I remember there were at least one Marty, a Howie and a Larry in the building, though I can't remember all their last names for the life of me. I do remember a Martin Spector, whose mother's first name was Emma, and a Robert Greenwald. Anyone know them? There were probably people with those first names in most of the buildings in the neighborhood. Did any of them live in Apartment 6A? I think at least two of them (Larry and Howie)were among the group that used to watch our television when we got one a little before their families did. I used to have arguments with them because they wanted to watch Captain Video and I wanted to watch Kukla, Fran and Ollie!

I forgot to answer the rest of your question. I was at P.S. 93 from 1948-1951. Then my father got a job for the State govt. and we moved to Albany. I live in Canada now - have done for last 30 years. I'm o k with that, except when the Blue Jays play the Yankees, and I have major loyalty crises. Did anyone else here spend the first years of their lives thinking that the World Series was an annual competition between the Yankees and the Dodgers (Brooklyn Dodgers, of course) and get the shock of your life when you found out other teams were allowed to play?

Did you know a David Heller from PS 93? That would be my brother. How about his friends Arnie Bockar, Martin Lax, Neil Shapiro.

Yes, I also knew Spector, as well as Captain Video and Kukla, Fran and Ollie...

And YES, I always theought that the World Series was an annual affair between the Yankees and the Dodgers, because, well, it WAS!!

Does your brother remember Mrs. Weinstein? She started the year I was in third grade as Miss Katz, and got married over Christmas vacation. I think we had a Miss Shor for second grade, but I'm not entirely sure. I don't remember the last names of anyone in the class, and the first names probably apply to half the people in school in the Bronx at that time! If I think hard enough, I can make David Heller ring a bell, but that might be the power of suggestion. Do you know what happened to Martin Spector? If you stayed in the neighborhood right through high school you probably have more connections.

There were several "camps" of people. I was more the Evergreen/Westchester/172nd St. crowd. Those folks we discussed before were the Watson crew, although later I became good friends with Larry Falk, Marty Zwiebach, Howie Leibowitz. My friend Robert Kerekes was among the first to move into those Garden Apartments across from your apartment building. Another person from your house was Steven Tennenbaum, who was also a good friend. In the late 60's we were of the age who went to Manhattan to go dancing at the "Golden 20's", a small dance club on 73'rd and 2nd Avenue. We drove there every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night.

Those were GREAT times, weren't they?

I owned a 1964 1/2 Shelby Mustang, fire-engine red, 2+2 fastback, so naturally, my car was THE car to make the weekly trip. What did we care, gas was 32-cents per gallon.

We are thinking about trying to organize a reunion.

Interested?

Great, great memories.

If there's a reunion and I can possibly make it, I'll come. My English husband has been hearing about the neighborhood for the last 42 years and has never seen it! Steven Tennenbaum is a name I remember, though I can't remember the person. Did any of your crowd go to Hebrew/Yiddish School at the Dennison (?) Folk Schule?

I believe we all went to Young Israel (Westchester and Stratford?)or the one on Elder and Bronx River or 172'nd.

"Chanukah oh Chanukah
Lets all dance the Hora
Let's have a party
We'll light the Menorah..."

Gather round the table
we'll give you a treat


And while we are
playing'
the candles are burning low

(that all I remember)

HAHAHAAH

HAHAHAHA haven't thought of that in 50 years.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mickeymantle,

I went to Sunday school for a year at Young Israel before I started going after school to the folk shule (which I believe was run by the Workmen's Circle). I remember it well. Zoom golly golly golly, zoom golly golly, zoom golly golly golly, zoom golly golly! Bet you hadn't thought of THAT in years either! Both places were a lot more fun (and more politically enlightened) than the suburban temples I had to go to when we moved upstate.
Given that you stayed in the neighborhood till you were a young adult, you must have been there during the period when it was changing its character. Was there a period when it actually managed to be a stable, ethnically mixed neighborhood?

My father was a bookkeeper for the Rosedale, the major landlord in the neighborhood, in the 40s and early 50s. When he got his accounting qualification he took a job for the New York State Division of Housing because he honestly believed that it could help correct the injustices of the old landlord system. He was actually quite excited when the first projects came to the neighborhood, though, ironically, his working for the state made us part of the early wave of white flight. By the time he died in 1978 he was very disillusioned about what public housing had become. I almost cried, with a mixture of loss and guilt, when I read that 1471 Watson Avenue, across Evergreen from where I lived, was now a homeless shelter. There do seem to be multi-cultural, multi-racial, middle income neighborhoods in New York - could ours ever have become one?

Yeah, Rosedale Management. I paid my rent to your dad, if I remember correctly.

Do you remember walking across Bruckner to get to PS 93, or only the new bridge they built when I was in the third grade or so?

How about White Castle on Bruckner and Soundview when you attended 123? 12-cent burgers, extra pickles and ALL!!! Seven burgers, fries AND a small coke, 97 cents, if my memory serves me correct (!!!!)

I took home three pennies change to boot!!

WOW, ,meet me there and I will treat you to lunch,,,HAHAHAA

Does anyone remember the quantset huts on Bruckner west of the Bronx River Parkway?

My mother took the census there in 1950.

I went to the Young Israel on Stratford. Prior to moving to that location the Shul was located in a few store fronts on Ward Avenue on the north west corner of Westchester.

My dad was just the bookkeeper! That's why we ended up in Albany. I sure do remember the White Castle - it was one of the first places we went to when my parents decided Leviticus only applied inside the house! I also loved the Howard Johnson's on Bruckner Blvd., where we went for ice cream, and the fruit stand nearby where we bought watermelons in the summer. Yes, redwrangle, I remember the Quanset Huts well - they were very close to 1020 Boynton, where we lived before we moved to Watson Ave. I had a friend who lived there, but I can't remember her name at all.

I did cross Bruckner to get to P.S. 93 - it wasn't a highway then, just a very wide street with a traffic light. And before school started, my folks took me out to give me a long lesson on not crossing against the light--I think they told me the police would arrest me, my whole family, and perhaps some of the neighbors if I did -- much more frightening than just getting run over. Of course, when I was in my first year at P.S. 93 we were still on Boynton Avenue and Bruckner, and my mother could watch me cross through the window.
Does anyone else remember playing in the snow in the middle of Bruckner Blvd. during the blizzard of 1948, (or maybe 47 - there were big blizzards both years. 47 was bigger, according to the reports on the internet, but for some reason I associate playing in middle of Bruckner with 48) when there wasn't a car in sight?

Another thing I remember vividly is the whole neighborhood erupting in joyful noise on V.E. day -- I think it's about my earliest memory. Does anyone else remember it?

I have an album with some pictures of the neighborhood in it. I'll try to scan them and post them when I can.

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I never did go to 123, by the way. We moved upstate after third grade.

Link to Google Street View of White Castle

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=...bp=12,340.2,,0,-6.96



You can also use Google maps street view to walk around Evergreen and Elder on the far side of Westchester, and along Westchester itself, but alas, not "our" side. Still, it's like going back home - and the folks look pretty nice too.

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