HOW IS EVERYONE FEELIN’?
The number of hits to the blog are goin’ out the window like Ray Orlando driving baseline in the schoolyard!
It’s that time of month again for me to thank all the fantastic people who not only read the blog but also check-in with a comment or two (or three)…
You can’t sit there in front of your rather expensive computer and tell me any other neighborhood in the city have people like the ‘old-school’ residents or alumnus of Windsor Terrace? (Where in the world do you think Ronald St. George is chillin’ as we speak?)
I’ll put ‘yous’ people from Windsor Terrace up against anyone when it comes to character, work ethic, integrity, sports, intelligence, and especially overall human compassion!
Many people say that when you attend high school or even college you meet people who have an impact on the rest of your life and that you form valuable relationships with these people…
Total B.S. (I mean, maybe it’s true with a couple people but…)
It’s the relationships that were formed from ages 5-14…that make a difference.
Those are the years you get to know someone, really know someone. It’s the time when you get to know what someone is all about. Especially when you see them 20, 25, or even 30 years later.
What’s amazing about the above statement is a former classmate at Holy Name and I haven’t spoken to each other in over 30 years - well after finding the blog they contacted me via email and we spoke on the phone recently and it feels like we never lost contact with each other.
Reach out to someone you recognize on the blog. Call someone up you haven’t talked to in years and re-connect with that person.
I cherish my time spent on the streets of Windsor Terrace. I’ll always remember the days and nights spent playing ball in Holy Name schoolyard.
It’s a stupendous feeling knowing full well I grew up in Windsor Terrace and made hundreds of friends and was able to experience some of the greatest memories in my ‘yet not complete’ life; memories that I will take to my grave!
BIG UPS!
-SF
hoops135@hotmail.com
Gotta say thanks to you for the diaries…
.. when work gets nutsike it has been lately, it’s great to take a break and read about or hear from people from
years. ago. i just went to a family christening
and we were ll talking about LALA.. and then other stories kicked in both sad and funny..
Steven.. ya done good!!
steve mike here what is up with the reunion you should post some date’s for it and then we can get it going and did you get any picture you should post them .you are doing a good job here keep it going hope to see you at the reunion ok take care .
Mike,
Hello. June is a tough month for people - I think we will shoot for late August, a much ‘do-able’ time of year for most.
Hope you are well. I miss those nights on 16th street…
JV,
I try and give back, that’s what it’s all about. My motto is, ‘don’t worry about making a buck, make a difference!’ Thanks for the kind words. It’s great seeing people come together and share their memories…
Coach, you really do an excellent job stimulating the memory bank with the wide assortment of blog entries. You also offer an opportunity for folks to reconnect with their past. The Container diaries is our way back machine.
JC,
Thanks my man.
You know, it’s really true, what you say (here’s the part where my mouth says “Red” and my fingers type “Fin” and my brain thinks, “Steve”)….that who you are is who you are before you’re fourteen.
My husband and I met when we were young teenagers and we are the same people. I think you ARE who you are and even though you grow, you’re either yourself or finding your way back after getting lost in some bullshit in your twenties…..
I am always thrilled to read a new entry. It makes my day. Thanks, Steve.
PS This blog works better and cheaper than any therapy I could pay for. You all let me say my crap and no one sends me home…ala my brother off the Larkin’s and Dolan’s stoops when I was a kid. “GET OUTTA HERE!! GO HOME!!”
Instead you all give me space to say my stuff and move right past it….thanks to all for letting me put my crap out there and just letting it be.
gotta agree….the friends I have now, the ones that are always there are the ones I have known since my Holy Name days or met my first day of HS, when I was 12 going on 13. These are the people who know me, and love me anyway!
Shakespeare said; “To Thine Own Self Be True.” Our friends accept us for who we are, they look past any imperfections and see just this, their friend.
We may have grow up get married and left the neighborhood but the friends that you made along the way will always have a special place in your mind, heart & soul because they helped shape who you are. Despite living fairly close to Brooklyn, I don’t really get in there too much anymore. Still, when I am in the neighborhood and running into people it is almost as if they had seen me a day or two ago. There is always a smile, a hearty handshake and a how’s the family.
We recently sold our home on Winsdor Place and when I was in for Brooklyn Irish Day it felt quite strange to go by the house and know that I couldn’t just walk through that door like I used to. That house and this neighborhood and the people from it have definitely given me many great memories.
Jerry,
I do agree. I don’t think I could ever walk down Windsor Place & not want to walk right up the stoop to our old house.
Helen
Helen,
I gott agree.. my sister and I inherited the house two years ago when Dad passed away. I knew my sister did not want to move.. so she has the first two floors and I have the rental. we put a lot of money into it nut it is great to have the house looking good again. And I finally have a stoop.. It was so nice to sit in the arie and have a cold one..
JC,
Quoting Shakespeare, I love it!
Hey kids:
Windsor Castle was great but you people never lived all the places I did…7th. ST., 9th. St., 11th. St., 8th. Ave., Windsor Place…friggin gypsies we were!!! My center of gravity is 16th. & 8th., so it was easy to part with the Castle. And you know how royal Betty felt about that…LOL!!!
I could’nt picture walking past the house if we had sold it without being overwhelmed. My family’s been on Windsor in the house for about 90 years starting with Glenn Thomas’grandparents who sold the house to my grandfather. I think the Artzes and Horans have been on the block for about as long. My kids like Brooklyn alot so maybe they will live there eventually. I ‘m trying to talk my wfe into retiring there.
We have the block party (one of two this summer)this weekend and it is so great to see the families that are still there and catching up with everybody….
My mom sold my grandmother’s house on Windsor two years ago and it IS weird to go by and not just walk in (as a matter of fact, I remember living in Africa during the rainy season one year and I was sitting in my small shack with a tin roof as the rain POURED down on top, making so much noise and I was so cold and all I wanted to do was walk into the house on Windsor, feel the carpet on my feet and sink onto the floor and be warm and dry)….but the thing is, the neighborhood is still my home. I can go up or down any street in the area…and I understand Tommy Cole a little because I’ve lived on Sherman, PPSW and Windsor and it all feels like home, just the area…..
Other things feel like home to me, too. There’s a yoga studio that I never go to anymore but THAT feels like home to me. Botswana felt like home to me. Where I live now feels like home to me…..
I think Jerry has it best (wow, you Coles have been well-versed in life, hey?)….it’s where people let you be you that you feel home…it’s amongst those who SEE through your crap to YOU…..and it is indeed IN those places that I feel most myself, most at home and make the tightest friends.
Here is one of those places now. Steve, you made me a new place to call home, on a computer. Nice.
Looking at all these blogs,the one common thread is ParkSlope/Windsor Terrace
When I talk to people about where I grew up and the things I did for fun or the stories of Nuns and Brothers they scratch their heads and start asking questions.
Before I found this site it was all just great memories of a time gone by,but Steve whether he realizes it or not has open up a special place for all of us.
Now whenever I hear someone say “you can never go home” I laugh and say to myself, thats because you don’t have Container Diaries
My children can actually navigate this site and see for themselves what a great place we came from and get a sense for where we lived.(and that dad wasn’t Bull$%$ing
I thank god we had no cell phones,beepers,Playstation and all the other instant gratification toys they have today.all though I guess I am being a bit hypocritical after all Iam using a computer to write this but I’m sure you all get the gist
i do’n mind the technology.. the website ere is awesome.. and I like that my kid have cellphones because when they were younger..What i don’t like is the *&&s on the bus scraming in their phones or people at resaturants taking calls… I tell my kids when we eat, there will be no taking of calls unless it is work.