I Remember Greenpoint - Page 3
This is a continuation of "To the Point!'s" "I Remember Greenpoint" section. Here resident and non-residing Greenpointer's share their memories of living in a very special place located in Brooklyn, New York.
Bea Tortorici Sheftel You can email Bea at: BTS1CT@aol.com
I grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and dreamed of moving away to a place of trees and grass. Now I live in a beautiful area of Connecticut and I am happily remembering my childhood in Greenpoint, and so excited to have found this site. I hope many others soon join us. So many people in their 50's are afraid of the computer and the internet, and yet it is a link not only to each other, but to our past.
I was born January 24, 1941 to Francis Trapanai Tortorici and Salvatore Tortorici. My first home was at 154 Nassau Avenue. From there we moved to 74 Diamond Street when my brother was born. My sister, Virginia (Ginny) Radeska, was born in that house. Every Saturday my brother, sister and I went to the movies so Mom could clean the house. She would give us enough money for the movies and pack us a lunch. With a little extra we'd con out of her, we'd buy treats which we'd share, only we bought them at the candy store not the movies. We went to the Nassau Theater or the Meserole or RKO, depending on what was playing. Now they are all gone. Many years later, the Chopin opened. It featured Polish movies and some American, but I don't know if it is still there. My mother always said Greenpoint needed more places for kids to go and have recreation. Now there is even less to do than when we were kids and the young people have to brave the subway even to go to the movies. We were luckier. The bowling alley opened in the 60's I think, that was good news because we had some place else to go to have fun. My sister joined a bowling leaque. I liked to go and play with friends. In the summer (1950's) I took my brother and sister to MacCarren Pool which was free in the morning for kids. On the way home we'd share one hot dog and soda between the three of us. (There wasn't enough money for a hot dog for each of us.)
P.S. 34, where we went to elementary school, had a summer school play program where we played volley ball, and had arts and crafts, and bubble gum chewing contests. In the summer, the Norman Avenue library also had children's reading programs and sometimes filmstrips. My mother worked so we kids were pretty much on our own. Luckily, those days were safe and neighbors knew who the kids were and could keep an eye on you. I remember Trunz meat market where the butcher would give us a piece of hot dog or ham while we waited for Mom's order. There was Newberry's, a five and dime where I had my first job. Pizza places abounded. Now there is a MacDonald's in Greenpoint. There was a Burger King but it went out of business. The Triple Decker is still there though and it was my Dad's favorite restaurant.
Even though we are Italian, we were active in the Polish Church, St. Stanislaus. I was married there. My dad was President of the Holy Name. The first no Polish head of that organization. We were friends with the Rago family who opened Rago's funeral home. Mom and Dad were waked there by Mike Rago.
My dad was active in the K of C on Leonard Street. He also was active in the Republican Club. He was on the Greenpoint Planning Board. Mom was active in the Columbiettes of the K of C, and the Women's Auxiliary for the Republican club. We used to go to dances at those places. That was our recreation when I was dating my now husband. Once a month we went to a dance with my Mom and Dad, brother and sister and their friends. It was great fun. The K of C ran an annual carnival that we not only attended but my parents worked at. They had rides and all kinds of games for only a dime a chance. The carnival lasted a week and we usually went home with loads of prizes. We also walked what seemed a long way (now I drive everywhere) to Our Lady of Mount Carmel festival. My dad even was one of the men holding up the large statue one year while we followed with candles protected by cardboard cones. They had rides and games there too. It was something the whole family enjoyed. Mom loved to gamble and was especially partial to the money booth and the horse racing.
I became a teacher and taught third grade at St. Stanislaus school. I also taught at St. Bridgets in Ridgewood. We were discontented in Greenpoint. To get anywhere you had to take a train or bus and we felt stuck. So my husband and I moved to Connecticut in 1969 and we have lived here in Manchester ever since. Here we raised our son. When my parents were alive we traveled back and forth a lot, at least once a month. When my son wasn't in school, I'd spend weeks in the summer or during school vacation at Mom's. My favorite past time besides playing rummy with Mom, and my aunt and uncle, was to walk up the Avenue with Mom. Boy, they have a lot of wonderful shops in Greenpoint. Lots of bargains. And now I go back several times a year to visit my sister and her family. My aunt and her sons have moved away to live in Arizona. It's not the same Greenpoint, but at least it was wonderful while we had it. Web pages: http://www.angelfire.com/ct/beawriter/index.html http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1187
Bea Tortorici Sheftel You can email Bea at: BTS1CT@aol.com
GREENPOINT HALLOWEEN MEMORIES by Bea Sheftel Even though I am a Christian and don't celebrate witches and evil, I havealways liked Halloween. It sounds contradictory but for me it isn't, and for thousands of other people it isn't.
I liked the colors of Halloween, orange and black. The pumpkins were cheerful additions to home decorations. The costumes allowed me to be something I wasn't, whether it was a beautiful princess or a bride. I never wore witch costumes, though once I was a mummy, wrapped in white cloth strips for a movie costume party.
We had a movie theater in Greenpoint called the Meserole. Every Halloween it offered a costume party for kids. My cousin Jim, me and my brother and sister would go. We all had costumes, usually homemade. My brother and sister were dressed as Mr. and Mrs. North from a popular husband and wife detective movie. My mother put her hat on my little sister, who was probably 4 or 5 at the time, and my brother a year older. The hat had a veil which went over the face. She put rouge on Ginny's cheeks and lipstick on her lips. I don't remember the rest of the outfit, but Ginny looked very cute. Then she dressed Ricky up in a little boy's suit and put a fedora hat on him. I was wrapped up like a mummy and my cousin Jim was our big brother who took us to the movies. He didn't have a costume, but he wanted one. I don't think his mother could afford one. Anyway, Jim was always very creative. He took paper cups with pointed bottoms and stuck them in his ears. He put one in his mouth.
The first costume contest was for the little ones. My brother and sister won and every one clapped at their clever costumes. They won a game. I won nothing because I didn't want my face painted to match my costume so I wore a mask, but the mask didn't go with the outfit. Then Jim went up in his age category. He was the "thing". He actually won for most creative and got a prize. We were all happy at the show because we had free popcorn and something like 50 cartoons. We spent the afternoon at the movie theater.
This contest was run every year in the heyday of the Meserole theater during the 1950's to the early 1960's. It was a very popular event and most of the kids in the neighborhood participated. You see, in Greenpoint, we didn't go trick or treating on Halloween. In fact, we had never heard of such a thing. It was on Thanksgiving that all the kids got dressed up and went around to houses and asked, "Anything for Thanksgiving?"
Jim taught us sons so we'd get more money. Where ever we went, he have us sing and people would give us rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, and even sometimes quarters. Jim would divide the money up and we'd all go home with a dollar or so each. Again, it would be Jim, me, Ginny and Rick and usually Jim was in charge of the homemade costumes.
So maybe that explains why I like Halloween. It brings back happy childhood memories.
Jo Ann Roslan Aragona You can email Jo Ann at: mrsa48@ptd.net
I grew up in Greenpoint on Kingsland Avenue. Even though I moved to New Jersey when I was just 11, I still visited my grandmother during the summers. Unless you lived in Greenpoint, you just don't understand the nostalgia the sticks with you over the years. I remember... The sound of the junkman, "any ol raaags ol junks?" Buying two hot dogs for 25 cents from the hot dog man on the corner. Crossing the street on Kingsland Ave to get to Ralphie's candy store where you could get penny candies, or 2 cent jellybars, and 3 cent halvahs. Charlotte rousses in the cardboard cup that you pushed up as you ate it, first the whipped cream and the cherry; the dixie cups that when you peeled off the lid there was a picture of a movie star behind a thin layer of cellophane; 5 cents for a cherry coke; 5 cents for an ice cream cone with sprinkles. Gurky's 'beer garden' on the corner of Kingsland and Nassau Ave. Willie's grocery store where we did most of our shopping; White Eagle and Trunz butchers. Going to Fritzie's on Nassau Ave for a chocolate malt with my Dad. Running to St. Stan's through Winthrop Park with Barbara Bleja pretending we were riding horses to school. Going to Mass at St. Stan's, being in the May procession with the satin capes and carrying a flower. Stopping at the bakery for jelly donuts after Mass every Sunday. The bazaars at the school hall where you could win baskets of food or other prizes. The pizza place right before the subway on Nassau Ave where you could get a whole pizza for $1.50. Big Jim's hot dog's on Manhattan Ave who made the best cherry lime rickies; the newspaper stand on the corner. On the avenue---- White Eagle Bakery, Cushman's, a little store next to Big Jim's that sold leather goods and accessories; Beck's shoestore; Lofts candy store; John's Bargain Store; Triple Decker Restaurant; Newberry's; Woolworth's; the photobooth inside Newberry's. Freerick's ice cream parlor and all the homemade chocolate candy (especially the chocolate bunnies and Easter baskets). The Avenue - Cushman's bakery; Loft's candy store (loved those truffles); John's Bargain Store; Jim's Hot Dogs; The Meserole Theater; The Greenpoint Theater; Newberry's; Woolworth's; Triple Decker Restaurant; Bohacks. I remember the Christmas lights on the avenue. The big candy counter in Newberry's and the Christmas Stockings hanging up; getting the plastic santas filled with hard candies; Walking to the back and buying the shiny glass ornaments and tinsel for the tree; My father selling Christmas trees on our corner; the priests blessing your house on the Epiphany and writing with white chalk over your doorway; going to the Greenpoint Savings Bank and every year getting a different cardboard Santa (I wish I kept them). I remember Thanksgiving mornings, putting on a costume and going from door to door asking "Anything for Thanksgiving?" At Easter, getting the little chicks and keeping them in a shoebox next to the stove. On Palm Sunday getting crosses made from palm. When the doctor made house calls and he would give you a needle (no matter where you where hiding in the house). Playing stoop ball or jacks; roller skating on the sidewalk, putting on your skates with a skate key. My mother putting me in the airy to play. Leaving my doll carriage there and no one ever thinking of taking it. Sitting on the fire escape and Jimmy Casano passing down Archie comics to me on a rope. Going to the Winthrop Theater on Saturday morning for 25 cents. Going to see Cinderella at one of the theaters on Manhattan Ave and getting a pink Cinderella watch in a 'plastic' glass slipper. Staying on the stoop and talking till all hours of the morning. My mother letting me run through the sprinklers at Cherry St. Park. Going to the McCarren Park pool only once; Watching my brother play Little League Ball at McCarren Field. Walking across the street from Winthrop Park when the Gypsy moth caterpillars first came. The great french fries from the fish market. My uncle Stanley's fruit and vegetable market on Manhattan and Eagle St. How sad I was to move to New Jersey.
Jim Corless You can email Jim at: corless5@ntplx.net
Thank you for affording me the opportunity to share my memories of Greenpoint with others who cherish similar memories.
Jo Ann Roslan Aragona's recollection of Ralphie's Candy Store brought back fond memories. Ralph's was a little hole it the wall place on Kingsland Avenue near Nassau Avenue, right behind Gerke's Gin Mill. It amazes me to this day that so many things could be sold out of such a small store! The really amazing thing is that Ralphie could find these things. There was such clutter and apparent chaos in that store... but Ralph knew just where everything was.
Willie Bica's Grocery store was also an amazing place. This was before supermarkets so people did all there shopping at either Willie's or Buckley's. (Except , of course, for meat which you bought at the butcher shop.) I would go there with a list from my mother and proudly read off the items that we needed, whereupon young Willie (the son) would dash about the store plucking things from the shelves with this device that would allow him to reach to the top shelf without toppling the merchandise. Then (and this was even more amazing) he would add up the total on the brown paper bag with such speed and accuracy that I thought the man must be a mathematical genius. And he probably was. These people worked hard! And they had the best cold cuts in the world.
I also remember another candy store right next store to Willie's called Carney's. They sold great candy and ice cream there. Sunflower seeds and Pumpkin seeds with an Indian head on the box. Brown licorice, mellow rolls, toys such as yo yo's, tops, baseball cards, kazoos, whistles, spaldeens, those little balsa wood airplanes...all kinds of great stuff! I'll never forget one day when for about 5 or 10 cents I bought a small cardboard box full of a variety of badges and pin-on buttons. They said things like "I like Ike" and "Local 1044 Brotherhood of Steam fitters" ... all kids of things that meant absolutely nothing to me except that I thought that this was the coolest thing anybody could ever have pinned to their clothes. My mother thought I was an idiot for wasting money on such junk but here it is 40 years later and I still cherish the memory of sorting through that stuff.
I remember the Hot Dog Man who sold hot dogs from the cart on the corner of Kingsland and Nassau. Two dogs for 25 cents! I remember he was always chewing on something. When I was a kid I assumed, of course, that he was eating a hot dog. I envied him the ability to eat one of those delicious hot dogs any time he wanted...what a lucky guy! Only later did I find out from my mother that he was chewing tobacco all that time.
When my kids would ask me "Dad, when you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?". I tell them I wanted to be a Whip Man. Then I have to explain myself. Remember the rides that used to tour the neighborhoods of Greenpoint? The Merry-Go-Round, The Swing, and The Whip? They'd come in the summer, of course, with their loudspeakers blaring the radio. The kids on the street would love when they came by. They would beg their parents for the 10 cents to go on the ride and then scream when the Whip would zip them around the turn, or when the Swing would reach its peak and they would free fall. Well, I was one of those kids and I loved the Whip Man. I could think of no greater calling in life than to drive the Whip Truck with the radio blasting around the neighborhoods of Greenpoint! Besides, you could ride the Whip any time you wanted!
I've got a million memories of Greenpoint, these have just been a few.
Dave Chocko You can email Dave at: Dave_Chocko@fac.com
Dear Frank, My cousin and I, John Chocko & Dave Chocko, grew up in Greenpoint and lived on Eckford St. for several years before moving on. Like many of your readers, your articles brought back many memories . At a later time we will put together and expand on some of the following memories: Playing ball in McCarren Park-Going down the round slide in Winthrope Park-Attending kindergarten at Stanislaus Kostka- Watching my grandfather play shuffleboard at the PLAV. Polish Legion of American War Veterans- Flying the pigeons on the roof- Going to see my first movie " Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid " at the Mesrole Theatre on Manhattan Ave.-Listening to my Great Grandmother describe how a plane crashed into the Empire State Building where she worked- Walking to get the baby strollers from the storage room- My Great Grandfather being struck and killed by a truck while crossing McGuiness Blvd. on his way to church- Playing " Stoop Ball " on Eckford St. - WOW, it felt like an earthquake when a truck would come down the street! Regards Dave Chocko.
Patricia Dietz You can email Patricia at: pattid@bright.net
I found your I Remember Greenpoint looking up my old schools. P S 34, P S 126 and Williamsburg Vocational H.S. I grew up on Greenpoint Ave. across the street from Leviton's. I was born on Java Street in 1939 St. Patricks Day Always thought all the fanfare was for my birthday, so my sisters told me. After they tore our building down for a highway we moved to 31 Diamond Street. My father had a pidgeon store on Greenpoint Ave. He would never let us have a baby chick on Easter. Fred Dietz was his name. I remember Mrs Fox living in an apartment over Honigs retail store. I wish i could remember all the stores and the candystore on the corner of Leanard St. down from St. Anthonys. We lived over a grocery store on Greenpoint Ave. run by a Mr. Morris. My nieces Aunt Mary (McVicker) lived 50 years at 756 Leonard St. Very dedicate to the church. I remember The American Theater. For 10cents we got 2 moves plus a Serial with cliffhanger. Plus 2 cents for candy. My older sister remembers our father winning a pig at the theater and the landlord buthering it. UGH!
My older sister Charlotte paid 5 cents and got a free ice cream. I remember trick or treating for pennies on Thanksgiving. People here in Ohio don't believe it, but I have proof in ANYTHING F' THANKSGIVING.... Fell at McCarrens Park and broke my front tooth. Not a good memory. I remember pitching pennies, stoop ball and Potsey ( I wrote down the instructions for Potsey, but couldn't find the e-mail address of the lady who wanted them). I remember walking over the bridge to Calvary Cemetery. I can still smell the glue factory at Newtown Creek. I loved Italian Feast days. I miss Polish bakeries. Although I do get a Bobka from my sister in New Jersey every once in awhile Miss the ocean, clamming, crabbing with my brothers. My one brother (Buster) worked at the Flushing Meadow Zoo until they closed. He retired from Coney Island last year. Miss knishes and the frankfurter men, but do not miss the subways. I had to take two busses and 2 trains to Wall St. every morning for work. Here in Ohio 5 minutes and I'm there., My mother Lillian, who is 99 years old says she had to take a horse drawn trolley at 4 AM to go to work at Steinway. Boy, does she have the memories.... my son was born at St. Catherine's Hospital and baptized at St. Alphonsus. His godmother lived on Driggs Ave. now in Florida. Will have to get her to e-mail her memories. It is a small world. I live in a small town and met some people with New York accents and guess where they were from, Greenpoint, not only that but they lived at 31 Diamond St. only at different years. Perhaps they know some of the names on the website. Their name is Kos, havn't really talked to them since i gave the info on Greenpoint Thank you for a wonderful trip down memory lane. Visit this site quite a bit to check on updates. Sincerly Patricia Dietz E-Mail pattid@bright.net
Jim Tuite You can email Jim at: Ace3king@aol. com
(Jim was the editor of the Greenpoint Weekly Star in the 1940's)Casey Stengel knew how to capture and captivate an audience. When you shook hands with him, he wouldn't let go! He would launch into one of his inimitable stories that made him such a character over many years. When I asked him why he didn't pal around with guys his own age, he said: "Everybody my age is dead."
That's how I feel when I read some of the stories of "old" Grenpoint. To paraphrase Stengel, "Can't anybody remember back to the 1920's and 1930's?" I was thinking especially of Winthrop Park when it was the social center of Greenpoint, especially in the summer. There was a distinct class system, and it worked like this, clockwise, starting with the park opposite the Lutheran church on Russell Street: This is where the elite congregated, outside the door of the moneyed Jones family. The interest was centered on Ann Jones, who later married Willie Boyle , who went on to become a Police Lieutenant. I mean, these were the dudes of our neighborhood, including brother Bub Jones. Willie Fagin was one of them, and he became a doctor (obstetrician?). There was Bob Shutta. Man, how I wanted to belong. But I knew my place, and it wasn't there.
At the northen tip of the park, just off Russell, was Feingold's candy store. Moe was sort of an unofficial recruiter for the Boys High football team and also coached his own team, the Aztecs. Bill Gyves, an end and place-kicker, didn't go to Boys High but became a pediatrician . On that corner also were Lucille Olczewski, whose family owned the beauty parlor, and her friends, Marge Flammer (later to die early of a heart condition) and Ethel Clampitt.
There was a Polish accent on the Northeast tip of the park, where the gang gathered at an ice cream parlor whose name I can't remember. But they had really a semi-pro football team, with people like Ted Lewandowski, John Guntash (later to become police chief of Barrington, Mass.) and my brother in law, Gene Sypulski. I think they were called the Macons but they were too rough for us poor Aztecs.
A few doors away were Jack and Marion Ward. I see another Ward is living there now, on Monitor Street. If memory serves, I think Marion married Harry Waring (Apollo Street) who was killed in a construction accident. Jack married a Southern girl and served in the Army during the war, then with the NYPD mounted as a lieutenant afterward. A few more doors up were the bad-boy Feeney brothers, They were small and swift as the wind but I can't remember the name of their football team. On the corner was PS 110, which my wife-to-be attended.
The southern border (Driggs Ave.) was what my friend Nelson deMille would call "terra igcognita' .The Winthrop Theater was on the south side of the street but the nother side was dull, dull .dull. Is there anybody out there who remembers any of this ?
Billy Fox You can email Billy at: EO11FOX@aol.com
I lived at 79 Huron Street, I didn't know then but what a wonder place to live. My Name is Billy Fox, Nick name Foxy. Some of my friends were David Mean,Fats,Jimmy, Joey,Steve these three were brothers, Harry, Stanley,and Stanley's brother Joey, Danny, How can I forget Johnny Mead, oy Peter Cott, Eddie . Harry and Eddie started the Gang called the HE gang. It was all the big guys and the younger guys. We all, plus some more people that I can't remember the spelling of their name, hung out on the Huron Street pier on the river. We all were tight, didn't think that would ever end. One of the things I remember the most and enjoyed the most was Xmas eve, going to all of our friends house eating drinking and just loving each other.This is something I have never found again. When you think back on when you think back, this was what life was all about. I am now 44 years old, not old, not young but still 44. I just don't know where these days went to. I miss every one of them. We lost Jimmy the brother of Joey and Steve . He was 14 and my best friend, he ripped off a car and drove off the Huron Street pier, truly a loss for all. Lost Harry to drugs Jonny from Franklin just lost his mind. lost a lot of friends to Drugs. It was hard times but good times and they were our times.Oh yes I can not forget Walter Wiper. If anyone of you are out there know this man I would be happy to hear from you.
To Cookie who was Jimmy's girl friend: oh we would always fight, but after many years I still think of you. I always had a great love for you as a person. You know, you showed me how to feel for others.
I am truly a Greenpointer and in my heart will always be. Thank you Billy Fox e-mail me at EO11FOX@aol.com
Tom Reiss You can email Tom at: jackier@citrus.infi.net
I'm 67 years old. I was born at St. Catherine's Hospital in Greenpoint but lived in Woodside, Queens while growing up (across the Newtown Creek from Greenpoint). I remember crossing the Penny Bridge when I was young (I don't remember whether I had to pay a penny). I live in Florida now and I don't think that the Penny Bridge is there anymore.
My father used to take me swimming at McCarren Park pool. We used to visit oneof my aunts who lived on Monitor St. on New Year's Day and another aunt who lived on Newell St. on New Year's Eve.
Janet Rosholdt Davis You can email Janet at: wgd706@gateway.net
I was born on Java St in 1921 in my grandparents (Stulz) house across the street from PS 22, where I started school. I continued in John Erickson Jr.High School 126 on Guernsey St and graduated in 1936. We lived on Oak St near the Old Folks Home. My brother, Erling, played hockey on roller skates with friends on the street. We girls used to roller skate on the street, jumping over the sewer plates. Halloween was a nightmare for girls, because the boys used to fill stockings with flour and chase us, hitting us and marking our backs. Halloween was for tricks; my grandparents had an iron picket fence in front of their house and after having the front gate removed too many times and found a block away, they removed it themselves and stored it.
Thanksgiving morning, we dressed as "ragamuffins" or hobos in old clothes, rang doorbells asking "anything for Thanksgiving?". One year my brother and his friends rented a small horse drawn wagon and went through the streets singing while my brother played his saxophone.
There were lots of stores in Greenpoint; my mother used to go to Behren's butcher store at the corner of Oak and Calyer Streets and Balducci's fruit and vegetable store on Manhattan Ave. near St. Anthony's Church; every Friday night we would get fried fish from the fish store on Manhattan Ave.. Then there was my first experience with "take-out" food when , as a young teenager, I had to get Chinese dinners from the China Garden restaurant above a store on Manhattan Ave. I would always take my girlfriend with me because I was apprehensive about the Chinese and was ready to make a fast exit down that long flight of marble stairs to the street below. The Chinese restaurant was still there under another name in 1944 when, after my husband's return from WWII, we lived on Noble Street briefly in our first apartment and ate there frequently.
My mother bought my dresses at the French Shop on Manhattan Ave. near the Meserole Theatre. There was a great ice cream "parlor" near the Meserole Theatre on Manhattan Ave where everyone gathered in the booths enjoying "black and white sodas" and "egg creams".
On Sunday nights, my brother and I went to the college basketball games and dances at St. Anthony's Church Hall on Leonard St. where St. John's often played.
After a snow storm, we kids would go "bellywhopping" on our sleds from the top of the hill on Noble and Lorimer Sts. down to the bottom at Franklin St; it was a long walk back to the top, but worth the thrill. We also lived in a three family house at the corner of Lorimer and Calyer Sts. with a wonderful German deli across the street. On another corner was Chris' saloon.
The smell from the glue factory near the LI City bridge over Newtown Creek, referred to by everyone as Lavender Lake, was awful. The old trolley car barn was at the end of the tracks that ran from there all along Manhattan Ave. and out past McCarren Park into Wiliamsburg and beyond. McCarren Park had a beautiful pool; outside were umbrella shaded stands selling 2 cent ice cream and soda.
The Greenpoint Library on the corner of Leonard St. and Norman Ave. was where we not only went to get books and write reports from the encyclopedias, but girls met boys and vice versa. I remember seeing the Vaudeville shows on Wednesday nights at the RKO Greenpoint Theatre; it had box seats like an opera house. On Saturdays, the kids were kept on their best behavior by a "matron" who patrolled the aisles with a flashlight
My mother was brought up in Greenpoint from age 2 in 1898; she worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on 23rd St,NYC in her late teens and told me that one severly cold winter, they could actually walk across the East River from the docks on West St across to 23rd St in NYC directly opposite.
After graduating from JRHS126, I spent the next three years traveling to and from Girls Commercial High School (now Prospect HS) near the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and Prospect Park. I had to take the trolley car from Calyer St and Manhattan Ave for a one hour's ride and almost every morning, I got carsick. After getting off the trolley, I had a long 4 block walk to the school, lugging my heavy book bag. Even now, I sometimes have a dream of forgetting my schoolbag on the sidewalk when I got on the trolley. As a child, we had chunks of ice delivered by the ice man, Dominic, who had a horse-drawn wagon . In the winter, we had a wooden box attached to a window sill outside the kitchen window in which we kept bottles of milk. When it got very cold, the cream would rise above the neck of the bottle with the cardboard cap above it an inch or so. Mom cooked on a caol stove which meant emptying ashes every night; this only lasted a short time until we got a refrigerator and gas stove.
I remember the big, long May Day parades every May 1st along Leonard St in which all the Protestant churches were represented; some of my friends were in it, but since I was Catholic, I could only watch.
During 1943-1944, while my husband was in Europe in WWII, I lived with my parents on Calyer St and remember the air raid drills when we had to darken all windows. Volunteer air raid wardens patrolled the streets during the drills. The Queen Mary had been made into a troop ship and was docked in the river in New York across from Greenpoint; whenever we heard that very recognizable deep, deep horn sounding, we knew that the Queen was about to sail overseas again with the troops-always at night. It was the secret departure that we all knew about.
Submitted by Warren Davis for Janet Rosholdt Davis
L.G. Merrill You can email L.G. at: kmapr@pacbell.net
I came along in 1948, the second generation of my family to be born in Greenpoint (my grandparents came from Poland). I left Greenpoint shortly after my 20th birthday, although I lost my connection to the neighborhood years before that. I've never been back. When I remember Greenpoint, it seems like such an innocent time and place. Greenpoint was -- at least in memory -- unmarked by the outside world and to a great extent, unchanged by time. My Greenpoint was almost identical to my mother's. We both went to P.S. 34 and had many of the same teachers (who were old even in my mother's time). The people were the same, the stores were the same. That sad, deserted dance floor at the New Garden Chinese Restaurant was deserted during my parent's day (reviving only briefly when "the boys" came home from World War II). When something new did happen, it was electrifying. I remember coming home from school one afternoon when I was ten or eleven and finding a flyer for "GREENPOINT DAYS" in the mailbox. This would be an unheard of sales and civic event of mammoth proportions! Merchants were going to wear straw hats! They were going to give free lollipops to the kids! booths chock-full of bargain merchandise would be set up on the sidewalks! There would be banners and, possibly, balloons! I'd never seen anything like it. In my imagination, Greenpoint Days took on the proportions of County Fair and Fourth of July Parade (pieced together from old movies and TV shows). Finally, The Day arrived. My mom, my little sister and I walked from Eckford Street to Manhattan Avenue -- "the Avenue" (pronounced, of course, "the yavnya"). It was a warm summer night. The breeze carried drifts of music all the way to Nassau Avenue, firing my anticipation. I remember old-fashioned costumes and clowns, (whether there were any or not), and genuine excitement. Half of Greenpoint was strolling down Manhattan Avenue, the kids giving full attention to the free lollipops, the adults exploring bins loaded with bargains. I won a prize -- a Big Chief notebook. It was an evening full of the unequalled thrill of something new and different.
Thomas V. McLoughlin You can email Tom at: tommack@mindspring.com
I have many memories of Greenpoint, I grew up on Van Dam Street at the foot of the Kosciusko Bridge, between Nassau and Meeker Aves. I remember this section of Greenpoint being referred to as " The End of the Pickle". Mabye it had something to do with the Pickle factory located over there ???. Anyway one of the earliest memories I have is, lying in my bed on the 2nd. floor apt. we lived in, and looking out of the bedroom window at the neon sign on the Bklyn. Union Gas Tanks. The sign would light up in sequence. "COOK - HEAT - FUEL" with a flickering neon flame of blue. I would fall asleep watching that sign light up, and go out, over and over. I have memories of St. Cecila, the tough Brothers there, the missed homework assignments, and the terror that followed, from being in school without those assignments. There was the "Playground of the old "DS", the abandoned Dept. of Sanitation building down by the Newtown Creek. Me and my friends spend years playing in there. It offered a place of amusement that no park could ever offer. A giant of a place, with a new room, and a new experience around every corner. Cherry St. Park was nice sure, but the DS was ours !!!! I could go on for hours about all of this, and any of my friends that might read this would say, " How about the time we did this, or that" Well I won't bore you with all of that. What I want to say is, when I think back to that block, and what happened on that block that changed my life forever, I can't even start to imagine anything more important then this. It was a "warm summer day", and I was "hanging out", sitting on the corner of Van Dam Street and Nassau Ave. I was in my early teens, and I had nothing special on my mind. Just the passing of another summer day. As I sat there, I was looking down the block toward Meeker Ave., walking down the block towards me was the most beautifull girl I have ever seen in all of my young life. She was wearing a red and white checkered angel blouse, a pair of white shorts, and white tiny sneakers. I couldn't believe my eyes !!!!. My heart was racing, there was a stirring inside me that I have never felt before, ( and I have never felt again ). I was frozen, sitting there, watching her get closer and closer. Somehow I remember that I had to keep staring because I thought, it must be a dream, and it's all going to disappear in a puff of smoke, or a flash of light somehow!!!!! Well she didn't disappear, and to "THIS DAY" she still turns my head, and makes my heart race. That was over 35 yrs. ago. And that girl was, and is today, my wife Michelle. Funny how a thing like that would lead to this letter, there are a thousand stories that I could tell about my childhood days, my friends, and the times we had in school etc. But they all seem so small compared to that summer day I fell in "LOVE". I have never told this story to anyone else but her, at least not to as many that are going to see it now. I hope that I havn't bored you too much, but it's important for me to say this, because it was a " Life Changing Experience" We have had our rough times sure, but I stll love her as much as I did when I saw her that "warm summer day" !!! Now there are two beautifull women around me , my daughter Brandi, a young lady herself, who has also changed my life. And when I look at her, she is the picture of her mother when I saw her that "warm summer day". Go figure HUH, what made me so lucky !!!!!!!
Tommy - "MONK"
Thomas V Mcloughlin
tommack@mindspring.com
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