When I set out to collect oral histories, I did not expect to hear any love stories. After all, I was asking about neighborhood change, social services, Jewish communal politics, interethnic relations... heavy stuff! And yet, I've heard about how people met and fell in love and started families and raised children and shepherded those children towards love and families of their own. I did not anticipate this, and that was an oversight as a historian and as a human. I became too focused on conflict, too focused on struggles and tensions and negotiations--I began to overlook that the 1950s and 60's and '70s were also decades filled with love and growth. So I'm re-adjusting my perspective and trying to keep the pendulum from swinging too far in either direction, rosy sunshine to doomy gloom.

I can't share the stories that I've collected here, so might I recommend checking out the New York Times' Summer Love feature? And I'll leave you with one of my favorite summer love songs: