2010 Reunion Memories

bob's memories about lunchtime treats
marv's memories about invented games
steve's memories about kremos
mark's memories about kv weekends
norma's memories about friday puncball games
ron's memories about a dare at the automat
paula's memories about a busted mahjong game
marty's memories about catching a fly ball
howie's memories about hot summers and the sounds from the journal american
marion's kv memories about new year's eve
donald's memories of the knish man
nancy's alfred e. smith houses' summer memories: the taste of ices from savoia's and st. joseph's, the sounds of a capella singing and the smells from the fish market
arlene's memories about frappes from k and k's

The Leef Family Of KV

above some Times' articles mentioning the Leef's

Marion spoke about her good friend Teddy Leef and how she had an apartment on an upper floor in the E building. It was Teddy's mother Martha who thought she saw evidence of a wild party at Marion's house back in the 50's. I had forgotten that Teddy's brother Joe married my friend Richard's older sister Eva. When Marion mentioned the story I remembered that Eva emailed me about her connection to the Leef's

Hi David,
I'm Eva Karney, Richard's sister, now Eva Leef. It was a thrill to see your website about Knickerbocker Village. My nephew sent it to me. KV was a really special place when I was growing up. I'm six years older than Richard, and I too have fond memories of the carefree life we spent there. Do you remember the movies in the basement on Friday afternoons? The package room? It was a time when no one was afraid to walk in the basement or even over the roof when the elevators weren't working. Thanks for the tribute to my father's works. His books have a special place in all our homes. BTW, my husband is also from KV--Joseph Leef, lived there with his mother Martha, father Emanuel and sister Teddy (all deceased).

PS 177 Graduation: June 1963

Sent by Carlos Alejandro
Top Picture
Howie Silverstein, Jacqueline Lee, Carlos Alejandro
Bottom Picture
Sheldon Austin, Donald Singletary, Billy Owens, Bruce Buell
Howie Silverstein, Carlos Alejandro, Eddie Moy

I think Donald Singletary had a cousin Ronnie Bly who played football for the Giants .. Donald was a great kid, he was like our own Will Smith ...one time he came to my house to play after school and I remember for years the story my Mom used to tell how she felt uncomfortable the time we had a 'girl' cleaning the house and I brought a black friend over to play .. the 'girl' of course was black too ...... Billy Owens was also one of the nicest guys, smiled and laughed a lot ...I played against him in little league, he played for Mariner's Temple which was predominantly if not all black ... one of my favorite little league stories is from a game against Mariner's Temple ... it was Spring of either '62 or '63 and it was a playoff game which meant win the game or the season is over .. I was playing right field, the game was tied in extra innings and they had a runner on 2nd base... on the last play of the game there's a base hit to me in right field, I charged the ball and fired home trying to throw out the runner from 2nd . it was a pretty good throw but the runner still scored ahead of the tag and Mariner's beats us, ending our season ... as I'm walking off the field dejected a tall black priest walks out of their dugout right up to me ... puts a hand on my shoulder and says, "..son, Mohammed himself couldn't have made a better throw .." ... one of those special moments that could only have happened on the LES ..
Howie

a follow up from Carlos

Billy Owens was one of the nicest guys I've ever known. We went on to JHS 22 together. He used to walk from the Smith Houses past my apartments, the LaGuardia Houses, and we would walk to Houston and Columbia Streets together until he got a bus pass. Sometimes he would walk with me to my buildings and then pick up the bus. He and Gary Jones were good friends. Didn't Gary play Little League, too. Does anybody know what happened to any of the other kids like: Rochelle Murphy, Eileen Rivela, Elaine Katz, Jacy ? (from Pearl Street?), Trudy Babits, Eddie Moy, ...
What was the name of the store right across the street from the school? That's where I would get those Ivy League plasticky book covers for my notebooks and or textbooks.
Here's a memory I have: One day at lunch time a bunch of us, a big bunch, decided to go down to Battery Park to see the President's motorcade at South Ferry. John F. Kennedy in a big black Lincoln with the weird doors. When we got back Mrs. Meiers was confused about why we had "cut" class but when she heard she just kinda laughed it off. Anybody else remember that?

from Donald Singletary

KD COBRA said...
FROM DONALD SINGLETARY - WOW! What a great surprise. I lucked up on this blog while "Googling" myself!
That second photo with Billy Owens and Howard Silverstein, etc. -- that's NOT me in the photo. Don't know who it is.
Anyway, I've been putting together some stuff for an LES book of my own. I connected with a writer who used to teach at P.S. 2 -- Leslie Kandell. She has found many of her former students. I also have some old photos I'd love to share. Glad you guys are well. Sadly, Billy died in November 1990. Many others have passed too. Glad you guys are all right. There's a Smith Projects Reunion this weekend on Saturday in the park by the Gym. Many "old-timers" come around.
Would love to keep in touch please email me at:
kdonald53@aol.com
thanks!

President's Week Special: Pearl And Dover Street Panoramic Movie

A Panoramic Movie made at the intersection of Pearl and Dover Streets. This is adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge's SW side. At the Bridge's side, where there is a yellow cab, a plaque is located commemorating the site of President Washington's mansion when his Presidency began in New York City.

originally from give us each day our daily pan
from the KV memory archives, the scene of a mugging, by Son Of Seth

Yes, I was thrown out of the Canal theater a number of Saturdays for rolling 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 I 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?) The bakery had golden and tan tile design but couldn't hold a candle to Savoia. No marble floors either.
I saw many a Frankenstein/Dracula/Godzilla movie at the Tribune near City Hall.  Also the Uncle Remus movie and a bunch of others.  Murray and I were involved in an incident, after exiting that theater - we were mugged - walking under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Pace College has expanded into the space.  It stood just as Park Row turned a corner towards the river and you could see the water.  As soon as you had a view of the river, you had a view of the theater.  See what I'm saying?.

Mort Zachter's Dough

An observation of the Italian/Jewish memoir presentation at the Tenement Museum: It echoed a KV memoir juxtaposition from the two most dominant groups of the KV baby boom era. That occasionally takes place on these "pages." Carl and Mort's conviviality at the event was certainly a model what should have taken place at all times in a previous era. Above, I combined the audio from Mort's NPR interview with Kate Davidson back in September of 2007 an excerpt:

For anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck, Mort Zachter's story might seem like dream come true: In 1994, a banker called Zachter's home and asked him if he'd like to take control of his Uncle Harry's million-dollar money-market account. It turned out that two of his uncles had quietly amassed about $6 million, scattered in separate accounts.
Zachter's windfall let him pursue his dream of writing. His new book Dough: A Memoir, is the culmination of that dream. It's also a story of daily life at the family's bakery from the 1940s through the '60s and a snapshot of immigrant life in New York.
After his windfall, Zachter delved into his family's secrets. He never found out why his uncle sat on his wealth rather than helping the family, but he realized that his uncles — like other children of immigrants who had survived the Depression — had a complicated relationship with money. His uncles Harry and Joe drafted most of the family to work at bakery, which sold bread they bought wholesale from other city bakeries. Zachter's mother — his uncles' sister — gave up her dream of teaching to work at the bakery.

The images in the slideshow were an assortment of scenes from nyc bakeries. The first image is of Mort with the current owners of the Ninth Street Bakery, Oleg and Tetyana Kucherenko. There's also a batch from the "flagship" Jewish bakery of the LES and the KV neighborhood, Gertel's. Truth be told the Italian bakeries, Savoia's especially, were much better.

45 Years Ago Today

from Rich.

Today is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. In my opinion, a monumental, if not significant, event occurring in our lifetime. I mention this in light of conversations I had during my meeting with my International Energy Agency committee last week. I was discussing with folks events in my lifetime for which today's youth have little appreciation; e.g., JFK, the British music invasion and generally 1960's music, and the Vietnam War. Perhaps I was being selfish assuming little of significance, aside from technological advances, has occurred in the recent 20-25 years. We had to get back to the meeting, but I hope the participants in my reminiscing appreciated the history all of us have seen. 45 years sure passed quickly.

from last year, a recollection from Howie

......44 years and 1 week since you broke your arm Marv reminded me that 5 days later Kennedy was shot.....meant to bring this up a couple of days ago in advance of the 44th anniversary which occurred at the beginning of last year in KV.....we were taking a social studies test that fateful Friday, last period in Mr. Klein's class in 65 when someone came into the room with the news, I heard Mr.Klein say,"don't tell them now..they're taking a test...".after school we hung out on Cherry (David Aaronson, Paul, Mark Schumer) and  debated whether it was disrespectful that the older guys..yeah you Allan, Bobby, Marty? were playing basketball at a time like this....funny how lines were drawn by grade and age.....later on in front of the courtyard still on Cherry, after a plane went by we speculated and argued for too long whether it was heading for D.C....so if someone asks,"where were you when Kennedy was shot?..." it's all about the LES and hanging out on Cherry St.

Mickey's Home Run: 10/10/64, part 3

Rich was late with checking in with his memory of this homer

This was my freshman year at Syracuse and we were playing UCLA in a snowstorm. UCLA came in with their powder blue short sleeve uniforms. They had no idea what hit them, as SU won 34-0. I remember someone had a radio in the stands and we all celebrated the Mick's home run.

Pages In Between

A sound clip of Erin Einhorn on This American Life with Ira Glass
The full episode was broadcast back in November of 2005. The story eventually grew into the recently published book, The Pages in Between I highly recommend it. Her work was the focus of a Tenement Talk, at the Tenement Museum on 11/17. The images come from a flickr set entitled Before, During and After the Holocaust
Erin, in talking about the importance of keeping memories alive referred to a Jewish expression about the dual loss that occurs when an individual dies. It goes something like,

When a person dies we suffer a double loss. We lose the person and we lose the memories of previous generations that die with that person

I'm often at a loss at what I'm trying to do here, but I think that thought resonates with much of the effort.

Official KV Memorabilia

The priceless Silverstein blender referred to previously

Tales of the City Rat...Starting With PS 177

photo below, East Broadway, looking east from Catherine Street

by Susanne Pelly Spitzer

City Rat I: The Rat in the Classroom

One of the most distinctive features about PS 177 was the variety of urban wildlife. None of the coyote, raccoons, rabbits, or squirrels or suburban wild turkeys that occasionally dive-bomb unsuspecting schoolkids that are waiting for the buses in the suburbs here. Certainly not the occasional bear, moose, wolf, or cougar that occasionally wander into the urban areas bordering forests in the state, up north. Or the deer that came up the Mississippi and right through the window of our Capitol in St. Paul designed by Cass Gilbert, who left Minnesota to design the Woolworth building.

PS 177 had as long as I could remember, mice and cockroaches and God knows what else. And so do I know what else, because in third grade, a rat ran through our classroom. This was no classroom pet, for it spoke Norwegian, I think, since that was allegedly its country of origin, and was definitely an uninvited guest. We all panicked, but were calmed by the voice of Mrs. Wachspress, who must have been in terror herself. She calmly told us, "Now boys and girls, I'm sure if you just put your feet all up on your desks Mr. Rat will just pass through the classroom." And he did! In all my years since I was 17 and left New York for good, I have never encountered another person who had a rat in his/her classroom in third grade. It's a distinction, albeit an odd one.

City Rat II: Tales of East Broadway

When I was young, East Broadway was a mecca for totally fundamentalist ultra Orthodox yeshivas, the Educational Alliance, and the Seward Park library. It was also the major shopping street on Sunday, when it came alive with all the Jews buying and selling food. One Sunday my mother and I went walking down East Broadway in search of bell-shaped chocolate-covered cream-filled pastries and a ready-made barley side, in the stores near Seward Park.

The City had just completed a fiasco: it had attempted to widen East Broadway for cars, by removing a portion of the sidewalk. This did not go over well with Sunday shoppers, who protested loudly at the lack of space. Eventually their frustration registered, and the City spent $99,000 restoring the sidewalk portion it had removed. (I believe you can still see the metal strip that was inserted to border the lengths of the old sidewalk and the restored one.)

So this nice Sunday, my mother Ethel and I were walking down the old portion that had not been disturbed. Suddenly I heard her scream, "Don't look down, don't look down!" Like any self-respecting child, I looked down immediately, and saw we had a companion. Yet another Norway rat, brown and the size of the proverbial cat, strolling at the exact pace that we were, keeping us company on the new part of the sidewalk. Haven't met too many people who've had that experience, either.

City Rat III: The Rat Who Didn't Speak Chinese

When my parents decided me skipping kindergarten was enough advancement, and sent me to 3-year SPE at JHS 22, I found that most of my classmates were Chinese-Americans from PS 13 in Chinatown. Many of them were born overseas. I am still friends with some of them when I rediscovered them a few years ago.

One of them, Joyce Gee, lived in a tenement on Bayard Street. The tenement was owned by her grandmother, who kept the rents artificially low for her relatives, who occupied most or all of the building. That way, they could save for a house outside of Manhattan in the exotic neighborhood of Flushing.

The rents being that cheap, there were few dollars available for maintenance and none for keeping the vermin out. Everybody in Chinatown, as far as I can tell, had both cockroaches and rats in their tenements. They took the usual precautions: no milk since most couldn't digest it anyway and drinking cows' milk is considered disgusting in traditional Chinese culture. If they did give milk to the kids, faces were religiously washed before bed time so the rats couldn't smell it on the kids. However, the rats still got in.

The relatives in Joyce's tenement had a unique system for handling the rats: a rat patrol. Whenever a rat was spotted at night, the woman of the apartment in question would shout in Cantonese, "RAT! RAT!" Everyone knew their relatives' voices, so they would run to the apartment, brooms in hand. They would back the rat into a corner, where it would meet a very sad end. Perhaps if it had spoken Cantonese, it could have negotiated its escape?

I am happy to note that Joyce and her family did get out of there, but sadly, I lost contact with her after they moved to a nice attached house in Flushing and she went to Flushing High School.

So I guess the moral is, "Women, if you come from the LES, that guy with the whiskers may not be your husband, he may be a RAT!" (On second thought, he may be both!)

Buenas noches to y'all from the land of ice pellets, snow, and permamurk, as winter has arrived. Hard to believe that I took vacation time last Tuesday off to get the vote out for Obama, there were leaves on the trees in the most beautiful colors, and I had on a short-sleeve t-shirt and jeans. Or that we knew who our US senator was! (The recount continues...).

Susanne

The Day Kennedy Was Shot

Howie Silverstein checks in with a "beauty in there" memory piece

"44 years and 1 week since you broke your arm Marv reminded me that 5 days later Kennedy was shot.....I meant to bring this up a couple of days ago in advance of the 44th anniversary which occurred at the beginning of last year in KV.....we were taking a social studies test that fateful Friday, last period in Mr. Klein's class in 65 when someone came into the room with the news, I heard Mr.Klein say,"don't tell them now..they're taking a test..."....after school we hung out on Cherry (David, Paul, Mark Schumer) and debated whether it was disrespectful that the older guys..yeah you Allan, Bobby, Marty? were playing basketball at a time like this....funny how lines were drawn by grade and age.....later on in front of the courtyard still on Cherry, after a plane went by we speculated and argued for too long whether it was heading for D.C....so if someone asks,"Where were you when Kennedy was shot?..." it's all about the LES and hanging out on Cherry St.

Howie

The View From St. Joseph's

There was one view you could have gotten from St. Joseph, i.e. a KV mom au naturale, if you were looking south on Monroe Street towards building L. The other view is one of growing up going to school there. Some more memories from Pat and the memories it rekindled with Bob and Al. I love it! (If this were some pseudo blog it would be called synergy):

Marty (Militante) was the counter man "short order cook" at the Ref luncheonette on Catherine Street next to Rocco's Meat Market which was next to Bessie's fruit store.
Melisande's bakery and Ruggiero's bakery were separate. Militante was related to Pete's King hero was also a Militante. That's where they got their bread.
Ruggiero bakery was across the street from Dave's Dry Cleaner's which was in K.V. I went to St. Joseph School. I did not play much organized ball. I did a short stint with Transfiguration only because I was born and raised in the 6th Ward but had many friend's in both 4Th & 6Th..I remember playing ringelevio in the basement of K.V. and always being chased by the guards. Joe Blow was one and Joe Lapi was the other. The Jewish Deli was a store front on Market Street -2or 3 steps down. It was directly across the street from Harry Lociscero's Insurance "Ring a Bell". I did play ball for St. Joseph on the B team, wasn't good enough to make the A team. There too many good player's to beat out. Does anyone remember Henry, he played for Mariners Temple. We nicknamed him old man. He was also a pretty good pitcher. As far as the Pizzeria on Madison St. the only memory I have is it was at the basement level and not very clean and was owned by woman, eventually her name will come to me. Getting back to Marty Missouri, he worked as a short order cook for many years at the Luncheonette we called the Ref's. Marty's last name was Urban. He lived in my bldg. 54 Catherine St. The Ref. was a famous place to have lunch because the lunches at school were pretty bad. The special was Tuna on toast, french fries and a coke for 50 cents. How about the Club Lunch on East Bway & Catherine St. We would spend hr's there eating french fries until they had enough of us and then they kicked us out.

Patsy

The Jewish deli was owned by Stewie Brokowsky's uncle--one of his daughters was named Lynn. I ate lunch there about once a week--a frank, knish and Dr. Brown's soda cost 48 cents! Remember our parents telling us about what things cost "in the old days"? Jim Jims also sold old comic books for a nickle--had I kept some of them, I'd be rich. I also remember the little place that made pizza on Madison, but for some reason only went there once or twice. Anyone remember when the Italian bread bakery on Monroe St. also made pizza?--great sauce! And for a year or 2, there was a restaurant pizzeria across from the A&P that had great pizza--didn't sell slices, only whole pies as I recall.

Bob

I can still smell the baked bread that that Monroe street bakery (next to Kremo) made. I used to buy a hot baked roll there for 7 cents. Good stuff

Al

Yes, great smell. I'd sometimes cross the street and walk to 177 on that side of Monroe just to capture the smell a bit better. And when they baked pizza and you caught the tomato sauce scent blended with the crusty bread...heaven!

Bob

A couple of responses to Pat--Marty Missouri had a son, Michael Urban, who was a pretty good athlete, lean, fast, and crazy as I recall. He may have become a police officer, or went to jail. One or the other. Henry, who played for Mariner's Temple (coached by Mr. Sumpter), was a great player. They also had a tough Spanish guy named Julius who pitched for them--he was supposed to be under 12, but was about 20. I recall he had the reputation of being a gang leader in the Smith Houses, I hit my only career homer off of him, and for weeks after I was afraid to go outside, especially near Catherine St.

Bob

How Can I Connect Your Call?: From 11/9/07

The old phone numbers of some of my Knickerbocker Village pals
Bob: Be-3-8260, Rich:WOrth-2-7617, Marty: BEekman-3-0873, Al: BE-3-4319, Me:BE-3-1628, Murr:CO7-5397, Marty's Aunt Esther:BE-3- 0874 (An explanation from Marty) "These were the last four digits of my late Aunt Esther Odze whose husband, Lou, had a face that looked like the inside of a boiled grapefruit. It's that hard to describe. She was the one with the 4 at the end of her number. Trust me I often confused the two and would end up calling home for an increase in my allowance only to hear Aunt Esther hem and haw and finally tell me she'd get back to me in the morning. No. When we get the opportunity to go back in the time machine please dial me with a 3 at the end unless you want to talk to the Odze couple."
Howie corrects his brother Al:
"Also for those of you keeping score at home, our KV phone number was BE(ekman)3-1649 (BE 3's were the coolest exchange, and did anyone know that with the old rotary phones, instead of dialing '1', you could press the button down instead and it registered as a '1' - which we did for years thinking the call would not count) .... David Aaronson's number was BA(rclay) 7-8753....