We used brown paper grocery bags for garbage back then; nobody ever heard of plastic bags much less used them. Some had diaper services for recycling cloth diapers ~ not skeevy plastic that take 10,000 years to disintegrate. Milk came in glass bottles, or thick wax containers with little pop-up 'buttons' to open and pour. It lasted longer, tasted better, and we'd cut down the empty containers for school projects, feeding stray animals, etc.
People had seltzer bottles delivered in wooden crates. No one had ever heard of "diet" anything ~ soda was soda, period. Except for an Italian specialty, unknown to many outsiders, the fabulous Manhattan Special ~ little did we know that it was carbonated black coffee we were drinking, but it sure kept us going all day long...no obesity problem in those days. We were buzzed!
Man, we played from morning to night, with a quick break for dinner (we usually had heroes or pizza for lunch, enabling us to not go home all day) and out we zoomed again, filling up those sidewalks and streets with kids of all ages and the simplest, most fun games.
A crushed soda can kept us busy for hours playing (Kick The Can.) A 25-cent Spalding (pronounced Spaldeen) pink rubber ball provided a multitude of activities...stoop ball, handball, stickball, ad infinitum. White chalk allowed us to draw lines on the sidewalk for a game of hopscotch, or as we called it 'patsy.' And, as my dear childhood friend Anthony Borello remembers, if someone bought a new stove or refrigerator (which came in big cardboard boxes in those days) well, we hit the jackpot! The boys went to work making little clubhouses, windows and all...until it rained. And the only "internet" was talking over our clotheslines.
Little to no plastic, no 5,000 different versions of the same shampoo or dish detergent, no ugly big-box stores offering cheap Chinese crap, we shopped in our own neighborhood at the many 'mom & pop' stores and best of all, just about everything was labeled or engraved 'Made in the USA.' ('Made in Japan' did make its way into our shopping but we always considered it junk, even then.)
So, how do you like it so far? Doesn't it sound like a place (and time) you'd never want to leave? Because no matter where I've lived since leaving there in 1971, I have been unable to call anywhere 'home' ~ that is how much my old neighborhood still lives in my heart.
I'm not the only one, either. For those of us who were lucky enough to grow up there, we all feel a tug at our hearts when talking about it. We also feel like we're all related because of that shared experience.
More, so much more to come...meanwhile, welcome to the neighborhood!
Different neighborhood, different ethnic group, otherwise I felt as though you were describing my own childhood. I too miss the "hood" and have never ever felt I belonged anyplace and since moving from New York City in the 70's to south Florida, still feel that I am a New Yorker, always will be afterall.. "you can take the broad out of New York City, but you cannot ever take New York City out of the broad" :)
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