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if they couldn’t pay for lessons.
    I never really enjoyed school much when I was a kid, but I did like playing the prince in my first grade’s production of
Snow White
. There was one teacher who really loved me. She thought I was a cute kid, especially when I showed up in my little prince outfit. I don’t remember her name, but she treated me like I really was a little prince, and it made me believe that I was special. Her acts of kindness will never be forgotten. It’s funny how one positive person like that can mold your whole attitude and change your life.
    A couple of years later I had another teacher who really believed in me. Her name was Mrs. McQuade and she helped me get what may have been my first public performance. She arranged for me to sing at the local Democratic club. That undoubtedly annoyed my Uncle Frank, who eventually ran for state senate on the Republican ticket, but I was unconcerned with politics: this was my first gig! Since I was only nine years old, my older sister Mary had to come with me because I was too young to walk home alone.
    Mrs. McQuade later helped me when I got to sing side by side with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at the opening of the Triborough Bridge in 1936.
    Construction of the bridge that would link Queens to Manhattan and the Bronx had begun on October 25, 1929—the second day of the stock market crash that set off the Great Depression. Over the next several years construction was repeatedly stopped and started. By 1932 it still hadn’t been completed, and the people of New York City were tired of the inefficient and corrupt administration of Mayor JamesWalker. It was time for a change, and the civic-minded Italian-American Fiorello La Guardia appealed to the voters.
    Mayor La Guardia was an extremely popular man and he endeared himself to New Yorkers by always being sensitive to common people’s day-to-day concerns. I remember once during a newspaper strike, my brother and I listened to La Guardia do a dramatic reading of our beloved
Dick Tracy
comic strip on the radio. He said that no one should be deprived of their favorite Sunday comic just because the newspaper men couldn’t work things out.
    La Guardia fought against racism and economic inequality. He ran for mayor in 1933, and during his campaign he promised that if elected he’d complete the construction of the Triborough Bridge. He won the election and kept his promise: the bridge opened on July 11, 1936. A grand celebration was planned. Mayor La Guardia would officially open the bridge to traffic and invite everyone to walk across with him in a show of unity and progress. I don’t know how she did it, but Mrs. McQuade arranged for me to sing at the opening ceremony. There I was in a white silk suit, standing next to Mayor La Guardia when he cut the ribbon! After his speech I led a throng of hopeful people across the brand-new bridge, singing the song “Marching Along Together.” Everybody sang along—even the mayor.

    I was ten years old when I marched across the Triborough Bridge. My dad wasn’t there; he was too ill. He had finally been diagnosed with an “enlarged heart.” Today doctors could treat his illness, but in 1936 they were at a loss. Dad just got weaker and weaker. He still tried his best to help Mom with her piecework, and he looked after us when she went off to her job in the city. I remember him being athome with us all day long, which was quite a role reversal for that time. He even taught my sister how to cook.

    My father’s body ached so badly at night that he could hardly bear to have the bedsheets touch his limbs. He spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital on Governors Island; sometimes he’d have to be rushed there in the middle of the night. For some reason his heart would swell up and push against his lungs, which would fill up with fluid, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. I was always so confused and frightened when this happened. Every time he had an attack