Paul Bass Photo
Azariah’s mom had the day off work and stayed home with him. So Nana grabbed a broom and headed out to clean the sidewalk.
There was work to do.
Nana is Robin Tinney-Anderson. She has lived on the same block — Elm between Platt and Sherman — for 55 years, in two different apartments.
Tinney-Anderson, who’s 66, would normally have been at her home with Azariah Monday morning. Azariah is 1. She watches him several times a week while his mom works. When school’s out, she watches her nieces, nephews and other grandchildren as well.
She has already filled 31 bags with leaves this fall. Monday she got to work on bag #32.
She said she wants to do her part to keep her neighborhood clean.
“It’s quiet, peaceful. Everyone gets along. I love this neighborhood,” Tinney-Anderson said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Tinney-Anderson has worked in child care her whole life. At times she has worked in facilities open to the general public. She prefers taking care of her own kids.
She makes sure the older ones get reading and math in before moving on to freer play in whenever she watches them. This weekend they read Arthur’s Christmas and Penguin Finds a New Home.
She loves taking care of the kids. “They call me Nana.”
Tinney-Anderson saved books from her own kids’ childhoods and reuses them with her current charges. She prefers those materials to “electronics”: “I like the old school way of getting down with the math and reading.”
While rewarding, child care is also hard work. When the children go home, she said, “I get in the tub of water, and I soak!”
Family has always been central to Tinney-Anderson’s life; she grew up one of 15 children. She spent two days preparing macaroni and cheese, turkey, stuffing, collard greens, and candied yams for the 75 – 100 relatives who gathered for Thanksgiving last week. They rented out Falcon Hall in Ansonia for the occasion. They’re thinking of renting another hall in December for Christmas if no one’s home is big enough for the expected crowd.
Meanwhile, on Monday, fall wasn’t done falling. Tinney-Anderson was asked if all that yard work comes off her rent. She responded that it would never occur to her to ask the landlord for remuneration.
“I don’t want it. I won’t take it. I’Il help to keep the property clean. Why not? I’m living here.”
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Robin Tinney-Anderson on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. Click here to subscribe to WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” and here to subscribe to other WNHH programs.
Click here for previous “Word on the Street” episodes and write-ups.
Paul Bass Photo
Keeping sidewalks clean is a very neighborly thing to do. As Ms. Tinney-Anderson is undoubtedly a wonderful neighbor (and Nana!). But the soil and wildlife are better off if the leaves are allowed to turn into compost.
On an unrelated note, New Haven Reads' Book Bank (45 Bristol Street) has a wide variety of free books for children of all ages.