Alright, we're talking about summers in Rockaway when I was, I guess eight and nine during the war years, lived in the bungalow colony which, the bungalows are very small and close together, the rooms are really tiny. We were able to rent it for the summer for 250-300 dollars for the whole summer. We rented there for the summer, it was during the war years, and a lot of families had sons and daughters who were serving in the military. You'd wake up in the morning, the houses were very close together and you'd have the smell of food coming from each house and there were almost distinct smells and odors, so you'd know who was cooking what and of course you would want to get up and that would make your mouth water and you were hungry too, you got some bread and maybe milk or orange juice and you were out of the house before you knew it. Rockaway is a very close peninsula. The bay is on one side and the ocean is on the other. We had three actual play areas. In the bay, there were reeds, tall reeds. We cut them down and being influenced by the war we played different war games and when we got tired of that or switched to something else, we'd collect little tadpoles and fish, no cruelty, we just had them for a while and then back to our homes and we'd always have to check in and a bite to eat, or a piece of bread and chicken fat which to this day I regret, but boy did that taste good and usually the afternoons we spent down at the beach, we'd climb on the rocks and punt around and dig in the sand and build and play different ball games and in the water, we were all good swimmers, living on the ocean, many of us went on to swimming competition as we got older or to be lifeguards. The evenings were spent around the bungalow area playing and at that time it was like a ton of money if you had 10 cents or a quarter. Rockaway didn't have many amusements on the boardwalk but they had a couple places that had these penny arcades and frankfurter places, knish places, boy did they taste good and the penny arcade had moving pictures, you put a penny in and watch that or you'd collect big cards of movie stars or baseball players and trade that. I remember keeping mine in an old cigar box under my bed, under my pillow actually, I had my cards there, my jazz knife, it was a real Huck-Fin type existence. The Long Island Railroad was not elevated at the time, and in looking back it felt so country-ish, to walk across the railroad tracks going to the bay with fishing poles or reeds or whatever, things for playing. I ended up living in Rockaway as an adult when my family moved out of Brownsville New York, which is a poor area. Rockaway wasn't much but at least we were able to have a house. It was very desolate out there. Only two or three families on the block, the rest was deserted until the summer. I'd take nice long walks on the beach with my dad, which were wonderful moments. It was a happy existence both as a kid, I have nice memories, and as an adult. I would have liked a little better living conditions for my parents, but now that I look back we all had a good time and it was very happy and for my father as a cop it was a big thing to own a house at that time.

Interview with Larry Raisfeld

November 15, 2002