May 15, 1936. Born in Staten Island, New York. Coming from a broken home, Zindel never knew his father very well. "Mother was a girl in her twenties when my father left. She used to have to fight to get the allowance from him and tried to keep us together, moving from apartment to apartment..."¹

"My sister and I would see my father just about every other Christmas. Mother would take us to the Staten Island terminal and put us on the ferry, and when we got to the other side, my father would be waiting. Once or twice, he wasn't there. You could hardly blame him. It must be pretty traumatic when a man hasn't seen his kids in two years, so he takes a drink...

"Once, I had a whole week together with my father, up at Star Lake. My mother would never give my father a divorce...