About This Item

  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0040-accs
  • Summary(0:30) Grandparents' farm in Brooklyn -- (0:52) Picture of the farm from 1934 in the online library archives -- (1:57) History in Brooklyn extending far back -- (2:13) Moving into a row house on Flatlands Avenue in 1954 -- (2:40) Family legacy at Midwood High School -- (3:00) Being a "geek" in high school -- (3:15) Delivering the New York Times as the "newspaper commissioner" for Midwood High School for two years -- (3:35) Graduating in 1971 -- (4:50) Working in the English Department -- (4:15) Teacher Harold Dorf's weekly chemistry poems -- (4:31) Learning physics from Ed Lewis -- (4:35) Working as the Associate Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University & as the Observatory Director and designing, funding, and procuring the astronomical observatory at George Mason University -- (5:20) Vietnam War protests on Bedford Avenue -- (6:13) Receiving a Midwood High School medal at graduation -- (7:13) Learning the most from the tough history teacher Dora Venit -- (8:46) Human versus electronic connection among modern youth -- (9:43) The Last Angry Man (book) -- (10:35) Playing stickball on East 45th Street -- (11:00) Knowing the local beat cop's family -- (11:53) Welcome Back, Kotter (TV show) -- (12:19) Differences in school discipline between then and now.
  • Date2016-10-15
  • Physical Description1 sound file (15 min.) : digital, MP3
  • CreatorGeller, Harold
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on October 15, 2016, by Taina Evans at Midwood High School. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection.
  • SubjectFarms ; Row houses ; Chemistry ; Poetry ; Physics ; Teachers ; Archives ; Astronomy ; Observatory ; George Mason University ; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements ; Graduation (School) ; History ; Youth development ; Welcome back Kotter (Television program) ; School discipline ; Pedagogy
  • PlaceEast New York (New York, N.Y.)Midwood (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Harold Geller on 2016 October 15.