Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Lower East Side, Manhattan

Yesterday Jess and I had lunch at 88 Orchard and then went to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. It was really good, if you haven’t been there, you should go. The museum has preserved an actual tenement building and access to it is by tour only. There are three different tours to choose from and we chose a tour called “Getting By: Weather the Great Depressions of 1873 and 1929″. This hour-long tour takes you through 3 apartments in the tenement building. The first apartment is unfurnished and somewhat dilapidated. This apartment has not been restored at all and is almost exactly as it was discovered when the museum purchased the building. It is used to show the layout of each of the apartments and to explain their features. The next apartment has been restored to the period of the 1870s. At this time the Gumpertz family, a German-Jewish family, lived in the apartment. You get to see how the apartment would have been furnished when the family lived there and the tour guide walks you through the history of the family and what everything in the apartment is. The last apartment was that of the Badizza family, a Sicilian-Catholic family that lived in the apartment in the 1930s. Again, you are told about the family and the apartment. What was really great about this apartment was the woman who lived there as a child contacted the museum a while back and gave an oral history of living there. So.. you not only got to hear the tour guide’s description, you got to hear stories of the apartment in the words and voice of someone who actually lived there.

Our tour guide was Carlo d’Amore. He did an awesome job giving us historical facts but throwing in personal stories and jokes to keep things lively. It helped that he was kind of hot. Also, at one point early on he stopped the tour to point at me and say “Has anyone ever told you you look like Renee Zellweger!?”. To which I replied, “Yes, all the time.”

Economy Candy, Lower East Side, Manhattan

Jessica at Economy Candy, Lower East Side, Manhattan

After the tour (and purchasing far too many books) Jess and I headed over to Economy Candy. I’d heard Jeannette talk about this store before but I’d never been inside. It’s so fun. An entire store filled from front to back, floor to ceiling with candy!!!!

Eating Candy and Watching a Movie, East Village, Manhattan

Rachelle and Jessica – Wax Lips, East Village, Manhattan

Candy Coma, East Village, Manhattan

A quick dash uptown to stock up on skin care products from Mario Badescu, and then Jess and I went home to rent Gangs of New York and to eat candy!!! heh. We picked Gangs of New York because I thought it would drive home some of the things that we saw at the Tenement Museum. I’d already seen the movie and read the book. And read Five Points, a book on similar subjects, so going to the museum then seeing the movie again brought everything together for me.

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