Who's Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Carl Scarna
Hello, My name is Carl Scarna and I reside in Lakewood, NJ with my wife Lorraine Scarna and my 3 kids Carl Jr 34, Vanessa 25, and Stefano 21. I was raised in Knickerbocker Village on Monroe Street with my brother Robert Scarna and my parents Joe and Rita Scarna. My father used to be the manager for St. Joseph’s baseball team, which I played as the pitcher and won the championship with 15 wins and 1 loss. I received a trophy for the most valuable pitcher in 1960. Growing up I played all kinds of sports in the neighborhood such as football, basketball, ice hockey, softball, punch ball, stickball, and roller hockey. My friends from the village were willing to learn sign language taught by me and in return they taught me to improve my speech language so I can communicate with my hearing friends. I played in the Olympics for the deaf on the ice hockey team in Lake Placid, NY in. When I was 18 years old, Phillies, Mets, Baltimore, Yankees, and Milwaukee Braves scouts from the major league baseball called me in to try out for pitching unfortunately, the team scouts found out I was deaf and told me they didn’t need me but I asked, “Why did you call me then?” I mentioned that they did not need my ears but my right arm to play baseball. I had the skills to throw a curve ball and even a drop ball. Knickerbocker Village was my home and I completely miss it and loved every moment there. Till this day I still read the newspaper from the village and how much it has changed but that will never change my love for knickerbockers village. Also, I must emphasize I am a huge fan of the San Francisco Giants and the New York Rangers! If you recognize me please feel free to contact me and we can take a stroll down memory lane! Sincerely, Carl
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
hello carl i think youre the olderbrother of robert i played stickball with him on cherry st and he and i were the homerun hitters also i think you went to the new york school of printing with a friend of mine his name is vinny deonobus i miss k.v. remember creamos and petes it became joes and the k and k and daves grocery etc take care pal and be well walt
Carl, Thank you for teaching me to sign at an early age....my sister suzan and you hung out on cherry street together with a whole gang of kids...and i picked up your signing during those times...i still remember some of the alphabet...as it helps me in my current profession...ENT surgeon....yes ...you were some athlete!!!...esp. roller hockey with Dom and Lenny(the greek).....stay well
Dennis, We are saddened by your uncle's passing. Many of the readers of this blog played against your father and uncle when they played little league baseball in Coleman Oval Park. We greatly admired your grandfather as well. Paul had this comment, "His younger brother Robert was closer to my age and I played a number of sports with him. He too was a tenacious presence; really solid in all sports despite being deaf. He was overwhelming in tackle football. Played once in a while with Carl who took it easy on us kids." Bob said this,"I had several phone conversations with Carl, Sr. who coached St. Joe’s back in the day. He really appreciated the respect we showed for Carl and Robert, along with mention in the KV blog. I also had email contact with Carl a few times and he indicated an interest in our reunions but never followed thru. RIP Carl."
Knickerbocker Village at the 2010 Conference on New York State History, June 4
click on picture above for conference schedule
All copyrights acknowledged. For research and educational purposes only.
June 1974
PS 177: June, 1959, Nancy with Mrs. Jonas
About Knickerbocker Village
I found that a recurring topic on my blog, Pseudo Intellectualism, would be my memories of the wonderful place I grew up in on the Lower East Side, Knickerbocker Village. I lived there from 1952-1964. There has also been an avalanche of new information coming in from my old friends through our group emails. All of this has refreshed our collective minds and I decided to shift my old posts (from the last two years) to this dedicated site as well as add new recollections. Hopefully other lost KVer's can arrive here and feel free to share as well. Note 1: Many posts are an outgrowth of history projects I did with kids while teaching on the LES. Note 2: As this blog has evolved it has also become a view of life in NYC during the 50's and 60's. You can contact me at davidbellel.mac.com.
Stewie Brokowsky R.I.P., photo by Murray Schefflin
Help In Understanding Various Blog Posts, The KV Mind Map: Click On Image Below
1847 LES Ward Map Section: A Geographic Tool For Locating Blog Posts
Click For A Better View
Deep Thoughts
#1. Annie Dillard talks about her fascination with science and minerals in particular. Then she goes on to details anecdotes concerning various Americans who became obsessed with the possibility of discovering valuable or interesting mineral deposits or rock formations within or close to their home environments. She speaks about men - almost all these scientific minded people are male - who discover veins of coal, copper, bauxite, and so on. She depicts the ordinariness of their fascination and the fact that it tapped into the extraordinary. Like nature had these incredible finds waiting to be unearthed all around. People who could see the worth of what was all around them or, in some cases, beneath them, excavated and found, just beneath the surface of their obsessive preoccupations, depths of riches and fascination. So in exploring the history of KV we go back into what had been the ordinary and find it layered in a criss-cross of historical significance. A transmutation of the lung block, redeemed as a bold social experiment tinged with ambitions as immodest as a revolution and as commonplace as sandwiches - ordinary though it may be but still - the most delicious sandwiches of the twentieth century. Buried beneath the surface of the KV heritage are connections to so may aspects of our culture and NYC's greatness as to be not only unfathomable but irrefutable. Do you know what I'm saying here?
Son Of Salvatore
FAQ's: Click On Image
KV Honorary Members (And Their Corresponding Sponsors)
Tim Russert-Mark
George Carlin-Allan
Paul Newman-David
Pete Seeger-Bob
John F. Kennedy Jr.-Joe
To be is to do - Plato To do is to be - Socrates Do be do be do - Frank Sinatra
Yes. I was thrown out of the Canal theater a number of Saturdays for rolling on the floor, in the aisles laughing. I think one of the movies that prompted my gaiety was "Psycho" - the shower scene. What can I tell you? I guess I wasn't tuned into the mood. At the time. Also saw many rock and roll movies at the Canal, Elvis films and the Murray the K fests. Saturday I often would go there with Joey Maldonado and his cousins. We would load up on candy by the quarter pound from that obscure bakery that was just around the corner on Madison Street, quarter block from Catherine - around the corner from the Brokowsky's fruit store, Gogol's and the pharmacy on the corner. Next to the newstand. Remember? By the bus stop. See what I'm saying? (In your mind, can you see it?) Bakery had golden and tan tile design but couldn't hold a candle to Savoia. No marble floors either.
guest memorist Howie: the first movie I ever went to was at the Tribune Theatre (near City Hall, now by the site of Pace University), a Disney cartoon 'Lady and the Tramp', also remember going there with Ronnie, David and maybe Paul, think it was '62 to see 'Safe at Home' starring Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris....I saw 'The Time Machine" with David at the Canal theatre in 1960 (academy award to George Pal - special effects), we were so taken by the notion of time travel that we proceeded to go home and build a time machine...somehow we got hold of some wood, nails, rope and wheels..after a couple of days the time machine started to take shape although it looked remarkably like a pretty decent scooter so we decided it needed a safe haven and hid it in a pit on Monroe St...one that we were able to climb...on the third day the time machine was stolen from the pit...we never saw it again...probably in the year 3000 by now..
guest memorist Neal Hellman on BLT's (the non Ref Luncheonette variety) A great B.L.T. is a complex eatable symphony. One in which all the parts maintain their individuality, yet at the same time, surrender their tasty nuances in the true spirit of gastronomic gestalt and dwell as one.This equinox I choose Sumano's Bakery Ciabatta bread. Though I was skeptical about it's naked, pale texture, I felt it would toast up well and its many crevices would add some fun places for the mayo to go.With the mayonnaise choice I have to stay with tradition and of course go with Hellmann's though for some reason it's known west of the Mississippi as “best foods”. Please do not waste my time with this hippie safflower oil concoction or some other type of healthy alternative. For when it comes to mayonnaise for my Ultimate B.L.T. there is no east or west, there is only Hellmann's…. case closed. My ingredients are now all together, but the intense work has just begun. For now without the correct timing and the correct application of all the ingredients, my ritual could easily plummet into a spiritual abyss. All ingredients must sit together (as one) at room temperature as I invoke the spirit of all the great B.L.T. makers in all the luncheonettes in the greater metropolitan area of New York. I heat my cast iron skillet (using a Teflon pan would be heresy) to a comfortable medium heat. I lay the bacon down 4 strips per sandwich and as I do the strips greet the metal with a friendly sizzle “hello”. As they are slowly cooking I cut the tomato's, neither too thin or too thick and lay them down ever so gently on a plate to await their glorious marriage. The lettuce has been carefully washed and spun with all traces of ribs removed. The mayonnaise jar is open and waiting to join this eatable canvass. Once the bacon is turned the toast swings into action. It has to be brown all the way but with no traces of crusty darkness.As the toast is finishing I remove the bacon and pat it down with a paper towel. Now it's time to assemble my edible equinox creation. Mayo on both pieces of toast, then the tomato's and I prefer the lettuce between the tomato and the bacon, for I feel it's texturally more secure that way. I don't want an immediate confluence of tomato and bacon; I like the lettuce to work as a buffer. Here's where many folks really go askew: they push the bread down so hard that the bacon is crushed. No, no a thousand times no. One must gently, ever so gently caress the concoction together. After which one will take a sharp knife and make a diagonal cut. A straight cut is what people from small towns in Nebraska and Ohio do. Those of use who are members of the B.L.T. illuminati always make a diagonal cut. The masterpiece will then be placed on a plate and then consumed in a way as to enjoy the warm and crunchy (yet still pliable) bacon, the exploding sensation of a dry farm Molino tomato, the juicy lettuce, the condiment-ing mayonnaise and ever so supportive bread. My first Ultimate B.L.T. goes to my neighbor for her birthday. With that offering I realize now that I am truly invoking the Japanese Equinox celebration of Hign-e. Yes with my ultimate B.L.T. offering I am illustrating the six perfections: perseverance, effort, meditation, wisdom, observance of precepts, and giving.
KV Journeyman
11/13/07: Even standing in the cold rain, the Baroque facades on these buildings are fantastic. Brussels has some of the best architecture in the world, all types, all styles. Standing in the middle of the main town square one is overwhelmed with the magnitude of detail and size.
11/14/07: I am currently in Brugge in NW Belgium. It appears to be a quiet town with all old and small buildings, perhaps pre-Victorian, with a network of canals similar, but without the gondolas and singing rip-off-the-tourist gondoleers. I'll learn more tomorrow as we get a tour prior to dinner.
12/5/07: Just finished a fresh grilled tilapia sandwich while sitting outside looking at the expansive white sands of Clearwater Beach and the far reaches of the Gulf of Mexico, realizing I am flying back to DC tomorrow morning into the remnants of the latest Alberta Clipper to wreak havoc on the Nation's Capitol. Enough to upset the strongest and staunchest among us.
Time Magazine: 10/15/1934
Smack in the middle of the slum-mulligan of Manhattan's lower East Side two barefaced, rectangular apartments rear their bricks twelve stories into the air. Jointly christened Knickerbocker Village, they cover four whole city blocks. Between the two units is a concrete playground, and within each will be a garden. Each of the 1,593 apartments has wooden parquet floors, electric refrigeration, tiled bathrooms, outside windows. The elevators are self-operating. Rentals range from $22.50 for 2½ rooms on the ground floor to $87.50 for a 5½-room penthouse. Average is $12.50 a room. Knickerbocker Village will cost about $9,000,000, and with the exception of Rockefeller Center is the only large structure which Manhattanites have noticed abuilding these last two years. Last week it was ready for occupancy.
Because Knickerbocker Village is also Manhattan's first experiment in government-financed, low-cost housing, RFC's Chairman Jesse H. Jones, East-Sider Alfred E. Smith, many a minor wig gathered in its banner-decked playground to mark the day. Said Al Smith: "I was tempted to swap the Empire State Building." Chairman Jones thumped the tub of slum clearance. Informed that the first of the two units was already 95% rented, while the second unit (to be opened Dec. 1) was 50% rented, he waved an expansive hand at the holiday bunting, declared: "I know of no ... safer investment for public funds than to clear about 500 acres of your slums."*
Whether or not Knickerbocker Village was a fitting inspiration for such official rejoicing was last week a red hot sociological question.
In 1929 Realtor Fred Fillmore French began buying land on the lower East Side. By swearing his 42 brokers to secrecy and using dummy corporations, he managed to get some 15 acres for $5,000,000. Then in 1931 he announced a grandiose scheme for the erection of a $50,000,000 development for junior Wall Street executives. At this point he found that he could not get credit. At the same time Fred F. French Operators, Inc. began passing its dividends on $14,000,000 of preferred stock. The project remained only a scheme with a staggering upkeep in land taxes.
When Congress authorized the RFC to make loans on slum clearance projects, Realtor French picked out the worst block in his holdings and ecstatically presented it to Mr. Jones as a worthy subject for clearance. His choice was "Lung Block," so called because of its high tuberculosis mortality rate. On it lived 650 families. In its backyards were seven jakes. On this fester Mr. French proposed to build a low-cost housing project. Mr. Jones agreed to do business, and RFC lent 85% of the required $9,000.000.
Average cost of "Lung Block" to Knickerbocker Village was high: $3,116,000, or $14 per square foot. The tax assessment was therefore reduced by two-thirds to bring the monthly room rental down to the $12.50 stipulated by the RFC. Because the average rental on "Lung Block" had been about $5 a room, Knickerbocker Village remained a low-cost housing project only in the minds of the white collar workers, who proceeded to fill it.
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8 comments:
hello carl i think youre the olderbrother of robert i played stickball with him on cherry st and he and i were the homerun hitters also i think you went to the new york school of printing with a friend of mine his name is vinny deonobus i miss k.v. remember creamos and petes it became joes and the k and k and daves grocery etc take care pal and be well walt
Carl, Thank you for teaching me to sign at an early age....my sister suzan and you hung out on cherry street together with a whole gang of kids...and i picked up your signing during those times...i still remember some of the alphabet...as it helps me in my current profession...ENT surgeon....yes ...you were some athlete!!!...esp. roller hockey with Dom and Lenny(the greek).....stay well
HI Carl
HELLO BOTH H9OW ARE U ? BUT I DONT KNOW U ,, TELL ME UR FULL NAME OR U CAN E-MAIL ME MY AOL IS GOTCHA52@AOL.COM OKAY
Hi, this is Carl's nephew Dennis. Carl passed away on June 30th, 2019. He will be missed by many.
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Dennis, We are saddened by your uncle's passing. Many of the readers of this blog played against your father and uncle when they played little league baseball in Coleman Oval Park. We greatly admired your grandfather as well. Paul had this comment, "His younger brother Robert was closer to my age and I played a number of sports with him. He too was a tenacious presence; really solid in all sports despite being deaf. He was overwhelming in tackle football. Played once in a while with Carl who took it easy on us kids."
Bob said this,"I had several phone conversations with Carl, Sr. who coached St. Joe’s back in the day. He really appreciated the respect we showed for Carl and Robert, along with mention in the KV blog. I also had email contact with Carl a few times and he indicated an interest in our reunions but never followed thru. RIP Carl."
Sorry For Carl Scarnas Loss My Condolences.
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