Dis Goil is from da Bronx!
I first met Tillie Laundry around 1970. I was at the Fordham Road IND station, waiting for a D train for what seemed like forever. A little grandmotherly-looking lady made eye contact, smiled, and said in a gravelly voice, "You can spend half your life waiting for these goddam trains."
I met her again 5 years later. I was working at a Social Security office in the Bronx. In walks Tillie. A coworker described her as Popeye in drag. She lived in Manhattan (in the George, or maybe Martha, Washington Hotel) but preferred the Bronx; she wanted to move back. "Dis goil is from da Bronx! She belongs in da Bronx!" she explained. Not much we could do housing, I said. "So gimme carfare, I can't fly back to Manhattan." Last I heard, she was in a nursing home in Riverdale, so her wish to move back to the Bronx was granted.
I met her again 5 years later. I was working at a Social Security office in the Bronx. In walks Tillie. A coworker described her as Popeye in drag. She lived in Manhattan (in the George, or maybe Martha, Washington Hotel) but preferred the Bronx; she wanted to move back. "Dis goil is from da Bronx! She belongs in da Bronx!" she explained. Not much we could do housing, I said. "So gimme carfare, I can't fly back to Manhattan." Last I heard, she was in a nursing home in Riverdale, so her wish to move back to the Bronx was granted.
