Time Marches on. As I was contemplating what to write about this month, my daughter inspired me to write about 10 things people might not know about me. She shared it on her Instagram. I thought I’d share it with you.
1) I was a VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) in Richmond, Indiana (now part of Americorps) prior to moving back to New York in 1970.
2) I marched in support of a proposed housing project in Forest Hills, Queens that was negotiated by a then thirty-eight year old up and coming attorney, Mario Cuomo, later Governor of the Empire State where his son is also now Governor and whose other son is a commentator on CNN.
3) I volunteered to work for the New York City Housing Authority during my last year in college and smoothed over relations between the Hispanic and Jewish families living in the Lower East Side Housing projects.
4) In 1975, I met my wife when I placed an advertisement in the local newspaper’s classified section (Newsday) for a server and hired Cindy. On our first anniversary with little money but a desire to surprise my wife I called the same newspaper — Newsday — and convinced them to run with a human interest story on our meeting. They chose to use it for marketing their Classified section. They even used my headline: “She found her job and her husband at Ben’s” in a full page ad that ran multiple times for a year.
5) I was a Treasurer and Board of Director member with the New York Delicatessen Dealers Association (now defunct).
6) I was a Secretary and Board of Director member of the Interfaith Nutrition Network (the INN) for close to twenty years before resigning.
7) We had the Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Ben’s Manhattan on West 38th Street, just off 7th Avenue in 1996.
8) We had former First Lady, Hilary Clinton, cut the ribbon on the 2000 reconstruction of Ben’s in Wheatley Plaza in Greenvale, New York.
9) My two children, Jaime and Joshua, appeared in an advertisement (this one I had to pay for) exclaiming their Pop had the best kosher deli in the world.
10) I am currently preparing an ad for my beloved grandchildren, Ella and Leo, who will also exclaim their grandpa has the best kosher delis in the world.
Time indeed Marches on…
Bonus:
11) Pastrami is my true love but for the month of March I eat Corned Beef. Please come in and check out our Corned Beef and Cabbage and other Corned Beef specials, now going on through St. Patty’s Day, March 17th.
See ya at the Deli.
Simply,
Ronnie
