My father once told me about when he was a young man, riding the subway from home in the Bronx to the dances in Manhattan. When he would dance with a young woman he would strike up a conversation and ask where she was from. If she lived not-too-far away – the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens – he’d keep dancing. But if the answer involved Brooklyn or Staten Island he’d excuse himself, go to the men’s room, and then search for another dance partner.

My mother was from his neighborhood.