CROSSING THE BORDER

(On the neighborhood tour, I left you, the reader, off at Howard Place. For a quick second though I want to take a detour from our scheduled tour)

We can all agree (most of us anyway) that growing up in Windsor Terrace was special. As a youngster the friendships formed, our time with legit cousins, family gatherings a few blocks away (my cousins lived on Fuller Place), the rivals, the fights, arguments, sports played together and of course the all-important love interest.

This morning I asked a friend from out here (Michigan) if he knew another guy from a different area, located about 10 miles away.

“Nah, I don’t deal with those people from (name of area left blank)…

I found it very hard to believe him.

Also, last night one of my players told me they were driving up to where I live to play some other guys. They wanted to see what the ‘comp’ was like and how they stacked up.

Then there’s this policy of living in a certain zone to be able to attend a certain school, or I think they put it another way, ‘Schools of Choice’.

It got be thinking about kids from other neighborhoods.

I’m not sure where the cut-off was/is for Windsor Terrace but areas like 5th avenue, 21 street, St. Saviors and IHM parish were locations I met a lot of outstanding people during my upbringing.

Maybe you met someone in high school, or even later in life when you went out into the workfield, you saddled up next to a co-worker and found out they got off the ‘F’ train at 7th avenue or even Ft. Hamilton Parkway. And of course someone blurted out, “Small world huh?”

I hate that term.

What about when you were a youngster, say ages 13-18? Did you meet anyone from outside of Windsor Terrace?

But before you ventured out, did you have a preconceived notion about that neighborhood? The kids living there? Did you think they were richer, smarter, or tougher?

Was it always on your mind to see what kind of people they were?

Throughout the years I was able to meet guys like Jackie and Billy Ryan, Turk, Ron Hardy, Chris Ryan and Danny Leary; just a few guys from I.H.M. I had the pleasure of hooking up with down at East 5th street park while going out to explore other basketball courts and match up with different competition.

Terry Green, Al, Chris Johnson, Carl Manco, and even Chris Logan; all guys from St. Saviors who I also played ball with down at the 9th street YMCA or even 51’s schoolyard. Carl ran a pretty good basketball league in St. Saviors gym and I think I played in one game total. All I recall is watching David Quinn, Colin’s brother go off every time I made the trek with the Cullen’s to watch them play.

The guys from 21st street, who everyone thought were these rough and tough mafia-type kids with leather jackets and ‘ba-ba’ shoes. They drove around in Monte Carlo’s with music blasting. They hung out on the corners sipping beer and at times would come up to the schoolyard and play us in basketball. It was funny watching them run up and down the court in tight Jordache jeans, wife-beater t-shirt with countless tattoos, numerous gold chains dangling from their beefed-up necks and ‘ba-ba’ shoes without socks.

What’s so special about these ‘neighborhood border-crossing’ relationships is that I still keep in contact with many of them. You know what, after all these years, these guys were no different than we were.

No matter where or when it was, we were always able to branch out and meet other kids from different areas. We hopped on our bikes, snuck on the train, took the bus and sometimes we walked…

I wonder if kids do that today.