New York Tenement Museum- Irish Outsiders

The Tenement Museum, Orchard St, New York

A few years ago, I moved into a brand new condo on a sweltering August 1st. When I arrived with all my stuff, my landlord told me that the A/C wouldn't be ready for another month. Surprise! I lost my mind. You would think I was being told I'd be without running water for a month. I naturally started crying. That night, I combed the city in search of cheap fans. I yelled at my landlord to knock some money off my rent. It was a tiny condo with not too many opening windows, and that place was humid bordering on fetid for the month. It was a nightmare. Well, compared to my usual environment of perfectly comfortable. In retrospect, I am aware that I did overreact. Yes, I was sweatier than I cared to be for the hottest month of the year, but come on. This was a prime example of what the nauseating but sort-of-right-on hashtag First World Problems describes.

I visited the Tenement Museum in New York this winter- it was the most affecting museum visit I have ever made. We did the Irish Outsiders tour, and by the end, I was choking back tears. The tour made it easy to imagine life for the people who lived in the squalid building- there was very little comfort to be had.

The guides did a great job setting the scene; this particular tenement was mostly German immigrants, but an Irish family moved in (hence outsiders,) because this horrible place was a step up from Five Points. We learned about the discrimination the Irish faced when they came to America... funny how that seems to be a never-ending theme for whichever group is new.

The part of the tour that had me crying was when we learned the fates of the ancestors of this particular family. They are still living in the area. Imagine the gift of being able to see so much of what your forebears went through to ensure you had a better life!

In this tenement, temperature, smell, workload, food- things I rarely if ever worry about- what passed for "good enough" was whatever they could get. I think of those tenement dwellers, or the first settlers in Canada, when I'm getting ready to complain about needing a cardigan in the office because the A/C is blasting. I know two things for sure- I am lucky to have the comfort I do, and good God, I would have made an awful pioneer.

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