“To this day, I don’t know how my mother was able to raise us. She found her circumstances humiliating and didn’t want anyone to see her living like that. But at the same tine, she tried desperately to get out. She wanted us to have a home and when my father brought home his paycheck, she immediately put it in the bank. Eventually, they got enough money to put a down-payment on a group of homes and became landlords. But they never moved out of that apartment. My parents were two of the most conservative people you’ve ever seen in your life. They never went to a movie. And we didn’t get a TV set until 1957 or a phone until 1962.” (Syracuse Herald, February 5, 1989)
