b"Can you tell me about your career as a cook and a chef before you started working for the City? I was born March 17, 1938 in New York, Harlem. Im an only child. I learned a little cooking in junior high school,Cooper Junior High. That was a good school. I cooked around for people and I cooked at home. My mother was a goodcook. She worked for people cooking and being a Nanny or something like that. They were doctor families. I remember asa kid going down to Dr. Lewis' house on 96th street. Sometime we went out to Hewlett, New York. As a kid, I thoughtabout being a chauffeur or something like that. Then I went to Seward Park. They had sewing and woodwork, everything.That's how I got into cooking.Do you remember your first cooking job? It was Unique Agency. A friend of mine got me a job there. They sent the cooks to the Ethical Culture School, different churches Presbyterian churches and Columbia University, Teacher's College, and Manhattan School of Music.The lady at Manhattan School of Music offered us 55,000 dollars to set up a business there but we didn't want that I didn't want the responsibility.I would have to be really obligated, I had to order, buy, set up, cook, serve. We were doingweddings, we did everything. I cooked at Riverside Church. I got a little money here and there, you know. They were based in New Jersey.But my first job wasnt cooking. I worked in laundromats folding sheets. I worked making eyeglass frames. Maybe I started working in about I'll say '54, '55. Maybe before then because I was going to school when I was working at therecord shack. Then I managed a liquor store.JLiquors on Saint Nicholas Avenue.Everybody had a little job then. I diddelivery work down in the Garment District. I worked all over the place. Always on the go. And then I worked at PalisadesDainty Cookies in Fort Lee, New Jersey. They made cookies for airplanes. After you work there for so many weeks, maybe6 weeks, they let you go because you automatically become part of the union. After that, I worked at Gleasons, a cafe on 72 Street and Columbus Avenue. Then I moved to Gleason's Candlelight,that was in low down New Jersey. By then, my cooking was pretty good.I remember one time when I was driving from work, a police officer stopped me. He said, Know why I stoppedyou? I said, No. He said, 'Cause you put your foot on the brakes. You must have been speeding. He asked, Where doyou work? I said,I'm a cook at Gleason's Candlelight. He said, Oh yeah, I heard about that food and they say it hassome good food over there. So I say, Well come by sometime and have lunch. And, you know, they did. And he didn'tgive me a ticket. So, my cooking was kind of spreading out. Everybody didnt know about it, but I felt good that he heardabout it. I worked at Gleasons for about three to four years. They moved me around from one restaurant to anotherrestaurant. I went to Gleasons West to Gleason's East, to Gleason's in New Jersey. I did everything, quiche, lobster of theday, beef stroganoff, anything. Did they use your own recipes? No. My father left me a few things. My stepfather used to work with Chef Wellington. He was supposed to have beena big, big time chef.Is there anything else you'd like to share about work or the union?The Union has good retirement things. They have programs. I come to the seminars for retirement and serve the131 "