My Brooklyn

Readers Report


Barbara

My Brooklyn was East New York—Van Siclen Ave. between Fulton and Atlantic Ave. We lived in our own little world at the time—1945-1959. Things were so different my children cannot relate to the stories. But they do love to hear them. We never had to venture very far for anything. On my block alone we had a school (St. Malachy's), church, grocery store, Abe the produce man, beauty parlor, bar & grill, dentist, barber, shoemaker and two candy stores, Lee & Leo's. You could hear doo wop at any given time on corners. We played outdoors without fear. The Mothers were stay-at-home moms and there was always someone to go to. We had Maxwell's Bakery walking distance Occasionally we stop back when we visit Dad's grave in Evergreen Cemetery. I also have memories of my grandmother's neighborhood: St. Rita's parish, the feast in the summertime, Sal's pizza, the produce man selling his fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn wagon. And people just knowing you belonged to so and so, treating you with such kindness. Well they say you can't go back, but I did maybe just for a minute. It has been a wonderful journey. Thank you.

18 December 2000


Marty Miller continues . . .

My Brooklyn is hanging around the candy store so I could run to get someone to to the telephone . . . most of us didn't have a phone and the only one in the neighborhood was as the corner candy store.

In my middle teens going to work as a wrapper at a clothing store on Pitkin Avenue. I think it was Robert Hall. Learning how to cheat the boss by erasing a sales slip for a coat that didn't need alterations—making change out of my pocket . . . all taught to me by the senior salesmen. "Everyone did it," they told me. Boy, I was growing up in a hurry. (Somehow I avoided getting caught.)

Playing hooky 47 straight days at F. K. Lane in Cypress Hills . . . brand new school bored me. I "made a deal" with the principal when my mother finally had to go to school with me, that if I passed the Regents exams I could graduate . . . otherwise, I'd be left back, maybe suspended. For the first time in a long time I really studied and got 99's and one 100 (in math) and my lowest was a 75 in Spanish which I hated. I went on to CCNY on my average alone and was a sort of TA in a calculus and analytic geometry class in my freshman year. It was a long subway ride. I went out for the football team because they had a (free) training table meaning I could eat all I wanted. I learned how to run very fast on offense (halfback) and played defense also making a lot of tackles downfield. It wasn't a very good team. I recall Indian Miller was the Head Coach and kicking two drop-kicks for field goals. We did not win one game that year. I don't recall any grass on the field (Lewisohn Stadium) but concerts there (free) were great.

When I was much younger—maybe 7 or 8—we lived at Brighton Beach in an elevator building and I recall a maid or nanny, during the Depression; we were well off. In the lap of luxury, right next to the beach and boardwalk; what could be better? I still have that scar on my forearm went I went head over heels flying off my tricycle and getting spiked on the wrought iron fence. My hair bleached blond and I was well tanned in the summer . . . a real beach kinda.

If any of this rings a bell write me. . . . I grew up in Crown Heights, Utica Ave. no. 233, and before that on Sterling Place.

19 December 2000


Joel Ira Fisher

I was born in 1950 in Brooklyn Omens Hospital. I went to P.S. 158, P.S. 213 and then junior high, P.S. 166, George Gershwin. In the 8th grade I went to the Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway. The building where I attended was on the corner of Winthrop and Bedford Avenues. At that time, I lived in a housing project called the Linden Houses, on Wortman Avenue. Because the neighborhood was turning, my father moved us (Father, Abraham; Mother, Blanche; and brother, Evan) to Warren, Ohio where he had an employment opportunity. I went to high school in Warren and then went on to Ohio State University in Columbus, where I now live. The memories of my friends, and relatives like dear Aunt Belle and Uncle Herman of Coney Island, rabbis, and experiences in Brooklyn will always be a part of my life and remain in my heart..

19 December 2000


Readers' reports continue . . .

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