My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Fara Maki

I lived in . . . and best remember . . . Prospect Park. Monument Hill, Dead Man's Cave, the absolutely dreadful "egg-water" that was to be found at, and only at, the 3rd Street and 9th Avenue fountain (Prospect Park West, to everyone else). I sledded there in winter, and galloped through it in summer, first on my own to legs and, many years later, on a horse of my very own. I was alive there ... and free there, and many times I ran away to there, only to be found again.

I grew up at 1850 52nd St., Apt 4B. I remember every detail of the place. We were right on the fringe of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park and the Norwegian conclave of Bensonhurst, centered (I think) around Avenue I. I remember a playground, and going for ice cream at Carvel.

When my brothers were born, we moved to Park Slope. From Norskies to Jews to the densest population of Irish Catholicism you could find on Earth. I remember not being able to take the elevator to meet some friends in their apartment at 35 Prospect Park West because the entire population of the building, including the elevator operator, were saying the Rosary in the lobby! I was duly sent to St. Saviour's Elementary School, where I was a spy for Sister Evarista. . . . It wasn't until I fought my way through St. Saviour's High School, Sing Out Brooklyn, and a dogged determination not to play basketball regardless of my height, that I realized that the Nuns existed to Make Me Strong.

And it's funny, after I moved to Colorado, I met so many people from Brooklyn. People who remembered the agony we all felt when the Dodgers abandoned us and Ebbets Field was torn down. (I used to boo the Dodgers at Shea Stadium—now I boo them at Coors Field). People who used to hang out in the Ingersol branch of the Library. People I'd never met who lived less than a mile from me.

I have not been back to Brooklyn. I have so many wonderful memories of the places I left behind. . . . It was good to read the Junior's is still there and still making cheesecake. I wonder if the barn and the bridle path in Prospect Park are still there? I miss being able to sit in the Long Meadow in the summer and hear Luciano Pavarotti sing for free (ah, that was a long time ago!) . . . and most of all I miss getting lost in all the little paths in the Japanese Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic. . . .

Someday . . .

Thank you for this wonderful site! It brings back into my life so much that was good!

12 December 1997


Steve Beckenstein

Crown Heights in the late 50s/early 60s.

14 December 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