -- something I thought only happened in movies.
Everything was "just down the block," which made getting to school and church easy, and which created a close-knit community. He didn’t leave Chinatown very often, and felt no need or desire to.
My grandma had a less colorful experience in Chinatown. Just moving from New York after having immigrated from China, her family could only find a tenement in which to live, as it was during the war and very difficult to find a place to live. She much preferred the apartment her and her family moved to outside of Chinatown, a bright and well-lit apartment -- she said she found out after the fact that the reason why her family was able to score the nice apartment was because someone had committed suicide there. That's the Chinatown I had more in my mind -- whatever that means -- so it’s interesting to hear my grandpa change my mind about what it was like to live there, and then hear my grandma’s experience. Chinatown was many different things. And still is.
There were other details shared that are shaping quite a different place than the Chinatown I visited on the 20th.