Who's Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Natalie Sosinsky

Natalie was always considered one of the best looking of all the KV moms. She was also active in the family shirt business and became active politically, especially in the struggle for better schools on the Lower East Side. She's still going strong in her 80's. Back in the 1998-9 I helped in a neighborhood history project that involved 4th graders from PS 20 and Sosinsky and Sons on 143 Orchard Street. Natalie's son Ron was running the business at the time. Along with giving the kids a history of the store and businesses on Orchard Street he played it to the hilt with a tale of opening his grandfather's safe found in a back alcove. He showed them old receipts, coins, money, etc that were found during a ceremonial safe-cracking to commemorate his father's birthday one year. This was before Geraldo Rivera's hyped and disappointing Al Capone stunt. I remember now as I write this that one of the girls from the class lived at 122 Orchard Street, where my father had lived 70 years before. Later Natalie graciously came to the school and had the kids interview her. This is another lost treasure I recently unearthed. The video quality is not the best. The sound and audio were completely out of synch. I tried my best to realign them.