My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Norman Aaronson

Thanks for this great website. It's allowed me to go back in time and it's brought back many memories.

My Brooklyn consisted of many places. Kingston Avenue & Bergen Street where I grew up behind my father's (Manny's) candy store, P.S. 138, Boys' H.S. and G.W. Wingate H.S. where I attended school and was on their swimming and track teams, respectively. I remember the Empire Rollerdrome where I went roller skating every Saturday, and Freddie Fitzsimmons Bowling Alley where I bowled, less frequently. I remember playing stick ball against a closed movie theater on St. Johns Place and hitting fungous in the center grass portion (where you weren't supposed to be) of Brower Park by the Brooklyn Children's Museum. I remember the Children's Museum where every afternoon at 4:00 p.m. neighborhood kids would go to watch movies in the museum's movie theater, and the electric trains that we could run just by pushing a button.

I remember punch ball where you would try to punch a spauldeen as hard as you could in the air, and slap ball, where you would slap a spauldeen, pitched on a bounce with english on it, on the ground (no fly balls allowed).

I remember the Loew's Cameo where for $.25 you could get lost for an entire Saturday afternoon watching movies. I remember the Brooklyn Fox on Nevins Street and Flatbush Ave. where I worked part-time as an usher, switchboard operator and outside man with cape, while attending high school, and the rock and roll shows across Flatbush Ave. at the Paramount. I remember Juniors and the corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on twin rolls. I can taste them now (such high cholesterol).

I remember the Sugar Bowl by Midwood H.S. where I would meet my girl friend after school and walk her home. I remember Coney Island where I sold ice cream and orange drink on the beach during the Summers, and the batting cages where most of the profits went.

I remember the Yiddish Theater down the street from my grandma's house in Brownsville. And the bus station around the corner on Pitkin Ave. where buses delivered and brought folks to the Catskills.

It is said that one can never go back, and it is probably true. For what one remembers is probably no longer there, at least as it once was. But sometimes, it so nice to sit back, close your eyes and go home.

29 December 1996


Michael Fish

My Brooklyn is the Brooklyn of 1958-68. In this Brooklyn, people sat out on the stoops and in front of their apartments in the summer. Abe Beam, the former mayor, was city comptroller then, and he lived across the street from me—on Carroll Street in Crown Heights. Jewish, black, Italian, and Irish was the composition. Pizza cost 15 cents a slice, and the Carroll movies were 25 or 35 cents. The playground area at P.S. 221 on Empire Blvd. was open late, and there were scores of candy stores on Schenectady Ave., Utica Ave., and Eastern Parkway. You could walk to Ebbets Field if you wanted, and rare was the random assault. The kids you grew up with, those people you knew through high school. My H.S. was Wingate and my Jr. High was Winthrop. Anybody remember those schools?

22 January 1997


Rosetta Marx

I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s/60s during that time of many changes. I was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital in the 1950s. We lived with rats on Eastern Parkway and then moved to Bensonhurst when I started junior high. I remember riding my bicycle along Eastern Parkway from one end to the other; also riding my bike through Prospect Park. I remember New Utrecht High School, that monolith 5-story monster with bars on the windows where I would inevitably have a gym class in the basement followed by a 5th-floor spanish class. The Brooklyn of my memory is rich in culinary delights; from Charlotte Russes to real pizza to hot bagels to pastrami on rye with real kosher pickles to egg creams... I remember the Botanical Gardens, children's zoo and Junior's Restaurant where my mother and I would go after shopping at A & S dept. stores. And, of course, we would go out for Chinks (this cuisine is only known to New Yorkers) and why do no other cities cover their Chinese dishes like New York does? I could go on forever. This was fun writing down my Brooklyn memories.

Rosetta Marx continues . . .

27 January 1997


Readers' reports continue . . .

[ Jump to My Brooklyn, page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368]


subway tokenReturn to Brooklyn Home Page.

Copyright © 1995-2010 David Neal Miller. All rights reserved. For clarification and limited exceptions, see the Brooklyn Net copyright page. Last updated: December 26, 2010