Underhill Ave. St. Johns Pl. in the 1960s

Atomische just wrote in to Daily Heights and asked if we could post this on the front page:

"A visitor to my photo blog posted a long and fascinating comment about what it was like living on my block (Underhill & St. John's) back in the 1960s."

Here's the comment:

"Wow,,,,I lived on this block when I was a kid..from about 1961 to about 1968 or 69. We lived in the first apt house on the right,,,310 St. Johns Place.

We lived on the first floor, the door was never locked, us kids went in and out and there were beautiful grand stoops with a ton of brickwork and had huge bushes on each side. Inside our hallway vestibule were two huge mirrors facing each other and you could see yourself into infinity.

On the corner right next to our building was the family owned laundrymat. On Underhill Avenue was the famous HERMANS ICE CREAM PARLOR and people came to hang out from all over Brooklyn and MOTOWN was what we listened to on the juke box mostly and drank Egg Creams. We could buy a pack of cigarettes for 28 cents at the drug store.

Most of us graduated from St. Teresa of Avila two blocks up and some of went John Jay HS, Prospect Heights HS and Bishop McDonald HS. The neighborhood was mostly Irish and Greek. With the Corcorans, McGuires, Gaffneys, Sims, Hughes, Beeban, Georganson, Pavones, McKnight, O'Kane, Rozakis, Scourby, Zanatakis, Hilkies, O'Connor, Attanassio, Gormans, Galanos, Lorenzo, Harrison, Gazis, Miller , Abdo, Byrd, Haggerty, Strong, Zakarriasen and Coffins.

The rent in those days ran about $100 or $150 a month. Down the block toward GAP were the benches surrounding what we called the "Mound". The guys played stick ball on the block and my Mom drove a 56 turquoise Chevy.

The "average" kids lived on the tenament side and the 'richer" kids lived in one of the three big apt buildings across the street. This sure brings back alot of memories.... — comment by Kim (Coffin) Costanzo @ 2006-11-17 00:40:34