Readers Report
In the 50s the Sheepshead-Nostrand projects where I lived was surrounded by truck farms. I believe the farms grew lettuce and raised goats and other small livestock. There were 3 horse stables about a mile away on Ave. U and 69th St. Both I and my friends learned to horseback ride when we were about 12 years old. We became true "Brooklyn Cowboys."
I was in the first graduating class at Sheepshead Bay High. This class was unusual in that they were always the oldest kids in the school. When we were sophomores there were no upperclassmen. By the time we became seniors the school had grown but it appeared that the faculty got younger. I'll never forget the student-faculty games when the senior girls played the faculty women volleyball. There was my English teacher Ms. Wideberg raring to go wearing short shorts. I guess our most famous alum from that class was the future Golden Glove Rico Petrocelli.
On prom night most of the crew wound up at Towne Hill on Bedford Ave. and Eastern Parkway. Flip Wilson was just starting out and he was the MC. It was always a great show that consisted of a variety of acts including a stripper, comedienne and a featured artist like Bobby Blues Bland.
The Brooklyn I grew up in was a great and fascinating place, a little rural a lot cosmopolitan but absolutely not suburban.
28 February 1999
I grew up in Bensonhurst. 1941 41st Street to be exact. Went to New Utrecht High School (1961-1965), then to Brooklyn College. Thirty years ago I left and, except for infrequent family visits, haven't returned. My Brooklyn was a world of Jews and Italians. Pizzerias and kosher delis. Anybody and anything else was sort of exotic. It's amazing as I look back to think that New York (i.e., Manhattan), one of the most worldly of the great world cities, was only a number of subway stops away, but for all that it was a distant place to be visited only for rare and specific reasons. My Brooklyn was not a city but the world, and that world consisted of my neighborhood, a place I dreamed I would eventually leave for the big wide world.
28 February 1999
I was born in Brighton Beach in 1930 and lived for years just a stone's throw from the beach. Traveled the Brighton Beach Express, first to Cunningham Junior High and later to Brooklyn Tech; had a girlfriend who lived in Crown Heights named Jacqueline. Spring and Fall meant rowboating in Prospect Park. Summer meant fireworks viewed from the boardwalk and strolling through Coney Island. Very late evenings, all year round, particularly New Year's Eve, meant hot dogs, potato chips and root beer at Nathan's. Thanks to the subways, we were just a short ride to the ballet, the NYC opera, summer concerts at Lewisohn's Stadium, and the bus to NJ to attend the burlesque. A free Saturday or Sunday could be spent riding the ferry back and forth to Staten Island. A wonderful borough in a great city . . . and a great place to grow up. Left NY in the early 50s.
28 February 1999
Crown Heights from 1943 to 1967. I attended P.S. 221, Winthrop J.H.S. and Wingate H.S. One of my friends and classmates at Wingate was the late Steve Rubell. He was a great guy and a great friend. I remember the Carroll Theater, hanging out in the handball courts at Lincoln Terrace Park, the Admiration Ice Cream Parlor and Dubrow's. I have lost touch with all my friends from Crown Heights and having just purchased (last week) a computer hope to locate as many of them as possible. It was safe to walk anywhere at any hour of the night anywhere in Crown Heights. I'm still in Brooklyn, but, hopefully, not for long. Where are you—friends of my past?
28 February 1999
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