Readers Report
Hot summers and cold winters. No air conditioning in summer and if you lived in my apartment very little heat in winter. But at that time I would not have traded places with anyone from Long Island.
There are many things Brooklyn is noted for. I won't list them because if you are a Brooklynite you already know. But Brooklyn was more than egg creams and stickball: it was full of friendships and bonds that will never be broken. Most of us have lost touch with each other over the years. We have all gone our separate ways, but I'm sure that a little piece of Brooklyn remains in all of us.
I bought this Web TV mostly to see if I could locate some of my old friends. It's hard for me because I can only type with one finger. I failed typing in junior high school. I would hope that if one of you who might remember, or know someone who might, please e-mail me. Bushwick or Ridgewood section, depending on who you ask. Public School 116, Knickerbocker Avenue. I lived at 284 Wilson Avenue. My name at that time was Alan Mezzapella. I have since changed it to Martin. Mostly hung out by Perry's candy store on Menahan and Wilson. Lots of times in Billy's poolroom on Wilson Avenue.
I hope that's enough information. Don't forget as you get older your memory starts to fade, as well as your hairline. Thank you for reading this.
24 July 1999
MY BROOKLYN was in the Boro Hall section (now known as Brooklyn Heights). I lived at 191 Amity Street between Court and Clinton in the 40s and 50s. Went to P.S. 78 (which is now an apartment building); junior high was P.S. 29 and Prospect Heights High School, graduating in 1954. We had a rooming house and rented rooms to mostly seamen from Norway & Sweden. I remember going to the Boro Hall Theatre on Court Street every Sunday, the Long Island College Bakery on Court Street, Arbeeny's Store on Court Street, where we used to get Syrian bread for 4 cents a loaf (now called pita bread, but much smaller) the ice cream parlor around the corner where we used to get Mexican hat cones (shaped like a Mexican hat, with ice cream in the middle and ice on the outside), a gill of ice cream; every night going for the News and Mirror (2 cents each) for my father, bike riding, roller skating (no TV until the early 50s). I have been trying for years to locate old school friends, Sheila Whalen (a redhead from Ireland), Nancy Tsatalos (from Greece) and Nine Velucci who I think lived on 3rd Street. We moved out of Brooklyn in 1958 to Brentwood, Long Island. I worked at Bankers Trust Company, 16 Wall Street. I've been living in PA for over 20 years now. Anything familiar on this page, please e-mail me.
24 July 1999
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