Readers Report
I grew up in Bay Ridge. Born 1955, I lived on 72nd St. between 5th & 6th Aves. P.S. 170 was at the top of the street. I went to Our Lady of Angels on 4th Ave. & 73-74 Sts., then went to Chelsea Voc. H.S. in Manhattan at 6th Ave. & Broome St., a few blocks up from Canal St. I took the subway to school.
I remember taking a ferry to Staten Island from the 69th St. pier. I remember the hubbub of the building of the Verrazano Bridge. I was young at the time . . . they said they were cutting the neighborhood in half with the access highway. I remember the day it opened . . . the fireboats shooting water cannons . . . I thought it was great. It did uproot a lot of people . . . we were just lucky it wasn't our street. I moved to Islip L.I. for a while, and now I live in mid-coastal Maine. I do miss my childhood in Brooklyn, and wouldn't trade it for anything.
20 March 1999
P.S. 175, David Marcus J.H.S. 263
Playing handball in the park on Bristol Street
Going to the Lutheran Church on Blake Avenue after school for singing and cookies
Mr. Thomas throwing extra wires out of the window so we could use them to play jump rope
Going to Belmont Avenue with my mom for my birthday cake
The Blackout in the 70s, can't remember the exact year but everything was real eerie the next day. Store windows smashed, fires, injured people . . . scary scene.
The big fire near the train station on Rockaway Ave. that must have lasted for days!
35 cent for a slice of pizza, a quarter bought a bag of chips AND a soda!
The Newport cigarette vans that came around giving out free samples of cigarettes to CHILDREN! I was one of them and I still smoke today!
Mr. Softy icecream truck and Mr. Johnson who kept asking me if I sing. . . .
punch ball, Skelly, spinning tops, jacks, flavored marshmallows . . . hmmmI could go on and on and on with my memories of Brooklyn and I must say, I had a very beautiful childhood and memories to last a life time!
Spike Lee's Crooklyn brought all of the memories back and I can never get tired of watching it. . . .
21 March 1999
My Brooklyn is 86th Street on a summer Saturday night in the late 70s. All the cars, the people, the Disco music. . . . You could walk from 18th Ave. and 86th Street to Caesar's Bay Bazaar and back, nobody bothered you, everybody knew you. It was heaven.
My Brooklyn is Sunset Park on a Summer evening in the mid 60s—my grandfather would walk us right up 41st Street into the park, past the swings to the wall at the highest point of the park—you could sit on top of that wall and see all of 4th Avenue, St. Michael's church and if you looked REAL HARD, you could see NY harbor just past Bush Terminal; and watch the sun set.
My Brooklyn is long gone.
22 March 1999
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