By DEBBIE ROSEN
She can recite Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe poems from memory. Speaking softly, her voice reaching a crescendo, Birdie accentuates each and every word as if she were on stage. Yet Birdie Solomon of Oceanside is not an actress, just a regular resident of the town whose stories of days gone by are simply amazing. As amazing as the lady herself, who has lived for 90 years and counting.
Family and friends, some 40 strong, gathered at Birdie's house Saturday, Jan. 20th, to celebrate her 90th birthday. In her Oceanside home, a place she has lived for half-century, she recalled the days gone by and reflected on today's times.
She was born on Jan. 18, 1911, in London, England. Her parents migrated to Flatbush, Brooklyn, and moved into an apartment at 1875 Fulton Street, on the corner of Ralph Avenue, when she was three-months-old. After meeting the love of her life, Murray, they married and moved to Oceanside, the place she has called home ever since. But some 50 years ago, the street she lives on today had a very different landscape.
This block was a polo ground, Birdie said of her street off Long Beach Road. And with all that stomping from the horses, I figured it was good solid ground. So when houses were built, we bought our home here in Oceanside.Birdie was one of the first people to move onto the block. She and her husband had two children. Her daughter Linda still lives in Oceanside, but son Paul has since moved to Pennsylvania. Both Linda and Paul are products of the Oceanside School District, having attended elementary school 5, middle school and graduating from Oceanside High School. In fact, Birdie and her family were close friends of Walter Boardman, Oceanside's first school superintendent, and his wife Betty. Birdie said she still thinks Oceanside schools are tops.
For many years, Birdie served her congregation at the Oceanside Jewish Center as an active member of the ladies club. In the old days, she said, people didn't shop in the big grocery stores of today, but in small town shops and Oceanside was no exception. I can remember there was a small appetizing store around the corner on Long Beach Road where they sold fish, groceries, fruits and vegetables, she said. In the back of the store was a barrel of vinegar.During the days of raising her children, Birdie was a part time writer for a local paper, always loving to write stories and tells them just as well.
When her children were teenagers, Murray came home and told his wife they were to join friends for a night in the city. Naturally, with a roast beef already cooking in the oven, Birdie was hesitant. But her kids encouraged her to go, and so she got all dolled up for the evening, remembering how her son complimented her on how beautiful she looked. After dinner with friends at the Astor Hotel, Murray said Birdie was too beautifully dressed to return home so early. He suggested they go to a nightclub. And so they did. But it is what they saw and heard there that is incredible.
I went to the ladies room to fix my make-up and the attendant told me Murray was looking for me, Birdie said. Murray said he didn't want me to miss this cause he never heard anything like it before. So, quickly I came out. She was lying there on a chaise lounge and then the voice came. Murray was right. I never heard anything like it in my life, she added. After the show, Birdie stopped on her way out when she saw the 17-year-old singer talking with Fatty Arbuckle. I told her, you know I've heard a lot of singers in my day. I've heard some of the best. But never in my life have I heard a voice like yours. Someday, you'll be a star.
The young lady was Barbra Streisand. With a real Brooklyn Jewish accent she said to me,.'ya mean it, really, ya think I was that good,'
