What I Wish I’d Known at 35: Mary Migliore

The Dobbs Ferry Senior Program offers classes in Tai Chi, yoga exercise, arts and crafts, bridge lessons, line dancing, trips, shopping and also serves lunch to seniors from the Rivertowns everyday at noon.

This summer, Patch has decided to ask some of the seniors to share their wealth of life experience with the rest of us and see what some of them wish they knew at age 35.

Mary Migliore

Younger residents who were born in the 1970’s and 1980’s have probably found ourselves at one point or another fantasizing about what New York City was like in the decades preceding our birth—the romantic, Mad Men-era of Manhattan, when life was cheap, men wore hats and the city seemed to operate in a different gear than other places around the country.

For long-time Dobbs Ferry resident Mary Migliore, these thoughts come to life as she recalls her younger days, working on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building in the early 1950’s as a secretary, taking the same Metro-North train service that exists today that, back in those days, would only cost commuters $30.00 for a monthly train pass.

“When you get older, you of course become wiser and in turn, you end up understanding a great deal more about yourself and the world,” said Migliore, who confessed that if she could go back to when she was 35, she probably would have gone into the medical field.

“The human body is very beautiful and anything to help people and keeping people living longer is such an amazing thing."

However Migliore says that it was very expensive to attend college 50 years ago, especially so if you were going to be a doctor and student loans and other financial assistance were not as easily secured as they are today.

So one week after high school, Migliore began working in Manhattan or as little as $27.10 a week in her early career, but Migliore survived, having a family in the suburbs and a professional life in the city

“I also wished I had owned a car back then,” Migliore chuckled as she recalled her experience of practicing driving where her brother would leave the keys inside the car and she would on occasion, “take the car out for a drive around the block”.

“Gas was only 35 cents a gallon back in the 1950’s too!” Migliore added.

The Dobbs Ferry Senior Program is located in the Embassy Community Center at 60 Palisade Street in Dobbs Ferry. The hours of operation are 11-2 Monday through Friday. 

For more information on Senior Programs call Senior Coordinators:  Abby Connett or Pierrette Rissland at 914-693-7792