Beatrice Sullivan Interview 08/10/2024
Beatrice Sullivan Interview Transcription
Hello. I'm Natasha Ferran, and I'm here with Miss Beatrice Sullivan at the park scope old timers reunion at Port Street and Sixth Avenue on Saturday, August, 10, 2024 B,E, A, T, R, I, C, E, my last name is Sullivan. S, U, L, L, I, V, A N. When I was on Fourth Street, I was at Williams, W, I, L, L, I a, m, s, I was at 320, 8/4, street. So what is your relationship to Park Slope and or Brooklyn?
Most of my life, I've lived in Park Slope. My father was with Joseph Williams. He was a great organizer of people, making sure the kids on the block had something to do and whatever. I have seven brothers and one sister, so we're the big family. So he made sure we had connections with everyone on the block. And he looked out for people on the block, you know, and not only that, when I got married, I had a son. He came out. He lived on the block also with my mother, who babysitted for a lot of people on the block. She so she did that, and he took care of her. And most people on the block looked out for my son. They looked out. They looked they looked out for everyone. So you're looking like you're lost. You can leave your child out there. If you do something wrong, they're going to correct them, and you will hear about it. We were the family, a well knit family.
Do you have a particular powerful or important memory of Park Slope I went to elementary school, PS, 77 which is torn down now. From there, I went to 50 ones and then to John Jay. My school years was very nice. The people I knew on Fourth Street was nice. Bunch of people Nice. Everybody cared for each other. We looked out for each other. When I go to school is to go to home, to other people home. We had lunch there and went back to school. I enjoyed the school system here. School was excellent, great time. And with my father, block association president, the trips he gave was nice. And then the good part about us where we were living, my mother, she's a great cook. When we run out of something, she said, go next door to so and so house and get such as you could do that and you felt comfortable doing it, so we took care of each other. It's a nice like a big family.
What made you decide to come to Park Slope? It's a great blessing to come out here to see Park Slope doing, what is doing? John Lee, what he's doing, Miss caisson, what he's helping to do, to see how he bring in people together. And after all these years, you come back to see friends, and that's a that's a good thing. That's a good thing, because you hear about people passing away, this person's gone, that person's gone. But when you come back to the Fourth Street and you see people here, and everyone's doing very well, doing good and blessed. So we all look good. I enjoy that part of seeing the people. What are some things you think more people should know about Park Slope or Brooklyn, based on your experience, Park Slope was a nice was a nice place to live, is a nice place to live. And back then, it wasn't that expensive. The people were nice.
Everybody like you say, knew everyone. My father used to have a construction company in the corner, so he did a lot of work for a lot of people in the area. And it was respectful. Very respectful the children. No one got out of hand. You know, you're going to have little things going on. That's automatic, but the how people treat you, how you they react to you, was totally different, totally different. It was a lot of trust going on here, and we, like, I say trust. It's excellent. You can't have trust. You know, everyone's going to make a mistake here and there, but you can come back home. You can come back home. What are your hopes for the future?
As far as hope, I just hope Brooklyn continue to have have these reunions for the old time. And hope we do that that enlighten other people as to how we used to live over here, how it was then, but as now, I've been living in Queens for most of my life, since 71 so I've been out for a long time.
So this brings me back, and I'm glad to come back to this, because to say, drive to Brooklyn. God, I hate to do but for this, I go out my way to come back to this. So I enjoy it. I enjoy the people. It's the people, the people, the people. Thank God for these people, wonderful people. And so my last question for you is, what does history? History is a stepping stone. People can look back and see, okay? This happened. Excuse me, this happened. When you were there. Now let's see what we can make it better when we get there. History tells you what you need to do to provide for others, to make everything work.
If you know, without history, life falls apart because you don't know what a person went through to get to where they are. And so history is important in every denomination, whether it's black, white, Chinese, or whatever, you've got to have history for the young people that are coming up that can respect who their parents are, who their family members are, and to me, history is important. Thank you. Ms Soto, that concludes our interview. Okay, so much for your time today. No, you're more than welcome. Thank you.