I grew up in The Bronx. I rode my bike on black top streets, played Stoop Ball, and Stick Ball, where if you got a Two Sewer hit, you were a really good player. We also played Paddle Ball. Not tennis, or badmitten or squash or raquetball..Paddle Ball. Oh yes, and Basketball, There was a lot of that.
I went to Jones Beach on Long Island to swim in the Atlantic Ocean and to Rye Playland in Westchester to ride rickety old rollrcoasters and Pallisades Ammusement park in New Jersey to ride the tallest ferris wheel I'd ever seen. I went "Up-state" to Bear Mountain to picnic in the woods, and to Van Cortalnt Park to hang out in the summertime in virtual wliderness in the middle of The Bronx, in the back-yard of a mansion that George Washington once slept in. You could rent horses there to ride, and the trail went right through the middle of a busy roadway!
We didn't have Dairy Queens in the Bronx, we had Carvels. And we had the Bungalow Bar ice cream truck that came around on summer evenings.
In the wintertime we went to Central Park's Wolman Rink to skate, because Rockerfeller Center was for tourists and too expensive. But My father would take us to Rockerfeller Center to have Hot Cocoa and watch them light the Christmas tree, and then to go look at the store displays on 5th Avenue. We would also see the Christmas spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and watch the Rockettes and the Nutcracker Suite on stage. That's where I saw the "Sound of Music" and "Fiddler on the Roof" and "West Side Story" when they came out on film.
As a teenager I would take the train, with my friends into "The City" as we call Manhattan. We would buy bags of candy at Woolworths' Five and Dime, and for a nickle we would ride the Staten Island Ferry. They would load the people on , and then load the cars. It was fun just to be out on the water. To get a look at the Statue of Liberty. We'd ride round trip and then just hang out in lower Manhattan. We'd walk around the Battery and Wall Street, and head north through Little Ittaly and China Town, basically eating our way up north! Then we'd head through SoHo and Greenwich Village, oogling the "hippies" and lie to our parents about being there.
As I got older, I spent time on top of the Empire State Building and climbing the Carolon Tower of Riverside Church. I'd buy 1/2 price theater tickets (which were actually affordable in 1974) and see whatever Broadway show had a mattinee available.
I watched the World Trade centers being built in the 1970's. And ate dinner at Windows on the World when I was on one of my first "real" dates with a boy. I got to spend time at the observation deck of the WTC, and my sister-in law worked in Tower 2.
I went to Knicks and Ranger games at Madison Square Garden with my boyfriend who was a sports nut, and even went on a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park one evening. I visited all the museums, enjoying the Natural History and Haden Planetarium best. But I've never gone to the Statue of Liberty. Someday.....
I have great memories of growing up in the city, and sad memories of watching the city decline through the later 70's 80's and beyond into an urban jungle that I could no longer walk through or enjoy.
I missed feeling safe there, and now that I live in the northern suburbs, and take my kids there for "tourist treats", I feel sad when they react with trepidation and disbelief that I used to walk those same streets at all hours, and hang out with my friends on the very side walks that I now find myself needing to protect them from.
And most of all I miss those two twin towers (that I was never sure I really liked...I always thought they were some how misplaced in the skyline that had been there,,,, )and now..they leave a hole so angry and deep..I can still feel it every time I drive accross that bridge. I can't believe it's almost a year. I can only guess at what the people from my community who lost family must be thinking this time of year.
I hope they have some happy reminiscing too. I don't mean to get depressing here...But in a way it's part of my memories of growing up and what has changed.
I guess this post is a little long, and mayne a little dull. But even if no one reads it. It sure felt great to write it.
Thanks trainlady for the post. This was a most pleasant trip down memory lane