My Brooklyn (357)

Rose Galvin

I grew up in the 1930s and 1940s in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. I lived on 19th Street, between Seeley and Vanderbuilt. Our candy store was Jack's and our butcher's name was Barney. My dad was a milk man during the depression and thankfully was never out of work. I went to elementary school at Immaculate Heart of Mary on Ft. Hamilton Parkway. Went to H.S. at St. Joseph's. I would love to hear from other old time Brooklynites who remembers when "Brooklyn was the world" . . . who can still recall five-cent trolley car rides, the Parachute Jump and "loosies" (single cigarettes) . . . a time when you could walk through Prospect Park in the wee hours of the morning and have no fear of being mugged. When you knew the whole neighborhood and people watched out for each others kids, cooked for the family if mom got sick or helped out when Dad was out of work. It was a time when neighborhoods meant you knew all the people on your street, maybe even around the whole block. And everyone's mother felt free to give you a good clobber if you needed one. This was MY Brooklyn.

3 June 2001

Fred Meglio

Brooklyn, 1946-1979

You have no idea how I cried reading this web site. I'm 55 years old now, lived in Bushwick (1403 Gates Ave.), where my dad was born in the same house back in the '20s. We lived between Wilson Ave. and Knickerboker Ave., went to Saint Barbara's church school—what a beautiful landmark she is—and a church, Saint Barbara's RC Church, 138 Bleecker Street. I left in November of 1979. I never looked back until I came back to visit in 1993. I almost died ten fold. I could not believe my eyes. Boy, did I cry that day. Believe me, it looked like Berlin—a war zone. My house was gone. They built new buildings and a school across the street. 277 Fire Dept. still there. Wow. I passed one building on Knickerboker Ave. that was still standing. I played there many times and knew the owners of that building. As I walked closer to the building I saw my name, "Freddy," that I carved in the wood of the stoop that still remains there. I did that with my name at the age of thirteen years old and it still remains there. How I cried. I kissed my name and left that area. My name is Fred Meglio, dad is John (nickname Mickey), Rose is my mother, Carmen was my sister who left us at eighteen years old (1962, November), my brother's Johnny Dominic. Anyone remember Brandler's Bakery? Well, my family ran the bakery until I left in November of '79. Many beautiful memories. Now I am in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, still working and enjoying my life here.

4 June 2001