Readers Report
My Brooklyn is a place here real people live, normal people, nice people. Brooklyn is the center of the world. And I like it that way.
8 January 1998
This is an incredible webpage, the readers report was my favorite. Some of the stories put smiles and tears on my face. Attached are some of my Brooklyn memories.
Most of my fondest Brooklyn memories are when I lived at 327 Hendrix St. (between Sutter and Blake) from 1953-1960. I attended P.S. 158, P.S. 149 and Thomas Jefferson H.S. I joined the Navy in '64 and have since lived near Seattle, Washington.
A favorite hangout was Mr. Miller's luncheonette on the corner of Blake & Hendrix—incredible foamy egg cremes, tuna salad sandwiches, 2 cent plain, 3-part Musketeers for 5 cents, cherry lime rickeys. I remember Saturday matinees at the theater for 14 or 21 cents; then it went up to a quarter. Boredom was impossible. There was bicycling or tennis at Highland Park, tops, yo-yo's, card flipping, marbles, comic books, roller skates. We made skooters made from roller skates, 2x4's and a wooden crate, linoleum-shooting rubber band guns, wooden match stick shooters made from empty thread spools and rubber bands, and of course everyone owned a pea shooter. A big highlight was buying firecrackers surreptitiously around Mott and Mulberry streets in Manhatten. There were trips to the New Lots Ave. library, swimming at the Brownsville Boys Club. Some of the best times were playing punchball with spalding or "second" rubber balls that we scooped up with coat hangers out of corner sewers. We played kick the can, ring-a-leevio, Chinese handball, stoop ball, boxball, Johnny-on-the-pony and we watched the gals doing the double dutch twist. I remember patiently waiting till I was 16 so I could go into the poolhall on the corner of Hendrix and Blake and hang out with the "older guys."
What fun it was to go hitch-hiking to Brighton Beach 3 from the corner of Linden Blvd and Pennsylvania Ave. (sometimes we would stop across the street for a Carvel cone). Collecting pop bottles on the beach for 2 cent deposit was a means of getting a few extra cents. Eating potato & onion or kasha knishes at Shatzkin's. I can still taste the franks and french fries at Nathans. Hot sweet potatoes or chestnuts from corner vendors in Manhatten. It was fun watching the old men playing Bocci under the el—after the last stop or the IRT (New Lots Ave.). Who can forget watching the old men playing pinochle or chess on the concrete game tables at the park on Miller and Blake—boy did those little Italian cigars stink, and I remember them shushing us not to make a sound while they were "concentrating." Remember the long lines to see the Alan Freed Rock 'n' Roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount then going to Juniors-downtown for grilled burgers.
Some of my friends were: Lenny Vario, Richie Frisch, Harvey Feintuch, Franklin Monteforte, Honey & Leroy Elfenbein,, Gail, & Karen Cecere, Freida & her brother Steven, Sammy Leff, Tommy Uss, Richie Harlukowicz, Michael, Wallerstein, Howie Rodgers, Gerry Goodman, Larry & Bevely Bernstein, Danny & Linda Barrett, Freddie Rosenberg & Stevie Katz, Walter Fenimore, Billy Montana.
"You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the boy."
9 January 1998
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