MARY ANN GUDONIS:
“When I go home I sit down on the radiator and
hopefully thaw—well done or medium rare.”

Mary Ann Gudonis is a school crossing guard who, between duties, can be found hanging out with her friends Diane Kennedy and crossing guard Dorothy Basilico in the little wooden pavilion in front of P.S. 150 on 43rd Avenue. The day we spoke it was freezing cold and Mary Ann was wrapped in several layers.

“When I go home I sit down on the radiator and hopefully thaw—well done or medium rare,” the 71-year-old jokes.

Mary Ann has lived in a large three-bedroom apartment on 45th Street since the day she was born. She, her children and grandchildren all went to P.S. 150. As a young woman she used to work at the FBI, and after her children grew up she worked as a bookkeeper on the Upper West Side. Since her son’s divorce she became a school crossing guard, which allowed her to take care of her son’s children. She still works more than 22 hours a week.

In the podcast Mary Ann talks about her “professional apartment” and the Sunnyside of her childhood.