SPEAKER_00 0:02

Good morning. This is the Blainsworld Podcast, where conversations are worth hearing and seeing. You can watch us each week on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You can also listen in on Spotify and our podcasts. And for more information about past episodes and upcoming ones, you can look at my website, which is behind me, blanesworld.net. I'm your host, Glenn Greenfield, coming to you from my Zoom studio in lovely downtown Fairview, North Carolina. Each week we share positive news and information about people and organizations in both Western North Carolina and throughout the country. And toward that end, it's my pleasure to introduce Patty and Posner, isn't it? Posner? Posner, I'm sorry. Retired from her family's resort, the Hotel Brickman, and author of My For You from the Mountains, a Catskill memoir. She's my guest today. And feel free, Patty, to wave to all your fans and friends watching on YouTube or Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Hello, everybody. Good to almost see you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Okay, and Patty, as she mentioned, grew up at a family's resort hotel, the Hotel Brickman in the Catskills. And I like what she says. Think dirty dancing in her memoir, in my view, Front Mountains, a Catskill memoir. And since you you mentioned that, I mentioned that already, I should talk about the fact that that was near where dirty dancing took place, or the premise. But you were telling me off the air that dirty dancing, the the film almost made it to your resort. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

That's correct. Um they approached my family, my uncle ran the that part of the hotel, and they wanted to do some of the filming at the Hotel Brickman. And it was in the middle of the summer, and it was the height of our season, and they needed 30 rooms and not 30 rooms, 30 rooms. And um we didn't have any availability, and so obviously he didn't know the the fantastic reviews that Dirty Dancing would get, and he told them no.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So where do they wind up going instead?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

They went to Lake Lore here in North Carolina, okay, and and they did some filming in um West Virginia, Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

And so you were how old at that time?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Oh, I'm not a hundred percent sure. I was probably in my 30s already when that happened.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Okay, but just think how that happened. Your whole life could have been different. You know, you could have been discovered, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yeah, I mean, I would have had a great story to tell, and I could have written another memoir.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Okay, but you have a bunch of stories to tell. So let me ask you this question then. As a kid, you grew up where?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I grew up at the Hotel Brickman, which is in the Catskills. So as you said, think dirty dancing, and in a little town called South Fallsburg, New York.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Okay, I told you I knew Fallsburg then, and they had a resort, they had a resort there too. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Oh, there were in its heyday, there were about 500 resorts.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Really?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah. Yeah, and that was in the 40s and in the 80s. I'm not sure how many, but there were many, many Catskill resorts.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Are there still Catskill resorts?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

No, there, I mean, the Concord still exists, and um it's I believe it's still a it's a casino now, which was a dream that we all had as hotel owners that our hotels would be of of casinos. And basically that's that's the only resort that's left. And the other place to go in Sullivan County or the Catskills, is um it's called Bethel Woods, and that's where the site of the Woodstock concert was.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Okay, and so as a kid then, how old were you when the Woodstock concert took place?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I was 19.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Okay, and did you get to Woodstock?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

I did not. Well, actually, I got there the day after. But I was the boss's daughter, and our entire staff went to the or our entire young staff went to the Woodstock concert, and I couldn't go because I was the boss's daughter, and I had to stay and work.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

And so did they give you notice at least that they were going, or they just didn't show that day? Um days.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Well, we gave a little bit of both. A little bit of both. I mean, we were definitely understaffed, um, but we kind of we had we absolutely absolutely understood why what the attraction was.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Oh, what a shame though. The um well, talk about then your facility. Did you have uh entertainment also?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Oh yeah. I mean, we had um as I I in my book I say we offered roast chicken and Jackie Mason. Okay. So we had good food and lots of entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

And we Yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

We had nine tennis courts, we had baseball fields, we had swimming pools, indoor and outdoor, we had a day camp. I mean, we had it all. We were we were really the precursor to um self-inclusive um resorts like a yacht, a cruise ship.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

You mentioned Jackie Mason. I saw him a couple of times, you know, with something. So what kind of entertainment did you have, aside from Jackie Mason?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Oh, we had we had um Milton Burrell, you know, we had all the famous entertainers, the comics, you know, Billy, Billy Crystal. I mean, the the Catskills, particularly in the 50s, 60s, um, and even the 70s, the young comics would come and they would practice their routines in the Catskills. You know, so all of the prominent cat um comedians in those years did their homework on stages at all the hotels and Jackie Mason included.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Was that fun as a kid growing up?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Oh my god, it was spectacular. I I have the best memories, and it's unique, and I loved every minute of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

So as a kid, then that was, I guess, your first and primary job, uh almost all you did as a kid. You grew up, so as a kid, that was your first job and permanently the only job you had?

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Um, well, I had many jobs. I mean, uh in my book, I described my first job was being a um going to day camp. I was a camper.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

And then I as a teenager, I joined the teen group and um I learned how to flirt. Um and and then when I was 15, I was given a the my first real job that paid money, um, and I was a switchboard operator. Um, so you know, you have to think Lily Tomlin.

unknown 6:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

One of those switchboards where you plugged in, yes, please, number please, and you know, and um, and then I I worked at front desk, I registered people, and one of the most fun jobs, so I was about 16, 17 at the time. And when people registered, we had to make these little cards for them, and we would write their name down, and we'd have to guess their age so that we could give it to the Maitre D, because people sat at tables of eight and we wanted to put them all at the same age group. So I was 16, everybody was 105. I mean, it was, you know, and then when I was in my early 20s, I started to do reservations and I loved that job because I could tell people all about my experience in the day camp and how their kids would like it in the teen group, hanging out at the pool, doing all the activities. Um, so that was fantastic. And then when I was in my, I guess I was 26, uh, it's a long story, I'll condense it, but I had a fight with my uncle's mistress, and um and he didn't support me in the fight, so I quit. And for the boss's daughter to quit is big time. You know, I was the fourth generation of my family's resort. And I had the best summer of my life. I was a guest for the summer. I went to the pool, I ate in the dining room and all of that. And then at the end of the summer, my dad offered me a job. And the only qualification I had for this job was I was the boss's daughter, and he made me the manager, the steward of the kitchen. And I was now responsible for about a hundred men and feeding 600 600 guests three times a day.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Were there any women in the kitchen also?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

There was two or three waitresses.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Okay, well, and that was it. So, how long did you have that job for?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I had that job for 10 years until we sold the hotel.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Because that was real work though, to manage the city.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Oh, that was a that was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So compared to, like you said, to be a receptionist or to do some of these other things, probably fun. This you had to it was less fun, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

This was more fun, really, it was more work, but it was more fun. I mean, it was like running a circus. It was great. I loved every minute of it.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Did you really and you had to, I guess, step in at times when somebody didn't show or you had to do all the jobs in the kitchen? No.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

No, no, the boss's daughter does not serve guests.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Uh and you didn't have you didn't have to cook either?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

I to this day I do not know how to cook. I I I mean, my whole life we had, I know this sounds really spoiled, and I am a spoiled brat, but my whole life we had a kitchen with cooks and chefs, and then when I worked in the kitchen, we had cooks and chefs, and I never had to cook, literally. And then as after we sold a hotel, I remarried, and my husband is a fantastic cook and baker. So I have literally never cooked.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

How is it managing though? You know, you weren't that old at the time. How is it managing all these guys? Was that a challenging task?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

It was very challenging. I mean, I was 26 when I started, so that's young. Um, I was a spoiled brat, you know, I was the boss's daughter. Um, I had a temper and I had no idea what to do. And my dad mentored me and taught me how to manage. And little by little I learned how to use the skills that that of organization, of patients, of I remember at one time I sat my staff down and I said, okay, we can make, you know, because I'm dealing with basically all the cooks and everybody. And then I'm dealing with waiters and busboys, who in those years were mostly young men, um, who the thing that they had in common mostly was they really like to do drugs. And so, and so I also had to learn how to manage that aspect of it. But I remember sitting them down and I said, we have a choice. You have a choice. I can be a bitch or I can be wonderful, but we have to get the work done, we have to get the food on the table, and we have to make our guests happy. So you can choose, raise your hand. Do you want me to be a bitch or do you want me to be a pleasant boss? And so they raised their hand at Pleasant Boss, and we got the work done.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

I love it. That was the name of also one of the chapters in your book. You deal with that?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yes, one of the chapters in my book is matzo balls and quaaludes. And um so, as I mentioned, they like to do drugs. So in the beginning of my career in the dining room, they like to do quaaludes. And for those of you who don't know much about quaaludes, they're not really the drug for a hectic place where everything is moving like way too fast. But that's what they were doing. And one day, one of our waiters um he picks up a tray, and I can see him picking up a tray of 30 matzo ball soups, which is incredibly hot and very heavy. And as he walks by me, he melts and he falls right in front of me, and the matzo balls go splaying all over the floor, and he just kind of plops into the broth and he's laying there. And that's an example of why you don't want your staff doing that. But a couple of years later, they started to do cocaine. This was my drug of choice from my staff. They came in on time, they had fast-paced, good service, in and out, everything was done, it was perfect.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

And so you notice the difference, though, between the two.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

A huge difference. And it was funny, I was telling actually Chuck Fink, who we we both know. I was telling him this morning at yoga, that our butcher, who is the most wonderful man, was the was the person that was selling cocaine to all of our staff. So we all benefited.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

So you mentioning you got me hungry just talking about it, mentioning Matza ball. Talk a little bit about the food that was famous at resort, but I just I loved it, and it's just amazing, right? You get as much food as you wanted. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Okay, so we would serve three 600 people three times a day. So for dinner, if we had 600 people, we needed to make enough food for about 1,200 people. I am not exaggerating. And but the menu was it was traditional Jewish food. It was delicious. Like on Friday nights, we served, as I mentioned, matzabol soup, kafilter fish, roast chicken. One night we had steak, one night we had roast beef, one night we had um brisket of beef. And then we had a little bit more fancy things. I remember we had chicken Kiev and some poultry dishes and you know, marsala and things like that. But our food was basically delicious and very Jewish. And then on top of that, we served, besides serving soup, we served um melon or juice, salads on the table, breads on the table. This is just for dinner, was the same thing for similar things for lunch. Then we had about seven, eight desserts that were served. And and so I mean, nobody just had one dish. And then for for breakfast, if we had 600 guests, the our baker came in at five o'clock in the morning and made about 1200 rolls. And on top of that, we had about 30 dozen bagels.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

So I assume nobody went hungry? Nobody went hungry. Um, but that's an incredible. I mean, just listen to it. Oh, getting full, you know, it's just people could people, yeah. I don't know about you, but people used to eat three full meals, you know, every time. What did you do with the extra food?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Um, we fed it to the staff. So we had, you know, so it none of it went wasted.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

So now did the staff live there or some of them lived there?

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Majority of the staff lived there, yeah. Um most of the men, that the waiters and busboys, they lived at the hotel. Um, most of the back staff of the hotel lived at the hotel. Um, a few locals worked for us, but almost everybody lived at the hotel, including me and my family.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

So it's good life for the people who live there. They they enjoy the hotel.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I hope so. Oh, yeah. I'm still friends with several of the waiters, and um, we're in touch with each other all the time. And um, yeah, I've gotten feedback that they really, really enjoyed their experience at the hotel.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Talk about it. I mean, I imagine it would be. It sounds like a lot of fun, especially too. Did they also get to use the facilities at all? Yeah, payment.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Like starting in the maybe around 1980, I nobody can really remember the date. We went from serving during the summer months, July and August. During the summer, we started to serve two meals a day instead of three. And so our guests would wrap up, they would wrap up like we had to make more rolls because they would wrap up rolls with tuna fish to take out and have it for lunch. Um, so we were making like 1,500 rolls. But our waiters, who only had to serve breakfast and dinner, called it a station with a vacation.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

So the uh season then, was it all year round or primarily the summer?

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Uh our hotel was was open from Passover April until November. Most of the other hotels were open year-round, but we weren't.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

So, what happened then when it was closed down? What happened at that time?

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Um, we moved. My my uncle went to Florida, he had a home in Florida. Uh, my grandmother went to Miami Beach, because that's where Jewish grandmothers get went, and my parents um had a home in South Fallsburg, and so we became once again locals.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And so is that where you went to school as well?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Okay, the Fallsburg um area. So what happened then? So this was went through a lot large part of your life. What happened then? It you eventually sold the business, or what happened to the business?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

So in 19, let's say 85, my uncle, who was my dad's business partner, um came into work one morning. He was a real character, a real character, and not always very nice, particularly to me. And he comes in one morning and he said, Good morning, Patty. How are you? And I went into the Maitre D and I said, What's the matter with Uncle Murray? And he said, I know something's a little off. And by the end of that day, he literally, no exaggeration here, he lost his long and short-term memory.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

And we had to house, you know, we had a we have plenty of room, so we had an apartment that he could live in, and we provided round-the-clock um care for him. But he literally couldn't even remember how to eat, had to go to the bathroom, he couldn't do anything. And so then it was just me and my dad, because he didn't have any children. And it was very concerning for me because it was a lot of financial stuff that needed to be addressed. And so um my father decided maybe it was time we should think about selling the hotel. The Catskills was just beginning its decline because Jews could travel more easily at that time around the country. And there were rumors all over the Catskills that the Brickman was being sold. And one of the places that the rumors were was that it was going to be sold to the Siddha Foundation, which is an ashram. In that time, it was headed by um Maharishi Mahashyogi. And my dad and I one day in October are standing in front of the hotel and we're discussing this. And this man comes up to my dad and introduces himself, and he said, I am from the ashram, which was just down the road from us. He said, I hear we're buying the hotel like a joke. So I'm thinking, what's my dad gonna, you know, what's the punchline to this? And so, and the man says, Well, what are you asking? My father gave him a price, and six weeks later they bought the hotel.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Wow, well, that's that's what must have changed for you. So you grew up in your whole life on this. Yes. And you're how old at that point in time?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I was 36.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Now, do you also have any brothers or sisters?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Just me.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Any other family, cousins, any other people?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

I had I had my father had a brother who was his partner who had no children, right? And they had a sister, um, but she never had any shares in the hotel. Um, so it was really just me and whoever my uncle had chosen to um give his shares to.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

So poor Patty at the age of 36, she's thrown out in the street in the house. Has to have has to find, I guess also you had to find a place to live?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Uh no. Um, remember, I'm a spoiled brat. Um, I had a home at the ashram at the hotel, yeah, and part of our deal was that um I could live there for two years.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

So I had time to adjust. And my aunt who lived there also had time to adjust. And I remember, like you talked about the transition. I remember, I said to my dad, what do we do now? And he said, make new traditions. I mean, he just one foot in front of the other. So I lived there um for one year while it was an ashram.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Now, when you were living there, the kitchen, I guess, changed too, or it wasn't the same.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

It was I remember after we sold it, the ashram had a um ceremony to transition it from a kosher kitchen to a spiritual retreat. And my dad and I went, and it was really beautiful. I mean, it was really something. So yeah, but they had they they cooked and everything. They had their own, they used the kitchen, of course.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Did it say as an ashram or is it still an ashram?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

It's still an ashram.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Okay, and still flourishing, I guess, or for what what it does?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Here's to be, yeah. I haven't been there, but I've been in touch. They support my book on Facebook and actually. At the end of I I got a um an email from someone that had grown up at the ashram. So after we sold, now it's 40 years later, so he must be now in his 30s, but he grew up and he compared growing up at the ashram to my growing up at the hotel and and the similarities between what a two great communities they both were and how similar. And so I asked him to write something for my book because I had never thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Very nice. And Divi?

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So talk about the fact that you're in your 40 or whatever you are, and uh you don't have a job now for the first time in your life, you know, since you were 16. Uh, what did you do at that point in time in your life?

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Um, so I left uh after a year, I left South Fallsburg, which was huge. Um, because I was patty from the Brickman and now I had no identity. Um and I moved to Fort Lee, New Jersey. Okay. Um and I I worked a bit um and I didn't like it because I'm, you know, I knew how to run a kitchen, run a kitchen, and the people that I was working for didn't know how to run their business, and it was really frustrating. So I decided to go back to college, and so I got my degree.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Wh where was your degree from?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Uh Ramapel College. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Ramapo College was at the age of 40, it was your I was 40, yeah. Non-traditional student. What did you study?

SPEAKER_01 23:26

I studied sociology.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Okay. And did you use that in another career?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Nope. I never had another career. I I basically retired. Um, I was very fortunate. I don't take that lightly. And um, and so I learned how to play tennis and you know how to have a fun life.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

So talk about being then um in another life. You also all of a sudden were very impressed with did a couple other things. One thing, you also became a writer. Let's talk about the book, and you have it in front of you, you can just maybe show it briefly.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Oh, I'd love to, of course.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

But uh, My View from the Mountains, a Catskill's memoir. What gave you the idea to write that?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

So when I was 25 and still living at the hotel and living in town, my friend David Gold said to me, You need to write a memoir. I said, David, I'm 25, I'm still living my story. And um, but I always thought about it. And then when I was 50, I was living in Boca Raton, Florida, and I joined this writing group and I began to, I was far enough away from some of the stories that I could reflect and write. And so in my book, there's a lot of personal stories. Um, because I wanted people to see that for most people it was a vacation. For me, it was life, you know, and I wanted also for people to see, like guests would come and they would see the gefilterfish on the table. I wanted them to see how the gefilterfish got to the table. And so, but in when I was in my 50s, I could write about my marriage and things that were really very personal, and I set that aside for a while. And then when we moved to Weaverville, where I live now, I was in my uh 60s and I started to write again, and I felt far enough away from the hotel, and I could look at country roads and mountains, and I could write about living in the Catskills and being the boss's daughter at the hotel and all the jobs that I had and all the experiences and what I learned.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

How long did it take you to write it?

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Well, from the time I was 50 to 72, but in in all that time, probably about five years.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So were you a typewriter? Did you just start the every morning, get up at seven o'clock in the morning and write straight? Or how how's your writing process?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Um, like it well, and when I was in Boca, I belonged to a writing group. So I would write a chapter a week for the group, and then we would go through it. And then when I moved here, I did basically that did the same thing, and I um my writing group fell apart, and it just became my friend Barbara and uh Francois and myself, and I would send her a chapter, and she would give me feedback. So it was basically once a week or every two weeks I would have a new chapter. Um you know, and and I just did it until I was finished.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Okay, so very exciting. So how long has the book been out?

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Uh almost three years.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

And so you have this one book out. Will there be any other books after this?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

I I think so, but not about the cat skills. It'll be I've the it's in my mind it's called 87 Plus. And it'll be the journey from like being um I guess 65 when you get your social security until you're an elder.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

So will it be um is that be a novel or or a true story?

SPEAKER_01 27:06

It'll be a true story. I don't think I have a novel in me.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Okay, well, no, it sounds just listen to all these stories. It would seem you have so many possible stories you could take any of these people. Or you know, it'd be fun almost take one of these people, their lives also. You know, what happened to the catslow crowd, or you know, the the hotel crowd or something, you know, in the next lives. I think that'd be funny.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

It just seems like a fun thing, you know. You're describing these people so vividly, and then yours is such a great story. That what happens to to these people, two lives, you know, they had one life here, and what happened to them? I I'd be interested. 50 years later, 20 years later, or or Tracy in your spare time. So you saw you wrote this book, got published, you know, talking about it. And then also, I'm so proud of you, you also became now a storyteller and talk about that process.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yeah, well, um, I always joked that if I had my life to do over again, I would want to be a stand-up comic. Because I grew up with Jackie Mason and Mel Lawrence and you know, Milton Burl, and you know, they were all in my Roddy Dangerfield down the street at the hotel. Um, and so that was always a fear and a pickle. And um, and then so I take yoga at the Weaverville Community Center, and Chuck Fink, who we both know, um, was offering a storytelling class. And I said, okay, this is my opportunity. I'm gonna face my fear and I'm gonna tell a story. I'm gonna be part of that group. And so here I am.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

So, what was the first story you told? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yes, I do. It's um it was mozzaballs and quaaludes. How do you not start with that?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

It's a great story, though. And so you the both the book and the storytelling experiences are based on the stories you had at from the the uh resort area?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yes. Yeah, I think that's the unusual part of my life.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Okay, well, no, it's a great story, and just as you're telling it, it sounds, you know, kind of well, it's certainly interesting, you know. When you tell the story, do you get uh that kind of reaction that people are interested in it?

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Yes, I did. I did, and I sent it to um a few of my friends, and um one of them, her name is Shelley Strickler, and she was a newscaster on WOR Radio in New York, um, and she loved it. And I said, Well, give me some critiques, and she said, It's really well done. So I take that. That was really like wow, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

So if folks want to get more information, I guess both about you and about the book itself, what's the best bet?

SPEAKER_01 29:49

So the best bet, I have a website, it's pattyposner.com. You can get my information there. Um, you can check out my book on Amazon.com. Um and then there I'm on Facebook, you know, and under Patty Posner Dabouche. And I also have one, there's a Facebook page for my book. Um, and then if you're interested, there's a um Facebook page called Summers at the Berkman. And you're all invited if you want to check it out. I'll let you in.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah, I love it. Do you have people who were um at the hotel with you at or part of that group?

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Oh, yes. Yeah, we do. We have there's about an over 900 members, and and some of them are former staff members, former guests, and just lots and lots of people.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

By the way, that's a second book for you, right? I always come up with ideas for other people. Yeah. You could talk about a reunion, you know. Um, that'd be a funny.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Well, we we actually had a reunion um in uh the 25th, this is will be 40 years. And when I was living in New York, I had a um a reunion for I don't know, about 40, 50 people, I'm not sure. And um we did it at Sammy's Romanian restaurant in the, I think it's the Lower East Side. And you know, it was great. One man flew in, he had booked the his name is Bob Goldman, and he's he's a physician who does anti-aging. And he he booked one, a whole hotel in Las Vegas for his convention and left it to come to the reunion. That's how much he loved my dad and the hotel. But everybody, and and part of what I did was a lot of our waiters were there, and I made sure that I served them.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

I love it. But but I'm saying, as you're describing it, I'm so excited about it. I think that'd be a great story. You know, yeah. 40 years later, what happened to these people, or what's the story of their lives?

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Well, some some of them are still my friends, you know, like uh on the and and one of them in particular um is a dear friend, and he's um not not he's got some health issues, and so I've been he asked me if I would send him pictures every every couple of days, you know. And then there's another family that might that were from Guatemala, and my dad helped them get papers to live here, and they're they're truly an American, an American story, and um I'm in touch with them all the time. I mean, I'm in touch with a lot of people that you not a lot, many people that used to work for us.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Okay, very exciting. Hey, Patty Poza, this was a real kick because again, I didn't went to your resort. Now I do remember the name, but I went to some other resorts and remember as a kid, you know, it was quite an experience. I remember, you know, the entertainment was always the big deal, you know. Absolutely. Then I remember the food as well. So I'd like to thank you for being my guests on this edition of the uh Blains World podcast. And um also hopefully one of these days we'll bump into each other. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate this opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Likewise, I'd also like to thank my producer, uh Kim Jones, and uh, like I said, one of these days we'll all bump into each other. That'd be great. I hope so. Thanks much. Appreciate it. I'm having trouble here. I'll cut this out. Um I loved it. I got an idea for you. Um I think uh it's up to you if you want to use it. But your talk would be so much fun to listen to. Um to serve something as like if not, good filterfish would be kind of messy to serve, but wouldn't it be fun that everybody got got there? Like, what's a Jewish cookie? Or give me something that you could um oh Ruggle up. Play with that idea. I've seen people do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

So what do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

I'm not wouldn't that be a good at your presentation as you're talking about it? And by the way, that's a good idea. That's why you pay me big bucks. On the way out, Rugler would be easy. You know, it's not gonna cost big bucks, but on the way, by the way, to get you an experience, either coming, you can work with Chuck or me or whatever, how you do it, but I'd like you all to experience it. So before we begin, I'm passing around to Rugalah. But wouldn't that be fun to do?

SPEAKER_01 34:22

So that would be a lot, a lot. The reason I thought of Rugglaf is because I was in Whole Foods last week.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

And this man is at the cash register, and he's saying to the cashier who was Spanish, these are Rugalach. And I walked by, I said, Rugalach, and like he was he was um he was obviously Jewish from Long Beach, Long Island. His family owned a restaurant there, and so I was telling him the Ruggaloch stories of the Brickman Hotel.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Right. But I'm saying that would be so cool.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

And do you and you talk? Do you talk about Rugalah? Or but you could add it, you know, or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Yeah, but my husband makes great collar rolls.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Okay, but I'm saying, but the fun thing too, so everybody experiences, especially how many people aren't Jewish or don't know what it is. Well, we're making an honorary, or you can make an honorary member of the Brickman Hotel, you know, or yeah, that's a great idea. Especially tie it into the Brickman or give them little certificates, or here's right. But I'm telling you, they'd love it because that's what you're talking about to make it come alive for people. Yeah, and you get a smile on the face. So I and you play with that.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

But yeah, that's a that's a good idea. Uh uh it's funny because I was telling this man that when we used to serve Logolak um to our Gentile guests, right? They wouldn't eat it, and then we told them it was we told them it was rubulaches, and then they ate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

So what was the percentage of Jewish versus non-Jewish?

SPEAKER_01 35:53

It depended on the season. Yeah. In like Passover, obviously 100%. Right. July and August, probably 90% Jewish. Um, spring weekends, off season, 100% Jewish, and then then midweek during the off season was probably 100% Gentile.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah, we used to get senior citizen groups.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

But but they like the the Jewish food though?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

They loved it. We we we tweaked the menu for them.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Yeah, and that's one of the sad things about living in this area. Every so often there'll be a Jewish restaurant opens and closes or not nothing, but you don't have a Jewish deli, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

There's some place called Zelda's that's supposed to be very good.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

I don't think I've been to Zelda's yeah, I heard of it. Um, but a couple of it opened and closed or Jewish type food. But it's um you miss it, but it's um funny. So I love this. This was so much fun. I'm smiling to talk about it and look forward to the book. And uh one of these days we'll bump into each other and I'll get some Rugala from you.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Absolutely. Or a holo roll. My husband makes holo rolls, I hand them out.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

See, okay, okay, thank you so much. Likewise, and I'll get this to you, probably either tonight or tomorrow. You get the link and show as many people as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I will. I will, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Okay, let me see you.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I'll put it on my summers at um the Brickman.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Well, yeah, you were talking about it. Okay, that'd be great. Thanks very much, Patty. Enjoy this.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Bye bye.