Nita Schumacher and Susan Oltman

00:03 I'm Susan Altman. I'm 57 years old. Today's date is Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020 and we are at storycorps Atlanta.

00:14 I'm with my mom Nita Schumacher.

00:19 My name is Nate has Chewbacca.

00:23 I'm age 95.

00:28 And today's date is Tuesday, March 3rd 2020.

00:36 And the location is storycorps at Atlanta, Georgia.

00:44 And my interview partner is my daughter Susan Altman.

00:51 Okay, so Mom, it's fun to be here and I wanted to start by going all the way back to the beginning. What is your earliest memory?

01:02 My earliest memory is when I was about.

01:09 405 years old

01:13 Growing up in the north Bronx near Van Cortlandt Park beautiful section and with life favorite talk like so that memory was playing with your dog. Yes. Yes. Okay. How would you describe yourself as a child?

01:36 Well, I like to play with my dolls and I like to go outside and play with friends and there was a playground not too far off from where we left and I would walk up there and play with the different girls and boys and it was delightful. The area was just beautiful. How about you? What were you what was your personality like as a child?

02:07 Oh, I don't know why I think I was a good child. I always listen to my mother. She was the boss.

02:18 What was it like growing up in the Bronx during your school years?

02:24 Will the section of the Bronx that we lived in was the northern Bronx and the building? We lived in face to a beautiful Park. I know it was called Mosholu Park, and I think that's an Indian name, but it was gorgeous and it wasn't too far from Vancouver Portland Park beautiful section.

02:50 Your address was on Mosholu Parkway, wasn't it? That's right. Yeah, and what kind of home did you have?

02:58 What kind of home we had an apartment of?

03:03 If I remember correctly it was

03:08 Large building and I think we were on the one flight up was an elevator building. I don't know if the building is still there for any of the buildings did many of the buildings have elevators then they all do you remember your apartment building VA?

03:35 The apartment

03:40 I don't remember too much. I think we have three rooms or four rooms. It was nice very nice will one flight up and I usually would walk up and I know that was a doorman there and there was an elevator operator if you wanted to use that he would take you up to the floor, but I never use the elevator I would run up the stairs and you live there for your whole childhood.

04:13 You lived here there for your whole childhood eye lifts safe.

04:20 I think I lived in.

04:24 That area that building.

04:27 All during my single leaves. Can you tell me about a memorable or happy time with your parents? Well, I remember one time.

04:43 I must have been about maybe 10 years old 11 years old and the sleep was in the naval fleet was in came in lower New York. And and my mother said I'm going to take you down to see the fleet. So we went down we had to take the subway all the way down to the end of the area where they are just the ocean was and I remember we went ashore all the ships and I think it was a very hot day it was he the July or August and I remember going up the stairs. That was shaky stairs. My mother went up first and I went up after her and the Sailor.

05:41 Helped us up and he took us to the ship to see the ship and I was just thrilled to see all these ships in the harbor and then after we were through

05:57 Oh, we went to a place. It was so hot. We went to a place and she said

06:06 Would you like some ice cream or sandwich? So we went in there and I remember getting a very large ice cream sandwich and that was a wonderful day to me. I've never forgotten that sounds wonderful. So you mentioned that somebody helped you and your mother an up the stairs. Yeah, what's your father Louis or your brothers after their to know just my mother and I okay. Do you remember a time of time with your whole entire family?

06:42 I mostly did things with the my mother. Okay, and my brother he was he's deceased now, but you've 7 years old that died. So he really wanted to be with his friends. Yes. So what were your parents and and Lewis like

07:06 Well, my mother was very pretty. She had reddish blond hair and green eyes and very light skin and she hated the Sun.

07:20 And my father I didn't he wasn't around very much. So.

07:26 And my brother was with his friends all the time. He would go to Van Cortlandt Park. Okay, and I remember one time he went there and he came home. He must have been maybe fourteen or fifteen. He came home with a very large humongous turtle. He had put a stick in its mouth and he dragged through the streets and he brought it home and he put it in the bathtub and my mother had a fit and the thing she said you have to get rid of this. So the next day and I was afraid to go with the bathroom after that, but it was one of these

08:18 A huge I don't know what to call it a turtle or what but he got it out of the tub the next day. She took it back to the lake where he got it from. That's what I remember that.

08:34 So how would you say that things started to change when World War II broke out well.

08:43 I was I think I was about 14 or 15 and 13. I don't remember exactly how old but I do remember my brother and listed Italy.

09:05 Army before Pearl Harbor was bombed. So he must have been listed may be in 1940.

09:16 And what were there any changes around you and your community? What was going on in the North Community? Remain the same I do remember the Sunday.

09:29 That the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor

09:35 But I remember.

09:37 I think my it was was it my father or brother went to the bakery shop to get rolls? So somebody took the dog with him and he came back very fast and said quick put on the radio the Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor and of course, there was no TV or anything so we put on the radio and then my brother was away. He was in the service and I think he was

10:13 In South Carolina or North Carolina. I really don't remember exactly where but he was there and my mother never complained I never and there was rationing then during the War. I do have to have a book of numbers like to buy something if you wanted to buy sugar you had to show the book and they would take one stamp out. Okay, and then if you wanted to buy something else you had to there was rationing, but she and she never complained about a thing. I never and I think several of the other people that lived in the building. They might have been in the service too, but

11:09 I was young at the time and yes, so in your twenties, what job did you get?

11:16 Well

11:18 In the beginning I had a musical singing career and

11:27 That didn't last too long I decided I wanted to

11:34 Work

11:36 And in fact when I graduated from

11:41 Elementary School have the time

11:44 The school was from first to eighth grade at that time and I won a scholarship to the high school of music or not then and I went there for a few.

12:01 Months and I didn't like it because it was in an area I had to travel by Subway and go through a park and I was kind of afraid because the session that I was and was an afternoon session and it was dark by the time I got home so I didn't want to go to that school anymore. And I transfer to the local school. What school was that? It was Walton high school. Okay. I remember that and then after high school, what was what job did you work at? Well, I decided

12:44 I did do a little singing in a club down in the city, but that didn't last too long. And then I said I think I wanted work for the government because it was more time then so someone told me about

13:02 A job way down in the city with the Navy department and I said, oh, I think I'd like to take that. So I took that job and I work there for a while. What did you do in that job for the Navy paperwork? Okay.

13:27 And then when that job was over no, I'm trying to think o and then when my brother's hair.

13:40 Was in south south of North Carolina

13:47 When War

13:51 When they bomb Pearl Harbor he was sent to the South Pacific to the Marshall Islands and the

14:01 I think that all the oil in town then the familiar with the area, but I know the Marshall Islands he was down there for a while and they will getting ready.

14:13 To go to to invade Japan that I remember a lot of the people.

14:21 As of today, they said that we shouldn't have bombed.

14:27 Japan what's the atomic weapon?

14:32 But does it saved a lot of lives because him being in the South Pacific?

14:41 Had we not all the troops that were down. There were ready to invade.

14:47 The

14:49 Japan

14:52 And that's saved a lot of lives even today.

14:58 People still say that and they wrong.

15:04 But she never talked about his service will let's go back to your working. And so you weren't singing anymore. Didn't you go to work for a phone company? Can you tell me when I came back? Yeah from that. I went to work. I said, I think I want to work for the telephone company so I can get your home telephone company as a telephone operator.

15:42 That was New York telephone, right? Yes, and it was much different than today and tell me what it was like then what was your job well doing you had found your head to wear something on you chest a microphone much different than today, but it was nice working there and you had to plug in the wires to the wall to get a connection and I worked there for a while.

16:20 And I liked it. And in fact, that's where I asked I guess I met my husband there. Yeah, tell me about meeting George. Well that was really an accident. I was transferred to another area and

16:42 It was a difference. It was closer to home.

16:46 And I had to take a tank a bus with two buses to get there and he worked in that building. I didn't know him then and he had a another friend that he that works at to his name was George also and when I went there he used to always stop and talk to me later on a W-4 twice about it. So one day when I was coming out of the building it was raining.

17:21 And no.

17:24 I didn't have an umbrella or anything and he came out with his friend and he said oh, are you going to walk home? I said no. I have to walk up to the bus stop and it's raining. So he says he said we'll give you a lift to the bus and then he said no will give you a lift home. Where do you live? And that was the start of what was what was he like as a Young Man?

17:59 Who is nice friendly?

18:06 I didn't go out with them right away. I just I wasn't interested playing hard to get so a few years later. You got married. Yeah, we got married in 1958 and I knew where we 4th 1958.

18:26 And where did you live?

18:28 Oh.

18:31 We lived.

18:34 I had a no no, no.

18:37 No first week. I've moved out of my parents home.

18:43 I think maybe a year before and

18:48 That was in the Bronx to was a new building. I had a studio apartment. They are a member and it was $100 a month, which was a huge about.

19:01 But it was a beautiful apartment and then when we got married.

19:08 He came to live there, but he didn't like it. It wasn't used to apartment living. So we

19:18 We looked for a house and we bought a house in Westchester County and Yonkers New York and we live there and that was the house at 43 Clark Street. That's right, and it was near the Raceway. It was year of the Yonkers Raceway. Yeah, and we lived there 7 years.

19:41 I think Nancy and you were born when we live there. That's where my earliest memories are from from Clark Street. And my earliest memory is I remember the moving truck being there and a lot of possessions and boxes being on the front lawn. And I remember sitting in like a a dish drainer that you'd have by the sink and my sister Nancy pulling me along in the front yard. So that's my earliest memory right before moving what you were about 3, I think when we move to

20:19 New city which was in Rockland County. I think you were about three three and a half and Nancy was five. Let's go back a little bit. How did you feel when you found out you were going to be a parent?

20:37 I thought it was a mistake because Nancy was born when when you were expecting Nancy before Nancy before Nancy. How did you feel I was surprised but that was about

20:55 She was born in 60 and we got married in 58. So it was about to two and a half years.

21:03 But I was delighted. Yeah, good. Do you remember any songs? You sang to me as a baby?

21:17 I'm trying to think. I know Rock-a-bye Baby. I sang that to you. Yeah, okay.

21:26 And did you take us out around the neighborhood? Is there anything that you would do with your new baby or with the two of us when we were very little we had a carriage walk up and down the area.

21:46 And then when my mother would come to visit she was the grandma Nana is as the both of you called her.

21:59 All food come her coat and she put on a housecoat. And the first thing she did was pick up Nancy and should bathe her and the kitchen sink. That's funny and then when we moved

22:20 You were a little older.

22:25 You she came to live with us and you ran up the stairs to be in the same room with her because there with twin beds there was nice and she would enjoy feeding you.

22:41 Jacob Marina soup what you still like I said, he'll love that kind of soup. I do. So we were in the house in Rockland County from about 1965 on and that was a new city and

23:00 What what do you remember about that street in that little neighborhood all that was beautiful area. Just beautiful. Yeah, we had a big piece of property there and we had a

23:14 A big deep swimming pool in the backyard and it was just gorgeous and once in the back and we also had three dogs o and something.

23:30 That I have to remind you about a good childhood memory of mine. Yes.

23:41 The big basket of puppies that you brought home from the neighbor and said Mommy can we keep them? There was six little puppies in there that the neighbors dog had and I said, well six is alike, but can we keep a few I said, we'll pick out to that you like so you picked out two.

24:05 And that way I can have on your name them Tootsie and Candy lovely. Yeah.

24:14 And they were

24:16 The two dogs they were

24:19 I forgot what car and what were they like a mixed breed? They were mixed breed. Yeah, but they what do they look like? They black like black long-haired dogs? And then when Nancy came home one day

24:38 I said whose dog is that she says it just followed me home and I said well.

24:47 Who does it belong to she says I don't know.

24:51 So I said well try it outside on the flagpole. So she tied the dog on the flagpole. And when your father came home, he drove up the driveway and he said whose dog is that?

25:08 And I said, well, I don't know it might be hours it fall at Nancy home.

25:14 So he just rolled his eyes and said nothing of what its side.

25:20 Make a long story short we kept the dog. So we had Tootsie candy and the new one was Missy so we had three looks all females and my mother lived with us and I remember your father sitting around the table.

25:42 And he looked up and he said those dogs will outlive me. They did. You know, we had a house full of females but it was delightful good and so we grew up I moved away went to college got married to Jack and then one day I told you we were going to have a baby. How did it feel to become a grandparent beautiful? I was working. I was working for Rich's department store as a bridal consultant and I remember your husband Jack called me and he

26:29 Said we just had a baby I said, oh a girl and he said to me how did you know and I said to him I'm psychic 1990 that was a 1990 when our Amy was born and then we had Christy. Yeah beers later saying

26:49 Yasso

26:51 How to count and then you have georgeana who lives with in Fort Myers with her mother Nancy McAllister. How do you hope your grandchildren will remember you will I hope they'll remember me as their

27:09 Loving Grand as they called me. In fact when my the girls book granddaughters Amy and Christy when they would send me something in the mail. They would address it Grand with the address and it was a good thing the mailman new me to read to delivered, but I hope they remember me as loving Grande.

27:39 I know a wonderful shopping partner as Amy would say what were your favorite time spent with Amy and Chris to going out to the mall and shopping. They would love that. Amy would say you're my partner in crime, but I would let them pick out anything they want and I really enjoyed buying things for them and doing for them and I do want them to have everything and now you've got four great-grandchildren Adeline Isaac Victoria and John what are your hopes for them? Well by hopes for them. They will be healthy and happy and of course, they're not going to remember meeting me.

28:38 Because at 95

28:41 I don't know when the good Lord is going to say it's time. But otherwise, I want them to remember me as a loving great-grand.

28:54 Okay.

28:56 Well, this was a really sweet time to just talk and you know put away some memories on audio so that your great-grandchildren can hear your voice in your own words Sunday and the special memories any other memories you'd like to share.

29:16 I'm still I'd like to get to the ball with Susan so we could look at boots. She loves boots and a conch and she makes a beautiful jewelry, which is she has on today very talented. In fact all the girls a very talented.

29:43 They do a lot of artwork.

29:46 Had enough

29:49 Each and every one of them has a talent good genes as I like to say good genes. Well, thank you for having this conversation here today with me, and I love you and

30:04 Let's go out to the mall. Right and we can look for boots and what else anything else that your heart desires?