My Brooklyn (292)

Joe Buonocore

My Brooklyn is in three parts including Redhook, Williamsburg and a section off Myrtle Ave. on Stockton St. (178 to be exact). I was born in Redhook and lived on Van Brunt St. I recall the Pioneer movie house and also the Clinton theater, Luna theater and the Happy Hour theater. I recall White Rock soda company along the docks near Todd Shipyards. My grandmother Mom Buonocore owned a bar combined with a restaurant and she was very generous to the unfortunate people of the neighborhood. When I moved to Williamsburg I lived at 97-98 South 8th. St. not far from the Schaefer brewery near the docks. The Williamsburg Savings Bank was around the corner from my apartment building. My grandfather was Eddie Rue who once trained fighters and he also worked on the railroad. We then moved to the Myrtle Ave. section and we lived at 178 Stockton St. I attended P.S. 55 and Jr. H.S. 148. Then is was back to Redhook. I got married at Visitation Church by Father Maroney in 1962 to Liz Raichle. By 1969 the Hook was fading (construction, people moving away etc.) so we moved to upstate New York in the Catskills. One of the last fun things we did was take the ferry boat ride to Rye Beach from the pier in Red Hook. I have many fond memories growing up in all three neighborhoods and still remember many of the people I once knew. Perhaps some of you are still out there.

27 September 2000

Joe Buonocore continues . . .

Gary Michael Steinhaus

I was born in Brooklyn in 1934 at Brooklyn Women's Hospital and resided in Brooklyn until a move to Miami in 1962. The public schools I attended were: P.S. 219, P.S. 232—Winthrop—Public School and Junior High School, and Samuel J. Tilden H.S. The areas where I lived the longest was E. 56 St. and Linden Blvd. My fondest memories relate to World War II since I am presently involved in W.W.II history and am working on a historical novel (need help) which begins in my real neighborhood in 1939 through October 1940. During W.W.II I was admitted to Ebbets Field for a Dodger game for the price of 100 pounds of newspaper. In late 1944 (I know the exact date from a recent book on FDR) all by myself, along Eastern Parkway, west of Ralph Avenue, I viewed FDR going by, at age 10. No one else was out there, and I don't remember waving, because I don't think I did.

28 September 2000