About This Item

  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0078-accs
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Joseph McDonough on 2017 January 28.
  • Summary(0:22) Born in South Brooklyn and grew up in Red Hook -- (1:23) Played stickball and punchball with the other boys -- (1:58) Attended St. Agnes Catholic school -- (2:43) Their dads took the boys to ballgames at Ebbets Fields -- (3:35) Being an altar boy in the church -- (4:04) The dwarf peach tree in East Flatbush -- (4:56) Middle of five children -- (5:11) Dropped out of high school at sixteen and took a delivery job with a grocery store -- (6:40) Worked many odd jobs, on a carnival and in private sanitation -- (8:31) Joined a car service company in Mill Basin, working around Kings Plaza Mall -- (9:50) Learning Brooklyn -- (10:31) Getting a driver license -- (11:00) Going to Manhattan, feeling like a tourist -- (12:02) “The monsters” -- (12:41) Living with sister from 1980 to 2001 -- (13:35) Watching his sisters child -- (14:22) Father passed away in 2001 and his sister sold the house, leaving him homeless for a time -- (14:42) Renting a garage (15:50) Moving to a friend’s apartment, taking care of his daughter -- (16:50) Attempted suicide, got a place in an adult home from his psychiatrist -- (19:00) Visiting the library in Flatbush -- (20:34) Working as a bartender in the 70s, taking time off to drive down to Florida in his first car and visit his aunt and uncle -- (21:49) Getting directions from hitchhiking kids and a motel owner -- (23:23) Learning how to make drinks -- (24:14) Great things about Canarsie.
  • Date2017-01-28
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • Physical Description1 sound file (26 min.) : digital, MP3
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on January 28, 2017, by Taina Evans at Canarsie Library. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
  • CreatorMcDonough, Joseph
  • SubjectPunchball ; Congregate housing ; Older people ; Suicide ; Ebbets Field (New York, N.Y.) ; Erasmus Hall High School ; Fishing ; Bartenders ; Homeless persons ; Peach ; Florida ; Acolytes ; Baseball ; Hitchhiking ; Taxicab drivers
  • PlaceCanarsie (New York, N.Y.)East Flatbush (New York, N.Y.)Mill Basin (New York, N.Y.)Red Hook (New York, N.Y.)
  • Cite AsOur Streets, Our Stories collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).