Meet The OGs

Barbara and Harry Cooper are 93 and 98 years old, respectively. The Jewish couple resides in the Hollenbeck Palms retirement home in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. But don’t let their almost-triple-digit ages fool you. Barbara and Harry are about as hip as any Tweeting-Facebook-using-20-somethings.

Known in the blogsphere as The OGs (or The Original Grandparents), Barbara and Harry started their website in November 2008. The retired discount shoe store owners first launched The OGs blog to entertain their grandchildren, but soon found out that many more readers were interested in what they had to say. Their entries may not be about being “original gangsters,” but Barbara and Harry are always ready to take it to the streets.

From their opinions on lesbianism (Barbara believes in “acceptance of people and religion and different points of view”) to a video entry addressed to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa protesting against budget cuts that will affect local libraries, The OGs continue to fascinate their fans with their insights. The Jewish Journal calls it “a small phenomenon,” while IHeartJews.com reviewed their blog as “Fantastic and hilarious... completely heartwarming.”

With the help of their grandchildren, Shalom Life recently asked The OGs questions about their life, marriage, blog success and why Barbara called Boyle Heights as the “Jewish Tijuana” of the ‘30s.

I know you've been married 73 years. What's your secret for staying together?

Harry: Yes dear, yes dear, yes dear, yes dear.

Barbara: Giving instead of taking. In all relationships—even in conversation—give the other person their due. Render unto Caesar which is Caesar's. In other words, don't try to beat the system, or even show your husband that you are smarter. Just be yourself. I'm never going to show him that I know more than he does.

Any tips to young couples?

Harry: Work hard to make your spouse happy. A woman should work hard, and the man should work hard and do things that he thinks that she'll appreciate. She will do things that she knows will be appreciated. Try to be very happy with the future.

Barbara: Don't sweat the small stuff.

Barbara, you once dubbed Boyle Heights as a "Jewish Tijuana" back in the ཚs. Can you describe what it was like back then?

Barbara: It was. Women were not dressed properly. They wore their house dresses on the streets and they wore bedroom slippers. They were not current Americans—it was Third World. They had barrels on the sidewalks, pickles, herring, and olives. It was almost like a tourist attraction. If you walked down the street they would have a deli with hot dogs that were rolling on a spit and you smelled the smell of corn beef and hot dogs… The older generation tried to hold on to whatever ethnically they remembered or they could do. But the younger generation all strived to be as Americanized as possible—and they were.

How much has LA changed since then, especially the Jewish community?

Barbara: Well, everybody became upgraded. They became part of the American scene, and yiddishkeit was dropped almost 90 per cent.

Harry: Considerably. Over where the railroad station was on Alameda Street, they had the old railroad station and it was a big thing over there. That was downtown Los Angeles. I lived around near Robertson and that was an entirely different set up.

Barbara: There were Jewish people in that neighborhood [West LA], but not pronounced Jewish. The younger generation took over, the more Americanized children. The children whose parents were more affected by the depression than these children were. They were already in high school and trying to better their lives. Always reaching for a better education was a primary thing. The Yiddish was almost obsolete and the Jewish children were ethnically more geared towards the forthcoming generation, although a lot of old-fashioned family ties were quite strong. Los Angeles now is a nice bustling community, we think.

Harry: It is cosmopolitan, a mixture. It doesn't seem like there is a race barrier. In the olden days it was more pronounced, Jews and the Russians and the Spanish people.

Of course, Holocaust Remembrance is this week. What are some of your most poignant memories from that time period?

Barbara: In my memory is how close we kept tabs of everything that was going on a daily basis, on the news. How close the commentators would bring all the current events, and of course we would sit there and bemoan the fact of what was going on. I had family living in Europe and of course you worried about the Nazi situation.

Aside from your blog, you also have a Twitter account. How have you guys kept up to date with technology?

Barbara: Television. Not well, but thanks to our grandchildren, we are as current as we can be.

What role do your grandchildren play in keeping you feeling young?

Barbara: Appreciating them. Appreciating their points of view and accepting their viewpoints. Now we are delighted that they are very attentive and we look forward to every spare moment that they have to spend with us, without infringing on their time.

The blog has been so successful. How does it feel that a lot of people look forward to hearing and reading about your life?

Barbara: I'm shocked. We want to share the fact that we are happy and we would be happy to share that nobody needs a better life than ours and nobody should live a worse life than ours. We are content, like cows.

How do you feel about young people who look to your wisdom?

Barbara: Flattered, thank you. It's kind of nice to be appreciated.

Lastly, what's next for The OGs? Any brewing plans in the near future?

Barbara: You can't say it's very stimulating to be where we are at our stage in life. It's probably our fault we haven't got the natural curiosity that we used to have.

Harry: I'm looking forward to being more active in the summertime, just being outdoors on a nice beautiful day, eating up the sunshine and the warmth, going along the beach and laying down in the sand.

For more information, visit the-ogs.com.