{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/wh2d796j11/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Gerard Tate Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1\u003c/strong\u003e: Gerard Tate, a Ridgewood resident, shares his experiences from Anniversary Day, a holiday that once celebrated the founding of the Sunday School Union. He describes the Anniversary Day parade held by churches as going on for many blocks as it was attended by thousands of Sunday school students. Although schools in Brooklyn and Queens closed for Anniversary Day, the parade's turnout gradually diminished, so much so that the hundredth anniversary was the last organized parade; it had an extremely low turnout, consisting mostly of senior citizens. This day eventually became Brooklyn Queens Day. Like Anniversary Day, Gerard notes that many of the churches he knew no longer exist. They have taken on other uses, such as a McDonald's, or have been forced to close due to lack of attendance. Gerard's church was started by Germans who moved to Queens from Brooklyn and Manhattan and even held services in German. Ridgewood churches are no longer so highly populated by Germans. He mentions one such church that used to be run by German nuns, but now houses a Taiwanese congregation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 2\u003c/strong\u003e: Gerard Tate has seen many changes in the religions and ethnicities of local Queens residents, specifically in his hometown of Ridgewood. He mentions that only recently have Muslim and Hindu holidays been officially recognized in the context of public services, which is a change from his childhood.  Growing up, he was only aware of three religions in New York: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism. He remembers Ridgewood in the 1960s being entirely German, but says it was gradually more integrated with Italians and Hispanics, followed by Eastern Europeans and African Americans. Although Gerard now regards Queens as the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the world, in 1995, he was stunned when he overheard some people in his neighborhood speaking a language he recognized from a trip he'd taken to Africa. During a walk in Flushing Meadow Park, he even saw two Ghanaian women sitting on a log selling things as they would at a marketplace in Accra and noted the irony that he could have just taken a Q58 bus to Flushing instead of traveling 10,000 miles to experience Ghanaian culture.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 3\u003c/strong\u003e: The population of Ridgewood was stable up until second World War because people didn't really have the means to move. Ridgewood was the center of clothing manufacturing for many years. People bought fabric and women worked in knitting mills until clothing manufacturers went to different countries and Ridgewood wages could no longer compete. That was the end of clothing manufacturing in the area. During WWI, the military and Navy employed tens of thousands of people and ConEd employed hundreds of people to perform jobs now done by machines.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 4\u003c/strong\u003e: In this clip from an oral history interview with Gerard Tate, he discusses his surprise at the racial segregation he saw upon entering Georgia as part of the army in the 1960s. He tells a story about being surrounded by white people when he went to see a production of \"The Princess and the Pea.\" All of the African Americans were seated at the far end of the balcony in the theater. He even comments that the only integrated place was the bus going to Fort Benning, Georgia.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 5\u003c/strong\u003e: Ridgewood resident Gerard Tate discusses a ten year gap where the neighborhood didn't change and people had little mobility during the Depression through WW2. He could play ball in the streets because there were no cars. He clearly remembers Pearl Harbor and observes that the Japanese air raids showed that in war, you could no longer have a battle fleet unprotected by aircraft carriers. The U.S could not save the Philippines from invasion because the Japanese destroyed the British/American battle fleet that tried to stop the takeover of Singapore/Malaya without an aircraft carrier.  He also recalls that German U-boats torpedoed oil tankers near Rockaway beach and the enforced blackout sessions in the East Coast as a precaution against German air raids. Although New York City and the whole country was static because of depression and war, Gerard considers himself lucky because his parents kept their jobs during The Great Depression.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this interview, Gerard Tate discusses his life, historical events and how the community of Ridgewood has changed from the early 20th century to the present day.  His formative years coincided with the Great Depression and the Second World War: a period of relative poverty and little mobility.  As he notes, few people frequented areas beyond their immediate neighborhood.  He attended P.S 88, graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in 1953, attended Cornell University and subsequently served on active duty in the army for two years to 1962, before the escalation of the Vietnam War.  Back in Ridgewood, Gerard became a junior high school teacher.  He has also traveled extensively throughout the world.  He notes that today, the community of Ridgewood has become much more diverse; once home to a mostly German population, the neighborhood now has people of Hispanic, Indian, Muslim and Chinese heritage.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/19463"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2013-03-28 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Gerard Tate (Interviewee)","Leslie Tu (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1917-2013 (temporal)","Ridgewood, Queens, NY (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1\u003c/strong\u003e: Gerard Tate, a Ridgewood resident, shares his experiences from Anniversary Day, a holiday that once celebrated the founding of the Sunday School Union. He describes the Anniversary Day parade held by churches as going on for many blocks as it was attended by thousands of Sunday school students. Although schools in Brooklyn and Queens closed for Anniversary Day, the parade's turnout gradually diminished, so much so that the hundredth anniversary was the last organized parade; it had an extremely low turnout, consisting mostly of senior citizens. This day eventually became Brooklyn Queens Day. Like Anniversary Day, Gerard notes that many of the churches he knew no longer exist. They have taken on other uses, such as a McDonald's, or have been forced to close due to lack of attendance. Gerard's church was started by Germans who moved to Queens from Brooklyn and Manhattan and even held services in German. Ridgewood churches are no longer so highly populated by Germans. He mentions one such church that used to be run by German nuns, but now houses a Taiwanese congregation.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 2\u003c/strong\u003e: Gerard Tate has seen many changes in the religions and ethnicities of local Queens residents, specifically in his hometown of Ridgewood. He mentions that only recently have Muslim and Hindu holidays been officially recognized in the context of public services, which is a change from his childhood. \u0026nbsp;Growing up, he was only aware of three religions in New York: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism. He remembers Ridgewood in the 1960s being entirely German, but says it was gradually more integrated with Italians and Hispanics, followed by Eastern Europeans and African Americans. Although Gerard now regards Queens as the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the world, in 1995, he was stunned when he overheard some people in his neighborhood speaking a language he recognized from a trip he'd taken to Africa. During a walk in Flushing Meadow Park, he even saw two Ghanaian women sitting on a log selling things as they would at a marketplace in Accra and noted the irony that he could have just taken a Q58 bus to Flushing instead of traveling 10,000 miles to experience Ghanaian culture.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 3\u003c/strong\u003e: The population of Ridgewood was stable up until second World War because people didn't really have the means to move. Ridgewood was the center of clothing manufacturing for many years. People bought fabric and women worked in knitting mills until clothing manufacturers went to different countries and Ridgewood wages could no longer compete. That was the end of clothing manufacturing in the area. During WWI, the military and Navy employed tens of thousands of people and ConEd employed hundreds of people to perform jobs now done by machines.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 4\u003c/strong\u003e: In this clip from an oral history interview with Gerard Tate, he discusses his surprise at the racial segregation he saw upon entering Georgia as part of the army in the 1960s. He tells a story about being surrounded by white people when he went to see a production of \"The Princess and the Pea.\" All of the African Americans were seated at the far end of the balcony in the theater. He even comments that the only integrated place was the bus going to Fort Benning, Georgia.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 5\u003c/strong\u003e: Ridgewood resident Gerard Tate discusses a ten year gap where the neighborhood didn't change and people had little mobility during the Depression through WW2. He could play ball in the streets because there were no cars. He clearly remembers Pearl Harbor and observes that the Japanese air raids showed that in war, you could no longer have a battle fleet unprotected by aircraft carriers. The U.S could not save the Philippines from invasion because the Japanese destroyed the British/American battle fleet that tried to stop the takeover of Singapore/Malaya without an aircraft carrier. \u0026nbsp;He also recalls that German U-boats torpedoed oil tankers near Rockaway beach and the enforced blackout sessions in the East Coast as a precaution against German air raids. Although New York City and the whole country was static because of depression and war, Gerard considers himself lucky because his parents kept their jobs during The Great Depression.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIn this interview, Gerard Tate discusses his life, historical events and how the community of Ridgewood has changed from the early 20th century to the present day. \u0026nbsp;His formative years coincided with the Great Depression and the Second World War: a period of relative poverty and little mobility. \u0026nbsp;As he notes, few people frequented areas beyond their immediate neighborhood. \u0026nbsp;He attended P.S 88, graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in 1953, attended Cornell University and subsequently served on active duty in the army for two years to 1962, before the escalation of the Vietnam War. \u0026nbsp;Back in Ridgewood, Gerard became a junior high school teacher. \u0026nbsp;He has also traveled extensively throughout the world. \u0026nbsp;He notes that today, the community of Ridgewood has become much more diverse; once home to a mostly German population, the neighborhood now has people of Hispanic, Indian, Muslim and Chinese heritage.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/154/513/small/Screenshot_%2842%29.png?1646997886","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/69895/file/154513","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 5 - 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