Readers Report
Great web page! Great tribute! I was there too. Nostalgia.
Live upstate now. Still visit. Came to appreciate Brooklyn long after I left. Grew up in Manhattan Beach in the '50s — P.S. 195, 225, Lincoln H.S. Fond Brooklyn memories.
Most everyone worked hard, stayed married and believed in the future. Travel anywhere day or night without transit cops. Nobody did drugs. Schoolyards always open, stickball, punchball, stoopball, pink Spauldings, trading bubble-gum baseball-hero cards, clamp-on roller skates, street hockey, Schwinn adventures, Good Humor everywhere. Coney Island Steeplechase, Cyclone, penny arcades, Nathan's hot dogs and real fries. Dem Bums (gave up baseball the day they left), bakery smells, cherry cheesecake, still-warm corn muffins, rye bread and bagels. Doo-Wop a capella groups in D-A haircuts smoking cigarettes and harmonizing in high-school bathrooms, Elvis-like motorcycle jackets with white T-shirts, drag-racin' almost-hot-rods with straight-pipes, submarine watching, convertibles with fins and white-walled tires, Friday-night cruisin' King's Highway with carefree friends, candy store hang-outs, soda fountain stories with egg creams, 45-rpm jukebox, Alan Freed's dancin'-in-the-aisles rite-of-passage Paramount rock-'n-roll shows. Sheepshead Bay fish bought from boats just in, Lundy's Sunday-night dinners (have found no clam bisque or blueberry pie to compare, just reopened after 17 years), Brighton Beach boardwalk old-folks, babyoiled sun-worshipers crowded on hot sand, lemon ices, Humorettes, Mrs. Stahl's knishes (she's gone but the store and tastes remain).
Cradle of incredible diversity and achievement—my school pictures and yearbooks attest. Tough guys and Nobel laureates indeed. Anything seemed possible then and there, and everything passed by (all too quickly) with a special attitude, flavor and excitement I have not known since. And, oh, that music. You had to be there.
Thanks for the memories.
;)
12 February 1996
Kings Highway/P.S. 208/Meyer Levin J.H.S./Tilden H.S. (1966). I have lived in Philadelphia for 20 years, and have lived in Nebraska and North Dakota. When people ask me where I am "from," the answer is always "Brooklyn."
18 February 1996
My Brooklyn is Sheepshead Bay—Avenue Y between Batchelder and Coyle, more like '60s Brooklyn. Went to Sheepshead Bay H.S., and hung out at the McDonald's that opened up on Nostrand Avenue (it was a big deal for us city kids). Fond and weird memories of eating sand-flecked knishes on the packed beach at Bay 6th Street, and watching crazy kids (not Jewish, as my parents always said) go diving for coins off the Manhattan Beach bridge (don't know its real name). And, of course, Lundy's—the shore dinner for, what?, $7.95, with biscuits, celery tray, clam chowder, steamers, lobster, apple pie a la mode and great coffee. I remember all kinds of unpleasant things happening in my Brooklyn, but these are the best of times.
21 February 1996
"Only the dead know Brooklyn."
The living keep tryin' to. . . .
26 February 1996
[ 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]
Return
to Brooklyn Home Page.