Jersey Boy June 2013 | Page 5

Jersey City with ghetto ’ s and serious gang activities . Moreover , New Jersey is the most densely populated state in America with almost 9 million people in around 9,000 square miles ( 23,000 square kilometers ). This is nothing when considering that the population of the the New York metropolitan area ( Tri-State ) consisting of Jersey , New York and Connecticut has more than 22 million people . To put things in perspective , the entire population of Australia , roughly the size of America is around 21 million .
But when you are a child , you are oblivious to this information and life is what it is . Some parts of New Jersey , like Jersey City , is only 1 mile from the island of Manhattan , however , the town that I spent most of my childhood ( New Milford ) was a little further away . There were parks and plenty of baseball diamonds and it was far from true New York City life .
I was born in the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital on November 18 , 1951 . My earliest memories were in our small , lower middle class house on Reichelt Road in New Milford , New Jersey . The nearest city was Hackensack was about 15 minutes away and New York City was about 30-45 minutes away . New Milford was all Caucasian at the time . I remember that we all had our own rooms to sleep in and that the house and block seemed big . I had a small room downstairs and my sisters Linda and Marcelle had rooms upstairs . We had a small above ground pool one year as well . I remember more of my Mom ( Beatrice ) than my Dad ( Harry ) at that time . My Dad worked in the garment district of New York City and commuted by bus each day at least for 2 hours round trip when factoring in rush hour traffic conditions . I was told that I was , “ Public Enemy Number 1 ” all the time as I was always running around and hyperactive . I enjoyed being a kid and going to school nearby .
Linda Epstein
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN - PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 5 of 156