Lower East Side Tenement Museum

I had wanted to visit this for a few years. Mid-twentieth century, a tenement was condemned because of its wooden staircases. It was boarded up for over fifty years, and when the boards were taken off it was discovered that not only had it not been vandalized, it only had minor rain damage and a time capsule of everyday life was inside.
The first apartment was three small rooms occupied by a German immigrant family. The father disappeared, and the mother supported her three kids by taking in sewing. She would have had to sew by a small window because the wattage of the light bulbs must have been about 10 watts. No indoor plumbing. Not only did they have to trek all the way outside to the outhouse, water would have to be schlepped up the stairs for cooking and bathing. Eventually the mother grew her business well enough ,and with an inheritance, eventually moved the family out.
The second apartment was also as small, and this family's left-behinds were from immigrant Italians. The tenement museum people were able to track down the youngest daughter and have a recording of her memories of the apartment.
The whole experience was fascinating to me, and I have a new appreciation for what immigrants were willing to tolerate for a fresh start here.

It had been many years since I'd been on the lower east side, and some gentrification was obvious. The Essex Street Market was a fun place with many small food vendors. I didn't time my visit well enough to eat at Shopsin's with the very colorful owner Kenny and his insane son Zack (Amazon search "Eat Me"by Kenny) , but the stalls were a lot of fun to visit and I bought treats.
I then browsed some shops down the street and ended up in a luggage store. While I negotiated the price of a backpack the guy told me I was a human calculator. That's a compliment I'm very proud of, considering where it came from