- Peter, what do you do?
- I am semi-retired and
I am
a telemarketer for the LA Philharmonic.
- So, Nerea, what do you do for a living?
- I refurbish furniture, old furniture,
and I dog-walk, dog-sit, and dog-foster.
- What do you do for a living?
- I studied opera, but right now, I DJ.
- You went from studying opera
to becoming a disc jockey?
- Yes. - Oh.
- Okay, Henri, what do you do for a living?
- What do I do for a living?
I'm actually retired right now.
I used to be in the aerospace industries.
- Have you been in a relationship recently?
- I am currently in a relationship
and I've been in
relationships for a great deal of my life, I would say.
- Did you have a lot of siblings?
- I have two older brothers.
One is in maritime, and my other brother is a lawyer.
It's very difficult for us to be together.
We try to get together once a year, in the Middle East,
we all fly in.
- What are three things you're passionate about?
- Animals, I'm passionate about music,
and I'm passionate about God.
- Henri, do you have a big family?
- Well, I had a big family.
We were six children, mother and father,
but
I'm the last one left.
World War II started in the country that I lived in,
and of course everything stopped,
but particularly for our family,
due to
religion.
- What are you really passionate about?
- Very passionate about my dogs.
I'm a dog guy.
I have two shelter dogs. - Aww.
- [Peter] One is a
dachshund,
and the other is a mix.
- So, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Are you married, are you engaged, are you single,
are you looking?
- I am married.
- You're married? - Yes.
- How long have you been married?
- [Nerea] Three months.
- Three months? - Yeah.
- Oh my God, you're still finding out about things.
- I wanna say you're, like, 5' 8".
I feel like you're in your 70's,
you might have gray hair that once used to be brown.
For some reason, I feel like you're wearing a blue shirt.
They're nicer shoes, but they're not like dress shoes.
And some sort of pants, I hope.
- You're in your late 20's.
I think
that you have
long, dark hair.
You're definitely Middle Eastern, at least your parents.
Now, I think she's wearing a very easy pair
of jeans and a blouse.
- 5' 6", 5' 8".
I think she's 28, she has red hair,
she's wearing a floral blouse, slacks, sneakers.
- You're in your late 80's,
short, gray, beautiful hair.
At first, I thought French, Henri with an I,
then you mentioned Belgium and you're Jewish,
so,
Belgium-Jew.
You are wearing a button-up shirt, long-sleeve,
obviously pants, maybe linen pants.
- Hi.
- Was I close?
Aw, that was my second guess.
Your pants. - Wrong.
No pants.
- Well, tiny pants.
- I was right about the hair,
kind of. - Are you color-blind?
Does it look red? - Lavender.
- Cool. - This is fun, it's like--
- This was fun. - It was like therapy
without the psychiatrist. - Right.
- [Peter] You're right with the age, I'm 70.
- Nice. - I guessed you were 28.
- You're very close, 26.
- 26, okay, oh good. - Yeah.
You look like you should be in a band.
Kinda, yeah.
- I'm letting it grow out.
- And, did you have brown hair before?
- [Peter] Mostly brown.
Exactly.
- Hi, nice to meet you. - Alright.
I have no surprise here.
Now, the one thing I must know immediately, the country.
- Mexico.
- [Henri] Get outta here.
- Mexican and Spanish.
- But, you were born here, though?
- No, I wasn't. - You were born in Mexico?
- Yes. - How long were you there?
- Six months, and then I moved to Singapore.
- To Singapore, okay. - Yeah.
- Yeah, for how long? - So, I grew up in Singapore,
sixteen years.
Wow, I mean,
you're a handsome man. - Pretty much
what you said, right? - Yeah,
but you're a very handsome-- - Except, I don't like
this late 80's business.
- Yeah, I'm sorry. - It's bad enough being 82.
- I'm sorry. - You got this
from the Holocaust and the World War II thing.
- I was trying to do the math in my head,
but yeah, you're much younger-looking.
- Oh, thank you, okay, you made up for it, good.
- And, so was I right about Belgium?
- Yes. - Yes?
- Born in Brussels, Belgium.
- I just graduated from college
and my family lived in Connecticut,
and naturally, I gravitated to New York.
I'm gay.
- Yeah, I know. - Duh.
Gay bars were illegal in New York in the 60's.
- Oh, so it was illegal before?
- They were illegal.
- Oh, I didn't know. - Totally illegal.
There was a bar called Julius, which was around the corner
from The Stonewall and I go back and forth.
The Stonewall was significant
in that gay people finally had a voice,
and it really was the drag queens of The Stonewall
who literally were throwing trashcans
at the police that night, and it was a pretty nasty scene.
I got out of there.
To me, that was the beginning of gay liberation.
- I've never met anybody who survived what you did.
- There's not too many of us left, I'm afraid,
but there are two kinds, so a little lesson here.
There's the Holocaust survivor, their parents,
like, my parents would've been Holocaust survivors
if they still lived today, but they would be in
their very, very late 90's, or 100 and over.
So, when I say Holocaust survivor, it's hidden-children
Holocaust survivor,
so that you were then, when the war started,
we were, well, either babies or up to seven,
eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 years old.
I was seven when the war started.
- So glad to meet you. - It's been fun.
Nice to meet you. - It's been really fun, yeah.
It's great meeting new people that are,
you know, into similar things. - Yeah.
- It was a pleasure to meet you.
- My pleasure, too.
- Oh my gosh.
♪ SoulPancake ♪