My Brooklyn (260)

Valerie Maldonado

Yo, what up all my dogs from Brooklyn! What da deal? I've missed you beautiful people. The reason why I say that is because I've moved to Alabama. (Yes Alabama). Coming from Canarsie Brooklyn all the way to Huntsville Alabama is a great change. Yo, the people are so damn nice and I hate it (naw it's cool) but it'll take some gettin used to. I mean when I was in Brooklyn I always had somewhere to go and something to do. You didn't need a car, just hop on the bus or train. It was the best feeling in the world. Out here you need a car, ain't nothing to do and it's BORING. The reason why I moved out here is because I got accepted to one of the best cosmetology schools out here. I'll be here for about one year and then I plan on going back to the big B.K baby. I'll be going to college out there and studying business management to hopefully own my own salon one day. I'm 20 years old and have a lot of goals that I have to achieve one day. I use to attend Canarsie H.S. and have a boyfriend that was our quarterback. His name is Reggie Rothwell, he is the best! He led the way and took us to the final but unfortunately lost to Susan Wagner H.S. It broke our hearts, but like we say in Canarsie, "Life is what you make my ******, and I'ma make it." You see being raised in N.Y. kinda made me hard and sometimes I don't know how to deal with certain situations but being out here in Alabama made me realize that it's not always as bad as you think, and there is always someone out there that has it worse than you. Yo, I want to let everyone that reads this to always remember that right! Keep your head up and even though I don't know you I feel that we are one people and remember that there is no place like home!

15 May 2000

Edward Tolan

I was born in Kings County Hospital in 1951. I lived at 20 Granite St. in the East New York section of Brooklyn. It was bordered by Bushwick Ave. and Broadway. I went to Our Lady of Lourdes school and church on Aberdeen St. The church was huge. It had a main altar and two side altars as well as another altar above the main altar in a grotto of St. Mary. We were taught by the Franciscan brothers and nuns. I was an altar boy and choir boy. I remember several families on my block—the Fraziers (Charlie), the Kennys (Billy) and the Webb family. The elevator line ran on Broadway and eventually over the Williamsburg Bridge. Other streets in the area were Chauncey (Jackie Gleason), DeSales Place, Moffit, Cooper, Decatur, Halsey and Gates Ave. Who can forget Myrtle Ave. and the Myrtle Ave. train? My dad used to take us on that train to Coney Island. I played softball and basketball in Aberdeen Park. I also played handball in Kel-a hand-Kelly park (not sure of the spelling). We also went up to Highland and Lowland Parks. I remember the old stone wall along Bushwick on the way to Highland Park. Someone told us that the holes in the wall were made by bullets during the Revolutionary War, and the bridge is still for sale. I attended Bishop Loughlin H.S. near Lafayette Ave. I believe it was the old A train that got us there. I remember the 1965 blackout. I was home but my sister got caught on the train. I now live in Pennsylvania but will always remember my Brooklyn days (Yankees, Giants, OK the Mets, stoop and stick ball, punch ball and knocking out those big old street lights, from the bottom, with a baseball bat.

19 May 2000