My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Keith

Nothing was better than waking up early on summer vacation to spend the day, well every day at Marine Park. We would ride bikes around the ring until we couldn't move and then lie on the grass in the middle to rest and stare at the clouds. When we were rested we would ride across Ave. U (Mom would have killed us if she knew) to the creek. At the creek you could catch minnows and jellyfish. But the most fun was stomping on the sand to get the piss clams to shoot up. They were always too deep to dig up. When we got home, we always had to wash the creek mud off our sneakers and jeans so Mom would never know we were there.

Winter at Marine Park was football. We weren't allowed to play organized football with the Hurricanes but were allowed to go the park to play without equipment. On a Sunday afternoon the game would start at about 1 o'clock and go until it got dark or someone got really hurt.

What a great place that was.

24 May 1997


David Corr

summer days, a subway ride on the d train from park slope to bay eight st. a nathans hot dog to start. swimming with seaweed and coney island whitefish. ouch you look burned better get noxema. the cyclone, salt water taffy and the first car on the ride home. sitting on the stoop getting sand from my keds. vinegar bath for relief. stickball and mr. softee, summer days in bklyn

25 May 1997


A. Simon

Sheepshead Bay, walking and talking. Coney Island, dirty but a thrill. The BMT aka the D train. Take the local, the express takes longer.

Nathans, pizza, Good Humor . . . Fudgie Wudgie Man on the beach, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach.

You could ride the train into the city, without fear. You could play on the streets to 10 pm, your parents didn't worry.

Movie palaces, life on the street. Neighbors and neighborhoods. Family and friends. Little cash, but who cared?

It's all gone . . . we moved out   we died   we hide.

26 May 1997


Joseph Salvia

I was born on Lynch St. in the Williamsburg section. I grew up in the Bushwick/Ridgewood Area. I remember taking the trolley to Canarsie; the good smells of Coney Island when you got off the train and walked down the ramp to Surf Ave. My buddies were Bob, Richie, Charlie, Mike and Frankie. I lived near the 83rd Precinct on Wilson Ave. I worked across the way in Serro's Pastry Shoppe. My first real girlfriend was Marcia; her friend was Norma who married Ray. Marcia had a friend named Marilyn. We used to go to the Loews Pitkin. We hung out around Newport and Powell St. When I got older I worked for Tip Top Bread and married a girl from Ditmas Ave. My grandfather owned the Sunbeam Ice Cream Company, which was sold to Dairycrest and later became Hagen-Daz.

I used to sell pretzels on the avenue; I picked them up around Delancy Street. I remember the RKO Republic, the Commodore and the Marcy. I remember the Lindy, the Sun, the Loews Broadway, the RKO Madison the Rivoli Theatre.

I used to go nightclubbing at the Enchanted Hour.I remember the great Italian feasts on Suydam St and Wilson Ave. I went to St Joseph Church.

Some of the girls were Josie, Jeanie, Rosie, Linda and Chickie. I remember Knickerbocker Ave. where you could buy almost anything. I remember my great Auto Shop teachers Mr. Schiller and Mr. Scheyer.

I remember P.S. 74 on Bushwick Ave. Mr. Brande, Mr. Bergman, Miss Zuill, Mr. Fleischman the Principal.

I have a lot of good memories of Brooklyn and the wonderful people there.

27 May 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