My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Dan Bernstein

Ahh, I can feel the mugginess of the hot summer night, kissing the girl like the whipped cream of a chocolate bell from Lord's bakery at the "junction." I walk alone through the Brooklyn that is mine. I became one with it, from the library on Eastern Parkway to the docks of Sheepshead Bay. It was all good. The Parade Grounds were the stepping stool to the competition of the city. Brooklyn made you tough. Prospect Park was the place that seemed like you were in another world, from the wooded areas to the lake. I drifted far from the streets but they will be in my blood forever—ahh I can taste the sea salt from Coney Island and smell the fireworks going off. Escape . . . .

8 July 2000

Terry (Theresa Cassidy) Abbott

Just popping back in again to see if anyone out there is from the old neighborhood of Spencer Court. Or anyone who went to St. Patick's School on Kent Ave. That was my Brooklyn in the 40s until 1952. I treasure my Brooklyn childhood memories. What a great and safe neighborhood. Our mothers never had to worry about us playing out in the street then. I wonder if Spencer Tavern is still on the corner of Spencer Ct. and DeKalb? My father used to stop in every night after work and I would go in and sit with him. Imagine—memories of a bar are among my favorites. I've read all the messages so far and found nobody from Spencer Court. Maybe someone will find their way to this site. Thank you, David, for providing it. Terry.

8 July 2000

Bruce Baron

My Brooklyn was East Flatbush. I lived on Rutland Road between Kingston and Albany Aves. We lived right across from Kings County Hospital. Our life then was street sports: punchball, stickball, roller skating, etc. I remember trolleys on Church Ave., the electric buses that came down Kinston Ave from Tompkins Ave., and every so often the driver would have to get out of the bus and reattach the poles on top of the bus that connected to the overhead power wires that resulted from making a turn too wide. The candy stores were like our meccas. We had two or three. The most notable was the one at the corner of Albany and Rutland. It was owned by two refugees from WWII concentration camps named Morris and Max. They purchased the store from the previous owner, Eddie. Well, I got off on the wrong foot with these guys when they opened for the first day under their management. It was hot steamy day and the place was filled with kids checking out the new owners (this was a big deal back then). I ordered my traditional ice cream cone from one of the partners wives who was working on opening day. She handed me an ice cream cone with one scoop, I quickly replied "Hey, the other guy used to give 2 scoops"—of course he didn't but I wanted to see if I could get away with it. The wife not being too familar with "store policy" proceeded to add an additional scoop to my cone, when all of a sudden her husband Max yelled out, "Ve only give von scoop on a cone" and he said I was a "gangster" for that move I made to get an extra scoop. He called me gangster for quite some time. As the years passed we became friendly and I realized how hard those two worked to make the American dream come true. My hat is off to Morris and Max, wherever you guys are. Thanks for the memories. Believe me I have many.

9 July 2000

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