Growing up Sunset

Marion Jackson-Lane - Trinity Lutheran Church, I made my confirmation there. I practically lived in the Park, once I tried skating down the wide steps fell and broke my arm. I remember walking up from 4th Avenue to 7th Avenue those hills killed me from 4th to 6th Avenue.

 

Janette Rodriguez - Playing red rover with all my cousins in front of our grandmother's house and then we had dinner all together. My grandmother was known to cook a lot for us to have family dinners I miss her.

Amador Rivera - Living on 53rd street between 2nd and 3rd, we challenged other blocks to a stick ball games.

             

Stanley R. Kubinski - The best game for us used to be "Home Free All" on  53rd Street.

 

Benz Stillenvy - I was from 40th btwn 5 & 6, my greatest memory was playing stick ball and wiffle ball... going to the store and stocking up on penny candy .25 cent juice and Wise potato chips and ices held us down, block parties were always fun and being at the corner with my boom box was a must.

 

Carol Dreher Herr - Johnny pumps in the summer, cork cork, giant step, points, skellzy, sitting on the stoops listening to music!! And of course Mr. Softee. We really had great summers! 61st between 4th and 5th

 

Louis Aguilar - Riding our big wheels up and down the block and around 41st Street between 6th & 7th Avenue.  I had a GI Joe Big Wheel with a square steering wheel.

 

Robert Pennington - I used to watch the ships go in & out of the harbor, too. I liked the ships that had 2 ship stacks & one that had something like an upside down black boot. This was back in the '60s. Two things I remember about my dad: dared him to ride a 2 wheeler (he must been 35 yrs old!) and took me up to the roof to watch the fireworks shooting up from Miss Liberty's torch. 

 

Maritza Adorno Arbelo - Got my first real deal kiss from a guy near the library on 51st street..I was in the 8th grade in Dewey JHS

 

Chantel Englebert - Lived on 54th between 2nd and 3rd ave. I remember camping out on my fire escape on hot summer nights and days I would play tag on the block and handball on the buildings. Best days was in my hometown....I have million's of bk memories.

 

Joyce Lighari - Roller skating with those metal roller skates that needed a key.  I've got a couple more stories - when the Salvation Army Corps officers and members would play music (and of course ring the bell at times) outside Woolworths at Christmas time. Also, back in ancient times when I was little, mothers still parked their baby carriage with the baby in it outside Woolworths - I used to love looking at the babies - I guess that was a forerunner to having 8 children.

 

Gladys M. Toledo - I used to like to stand in 45th and 5th and watch the ships too, Tony. But my favorite was playing tag with my cousins on our street on 44th. Our cousins and us would play and then pretty soon Adam and David from across the street would join in. My friends Blanca and Cristina would come down. It was great. I don't see kids playing like that anymore.

 

Joe McCarthy - stickball, slap ball, I Declare War, 6 steps to Germany, buck buck, 61st street, between 2nd & 3rd

 

Alice Mead - Summertime in Sunset Park Pool. Also playing pussy in the corner at St. Michael's Church.

 

Joe Cordero - Fireworks when they were legal, stickball, and roof jumping, skell-z's too with the milk caps with melted wax inside of them. Oh how I miss 61 between 3rd & 4th.

 

Mike Lopez - 55 between 6 and 7th ave. We had some serious 3 on 3 wiffle ball games. Bats tied up at the end with electrical tape and wiffle balls also. When the ball hit a window and shattered it, we all scrambled and disappeared LOL

 

Beatriz Gonzalez-Moore - Throw water balloon and then hide.

 

Elizabeth Ramos - I used to live on 47th street between 3rd and 4th avenue. Right across the street was handball courts which I played basically everyday, which was fun.

 

Al Fliction - tying my old sneakers together and throwing them on the light pole, then getting chased by The Assassinators

 

Robert Delgado - My dad walked me up that block every morning for years. throw back for sure

 

Ana Rodriguez - Girls scout at trinity wow great memories !!!!!

 

Sylvia Nieves - street games, red light green light...., hide the belt, hopscotch, handball at the st. michael's school yard.

 

Julio Medina - I use to sit on the mail boxes on 5th & 49th and watch all the activity going

on.

 

Marie Monforte Romeo - Use to hang out in the park & listen to the different bands that use play every week into the park a long time ago I don't know if anyone remembers that but I think you had a hand in that Tony (yes, thanks for the shout out Marie - me and my friends, although kids, got permission to host concerts each week through the summer in the park.  And now here I am 45 years later and my wife and I got the ban on family movies lifted and are hosting movies in the same park - gee, times don't change much....lol)

 

Cindy Colon Santiago - I live right on that corner. I remember all the block parties and just being worry free, stress free. Your biggest worry was if your best friend was coming outside to play or not. I remember how everyone would unite on this block for the block parties there were no issues just fun!

 

Millie Soto - Summer time favorite getting pushed into an open Johnny pump. Love the sound of scraping a two way open can that meant the water was going to reach the other side of the street.

 

Jennifer Canavan - Ahhh the block parties. We would ride bikes, play games, win prizes, eat hot dogs, ice cream, the open hydrant, coloring with chalk in the street, at night there would be music or a band if we were lucky... Sitting on the stoop later than we should have been up, Nothing today like this....young and free and happy!

 

Frankie Lopez - as a kid i remember playing baseball in abandoned lots.

 

Danielle Aronsen -  Putting the pool in front of the fire hydrant and having a pool party on 7th Avenue. (Rest in Peace Danielle, our dear Sunset Parker passed away a few hours after posting this)

 

John Miller - Block parties, stickball, buck-buck, skelsies, slapball..just being outside all the time and having to be home when the street lights went on

 

Sarah Richardson - I lived on 60th st between 3rd n 4th ave. I remember playing handball in the school yard across the street. Breaking into the school n running thru the hallways. The free lunches in the summer. The block parties, playing in the fire hydrant. Hopping the fence at sunset park pool at night to go swimming. Going to Johnny's pizzeria on 5th Ave after school. A lot of good times good times.

 

Judy Pietrafesa - I remember the old bus poles were round, I would swing around on my skates and get up speed to go around the corner and down 48 street off 5 ave get fun miss those days

 

Lorraine Carlsen Knudson - Trinity Lutheran. church 46th Street. Was there several times a week. Grandparents lived at 674-47th Street.

 

Andre Liberato - Was raised 52 4n5, back in the early 80s, there were several kids on our block playing Stickball, football, manhunt, cocolevio, catch n kiss, gushball (pitching in) would take walks from 39st to 60th on 5th holding a JVC Boombox on my shoulder, and hanging out on our only abandoned building on the block from the 70s till today (asian just purchased it) smoking Mary Jane and drinking Old English 800 40oz

 

Cynthia Santana - Playing stick ball on 47th street. Also I grew up going to that church in the corner of 48th street. Great memories!

 

Snow La Bruja Fernandez - I remember doing so many things I grew up on 55 th between 2 & 3 rd ave by the hospital wrote we had fun playing handball basket ball stuck ball punch ball tag you name it we played it those were great days

 

Laraine D'Auria Diaz - I remember going to 5th Avenue every Saturday and (window) shopping from 45th to about 56th street (Lerner's)

 

Kim Cuomo Biondi - Playing jump rope, hopscotch, games with the pink Spaulding ball, Red Light Green Light, Statues, eating Italian ices at night, putting polynoses/helicopters on our noses

 

Elena Medina - In the summer months when it rained hard and the streets would over flow with water we would take off our shoes and walk in the street near the curb with the warm rain flowing over our feet. Also loved going to the 5&10 and picking a balloon and paying whatever the paper inside said for a banana split.

 

John McCarthy - On my block we had a game Six Steps to Germany,it was one sewer,one person was it ,everyone else took six jumps.Then folks would try to get to the sewer without being tagged.The last one tagged then became it and then everyone else is now reversing the one sewer setup.Did any other blocks play this game?  I forgot to mention stoop ball.  Also, On my block, we called Ringolevio - Cork,Cork. (Amador Rivera We called it ringolevio 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.)

 

Sarah Richardson - John McCarthy I played in the school area n ran around inside the school at night in the 80's. I lived right next to the church on that block. My aunt still lives in that block at 334. She also owned the house on the corner of 3rd right next to that empty lot

 

Deborah D'auria Tumulty - My favorite thing was summer when hydrant was open and we got to play in the water. My next favorite was all the fun games we played and summer waiting for good humor to arrive!! Johns bargain store/Freeman's /Charles.  Who  remembers these great stores? (Anthony Spero hey deb dont forget tony kings and a lbany cycles)

 

Luz Vientos - Walking to and back to Dewey JHS 136 with my sister

 

Michael Saez - I remember being 11 years old back in 1963 and waiting for the 5th Ave bus with my mom so we can go to downtown Brooklyn and do some shopping and seeing that same theatre and its surrounding stores.

 

Elena Schwolsky-Fitch - A friend's father who grew up in sunset remembers sledding from the top of the hill at 47th and 7th all the way down to the waterfront with lookouts posted on the avenues to stop what little traffic there was (he's almost 100 years old!)

 

Joseph McLaughlin - Playing "kings" and "Chinese Handball" against the gas station wall on the corner of 40 St and 4th Ave. (when we weren't playing stickball up the block!

 

Junito Torres I Remember Jumping Over The 4th Avenue Median Strip With My Bicycle.

 

Kevin Mcallister - When it snowed we would stand on 56th and 6th by Carpentars Hall and go skitching down to 7 ave..

 

John McCarthy - Swimming in the deep pool late at night after it closed on heat wave nights and after a while being interrupted by the cops.

Chikita Furiosa - Awwe I grew up on 48th and 7th ave!!! I lived there for the first 15 years of my life, I remember crossing this street every day to visit my grandmother on 51st and 5th and to go to school at P.S.94!!!!!

 

Marisol Ferrer Malloy - I grew up by anchor bank from early 70's to mid 80's. Then I moved to 8th av. But I worked at Winners.

 

Kim Cuomo Biondi - Christmas caroling with the OLPH folk group; sitting on stoops with friends; buying little scented candles at Seasons & Reasons on 5th Ave.; riding the B9 bus; walking along 5th Avenue Christmas shopping with my dad

 

Marisol Ferrer Malloy - We lived on 5th Ave and 53rd. On rainy days, we covered the drain with cardboard boxes. When the buses passed by, they splashed us with cascades of dirty, filthy, oily water. Yes, this was bad. Yes, we were preteen and didn't know the flooding we caused. Yes, the water was bad. And yes, the community police came by, took the cardboard out and "scolded" us. But, we had fun and no one got hurt. And I'm still alive so the slime wasn't that bad for you.

 

Norma Rivera - I remember my older sister and I finding our first pet. A beautiful black and white stray cat who passed right by my family and I as we walked home from St. Agatha' church. On that very corner we found "Madeline". She was beautiful but scary, at least to me. I remember begging my mother to take Madeline back to that church corner because she scared me & I swore she was evil. My mother would always try to console me and tell me that the cat loved me, and that I needed to just give her a chance. Well they say when a cat loves you at times they bring you presents. I had no idea that Madeline loved me soooooo much she needed to show me by leaving a dead mouse she captured and killed on top of my chest, that I awoke to one morning!! I screamed at that top of my lungs and woke up everyone up. Never liked her after that and every time she passed me in the house (because my parents wouldn't get rid of her due the huge mouse problem we had) I would threaten her, that I would take her back, even if I had to lie to my parents that she ran away  because the streets wanted her back. However i now see how even the threat of a 7yr old was no match for a bad ass stray cat sunset park cat, but till this day when I pass that corner I remember finding her, bringing her home and loving and hating her at the same time. I also remember it as being one of the best last memories I had with my parents and older sister before our parents divorce. I absolutely love that corner. (Gladys M. Toledo I think I would die, if I woke up to find a dead mouse on top of me.)  You would think I hated cats after but I actually love them

 

Teresa Feliciano - Block parties getting in the pump and playing handball.

 

Carole Schinkel there are so many great memories....too many.....i remember sneaking into Greenwood and getting picked up....i remember sitting on top of the mailbox on 45th and 5th..hanging out in the park...sending a friend for something to drink & when he saw my brother he panicked...jumping over the copins (?spelling) on 44th between 5 & 6...roller skating down the hill in the park. being in the pool EARLY in the morning to beat the day camps! hopscotch, red light green light, giant

step....I could go on and on. such good memories.

 

Lindy Gardner - I remember roller skating down the steps on 43rd street side of the park right into the traffic. Walking to the pool with a rolled up towel and seeing the other kids on their way to the pool Hanging out on the stoop, eating frankfurters on fifth ave and my father reeling from the smell of garlic on my breath. Walking around Woolworths with my cousin speaking a cantina of what we thought sounded like Spanish.

 

La Muneca - I remember summer evenings having milk crate races with the neighborhood kids.

 

Amador Rivera My mom used to come out at night with sachichon and crackers and the kids from the block sat on the stoop and we all ate....

 

Esther Gonzalez Torres - I remember playing outside with my cousins and my friends on 48th street between 2 &3. Waiting for mr softie to have my ice cream and the rides. We played so many games like stick ball. I enjoyed my childhood. Had great friends and cousins.

 

Chikita Furiosa - Me too!!!! Played red light, green light, hide and go seek, tag just so many memories I luv my hometown!!!!  I even went to that church a few times and volunteered to clean the bathrooms.

Alfredo Mejia - One word ... MARATHONS ... i use to love see the community get together and pass out cups of water. 

 

Anthony Morales - Playing stick ball and manhunt on 48th all night in the summer after sitting on the stoop sharing stories 
The stoop was our camp fires lol

 

Michelle Marie - I grew up on those streets we had the best time of our lives there I met my Husband of 29 yrs there when I was 3 and he was 5 

 

Melody Rain - On our street the sidewalk had buckled over the roots of several trees creating little hills, valleys, and even a few minor jumps over the course of about 1/3 of the block's length. It became a point of pride to be able to ride your bike over this stretch of concrete, the faster the better, fingertip length away from the very large trees responsible. Between that and constructing jump ramps out of whatever semi suitable materials we could scrounge up, I still wonder how we survived to adulthood.

 

Gerri McKenna Zeidan - Did you know that 6th Ave. is said to be the highest point in Brooklyn? I, too, used to look down from the corner to watch the ships sail by. I also loved the sound of foghorns blowing in the night.

 

Mary Ann Gandolfo - Standing in front of the nearest candy store or in the ice cream parlor with my friends.

Linda Atteo - lying on the grass in Sunset Park with friends watching the NY skyline having a picnic.

 

Annee Lagreca - In the winter after a big snow we would pull our sleds up to this corner and slide back down again. Also used to watch the ships from there and watched the V bridge being built.

Stephen Spinelli - The best time of the year for me was the summer. Out all day playing with your friends. Going home for supper, then back out for a few more hours until it got dark. Once dark, sitting on your stoop because it was too hot to be indoors. Waiting for Mr. softy to come to buy a banana split. The whole neighborhood would come alive at night. Everyone was family. It was a time that is long gone but is always with me.

Lucia Velez - I also remember that there was a homeless man that slept right on the steps of the old 68th Precint and one day I brought him a blanket a pillow and something to eat. I must have been like 10 years old. We lived between 43rd and 44th street on 4th ave for about 6 years.

 

Robert Pennington - Mom would chase us kids outside since she knew  my uncle got paid. A dime would get us an ice-cream at the corner deli. Guess I went for 2¢ ice pop to get change Creamsicle was my favorite.

 

Lucia Velez - I remember handing out water to the NYC marathon runners , and riding on my 4 wheel roller skates. People used to yell out to me......Go Gadget go.....!!!!!!!

 

Andre Liberato I used to ride the back of the buses in the summer and in the winter, I'd hold on to the bottom of the buses and get dragged in the snow, my fondest memories was United Skates of America roller rink!!

 

Ceci Pilly I remember the movie theater on 51 and 4 ave the coliseum, I remember the precinct looked like a castle on 43 and 4 ave is still beautiful

 

Raymond Correa - I remember Catch and kiss in the park. (Maria M. Valerio-Pena SPIN THE BOTTLE!! LOL....)

 

Amy Latorres-Rios - Handball courts at PS1, watching the cool boys play, like a cheerleader

 

Maria M. Valerio-Pena - So many memories, where can one really begin, except to say that Sunset Park was a unity of family from many walks of life & of course there was not one thing we didn't do because we did it all & we enjoyed the so many, fun, creative, funny, free, happy & safe activities without having to be tied to a phone or Ipad. Handball, snow,sleighting, Johnny pump sprinkler or jumping, Mr.Softie, Johhnie's Pizza, the Theater, Bowling, bicycling, Ice skating, Rollerblading, Double Dutch, just to name a few. Why I even went on a school trip to the children's show Wonderama & even won the dancing contest of which I have not been able to aquire a video copy of. Lol... Ahhh.... those were the days.