Readers Report
I was born and raised on Fulton Street and Eastern Parkway across the street from Callihan and Kelly park. I was born in the same house that my father was raised in and down the block from where my mother was raised. We lived in a very tightknit community where everyone knew each other. My grandparents came here from Italy along with the grandparents of my friends. I attended P.S. 155 on Herkimer St. and Eastern Pkwy., and went to J.H.S. 73 on Rockaway Avenue. Our neighborhood was beautiful. It had lots of great bakeries, and nice Italian supermarkets. I worked as a teenager on Pitken Ave and Bristol St. at the Bank of Commerce. You could stay out until all hours of the night and feel safe. Our parish was Our Lady of Loretta on Pacific St and Sackam St. We had a reunion some years ago and it was great to see so many of our old friends. I left in 1966, but my heart is still there on Fulton St. We sat on stoops until all hours, we lived outdoors in the summer, we played stoop ball, and kick the can and tag, we had great restaurants, Carlucci's on Eastern Pkwy., and the best pastry shops, Ariola's, and many many more great places. It was a great place to grow up and it made me a good person.
2 March 1999
1 March 1999
Thanks to your web site memories started to pop back into my head and I thought I would share with your readers and fellow Brooklynites what it was like.
I lived at 621 Lefferts Ave corner of Albany Ave. I should say we lived there—my family and all my friends lived in this building. The apartment house had 119 families (all Jewish) except for the super who lived in the basement.
Up till the age of 6 we played in the building either running though the halls and elevators or, when we were lucky, playing in one of the kid's apartments; however, most mothers did not want our mess or destruction. After age 6 we played on the lawns of the small semi-attached house between Albany and Kingston. The game of choice was ring-a-livio which required running all over there lawns and leaping from peoples porches either from other kids who were playing our games or from the owners of the houses threatening to beat us up if we kept destroying their gardens.
A place we could play without that kind of trouble was the playground across the street running between Lefferts and East New York Ave. What great games we had. Slap ball. Played just like soft ball except no bat and you pitched the Spaulding ball on a bounce to the hitter who slapped it or punched. I guess I thought this was great practice for trying out for the Dodgers.
The other places for play were the sidewalks, playing packs (the worn out heels from shoes), flipping baseball cards ( I was great at that), or marbles. The best was playing stick ball in the gutter. No one paid attention to the cars and we would play until dark.
How many of you remember the "mush"? For a nickel one could by a frank with mustard and sauerkraut; however for those of us who didn't have that much money there existed a two cents deal. It consisted of the hot dog roll, mustard and sauerkraut. I still love to see if any of the people who sell hot dogs know what a mush is because I am a vegetarian. Sometimes I can still buy this for as little a quarter.
About age 8 on Saturdays we started going to the Crown Theater on Empire Blvd. Admission was 12 cents. We would go from 11 am until about 6 pm. They showed at least 2 feature films, 10 cartoons, a serial and my favorite were comedy races such as motorcycle races. At school, P.S. 91, during the week, numbered tickets were handed out; those holding the winning number of the motorcycle would win prizes such as skates or a toy. We could figure out before hand what number was going to win by seeing which number was given out in very short supply. And then we would connive or trade many numbers for that rare one from some unknowing kid.
The Crown closed I guess sometime when I was about 11 and we then had to travel to the Carol on Saturday. The Carol was 25 cents and would start at about 12 and go to 5. But at about 12.5 the hormones started and we tried to pick up girls by sitting next to them—without much success. Sometimes the NY News would have White Castle coupons—5 hamburgers for 25 cents. If we had the money we would go with 2 coupons and devour 10. What heartburn!
I guess I could continue a long time and bore many of you so I will kind of end it here except leave you with a couple of markers.
Attended Erasmus
Kicked out at age 16
spent many summers in the Catskills (AKA Stromboli)
1957 US Air Force
1957-1961 Stationed in England
1961-1984 Raising family—two daughters
1978-1990 Started "Think Big!" the giant object store.
1990-1997 moved to Santa Monica, CA
1992 married my current wife
1997 & we now live in the West Village
Have 4 grandchildren one more on way.
1 March 1999
Bristol St. between Lot and Hegman. P.S. 165. S. J. Tilden H.S.
sisters Linda and Barbara
1 March 1999
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