park slope when

Also ....the 72nd Police Pct ...it was still on 16st and 5th ave right ????

yes I remember hearing about him ....what about Mr. Forte

Mr. Struthers - he was the Divisional Vice president and a Navy man....I was his Secretary

Suzie Benc 17st wrote: Hey Warren ...I have a question ....you mentioned Bars....did you know Vinny Monahan ...he bartended on 9st by McDonalds and the key shop???

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I believe that was Andys bar

The 72nd pct moved to 25th & 4th , the old building was knocked down and was a parking lot for a few years.

Hi Hamilton ....how are you ?? I try to re-connect with Warren on here ...he was a regular on our other blog
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=496853#496853
you should check maybe you know someone from there

I mentioned the Bar on 9st ....that was my Uncle through Marriage who Bartended their for years ...unfortunately he passed away. He would tell me similiar stories about the neighborhood way back .....

2nd - I grew up on 17st ....so I know its a parking lot now/possibly something else as we speak ....lol
I was just curious if it was their when Warren was little ?

You mentioned Staven Hagen ....I remember looking in the windows especially around the Holidays with my Parents ....me and my brother were into music ....and one store front wondow had all the musical stuff.....and the other window ...would have the poor wedding rings sold ...because of broken relationships or to pay their bills ....kind of like now.....so sad!

Suzie Benc 17st wrote: yes I remember hearing about him ....what about Mr. Forte

Mr. Struthers - he was the Divisional Vice president and a Navy man....I was his Secretary

Sorry, never heard of any of them. I left in 1960!

Old Goat here. Too bad the Giants lost today. Dallas just lost to Pittsburgh and that gave the Giants the NFC East Title. However they have not earned a bye or home field advantage yet. The next couple of games will decide that so they can not sit back and wait. While I am dissapointed in todays results, if you would have asked me back in September how I would feel about 11-2 December 7th, I would have told you I would be thrilled. I hope the gun toater incident does not weigh heavy on them. This thread is Park Slope When.. So some history. Do any of you remember when their was a Brooklyn Dodger Football Team in the NFL. They played in Ebbets Field. There also was a NY Yankee team. It all evolved down to the Giants and I have been rooting for them since the 50"s. Frank Gifford, YA Tittle, Charlie Connely,O.J Anderson, Davey Megget, Phil Simms (My Hero) to name a few. I must add the best Coach that ever coached in the NFL Bill Parcells. A guy from Brooklyn still holds some records in the NFL. It is Sid Luckman who went to Erasmus Hall H.S. I am sure there are other players in the NFL that came from Brooklyn. If you know of any shout it out!

To get back on subject ,my uncle had a friend who was signed by the Giants baseball team in '57, who received a $5000.00 bonus , a joke compared to today.
That required the Giants to bring him to the majors for that year.

That September my uncle and a friend went to, a totally empty Polo Grounds with a case of Rheingold and sat two rows behind the Giants dugout, as the game progressed and their refreshments declined ,they started to chant ,Hey Rigney put in Quinn ,after three innings of this beer driven rant, a cap slowly emerged from the dugout followed by Quinn's face and he whispered "hey Tom ,stop F'ng around" and he slowly descended back into the dugout.

My uncle said the incident totally destroyed his image of the God like status of athletes ,who he felt were above the fear of any form of authority.

My uncle went to work on Wall St. any did very well, Quinn went to the minors and his career came to an abrupt end when he made the Mayors daughter pregnant and for some reason had to leave town in a hurry.

OMG I rememebr Woolworth's and the horse ride they had in front of the store, I always wanted to ride that. I remember the counter with the stools as soon as you walked in to the left. Dang I feel old! I also rememebr the store on the block of luigis where they sold all the plastic color earings, anyone remember that one? And the small bookstore accross from Smileys pizza, I use to go there a lot. There was also a book store on the side of where the parking lot is on 5th by Blockbuster now right aroung the corner of 5th ave towards 6th, that bookstore rocked.

seasidearms wrote: OMG I rememebr Woolworth's and the horse ride they had in front of the store, I always wanted to ride that. I remember the counter with the stools as soon as you walked in to the left. Dang I feel old! I also rememebr the store on the block of luigis where they sold all the plastic color earings, anyone remember that one? And the small bookstore accross from Smileys pizza, I use to go there a lot. There was also a book store on the side of where the parking lot is on 5th by Blockbuster now right aroung the corner of 5th ave towards 6th, that bookstore rocked.

Wow, I remember that little bookstore around the corner from 5th Ave, on 16st b/w 5th and 6th. It was run by a kind of soft-spoken lady, had a lot of kids' books, right? Takes me back..

That's true, but one the problems we have in America is short term memory and an indifference to history.

I did a whole Column on Dec 7 aways back on TheBrooklyn Back When thread. If anyone is interested I could write a paragraph on Park Slope during WWII= Old Goat

This brings back memories. Yes, the bookstore lady was soft spoken and very sweet. If I recall they had a small fireplace in there as well. I remember O’Neil’s now and Michael’s furniture. I loved how Michael's had that open front space that if you walked past it at night and yelled you echoed! I found a book of short stories once in front of that furniture store when I was a kid walking home with my dad, ever since then I knew I wanted to be a writer lol. It's nice to reminisce but a bit sad too I think. Sometimes I miss how Park Slope use to be….

......During WW2 the best of people and the worst of a few people occurred. Brooklynites who had never turned a shovel of dirt in their lives were planting victory gardens in their backyards. Tomatoes, radishes, eggplants you name it. Our neighbor had a grape arbor but I think he used most of the grapes to make wine. There were the usual dishonest few people who went into the black market for items rationed and hard to get. But most people sucked it up and did the patriotic thing. The shortage of fuel extended the life of the horse drawn wagons. We had fruit & vegatable wagons, Ice & Kerosene wagons and even a merry go round on a cart pulled by a horse. The merry go round had a handle which manually turned the pedestel the horses were on. The owner would "Tom Sawyer" us by "letting" us turn the handle for him. Joe the ice man used to leave ice ships on the back of the cart where he had chopped out pieces. Boy, on a summer day they tasted good. Of course the victory gardens needed ferteliizer and it was common to see someone with a shovel helping themselves to what the horses left behind. Unfortunatly with many fathers and older brothers in the service, some of the younger teens and those older ones not in the service decided to start street gangs. Most of the violence they caused was against each other. We had defeated Germany and on August 14 1945 came the great announcement JAPAN SURRENDERS> THE WAR IS OVER>>>>. The neighborhood went nuts. Horns honking, bugles blowing, people running around the street shouting "The War is Over, Hoorah" Some ventursome kids (including yours truly) ran down to the corner of 12th St & 5th Ave. When a car would start up 12th St we would jump on the running boards (remember running boards?), the driver would lean on the horn and we would all be screaming at the top of our lungs. Unfortunatly when we passed my house I heard the familiar voice of my father shouting "Warren, get off that car." I was confined to the front yard for the rest of the day. The next year we saw block parties and other type celebrations in every neighborhood.

Many changes took place after the war. GI's came home looking for jobs. Many had put off marriage and were getting married in great numbers and now they needed apartments. My father had sworn he would never rent again after a bad experience with a tenant. But a friend of the family who just got married convinced him to allow them to rent. Gradually things got back to normal and stayed pretty much that way until 1947. More on that another time.....
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seasidearms wrote: This brings back memories. Yes, the bookstore lady was soft spoken and very sweet. If I recall they had a small fireplace in there as well. I remember O’Neil’s now and Michael’s furniture. I loved how Michael's had that open front space that if you walked past it at night and yelled you echoed! I found a book of short stories once in front of that furniture store when I was a kid walking home with my dad, ever since then I knew I wanted to be a writer lol. It's nice to reminisce but a bit sad too I think. Sometimes I miss how Park Slope use to be….

Yup, I remember the fireplace as well.

I remember Michael's best because I always used to pass it on the way to Platt's toy store. I was like a junkie as a kid, and Platt's was my fix. My father would take me there sometimes on payday, I felt like it was the greatest thing in the world.

The only other thing I remember about Michael's was that they used to have one of those big ceramic dogs (I think a Doberman/German Shepard?) on display in the front window. I used to always like to look at that for some reason, lol..

Anyway you're not alone--believe me, there's many like us that miss Park Slope the way we knew it, when it was just a working class community.

Obamanut " missing Park Slope as we knew it ."

If asked, I feel all true Brooklynites would agree and admit,they miss their neighborhoods as they knew them...