Readers Report
Thanks for this great website. It's allowed me to go back in time and it's brought back many memories.
My Brooklyn consisted of many places. Kingston Avenue & Bergen Street where I grew up behind my father's (Manny's) candy store, P.S. 138, Boys' H.S. and G.W. Wingate H.S. where I attended school and was on their swimming and track teams, respectively. I remember the Empire Rollerdrome where I went roller skating every Saturday, and Freddie Fitzsimmons Bowling Alley where I bowled, less frequently. I remember playing stick ball against a closed movie theater on St. Johns Place and hitting fungous in the center grass portion (where you weren't supposed to be) of Brower Park by the Brooklyn Children's Museum. I remember the Children's Museum where every afternoon at 4:00 p.m. neighborhood kids would go to watch movies in the museum's movie theater, and the electric trains that we could run just by pushing a button.
I remember punch ball where you would try to punch a spauldeen as hard as you could in the air, and slap ball, where you would slap a spauldeen, pitched on a bounce with english on it, on the ground (no fly balls allowed).
I remember the Loew's Cameo where for $.25 you could get lost for an entire Saturday afternoon watching movies. I remember the Brooklyn Fox on Nevins Street and Flatbush Ave. where I worked part-time as an usher, switchboard operator and outside man with cape, while attending high school, and the rock and roll shows across Flatbush Ave. at the Paramount. I remember Juniors and the corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on twin rolls. I can taste them now (such high cholesterol).
I remember the Sugar Bowl by Midwood H.S. where I would meet my girl friend after school and walk her home. I remember Coney Island where I sold ice cream and orange drink on the beach during the Summers, and the batting cages where most of the profits went.
I remember the Yiddish Theater down the street from my grandma's house in Brownsville. And the bus station around the corner on Pitkin Ave. where buses delivered and brought folks to the Catskills.
It is said that one can never go back, and it is probably true. For what one remembers is probably no longer there, at least as it once was. But sometimes, it so nice to sit back, close your eyes and go home.
29 December 1996
My Brooklyn is the Brooklyn of 1958-68. In this Brooklyn, people sat out on the stoops and in front of their apartments in the summer. Abe Beam, the former mayor, was city comptroller then, and he lived across the street from me—on Carroll Street in Crown Heights. Jewish, black, Italian, and Irish was the composition. Pizza cost 15 cents a slice, and the Carroll movies were 25 or 35 cents. The playground area at P.S. 221 on Empire Blvd. was open late, and there were scores of candy stores on Schenectady Ave., Utica Ave., and Eastern Parkway. You could walk to Ebbets Field if you wanted, and rare was the random assault. The kids you grew up with, those people you knew through high school. My H.S. was Wingate and my Jr. High was Winthrop. Anybody remember those schools?
22 January 1997
I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s/60s during that time of many changes. I was born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital in the 1950s. We lived with rats on Eastern Parkway and then moved to Bensonhurst when I started junior high. I remember riding my bicycle along Eastern Parkway from one end to the other; also riding my bike through Prospect Park. I remember New Utrecht High School, that monolith 5-story monster with bars on the windows where I would inevitably have a gym class in the basement followed by a 5th-floor spanish class. The Brooklyn of my memory is rich in culinary delights; from Charlotte Russes to real pizza to hot bagels to pastrami on rye with real kosher pickles to egg creams... I remember the Botanical Gardens, children's zoo and Junior's Restaurant where my mother and I would go after shopping at A & S dept. stores. And, of course, we would go out for Chinks (this cuisine is only known to New Yorkers) and why do no other cities cover their Chinese dishes like New York does? I could go on forever. This was fun writing down my Brooklyn memories.
27 January 1997
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