Who Would You Like to See Profiled on BHB?

By on May 10, 2010 10:48 am in Brooklyn Heights

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve begun a new series of posts, Brooklyn Heights People, profiling those who make our neighborhood a great place to live.  Is there anyone you’d like to see our  Julie Kanfer profile?

Comment below!

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  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Yea, my main man, Martin L. Schneider. Also, Otis Pearshall would be an interesting interview.

  • PS 8 parent

    Seth Phillips. Paul O. Zelinsky.
    That nice-looking older lady with a walker who’s always sitting outside of Cranberrys.

  • zburch

    The goggle twins

  • Cranberry Beret

    Oh yes, definitely the goggle bros. That would be a real coup.

  • juuggaloo

    Proprietor of Great Wall. He was featured in Edible Brooklyn last year. Amazing life story.

  • AEB

    Nancy Sinatra.

  • tb

    That guy who smacked the dad at Starbucks.

  • roccow

    Second on Great Wall guy. His story about escaping Communism to train in classical violin (before, of course, diverting to culinary school) had me in tears.

    OK, near tears. The only thing that makes me cry is their soup dumplings.

  • stefanie

    My vote is also for the goggle twins. I’m intrigued!

  • juliebee

    thanks y’all for the recommendations!

  • Homer Fink

    Enough with the Great Wall meme.

  • GoggleTwinsAreReal

    Yes — the Goggle Twins! I remember seeing them so often when I first moved here four years ago, but have seen them less and less. In the past few months I’ve only seen ONE, alone, usually walking east on Joralemon. I’m so scared something happened to one of them over the winter. Has anyone seen a double-twin sighting this spring? When I first moved here, I saw them all the time – and they were always together, speaking in German or Twinspeak or something?

  • AL

    Goggle brothers

  • Matthew Parker

    I’ve been thinking it would be a great project to interview Heights senior citizens who have lived in the Heights area most or all of their lives. I suspect their life stories, interwoven with how the neighborhood has changed over the years, would be a fascinating read.

    I have several friends in the Heights who are lifers and in their Golden Years and they are open to a StoryCorp or oral history type of project.

    I’d be interested in working with a few neighbors to make this happen. I have a bit of experience with oral history projects and worked on one for the federal government a while back. When done correctly, they can be a treasure trove for the present and future generations. Maybe even housed at the Brooklyn Historial Society?

    There are some costs involved, mostly time, if we’re to avoid hard costs such as professional transcription and recording, but not too excessive. I wonder if we could get a grant to do such a project? Would anyone be interested in participating?

    Perhaps the interviews could be serialized on BHB, and then made into a more formal oral history project. I wouldn’t be suprised if there’s a movie short in here somewhere.

  • AAR

    Matthew – Great idea. Suggestions to start Pete Valentine of Willow Street who reads to children at the Plymouth Church nursery school; Richanda Rhoden of Cranberry Street who spearheads plant sales for the Cranberry Street Association, is an artist who paints daily and is the widow of sculptor John Rhoden; Pete Valentine’s next door neighbor whom she calls Dr. Bob; the English lady living in apartment building on Willow St who walks a little dog (I’ve been told that she is a retired WWII nurse); Sally Forbes of Cranberry Street who is the founding director of Pennybridge Players, a children’s theater group once housed in Assumption Church and a leader of a Beaux Arts organization. Although arts/culture grants are hard to get these days, I think that it is worth a try and the current anniversary year of the BHA might be a “hook” – perhaps a matching grant would appeal to a foundation and I would start with the local community foundation and Borough president’s office.

  • http://talesfromthevelvetchamber.blogspot.com LA Slugocki

    I would love to work on oral historical narratives— the goggle twins live next door to me and they still are right as rain. There’s another guy, Butch, or Whitey, who’s lived here since before the BQE, as well the folks who own Montero’s, in operation for over 70 yrs. Give me a holla.

  • bklyn20

    Like a few others here, I am friendly with “the goggle twins.” They are certainly characters, but kind-hearted ones. I will ask the brother that I’ve been seeing lately what is up with his twin. I don’t know that they’d like an interview, especially one referring to them by that moniker, and one that might be rather pejorative (judging from the comments above.)

    By the way, they have a third brother — not a triplet — who has been ill for some time and lives in a nursing home.

  • bklyn20

    LA Slugocki, glad to hear that the other twin is ok.

  • zburch

    I don’t mean “goggle twins” in a derogatory manner. I imagine they have lived in the neighborhood for many years and have some good stories to tell. The Montero family would also be fantastic as well as some of the regulars there. Its a great bar. Pepe’s wife (Linda?) is always friendly and loves telling stories about the photos on the walls.