Things You Make in a Yorkville Apartment
Robert A. Pryor
"Bob, clean the table off, we're gonna eat in five minutes."
1937, on York Avenue on the Upper Eastside, Bob, 10, took his art stuff inside the front room in the railroad apartment. On the linoleum floor, he laid out the construction paper, crayons and pencils and the metal pencil sharpener Uncle Joe gave him. Uncle Joe worked in the newspaper business and sometimes brought home supplies for the kid. Bob sat cross legged and restarted his sketch of a tree ignoring his mother's order to "Get in here, and eat!" He had to get those leaves just right.
Dad died today nine years ago, and I miss him. I miss his curiosity and his ability to make something out of nothing.
Wherever he was he made that tiny space his studio. First at his apartment at 1582 York Avenue then later in our small place in 517 East 83rd Street (much to my mother's chagrin, Mom was a neat freak). Things he made there continue to fascinate and inspire me. "There is always something to do and make," my favorite lesson from Dad, a Yorkville man till the day he died.
Pictured here is a 1937 grammar school Honor Roll from the Yorkville Advance with a picture of Dad same year; and pieces of art Dad made in our 83rd Street apartment. The dollhouse was later finished in a Sunnyside apartment. A picture of Dad and me on the Drive in Carl Schurz Park in 1956.
