- We were here for about eight/ten years.
- Was it?
- This was the courtyard...I remember the... Now it's better kept now than it was before.
So you see right up there, the big window, the fourth floor, that was the bathroom, that was our living room.
- The affinity though, we found is that we spoke the same language.
We had a similar story, we had the same rules.
Our parents wanted the same things from us.
We didn't get time to play, because our parents went to work and we were responsible for what happened in the house.
We cleaned, we didn't have time.
And when I wanted to sit on the stoop, like all the other kids were doing, (speaks foreign language) Listen to the train.
- The train.
(train chugs) My bedroom was facing the train, And you know, you get kind of used to the noise.
(upbeat music) My mother would come home late, sometimes work overtime to make more money.
And I was kind of in charge of cooking for the family.
And it felt good, it felt good because I was doing something that I recall Grandma did.
It's a way of nurturing the family, it's a way of taking care of the family.
The aromas, the taste of those foods brought me back to that special place.
And I began to love cooking, because I didn't know, I didn't realize, but it was taking me to a safe place.
Got to know Astoria, got to meet you, and a lot of our pizanos.
- Right here, our tribe.
We look for who speaks our language, who looks like us, who eats like us.
We have to sustain each other when we first arrive as immigrants.
(mellow music) - So many years of our lives, especially on Saturday and Sundays, we used to come here, the boys would play soccer, the game, right.
We would play with each other, chase or whatever, go to the pool.
That was one of our favorite.
- [Wanda] That was highlights of our week, walk on the bridge.
- Just saw the river come by, watch the boats go by.
- [Wanda] Wow, look at this.
- [Lidia] Yeah, you see the ducks.
- [Wanda] Pigeons and geese, everybody gets along together.
- They made their home here in Astoria Park.
Coming here as immigrants was a very welcoming place.
It was our first home away from home - When we first arrived, we were also immigrants.
My mother tells us, (speaks foreign language) "We're gonna move to the country," because it was filled with trees, it was green, and there was a gentleness about Astoria, very much a welcoming gentleness about, the whole neighborhood was great.
And then eventually also became a setting for budding romances, for the first kisses.
- [Lidia] This was Lover's Lane.
- That was part of our growth.
When you start exploring that part of life, then you're growing into who you're going to become as a person.
- From children to adults.
- Yeah.
(mellow music) - [Lidia] I met youngsters that were like me.
So it was a comfort zone.
- In Astoria at that time, you go down the street and you'd hear different languages, and you'd go to somebody's house and eat food that you hadn't had before, and listening to people speak Greek, German, Italian.
- Wait, right here.
Do you see Broadway Hardware?
- [Wanda] Yeah.
- So that was Walken's Bakery, and that's where I began to work as a 14-year-old on Friday night, Saturdays, you remember that.
- Walken's was the best bakery at the time.
(uplifting music) - My father had a bakery in Astoria, and Lidia as a teenager worked there.
So I've known Lidia all my life.
- They did beautiful wedding cakes, birthday cakes, the decoration, you know, this is where I learned it.
I used to make the boxes first, get the bags up, whatever they needed, and slowly I got into the baking.
- And there were half-a-dozen bakers, and they worked in the back.
And then there were maybe half-a-dozen ladies and they had outfits with head pieces.
- [Lidia] I talked my mother into applying to be one of the sales ladies.
She ended up loving it.
- [Lidia] And you know still friends with Christopher Walken!
- [Wanda] Christopher, yeah, [Lidia] still see him now and then.
- When I knew her, I didn't know she could cook.
Who would've imagined what Lidia did, you know, this amazing life and career.
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