My Brooklyn (313)

Mark Caracappa

Growing up in Flatlands, before Kings Plaza. Before McDonalds and Burger King, there was Benson Burgers on Flatlands and Ralph Aves. When you went bike riding in the "trails" before the Georgetowne strip mall was built. P.S. 203 and Mary Queen of Heaven. L park and Gil Hodges Bowl, when it was on Ralph Ave. and Ave. M. All my family and almost all my friends have left Brooklyn, as it is now just a wonderful memory. Remember when you knew everyone on your block? How do you explain stoopball to your son? Johnny on the pony? Skelsie?

21 December 2000

Tom Vicinanza

Just finished reading over 300 stories of YOUR Brooklyn and great stories they all are. My Brooklyn began in 1967 when we moved from the Bronx to 1001 Ocean Avenue at the corner of Newkirk. I have many memories of some of the same places that previous writers have. My times were a lot different than most of them though. As kids we had the run of Brooklyn. Every place from Coney Island to the Brooklyn Bridge. P.S. 152, Ditmas J.H.S., Wm. E. Grady, Erasmus. Did em all. 152 from '67-'69, Ditmas from '69-'72, Grady '72-'74 and only a few months in late '74 for Erasmus.

When my friend Kevin Koval and others ran through the neighborhoods we would reflect on the times that had recently passed and would wonder how great it must have been to been there during the best of times. What we saw in the '70s were the frayed ends of the best of times. While Wadell's hobby shop was still in biz, Angelo (Angelo's Pizza, Flatbush at Beverly) kept a 38 under the counter to ward off the baddies who took over the neighborhood. Spinelli's was still a place to shoot pool but it was dank and empty most of the time. The lights on the marquees of the Loew's Kings, Rialto, Abelmarle, Kenmore and Astor (next to Erasmus) were off most of the time, even on Saturday nights. Chin's was the place to have a combination dish and a drink from the bar delivered to the table when we were just fifteen. Newkirk Plaza was alive but turning towards disintegration when I worked at a fruit store at 5 Newkirk Plaza. The whole city was changing. Coney Island was dying, drugs were coming in, crime was rising. It was a tough time to be growing up. We also thought about "how it must have been" just a few years before our time and from reading the stories here we were right. We were seeing the end.

In January of '75 I joined the Navy. Came back to Brooklyn in '77 and lived there until '88 when we moved to Florida. I get back to Brooklyn often. My heart lives there. It always will. I tromp through the old neighborhoods. I visit the LIRR tracks. I visit the places that were important. They still are important to me. Funny how a collection of buildings and streets could hold such importance in life. To sum this up, it had to be great having the times you all had in Brooklyn up until the late 1960s when the changes started. I look forward to reading more great stories. I can always be found via amateur radio sources . . . WA2UCH.

22 December 2000