Readers Report
Williams Avenue off Linden Blvd. My father, Joe, was born in that house. My grandpa was written up in the local newspaper for his "victory" garden during WWII, while my father was off to fight the Nazis. My mother, Sylvia, his redheaded beauty, waited faithfully, living with her mother and sister on Pennsylvania Ave. She "sat" for Sydney Leibowitz (Steve Lawrence).
I rememember, it must have been 1961, on, I believe Flatbush Ave., with my mom when someone on a Vespa slid and fell and an oil truck ran over his head. I (5 or 6 yrs old) elbowed my way through the crowd. I'll never forget that image.
I remember P.S. 190, my father went there; I remember the BBC where I learned to swim (dog paddle); I remember Coney Island Joe's. I remember the neighborhood turning bad, unsafe, and we had to move in 1965. I was 10.
29 May 1997
East New York in the 1950s and early 60s. We lived at 539 Schenck Ave. at the corner of Schenck and Dumont Ave. upstairs from Sid's Grocery. I went to P.S. 182 and J.H.S 149 until the 9th grade at which time we moved to Queens. What culture shock.
Always we played in the streets and found insidious ways to get into trouble. We used to grab onto the back of the few remaining horse drawn junk wagons that still plyed the neighborhood and the junkman would try to hit us with his whip. We also snuck into the dairy farm that operated on Henry St. just off New Lots Ave. And we managed to get ten kids into the Biltmore movie theatre for a single admission. The guys I hung out with were the Begal brothers, Michael and Charley, Buddy Cohen, Joel Fass and Richie Hill III.
I've lived in California for the better part of my adult life (I'm 48) but a day rarely goes by that remembrances of the old neighborhood passes my thoughts. San Diego is where I live but Brooklyn will always be home.
31 May 1997
My Brooklyn is Nostrand Avenue and St. John's Pl., The Blackthorn Bar, P.S. 138 on Prospect Place and Boys High. It is walking and feeling so safe . . . not even thinking about it. It is going 'downtown' to Loew's Metropolitan for movie and vaudeville and to the Fox Theater, to Namm's and Abraham @ Strauss. Hot summer days in a shirt, tie and suit . . . the Loew's Cameo on Eastern Parkway at corner of Nostrand Avenue . . . the short walk to Ebbets Field to see dem bums play and often lose back in the mid-1930s . . . and much more, like Coney Island with McMahon's Baths . . . sand between my toes on the way home . . . Steeplechase and Feltman's . . . and who can forget Nathan's? A long time ago.
3 June 1997
440 Brooklyn Ave. . . . playing on Sterling Street . . . punch ball sewer to sewer . . . were you a two sewer man? . . . Paul's candy store . . . Empire Blvd . . . P.S. 91, Lefferts J.H.S. . . . Wingate (70) . . . stoop ball . . . ring a leaveo . . . freeze tag . . . nicknames—Ears, Slimy, etc. . . . anyone around?
3 June 1997
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