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