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and wondrously happy for their entire lives. So I was born into a very happy family.

Where were you born exactly? Where were you living in New York?

I was born in a house that is now in one of the most rundown sections of New York, 117th Street, just off Seventh Avenue.

That was country, wasn't it?

No, no. But it was certainly not a Negro neighborhood in those days. It was mostly Jewish. But very early in life my family moved to an apartment house called the Douglas, which was at 201 West 121st Street--that's Seventh Avenue and 121st Street--also right smack in the center of Harlem now in the colored section. But because I lived there, I went to Public School 10, which was at 117th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. This is where my real life began, because in that school I met some of the people who became lifelong friends.

Would you like to say anything more about your mother? Was your mother an attractive woman?

Well, yes, I can talk a little bit about her. First of all, she was the most sensitive woman in the world--very easily