This week, New York Magazine asked famous NewYawkers to remember growing up n the city. It got me to thinking and reminiscing about, "the good old days".
The day before Easter J and I were on Arthur Avenue. We parked in an unusual spot close to Adams Place. As we got out of the car I got a flash of my childhood, Easter in the Bronx of the 50's. Given my dad's occupation he spent March 1-April 15 behind a desk in a Washington Avenue store front preparing tax returns for his clients and anyone else who happened to walk into the store. Lucky for me the store was down the street from Excelsior Pizza Restaurant (owned by uncle Dom and aunt Nana) and next store to a corner candy store that sold egg creams and other 50's sweets. Given his very tight schedule we'd have Easter dinner at his mom's house on Adams Place or at Uncle Phil's who lived a few short blocks away and very close to the Bronx Zoo. I think it was Mapes Ave. I'd always get a new suit for Easter, usually some shade of gray, a sharkskin number comes to mind. With it a pink shirt, new shoes and an appropriate, clip on tie; always a dandy. When I got to high school I tied my first tie.
If Easter was as early as this year, in the heat of tax season, the day was condensed and a bit rushed but with all my cousins squeezed into a small 5 room apartment, playing Bankers and Brokers with uncle Charlie, the day was always festive and rewarding. Chocolate bunnies, money, Peeps. If the holiday fell after April 15 we had more time and perhaps a walk in the Bronx Botanical Gardens, nothing like it is today....as a matter of fact my dog Wrinkles, drank polluted water there and soon after died!
The NY Mag article has got me thinking and looking at good old days, through rose colored glasses.
No comments:
Post a Comment