My home, 116 Hudson Street, memorialized in the “Lantern Stories” exhibit on the Greenway by artist, Yu Wen Wu.
I am 13 years old babysitting my friend Susan’s little brother Ken on Hudson Street. It was the last Easter Sunday before the demolition of my neighborhood. I sewed my own dress of lilac polished cotton and trimmed it with purple rickracks. My friend, Karen, helped with the rickracks and my friend, Susan, with the zipper. Every Chinatown girl knew how to sew because our mothers were home garment workers. We designed and made all our own clothes . Chinatown was the center of the garment industry. Fabric thread buttons and ribbon stores were plentiful and in every home stood a factory size sewing machine.
Hudson Street Chronicles 