b'of new refrigerators, new stoves, everything was going on. How I did it, to tell you the truth, I really don\'t know. Perhaps,maybe, there\'s more to me than I realize myself and God was with me because I was grateful when I used to get home,I says: "Oh, my God," you know.Were you doing the regular maintenance work while installing all these new things?Right, you had to. I had a staff of maintenance workers with the work tickets. They had to make sure that the broken window was repaired, that the public space was repaired, inspect these buildings for janitorial and all. It was a challenge.Looking back, it was the type of job where you really worked with the people. You have a lot of superintendents in the Housing Authority. A lot of them wind up in central office with a pad and pencil, and everything is all paper. Everything else isnot an easy thing to do. Being out there and mixing with different people, with the different attitudes, different nationalitiesand all, isnt so easy. Some people have problems. I would have meetings with my janitorial staff and I used to try to encour-age them to possibly join a savings plan, even if you start with five percent or something. I always believed in having a jacketfor the job. I used to tell them, "Look fellas, I wasn\'t born with a jacket and a tie." I says: " I swept floors, I mopped floors, butthere is a certain way of doing things, you be best to learn how to do it because that will take you to the next step. So, a goodcaretaker will make a good supervisor." I had a lot of respect from them, the workers. But it wasn\'t easy. Because you happen to be in charge, doesn\'t matter where you come from or what you look likeyou just don\'t like them. Were you ever a shop steward? Or a grievance rep?Yes. I wasn\'t the lead, but I was an assistant chairman of the supers in the assistant supers chapter. I was always inthe negotiating committee going back to Barry Feinstein. I was always connected with the union.Why did you decide you wanted to take on this role? Not everybody volunteers to do that. Why. That\'s a good question. Why? It\'s just that I always wanted to make a difference and I believe that I accomplished that. A lot of superintendents had their own personalities. Managers and superintendents, they didn\'t always get along because the starting salary was about the same amount. They used to make the same, but then theywent by percentages. Somehow the managers end up making maybe an extra two thousand, three thousand more a year.But to me, that didn\'t matter. I didn\'t feel any less powerful than I don\'t want to use the word powerful, but I didn\'t feelany less than a manager, okay. The manager had the college degree, I was a high school graduate. In those days, it wasokay. The thing is that to do the job, you have to work together to survive or you fall apart. Yes. I always felt that. I just feltthat getting along with the manager was very important. And in some case, I even took some of the responsibility of themanager. The manager mainly dealt with the tenants. Maintenance was my thing, in charge of the staff and taking care ofthe building. But to me it didn\'t matter. My thing is we\'re together and I went out of my way to gain the trust of the manager. Was there friction between managers and superintendents?Right and the superintendents. And I would sit with my managers, male or female, and I used to share the informa-tion, exactly what\'s going on. They were well informed and everything else. Our supervisors, mine and the manager\'s, always liked me because, we ran the project well. They know how well it\'s run and so I always got high praises for that.The managers did well because they didn\'t have to pull that information about what am I doing. 84 '