Brooklyn Kids

Growing up in Brooklyn

I spent a good part of my youth, with my brother Don, in Brooklyn where we both attended Adelphi Academy through High School, as did my mother and grandmother.  We had a great athletic team in those days.  I was a large boy (as you’ll see by the photos), and played football through all four years of High School.  We were well known in the region and lost only four games in four years.  I led the New York City school record in place kicking points (points scored and field goals).

My size and height was also put to good use in our school’s sports efforts where I also played basketball.  Our team was a hit there too, and we went on to the city championships in Madison Square Garden, again, for all four of my years at Adelphi.

Considering our school’s size, we did rather well.  We had only seven or eight (as I remember) members on the team squad, but our High School only had 40 boys and 40 girls attending in total.

Adelphi had some rather interesting students, some of whom went on to become quite famous.   One of my teammates was Kevin (Chuck) Connors, who, at the time, was a poor boy from South Brooklyn attending the school on scholarship.  Chuck went on to play pro baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers and then the Toronto Blue Jays.  From the diamond, he went onto the movies and was best known for his role in The Rifleman TV show  (reruns are still shown on cable and the Internet).  I remained friends with Chuck until his passing.  He was truly a great fellow!

Note, the news clipping on the right has me in the back, but I never made it to the “big screen” like my friend, Chuck.

Another friend and fellow student, Al Guidet and I were nearly tossed out of Adelphi for playing hooky one year.  It was for a fantastic reason though – the opening day game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.  What boy could resist such a match-up!

Other things that I was forced into at Adelphi included having to go to dancing classes where we learned the fox trot, waltz and other “important” steps.  There were always ways to stirr things up in class though.  One day we snuck gold fish into the punch bowl just to have some fun.    However, I guess the dance classes were for a reason as we were all required to attend the holiday balls that took place in the big ballroom near the East River.  As tux or tails were required for the boys at these events, and the girls had to dress in full formal attire. These event must have been quite a show for our parents as the girls were to stand in the middle of the ballroom and the boys on the outside, were we were instructed to approach a girl and ask her for a dance.   I’m sure similar events are still probably somewhat painful for boys these days too.

Christmas in Brooklyn 

I remember Brooklyn with fond memories.  The big, and famous, Walafout Market stood alongside the Navy Yard (also more formally known as the New York Navy Shipyard).  Both were located at theend of Washington Avenue.  The Walafout Market was, at one time, the second largest market in the world.  At Christmas time, Dad, my brother Don and I would go to Wolafout Market and buy a three tree bunch (which was much less expensive than going downtown to by a single tree).  We’d separate the trees and take one to our Grandparents, the Lamphears,  and we’d bring one home.

Christmas Eve was packed with energy at our home as my Dad had this tradition of taking the third spare tree and trimming off some of the best branches.  Then, he’d look at the tree he’d selected to bring into the house and inspect it for bare spots.  A that point, Dad took his hand drill and bor holes into the trunk where it could use an extra branch of enhancement.  The branched from the third tree were then carefully plugged into our “house” tree.   Once the tree surgery was completed, we had a beautiful and full Christmas tree to take into the house.    It was then decorated and the final touches of tinsel were then placed on the tree.  Before the night was done we’s also managed to go caroling through the neighborhood with other families in the area.

One Christmas Don and I were assigned the job of patching up the bare spots on our tree.  With Dad’s drill we carefully added the extra branches and managed to crack the tree nearly in half.   Considering the mess we’d made, the solution, which worked nicely, was to splint the tree trunk (as though it had a broken bone), which kept it in tact and upright throughout the holidays – thankfully!

Family Summer Fun

Summers in Brooklyn were long and warm before the days of air conditioning.  Mom and Dad would pack us up and we’d all go out to Sayville, Long Island to enjoy the summer breezes off the shore.   Vacation time was spent at Cedar Shore Hotel, which was a family friendly hotel, owned by “brother” Morrison.  The hotel was located on the South Shore of Long Island on the Great South Bay, which was amost directly across the sound from Fire Island.  Dad and Grandpa would take the big old Long Island Railroad steam engine into Manhattan and work everyday.

Those were fond memories for all our family members.