Pasquale Spensieri, Grinder

When we talk about New York on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, we talk about the future of the city - where it’s headed, and how it’s changed.

And change is a big part of the New York story. You don’t have to look far back to see the city’s past. The tone and the feel of New York – especially how it’s portrayed in TV and films – has shifted in recent decades. And no one knows this better than the people who have spent the better part of their lives there.

Pasquale Spensieri is a New York man with an old-fashioned job. He spends his days driving around Brooklyn, looking for dull blades. When he rings the bell on his truck, the owners of upholstery shops, restaurants and pizza parlors come out with knives and scissors to sharpen. Pasquale's father first started sharpening knives during the Depression, with a pedal-operated grinding machine strapped to his back. At that time, there were hundreds of door-to-door blade grinders in New York. Pasquale's story comes to us from the Radio Diaries series New York Works.