4 North Shore Towers Courier n August 2016 Vicki Cooper: A Young Centenarian Where did you grow up? I was born in a cold-water flat on East 9th Street between Avenues C and D. It was a third floor walk-up with five rooms arranged railroad style. In order to pay the rent, my parents took in boarders for four of the rooms. My sister and I shared a room with my Aunt Frieda. It was cramped but I thought everyone lived like that. We were lucky we had an indoor toilet that my family and the boarders shared. Where did you go to school? I attended Washington Irving H.S. on Irving Place. It was an all-girls school at the time. I worked my way through a new school, which opened in 1928, that was called the City College School of Business. It did not admit women until 1930. I was one of the first women to graduate. Years later it was re-named Baruch College. What came next? I worked as a bookkeeper, got married and had two children, Jules and Mona. Jules is now 74 and lives in Syosset. Mona is in New Jersey and wouldn’t want me to give her age. If she lives to be 100, like me, she’ll brag about her age. When my children were older, I divorced my husband and decided to become a teacher. I enrolled in a branch of City College that prepared teachers. It latter became known as Hunter College. For many years I taught as a substitute teacher 2 or 3 days a week while caring for my children. By that time, my Aunt Frieda married a man with a son my age. Victor and I became friendly and when he asked me to marry him I accepted. That’s how my Aunt Frieda became my mother-in-law. Victor was a jeweler and we had a wonderful life together for 39 years… a house in East Meadow and vacations in Florida. But that all changed. How did it change? He’s gone. (“Gone” is a word Vicki uses when a loved one dies.) My original Canasta group. All gone (She says with a wistful look). My long time Mah-Jongg players… all gone. It’s great reaching age 100, but a little lonely. Of course, I still play with some “kids,” but it’s not the same. Do you have any secrets for living a long and mostly healthy life? I am blessed with good health. I take medicine for my high blood pressure but so do my grandkids. First, you must eat three meals a day. They can be small but don’t skip. For breakfast, I have a bowl of oatmeal with three prunes. It works miracles. For lunch I have a slice of whole wheat bread with yellow cheese—Jarlsberg is my favorite—a small salad and, very important, my smoothie. It consists of one glass of skim milk (I’m a size 12 and use only skim milk), a whole banana and one apple cut up. Whoosh it up in a blender and sip it slowly. Three times a week at night, I eat in the Towers Restaurant with some of my friends. Once each week, my son takes me out for lunch. My two favorite restaurants are Jolly Fisherman and Peter Luger. Every morning I do exercises for ten minutes. (At this point she demonstrated a series of stretching exercises, ten repetitions each.) I do see a doctor on Northern Boulevard once a month. I hope he takes care of himself. I’ve outlived all the others. Do you live alone? I have a wonderful aide, Nelly, who comes four days a week from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. She helps me shower, get dressed, and prepares my breakfast and lunch. Once every two weeks, I have a cleaning lady who takes care of the apartment. I’m alone at night, but have a Life Alert pendant to call for help if I need it. I used it once. I opened my apartment door and bent down to pick up the NY Times, which had been delivered. I fell and couldn’t get up. Luckily the pendant was around my neck and I got prompt help. That was the end of my home delivery of a newspaper. I now get my news from Wolf Blitzer on TV. I do miss the soap operas. But I enjoy Turner Classic Movies. They don’t have commercials. At my age there is no time for commercials interfering with the story. The Library downstairs is wonderful. Meg Salwen, the librarian, has introduced me to large print books. I used to read romance novels but now prefer mysteries. How did you celebrate this milestone birthday? Actually I had two parties. This first was held at the Lakeview Jewish Center, where I belonged for many years. I had an elaborate Kiddush catered after the Sabbath service. The Rabbi spoke; the Cantor sang Jewish songs; and we all had a good time. On June 18th, I had a dinner party for 48 family members and friends at the Jolly Fisherman. I have six grandkids and ten great grandkids. Family came from Florida, New Jersey, Long Island, Ohio and California. I told everyone there should be no gifts but instead donations should be made to our favorite charity, CURE (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy) in memory of a grandson, Danny Tromberg who is gone now. They all listened to me… for a change. 1916 was an eventful year: Woodrow Wilson was elected President; Einstein published his Theory of Relativity; and Betty Grable, Van Johnson, and Gregory Peck were born. They’ve all since passed away, but on June 6, 1916, a little girl was born on the lower East Side of New York and she’s still very much alive and living in Building One of North Shore Towers. She is sharp as a tack, walks unassisted and plays Mah-Jongg and Canasta three times each week. She swam until age 95. This well-coiffed lady has brown eyes that absolutely twinkled during this interview.
NST082016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above