My Brooklyn

Edward Ferretti AKA Skippy

Playing buck buck, coco aleavo, Johnny on the pony, on Berkley Place and 5th Ave. Bring back 2 cent deposit bottles for a Mary Jane. Moved to 823 President St. over Thomas Shaw Candy Store. Anyone remember Purities. Brooklyn . . . lots of memories. . . . Just love this site. Makes me kind of sad. Wish we could all go back.

Bob Friedland

Do you have any of the old push cart knish recipes?

 

THE LAST KNISH-MAN

There are no more knish-men
on Pitkin Avenue.

No more flat knishes on waxed paper
sprinkled with too much coarse salt
so the crystals that did not adhere
slid off the smooth paper
on to the top of the sheet metal wagon,
or on to the wide sidewalks,
or off into the wind.

No more Litvaks.

No more Galitzianers.

Just black men in surplus greatcoats
burning beef fat in up-ended oildrums by the slaughterhouse.
Rubbing their hands, shaking and blowing on their knuckles,
passing a bottle, swallowing deeply to stay warm.

There are no more old tailors,
not even Mr. Koenig, with numbers
tattooed around their wrists.

No more appetizing-store owners slicing lox,
or offering a taste of wooden-boxed cream cheese
to mothers' boys on the tip of a sharp knife.
No more push-carts,
No more delicatessens with spicy brown mustard
rolled up in small cones of heavy brown waxed paper.

Even Harry Cabot, who drove to Spring Valley with my father,
to buy milk, during the strike.
Even Harry Cabot is dead.

Jim Jack

My Brooklyn was 53rd Street & 4th Avenue. We had a big crowd. One corner was an ice cream parlor, the other a luncheonette, the other a bar, and a movie house in the middle of the block. There was also a liquor store on that block. I guess that's why the crowd was so big: you didn't have to go far to amuse yourself. This was back in the 1950s. If anyone remembers e-mail me. Would love to talk over old times.

---

Readers' reports continue . . .

[ Jump to My Brooklyn, page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368]

---

Return to Brooklyn Home Page.

---

Copyright © 1995-2010 David Neal Miller. All rights reserved. For clarification and limited exceptions, see the Brooklyn Net copyright page. Last updated: December 26, 2010