My Brooklyn

Louis Leopold

The Brooklyn I remember was divided into two eras: 1933–1941 and 1941–1952.

I was born in Beth El Hospital in 1933. During the first era, I lived in Brownsville, mainly on Christopher Ave., between Blake and Dumont. We were an island surrounded by ice cream factories, a pushcart peddler's stable and both a cow and kosher chicken slaughter house. Apartment houses were divided by wooden back yard fences.

I remember:

• Every Saturday morning, watching the peddlers, of which my grandfather was one, playing Pinochle in the pushcart stable. I often wondered how after only a few plays they knew the winner of that game;
• During the summer:
  
  • Hitchhiking on the back of horse drawn wagons to Betsy Head Pool;
  • Each evening, scrounging through the ice cream factory's discards, gouging with ice cream;
• Climbing back yard fences onto the slaughterhouses' rooftops and watching cows herded to the slaughter rooms;
• Every Saturday afternoon, on my way to the Rio movie, stopping at the Stone Ave. delicatessen for a 10 cent hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut. You can't get those anymore;
• Seeing great serials of those days: The Green Hornet, Captain Marvel, Fu Man Chu, main features like Tarzan, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein, The Mummy's Hand, Abbot and Costello meeting each of the creatures and Keystone Cops races, which if you had the number of the winner you would win a prize. All this for only 10 cents;
• Riding scooters made from 2x4s, orange crates and a roller skate;
• Shooting linoleum squares with guns made from the ends of orange crates and rubber bands;
• Three o'clock snacks of Yankee Doodle cupcakes and a glass of milk.

The second era, 1941–1952, I lived in Crown Heights, on Lincoln Place between Schenectady and Troy across the street from P.S. 167. I went to P.S. 167 and to Brooklyn Tech High School. This was a different era. Horse and wagons were replaced with trolley cars which were subsequently replaced by buses.

From this era I remember and I can relate to "My Brooklyn Stories":

• Playing stickball in the P.S. 167 schoolyard. I still remember the shot I hit that went out of the schoolyard over the rooftop of the building on the next street;
• Playing in season sports: touch football, basketball, softball, baseball, punchball. I still remember the strawberries on my thigh from sliding on concrete;
• Handball at Lincoln Terrace Park. Going home in the evening and stopping at the luncheonette on Eastern Parkway and Utica for an egg cream and pretzel;
• White Castle hamburgers. With a coupon, you could get 5 hamburgers for a dollar. Yes, I read that you were able to get 10 for a dollar. Boy did we gorge up on them;
• Standing on line to get my ration of bubble gum;
• Filling bottle caps with wax or banana peels to play skelly;
• Flipping tickets or playing for tickets using shoe heels;
• Toasted almond and malted ice cream pops from the Good Humor truck;
• Real corned beef on club sandwiches;
• Sour pickles and sauerkraut from the barrel;
• Chow mein burgers and hot dogs from Nathan's at Coney Island;
• Sitting in the center field bleachers at Ebbets Field watching the Dodgers. If we were lucky we'd see a double header. Night games were a rarity;
• Seeing Dan Bankhead, one of the earliest Negroes to make it to the big leagues, hit a home run in his first time at bat. A pitcher yet. Pete Reiser destroying himself against the center and left field walls;
• The daily debates over which New York team was the best.
  

Those were the days. Oh to go back to the past.

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