George (’54) and
Harriet Borah
(’54, MSEd ’58) Leib

Go back

Taken from Mr. Hirsh’s memoir, written “at the behest of Shawn, our eldest grandchild, who asked for it in lieu of a 21st birthday present.”

My friend and I took the trains from Woodside and arrived at the park a little early … As we got closer, we heard one of the young ladies, sitting on the grass with a Sunday New York Times spread out, pontificating to the other Harper girls as to how and why the ads for Gimbel’s were far superior to the Macy’s ads. Turns out she had a class in retail advertising, and this was their assignment.

Being a vegetarian, I was concerned about what I would have to eat, so I bluntly asked each of the girls what they had brought. They had all brought chicken salad, except the young lady who was the advertising maven; she had brought tuna salad sandwiches. I grabbed her by the sleeve of her trench coat—she had on a dirty, old, white trench coat—and I said to her, “You’re with me, what’s your name?”

This retail maven, who thought Gimbel’s ads were better than Macy’s ads (I tease her now because Gimbel’s is out of business while Macy’s is still functioning) was named Zina, and we eventually got married and will soon celebrate our 58th anniversary on June 27, 2006.

Zina’s boyfriend had broken up with her shortly before the picnic, and she was mad at all men and was reluctant to go to the picnic. Her friend, Evelyn Sova, coerced her to come. So she came, not happy to be there, with old clothes, the dirty old trench coat, and the Sunday New York Times.

Zina said later that she liked the way I looked: a mustache, slacks and a sport jacket, and smoking a pipe. She thought that I was a real sport because I bought everyone a soft drink. She was a poor judge of character—I am really tight with the buck and not a sport at all. But what the heck, I thought she was cute and she liked my appearance, so after the picnic my friend and I took her and her girlfriend, Evelyn, home to Washington Heights. Zina was in a hurry to get home to help her sick mother. We agreed to go to the circus for our first date.