Consuela Fenton Interview 08/10/2024

Consuela Fenton Interview Transcription

NATASHA: Hello. I'm Natasha Fearon, and I'm here with what's your name, ma'am?

CONSUELA: Consuela Fenton 

NATASHA: At the Park Slope Old Timers Reunion on Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue. Today is Saturday, August 10th. What is your relationship to Park Slope and/or Brooklyn?

CONSUELA: Well, I lived there, and I sold Avon there. I was in the school there, and the people - the people know me.

NATASHA: Okay. May I ask what year you were born?

CONSUELA: 23

NATASHA: 1923?

CONSUELA: Uh, no. 1931… yeah. So you know how old I am?

NATASHA: Yes, ma'am. You look so good.

CONSUELA: Yeah?

NATASHA: Yes. You do.

CONSUELA: Thank you.

NATASHA: Do you have a particularly powerful or important memory of Park Slope and/or Brooklyn?

CONSUELA: I was happy there. It was nice. It was good. I loved it there.

NATASHA: You loved it there.

CONSUELA: I loved it. Well, I mean, like I said, you were safe there. You know, stores and things knew you. I sold my Avon there. I lived there. No. I have memories there. I’d be happy.

NATASHA: Okay. Why did you decide to come to the old union- the old timers reunion today?

CONSUELA: Well, I was here before because I sold Avon. And I thought that the people had forgotten me because I hadn't seen them for a long time here because I moved [away] from there. And when I came here: everybody, - I was so shocked. I didn't know what to say. - They all knew me. They remember that I sold the Avon. I mean, you know, it it was - I didn't know what to say.

NATASHA: It was overwhelming.

CONSUELA: It was. I really was because I didn't I think that some people didn't remember me, but they they remembered me. And they were waiting for me.

NATASHA: [uninteligable]

CONSUELA: Right.

NATASHA: What are some of the things you think more people should know about Park Slope or Brooklyn?

CONSUELA: I brought my kids down there and I was glad I brought them down there because there was something different for something - let me see something different. No. I was glad. Because there was a place for me to be.

It I mean, it had problems like any other places they had, but like I said, I was happy there. And I was very happy with my children. I was glad I brought them there.

NATASHA: What are your hopes for the future of Brooklyn, Park Slope? … What are your future hopes? What do you think should be changed or should anything change? / Or should it stay the same?

CONSUELA: I haven't been able to to to go back over there. I don't I don't know how it is now.

NATASHA: Right.

CONSUELA: I don't know. I don't even know how to go about it when I was there. But I I I would like to hope that that it got better. Because even though I've been down there, they did have a little bit [unintelligible] there. They had that.

NATASHA: Yep.

CONSUELA: You know, they did. I was able to live with that because, it wasn't bad. But, no. I was glad that I came there and brought my kids.

NATASHA: And so the last question I have for you was, what what is history to you?

CONSUELA: What year?

NATASHA: What is history to you?

CONSUELA: What’s history? That I lived there and that, a lot of the people, grown-ups rather, they they they know me. They know I work there.

And I I just feel like, like I'm history.

Like, they'll say, “Well, you know this lady Ms. Fenton?” “Oh, yes. We know her. She she was in in the school there.”

Yeah. They know me.

NATASHA: That's right.

CONSUELA: That's right. They thought I was a teacher. I was not a teacher. But I had to try to tell them, like, you know, “Don't do this because, you know, that's not good.” I tried to tell them little things to help them. And they remembered.

NATASHA: And they remembered you.

CONSUELA: But then when I saw them and they and they thought, “Oh, we thought you was a teacher.” My chest got out like, “Oh my god. They would thought I was a teacher.” But I wasn't a teacher.

NATASHA: What were you? Can I ask?

CONSUELA: Huh?

NATASHA: What were you at the school?

CONSUELA: I was a - Food. Card food.

NATASHA: Okay.

CONSUELA: Yeah. But they thought, they didn’t know who I was.

NATASHA: They didn’t about that.

CONSUELA: And when they said, they thought, “Oh, we thought you was the teacher.”

NATASHA: That must have inspired so may children.

CONSUELA: I'm telling you right. Yeah. And when I had to come from there because I had the mini school. I had the whole mini school and, the teachers and the children, the bathrooms, and the places that I was in charge of all that. When I had to leave, they all gave me cards and things and stuff that I still have now.

NATASHA: Oh wow.

CONSUELA: Yeah.

NATASHA: How long did you work there, can I ask?

CONSUELA: I was young. I was young then, like, in my twenties. Yeah. Yeah. And I used to wake up the school. The teachers and things weren't even weren't even in there. I was in there walking around the the the the rooms and they're dancing.

I I was happy. That was the best time in my life. It was. I would I would go back to it again.

NATASHA: Okay.

CONSUELA: And I had I had, 2 principals in that school that gave me a chance to go into that school. One of them, I don't know. 2 told me I had to go back to school. Another one, she gave me a chance.

And then the other one, when I couldn't be at the school anymore, she made, a a a part - a room for me. She made a job for me so I could come back into school. And I didn't even think that that that lady liked me because she didn't she didn't laugh- I didn't know she liked me. But when I had to, retire, she did. She came back and made a some for me so I could come back there for a few more years to work.

And I thought that was a great thing.

NATASHA: And that's Park Slope.

CONSUELA: Yep.

NATASHA: Oh, wow.

CONSUELA: Yep. And I don't, you know, I don't remember her name. The other 2, principals, I did know. Miss Aurelie and Russell. But the other one, I don't know I don't know what her name was.

And she gave me the biggest break to let me get back into that school and gave me another name, another - , for me to get back in there to work for a few more years.

NATASHA: Wow.

CONSUELA: That's right.

NATASHA: That was nice.

CONSUELA: That was, that was really beautiful. Mhmm. That's right.

NATASHA: That was a good time. Well, that concludes my interview. I wanna thank you so much, miss Fenton. For your time.

CONSUELA: Well, I hope I told you enough, a little something.

NATASHA: You did. You gave me a lot of information.

CONSUELA: I hope so.

NATASHA: You did.

CONSUELA: I hope so.