Author Mitch Rosen discusses his life and new book "Columbus Day"

It is the second of September in twenty twenty five. As we've been on the air for well more than a year now in over one hundred and eighty programs. As another anniversary of the tragedy that is nine to eleven approach of us, most of us take at least a few moments to reflect on that fateful day, on those lost, and how it affected each and every one of us in a unique but also in shared ways. For those of us who had some role in the

relief efforts at Ground Zero, this is especially true. We all shared a sense of purpose and grief, but each traveled their own personal paths to be there too. This is particularly true of our guest in this edition of Being Frank. He's a survivor of that day and so much more. He turned his life around after surviving an

emotionally and physically traumatic upbringing in Queen's and Brooklyn. He overcame it all to become a poort authority polief's officer who served for twenty six years, who was a first responder on nine to eleven, and he wrote a book, Columbus Day, about overcoming challenges and finding a way to help others. It's my pleasure to welcome to Being Frank for some intelligent conversation, mister Mitch rosen Rich, Thank you so much for joining us here.

is a huge part of the story. So talk a little bit about your parents their dynamic and how it affected you as a young man.

deal with me as a young child. She had depression. She would spend the majority of the day in bed, not to leave the bed until noon, and I was left to pretty much fend myself.

the afternoon. But it was all about him. He really didn't do many family functions with me and my mother, And I think it could also be because he was very clear and he understood perfectly about how his wife was having issues, and I think he felt it was better off not to go anywhere, not to leave the house. Maybe it was a sense of embarrassment. She did dress very strangely, her makeup application was very unusual, and even when he drove her to the market weekly to get food,

he remained in the car. It was very uncomfortable for him to interact with her, but this is what he chose, and ultimately he was going to remain with her even under these circumstances.

I couldn't sit still in school, but still there was nothing wrong other than the fact that I was hyperactive. And ultimately she would create stories to tell my father to make it seem as if there was more going on that meets the eye, and she ultimately suggested to him that they take me for a psychiatric evaluation, and this was the beginning of her plan to get rid

of me. Her plan was to discuss with the doctor that they were taking me to that I had a multitude of issues, have him write up a report that would make her seem correct, and he would agree with her, and then they would send me off to some institution for children. But she was hit between the eyes with surprise from this doctor because he did not do what she planned on having him do, and that was another

story altogether. Ultimately, they brought me to this guy for a psychiatric evaluation, and they both accompanied me to the office, and you know, everything went very well, and ultimately they brought he brought my mother and father into the examining room and said, well, let me explain to you what

I found. So he told my parents that not only did I have an above average IQ, but there was no problems and my mother literally hit not literally, she hit the ceiling in She was screaming and yelling, and she was a little surprised that this doctor didn't agree with her, and ultimately the doctor suggested to my father, maybe your wife should be seeking some mental health and medication. So this was the beginning of her plan to get me institutionalized and out of the house.

they doing that? But this was all psychological damage at the age of seven. You don't realize what's going on until you mature, and you relived that.

that was doing the evaluation to agree with them. And you know, it was just income for his facility, So why would he turn me away? It's like somebody going to buy a car and you say, ayah, you want it in red, I only have blues. I'm not going to sell it to you. So they gave my parents exactly what they wanted, and I don't know what they paid to have him write up the report the way

it had to be written up. But from that point on I was directed from this facility for an evaluation right to the institution where my father drove me up to the front doors. The place was in Brooklyn, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a slum community where there was alcoholics sleeping on the on the floor and criminal activity on every corner. And he pulled up, dumped me off, and handed me over to somebody, and off he went. And this was the place that I was abandoned to miss.

a little bit surprised and disappointed. And my grandmother knows that her daughter was suffering with these issues, but she didn't think it was going to result in me being thrown out of the house, you know, So whatever she found out was certainly a little bit too late, you know, to help me. And as far as teachers go, they're the ones that recorded the fact that I was hyperactive. But back then hyperactivity, nobody even understood what it meant,

you know, and attention deficit disorder. I mean, all of these things are very common, but back then, in the early sixties, nobody knew what this was and what it would lead to. And if anything, if you remember back in the sixties, if you had a family member that had any type of saf chiatric issues or problems, you kept them hidden behind closed doors. You would not go out and say, oh, I'm gonna go see a therapist.

Oh yeah, this afternoon. You know. Everybody was embarrassed to even state that they were going to see a therapist. This was an embarrassment to the family, so they kept you locked behind closed doors. Back there.

this was now my new guardian. And the woman that worked there with him was a hippie as well. And I remember, you know, when I walked into this building with him, and you know, he had his hand around my shoulder trying to welcome me. I just remember looking at him and seeing that everything was very strange and unusual about the way he dressed and about the way he looked. And I wasn't when I grew up in

when I was in Queen's. I didn't come in contact with these young guys that were like dressed like this, so it was just a little bit different for me. But that sort of distracted me from what I was actually going through because this institution was three floors high. The main floor was the dining area and other facilities, the laundry facilities, and on the second floor was the girl's wing, and on the third floor was the boys wing.

And they had about fifty to sixty children on each floor, so I was one of fifty sixty, and we lived in these little rooms where they had three cots in each room, and the mattress was three inches thick and the springs would pop and make noise as soon as he got into the bed. But I just remember my first day when they showed me to my room. I remember seeing the mattress was covered in urine stains, and

this was from the previous child that was there. And I'm saying to myself, I just left the beautiful house and now I'm sleeping in another child's urine, and I don't know what's going to happen, you know.

it was they were mixed. It was powdered eggs, and yeah, so it was water draining from this and the bread was old and you know, moldy, and so after experiencing that type of food issues on a regular basis, you know, you become accustomed to it. But after I was there for about six months, I was dropping weight drastically. I looked like a Holocaust victim after my first year there. And not only was the food there questionable, but there

was absolutely zero education provided the kids there. They were supervised by counselors and they were just hoping that you wouldn't beat each other up to the point where you would end up in the hospital. But they really didn't care about educating you. It wasn't in the grand scheme of things. It was just what's happening on that day. He didn't hurt himself by the end of the day, and he's okay. And so there was a lot of bullying. There was a lot of beating, a lot of punishments.

You know, if you said it did anything that would not be acceptable, you know, you will punish. And this is the way it went for three and a half years. And the people that you befriended there you had to be very careful. You had to be very careful. Although they were your age, there were eight, nine and ten years old. They all came from different backgrounds, and they all had their own little devious plans to try to survive.

and their underwear guneral clothing. And I remember that after I moved in there, I had a dozen pair of underwear and everything was fine, and then as the days went by, they disappeared. Eventually, after the first month or so, I had one pair of underwear left, and it was like somebody was stealing my underwear. And I had my

initials carved into the back of the underwear. And I remember when my father took me on my first visit, which was probably three or four months after being admitted there, he ultimately says to me, is there anything you need? And I underwear, you know, And he would take me to this five and dime and we bought underwear and I put my initials on it, and I couldn't understand what was happening to it, and it got to the point where everything was stolen and I was wearing bathing

suits under my pants because my underwear was stolen. Until one day I see this kid bend over and in the back of his underwear was my initials and I beat him to a pulp, you know, and I was able to get my other way back, you know. And so it's like, this was, uh, this was something you know at the time.

And he asked me if I was interested, if I wanted to do it, try it, and I said sure. So he brought me some paints and brushes and the next few days I sat there and I tried to paint and create things, and it really just wasn't working

for me. I didn't feel comfortable with it. And then one day, it was probably the following weekend, after I gave up on the acrylic on the oil paints, he brought home the Sunday New York Times and back then in the Sunday New York Times for one year in nineteen sixty five or in nineteen sixty six, I had a color by number on the inside cover of the New York Times, and he gave that to me along with some pencils, and he said, try to see if

you like this. And I ended up working with that and I loved it, and he bought me more pencils and books to write in and lo and Behold. As time went by, I became more obsessed with these drawings, and they were very therapeutic for me. I would sit for hours and forget about everything that was happening and just sit down and draw. And I continued to do this even three and a half years after I got out of that institution. I just keep doing it, and it was very therapeutic and I enjoyed it.

knew got a chance to know my younger brother. But anyway, so after I left the institution, I moved back into the house. My mother was very standoffish, very cold, because it was her plan and the first place to send me there, and I think she realistically wanted me to stay there. She was not happy to see me at all. But ultimately my father told me after they were getting this divorce, he says, I will tell you that I

have a girlfriend in the Bronx. We're going to be moving with her temporarily, and you're going to be coming with me every morning to work to the coffee shop. And I said to him, Dad, I said, I'm eleven years old. I said, I haven't been to school since I was in second grade. I haven't had schooling in almost four years.

So I was a delivery boy, one of three that were working in his restaurant. And I remember before I started with him, he came home one day with a bag filled with change, maybe about five dollars in change and about twenty and thirty dollars in bills, and he says, okay, this is going to be your first lesson, and he would write up fictitious lunch checks and hand it to me along with money, because now I had to learn

how to make change. I was delivering waters and there was no credit card to piselle that they're gonna do.

four and he gave me a twenty. So instead of giving him the fifty six cents change, he'd give me fifty four cents and then I'd have to give him a dollar. So, because you know, he you know, he'd try to trick me. So even today, if you go to McDonald's and God forbid, they should ring you up and it's change if you offer them to change. The guy behind Canada does and how to make change. Now he says, it shows him on the register what to do. Once you've give him the change, that whole thing's blown

out of the water. He can't make change anymore. But anyways, that.

so it was actually a good thing. So ultimately, you know, he told me, you know, after this short bout of time, they're going to leave and he's going to buy a house, him and his girlfriend, and I was going to move in with them, and then I'd go to school. So he told me it wouldn't be long. And what he told me ultimately turned into two and a half years. So we went from I was eleven and a half and they said, he told me a month or two

I'd be moving and going to school. Now I was there until I was about thirteen, thirteen or fourteen, delivering lunch. And I remember my father telling me when I was fourteen, he says, why don't you join the army. They'll give you a place to live, they'll give you food. He

was trying to get rid of me. He didn't even want to deal with me at the age of fourteen, and here I am, you know, a kid, and I have zero education except for learning how to make change, and I don't know anything about what the world has in store for me. But here I am. I'm fourteen years old, and everybody my age is now attending high school, and I have no clue what the hell is going

on in this lifetime. You know, I have no knowledge, but I will tell you that after the two and a half years went by, he did end up getting a house in Rockland County and I moved in with him along with his girlfriend, and he ultimately signed me up in school. I went to Nanuet High School, and I was a terrified, terrified fifteen year old kid going into high school because I haven't been to school since second grade.

education know what was in store for me. I didn't know reading. I didn't have any knowledge of anything that was going to happen. And every day was very stressful for me because I didn't know if they were going to ask me to do something and I'd turn around and say, what, I don't know. I don't know how to do that because I was never taught anything, you know, But just to go through this period, I was very athletic.

I played football in school, I played basketball. I made a lot of friends through my sports connections, and ultimately, over the years, I did pass everything with c's and d's, and that was fine with me. You know, I didn't care if I didn't get a B or an A. I was happy to pass.

graduation high school graduation. I was eighteen, and I had my own car, and things were looking pretty good, you know, and I didn't know what I was going to do with my life, but I knew that I had food, I had shelter, and had a car, and it was a good thing. And then all of a sudden, the second, the second night there occurred. And it was shortly after I graduated high school. My father came to me one

morning in the driveway. He saw I was leaving. I was going somewhere Saturday morning, and he approached me in the driveway and he says, oh, I heard he graduated high school last week. He didn't even attend. He didn't even have a clue destroyed there. No, he didn't even know. He says, I heard you graduate high school last week. He says you're eighteen. He says, you're a man. Now, time for you to leave. So he threw me out

of the house. So here I am an eighteen year old kid with a high school diploma, with maybe about five or six hundred dollars left in my savings account, because you know, I spent five hundred on the car, and I had to put gas in the car, and you know, and I was working, but still it wasn't enough. But he says to me, it's time for you to go. And I remembered saying, what am I? Where am I going to go? What am I gonna do? So I ended up getting in my car driving through Rockland County.

And if I don't know if you know Rockland County at all, but back then, not far from where I lived, there's an area called Spring Valley, Barry is a very low income community for people that are struggling. And I ended up in my car driving through Spring Valley and I saw this guy talking to a policeman on the corner of his building and there was a big sign

for rent. So it's like okay. So I parked the car, I walk up the walkway, and the policeman left, and I was there talking with this guy and I said, I need a place to live. And he's looking at me because I was the only white kid in the community because everybody there was either black or Spanish. There was all minorities here. I am an eighteen year old kid. I need a place to live. And he says, do you have money? So I said, yeah, I got enough money to give you. I said, how much is the rent?

He says, thirty five dollars a month? Thirty five dollars a month. I said, I don't know, that's a little tight. I don't know if I can handle that, but ultimately I get the apartment thirty five dollars a month. The apartment was about ten feet by ten feet, just big enough to put a bed in there with a dresser. That was it. There was no sink, no kitchen, no bathroom.

So in his building, which was a three floor brownstone, there was about three or four apartments on each floor and they shared a bathroom and that was for each floor, and it was no kitchen. No, you couldn't eat, you know,

there was no food. So I remember the first day I gave him the thirty five dollars and I ended up going back home and I got a cardboard box out of the garage and I filled it up with all my belongings and I took my black and white TV with the rabbit ears and I brought it over to the apartment in Spring Valley, and I remember putting the TV up on top of the dresser, throwing my clothes in there, and laying on the bed watching TV, saying, Wow, I can't believe it. I now I am, now have

completed everything. I'm free, I'm on my own, I'm an adult, and I have a beautiful place to live, and everything is wonderful. You know, you're trying to convince yourself at that point that things are good, and lo and behold. I walked from the apartment and I just started walking

around the community and it started to get dark. So I came back and I remember, no sooner than I come back and I closed the door, did I hear like a bus pull up in the front, And no, kidding, may it had to be forty or fifty people came out of that bus, and they were all intoxicated or they were under the influence of narcotics, and they were yelling and screaming and they were fighting, and they were coming up the stairs in the building. Those were my neighbors,

Those were the people that lived in that building. And I remember there was broken glass and they were screaming, and there were people were getting beaten up. And I remember just sitting in my room on the floor with my back to the door, praying that nobody would try to get in because I wouldn't be able to defend myself, you know. But and I do remember that night. The fighting went on for hours and hours and hours, and I had to go to sleep and I couldn't go

to the bathroom. I remember urinating in a paper cup, leaving it on the window sill, and I had to wait till the next morning. The next morning, I opened up the door very quietly and look, and thank god, there was nobody in the hallways. But I was walking through broken glass and vomit on my way to the bathroom. And this is what I what I dealt with in the bathroom, broken blast and vomit, and this is where I was now living, and it was just a nightmare. It was an absolutely it's this.

concerned with the time. I still want to talk about again, instead of choosing a negative path. While I could steal the money, I could raw, I could do things that are around me, but you choose a different path. You took one that was much more positive. I want to talk about your mindset. Yeah, like I said, people now use excube. Well, look at that awful background. I wonder why he's bitter. I understand, but that's not the case.

You could have turned that way, but you did. What was the difference for you, bitch?

there was no criminality discussed. I mean, if I was in a different school with other kids, maybe other kids would be fighting to survive, maybe they would have to steal for money, but the kids I was with didn't have to do that. So I wasn't listening and I wasn't privy to that type of lifestyle. So as I grew up, I wasn't subjected to that. And even when I was in this housing project and these people were losing their minds, you know, I looked at them, ash, Okay,

they have problems, but you know what I don't. I don't and I'm going to do the right thing. And ultimately I said, you know what, I think, I want to be a policeman. I didn't like bullying because when I was in the institution, there was bullies that would take over and beat kids to a pulp, and I really didn't like that. So I felt if I was a policeman I can actually level the playing field with people who are being taken advantage of. And for me,

that was a good thing. You know, I wanted to be you know, I don't know if you call like a referee a referee, and so I fig that that would be that's not a bad thing. So I said, how am I going to do this now? So here I am in Rockland County where when they hire somebody from the police department, they hire two or three people. Okay, and that's even back then. So I'm trying to think now how to get this accomplished. And I said, Okay, what I have to do is I have to go

into Manhattan. I have to take the New York City Police test. It was when they hire, they hire thirty forty fifty people. So I said, that's my best odds. So I said, but I'm living in Spring Valley. How am I going to do this? So I ultimately called my mother on the phone after so many years, and I begged her to move in with her in her apartment where she was living with my brother. I said, I'm only doing it because I'm going to be going

to college here. I signed up with John Jay College or Criminal Justice because they had a special program to help you study for the New York City Police test. So I said, okay, so that's perfect to me. And I was able to get it for free because I had zero income, so I qualified for that. So I move in with my mother, I go to John Jay College.

I'm starting to study for the police test. And sure enough, next month, here comes the police test and there's an auditorium that is being filled up with hundreds and hundreds thousands of people that are taking this test. And I said, how am I going to outscore these people? I have no education. I just barely made it through high school. How am I going to do this? But I sat and I took the test anyway, and I thought, okay,

I didn't feel that I did poorly. And about a month later, I got a letter in the mail from the Port Authority Police Department. That was the company that I ultimately Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm going ahead. It was the New York City Police Department. I get a letter in the mail from them and they said, congratulations, you scored a ninety on the written test. I just couldn't believe it, and they said, and then they start going off into this paragraph of an explanation, and they said, unfortunately,

at this time, we are dealing with affirmative action. We have more than enough white policemen. They weren't hiring any more white policeman unless you scored a one hundred on the test. So I scored a ninety. I was out. They were hiring females, they were hiring his fanics, they were hiring blacks, Asians. If you were a white male, you were out. So I was discriminated against. So I was for another I was twenty years old. I was

discriminated against, and I was out. And ultimately now it's like, now, what the hell am I going to do? I couldn't get the job with the New York City Police Department, but I was still at John Jay College. So I hear the New York State Troopers are giving a test as well, So I sign up for them. And then somebody says to me, would you be interested in doing an internship at the Taxi Limousine Commission at Kennedy Airport. Yeah, okay, how the hell am I going to get there? Well?

You take the A train from the college and you ride all the way into Queens and you meet up at Kennedy Airport. I said, okay, i'll do it. You get three credits, I'll do it. So I remembered the first day I signed up for that. I took the A train to Kennedy Airport and I was sitting there with about twenty other kids from the college and this guy comes in with a police uniform and he introduces himself as Captain so and so, and he goes, I work for the Port Authority Police Department. And this is

back in nineteen eighty. I had no clue what the hell the Port Authority Police Department was. I had no idea. So the guy does a whole orientation speech and he says, if anybody's interested in becoming a Port Authority policeman, today is the last day to pick up an application at the World Trade Center. So where am I going after the class? I'm taking the eight training back uptown to the John Jay College and then sure enough, next up World Trade Center. And I'm sitting there thinking do I

get off or not? And I was so tired, But there's no Internet. It's not only that can email me the application. When I got off, I went up to the sixty ninth floor got the application, filled it out, took the test, and the same time I took the New York State Troopers test. And I remember several months went by and on a Monday, I got a letter in the mail from the New York State Troopers. Congratulations, You've made it into the academy. I couldn't believe it

that now, finally I was going to get something. Two days later, on Wednesday, I got the letter from the Port Athority Police, congratulations.

I'll take that, and then I started. I started in the academy, and my life started to change rapidly.

to save that last ten minutes to talk about Columbus Staying. Okay, let's remind everybody this is Being Frank the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. I'm your host, Frank Labora'll be right back with more right after. These brief commercial messages don't go away.

Day in just one minute. But I want to remind you that we bring our audience a fresh topic just about every week, and we stream from Hudson River Radio, which is located in beautiful and historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen

to any of our programs anytime you like. Final link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or visit our website Hudson Riverradio dot com. Find my icon, click and you're there. Mitch Rosen, let's continue with the book said, We have about ten minutes left and still a lot to talk about the book. Columbus Day. All of the experiences we've spoken have led up to the book. What gave you the idea, though, to put your story in book form? What made you think that, yeah, I can do this.

with her. So that's why I decided to write the book, you know, to educate people about what could possibly happen with the people that are in the household to the suffering from mental illness or depression.

It's about what you decide to do. And we are all responsible for our own, you know, future, our own everything, well, everything that we do in life. It's based on a decision you made.

So I think it would be something good for you to read and then you'll be able to understand what Columbus Day is all about.

all long pong. So here I am at nine to eleven at the World Trade Center with the camera and I took about twenty to thirty pictures of what I was experiencing because I wanted to be able to preserve

the history of what this country experienced. And one of the pictures I took was a picture of what was called the bucket Brigade, and there was a picture of first responders sifting through debris, passing it down the line from hand to hand to hand, and it was nothing more than a bucket of powder, and they would analyze this powder trying to see if there was any DNA or any sign of any victims in this powder.

the future and growing and having families. And ultimately he was played by Nicholas Cage in this movie It's called the World Trade Center. So his experience there was very very close to me because he was a friend of mine.

You know, I'll leave you with two last things. The slogan that I think is appropriate and some great original music. And our slogan comes from TS Eliott, the great author who said survival is your strength, not your shame. Okay, that's I think it says. It's simply and right there. We've got some great original closing closing music from our friend mister Steve Bagg for our engineer, the mailman, mister

Neil Rictor. I'm your host, Frank Gubuona. We hope to have you join us on the next being Frank, We're the only way to be is Frank? Thanks everyone?