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Austin, Bishop Ford, Brooklyn, College, Container Diaries, Farrell's, Hawaii, Michigan State University, Neighborhood, Sienna, Small World, SUNY Cortland, Texas, Windsor Place, Windsor Terrace
How many times have you caught yourself, or even a friend saying, “it’s a small world”?
We can all agree that our neighborhood wasn’t what someone would call small. There were a ton of people who grew up there. Some went on their way to bigger and better things, some stayed behind and are still holding down the fort.
Along the way we have made trips to other cities, states and even country’s. Some have gone off to college and even the armed forces. And with those adventures, comes meeting new people.
“We’re ya from?”
“I’m from Brooklyn”
“Oh yeah, I have a friend from there.”
Or you may hear, “I have a cousin from there.”
You get the point.
Back in 1996 when I relocated from the neighborhood to East Lansing, Michigan I began working with the Michigan State University Men’s basketball team along with enrolling in school as a full-time student. We had a retired teacher/basketball coach (Doug) who spent time helping the Spartans with some behind the scenes stuff. The guy was awesome. We hit it off right away. Great basketball mind.
On one of my trips back to Brooklyn I picked up some gear and brought it back to Michigan. I gave Doug a Bishop Ford pullover. One day he was at a grocery store shopping and the cashier noticed his Ford logo on the front of his red pullover.
“Do you know anyone from Bishop Ford?” she asked.
“Yeah, Steve Finamore.”
“Oh wow, you know Red?” The cashier answered.
Doug couldn’t believe it. Someone out here in East Lansing knew me from Brooklyn.
Which brings me to another story from Container Diaries contributer Kenny Whelan.
My wife is starting to think Farrell’s is some type of cult.Just a little background. My wife (who’s from Texas) and I live in Austin in a small 10 unit condo complex just south of downtown.Well, the other day, I’m out in the driveway talking to a new neighbor (Paul) who just rode up on his bike with a friend of his (Dave). We get to the talking and it turns out that Dave is visiting from upstate NY (outside Syracuse). I mention that I went to SUNY Cortland and these two tell me they went to Sienna. When I mention Brian Keating, they about shit. I’m pretty sure Dave told me that Noreen Keating is married to his brother.
Dave tells me that he and his father attended Mr. Keating’s wake and then went to some bar. When I mention Farrell’s, he says he’s pretty sure that was it.When I tell my wife this story later, she just shakes her head. We ran into John Powers in Paris when he was there on his honeymoon and we were on vacation, another guy in Hawaii (he was wearing a Farrell’s t-shirt at the airport), the now ex-wife of a friend of Houlie’s at the grocery store here in Austin (she was wearing the old maroon jacket with the “F” on it) I think she was married to Hajjar from Windsor Place?
CONTAINER DIARIES 
Broadway said:
I wear a Brooklyn Dodgers cap that gets me into all sorts of conversations. It has been said that most people in the USA have 4 degrees of separation from Brooklyn. I once hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and hiked back up. At the top there is a hotel that has a tavern in the lobby so of course I mosied on in ordered an adult beverage, at the bar the next to me says “What parta Brooklyn yafrum”? And of course he knew Farrells. Turns out he grew up on 7 Ave at 7 St we knew lots of the same guys but not each other.
Jack Kelly said:
I beleive these stories are commom because the Brooklyn native is unique. My cousin Red Reilly was a great guy and people were touched by his extraordinary personality. They absolutely loved him and everywhere he went he was at home. He past away a few years ago and my Aunt is still getting calls from residence of the small town he called home saying how much they still miss him. This story is not unusual. Many people on this site are Brooklyn emigrants who moved out and in no time became part of the fabric of their new community. You brought what is good about this borough to your new communities and the best part is they liked it. And whenever they here the accent they ask the famous question “Do you know…”
Kenny Whelan said:
I spoke with my neighbor Paul to clarify and Dan Wnorowski’s (who went to Sienna with Paul and Brian Keating) brother Doug is married to Noreen Keating.
Maureen Rice (Flanagan) said:
Jack Kelly, was your cousin the Red Reilly who used to hang out on Hippie Hill? He had the long red hair halfway down his back, he would be in his late 50’s now?
hoopscoach said:
Jack,
You’re correct. Everywhere I go people ask me, “are you from the East Coast?”
My accent actually came in handy when I did a little substitute teaching. Most of the the kids in the class calmed down after the bell rang. But the ones who thought they were tough guys kept on making some noise in the back of the room. I closed the door, and a few people began to take notice the sub was here. So the kids in the back kept on talking, I walked in their direction, got real close to one kid, and whispered softly,
“Yo tough guy, if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna throw your ass outta here!”
He shut up.
Kevin Mahoney said:
I worked the door at a bunch of bars in Boston when I was in college up there, and whenever I was handed a New York driver’s license with a Brooklyn address the discussion always led to Farrell’s.
One time I was bartending in a place and Brian Corrigan walked in. Trump Shuttle was running a special on flights for something like $20 each way between Boston and NY and he flew up just to check out the city for the day and ended up in my bar.
I also remember taking a trip down to DC during that same time period and running into Jimmy Peterson from Prospect Ave. on the steps of the Washington Monument. Definitely a small world!
Karen (Artz) Shanley said:
I was at a friends party out here in Long Island. I started talking to a friend of their’s, Michelle. She grew up in Long Island & I told her I was from Bklyn. She asked what part & when I told her Windsor Terrace, she was shocked. She told me she had relatives that live on Sherman St & that she was going on the Farrell’s cruise with them. She mentioned some of the people that were going & I knew most of them. It truly is a small world.
hoopscoach said:
Kevin,
You must’ve been in some great debates on the Sox-Yankees?
Also, did you know Brian Corrigan’s nickname?
Jimmy Peterson was a good dude. Wonder where he is these days?
Karen,
Good stuff!
jim vack said:
Kevin,
It is amazing how everyone knows Farells !! Karen.I was in South Jersey at a party and a someone at the party asked where I was from. They asked me If I knew Joe Cronin I knew Joe a little but I knew Mike better. I also told him about how far our families went back on Windsor Place.It turned out he was Joe’s brother in law. He called him but unfortunately he was not home… I used to run into Susan Peterson occasionally in downtown manhattan. She, Christine Kawas, and Margaret Troller were three of the great girls from the neighborhood. Whenver I drive by the pharmacy that was on 8th and Prospect.. I am always suprised noone ever opended a business there….Kevin, what are you up to these days?
Jack Kelly said:
Hello Maureen, That’s my cousin Red. And he was a hippie to the end.
Jack Kelly said:
Coach, I’m in a Denny’s in Ohio and I order breakfeast. As I’m waiting for my order the manager comes over and he asked where I was from. After I tell him I’m from Brooklyn the girl comes back smiling and starts to chat as she’s pouring my coffee. After she leaves the manager came over and told me that the waitress thought I was mad at her but he told her that I was from Brooklyn and that’s how everyone sounds.
Glenn T. said:
I remember back in 1988 I was coaching basketball over in Stockholm, Sweden. I used to walk the equivalent of two train stops each day to practice(The equivalent of going from 15th St/PPW to Fourth Ave). One day I stopped in a pizza place to get a bite. I met an American girl. Her name was Dana. She was working there behind the counter. She was from Colorado. She met her Swedish husband in the States and they moved back to Sweden together. I didn’t make much of it and I didn’t see her too much after that. I went home to NYC over the Christmas holidays. One night I went up to Farrell’s and ran into Eileen Magee for she and I went to HN and Ford together. I told Eileen that I was over in Sweden working. Eileen told me that she had a friend Dana living over there and that she and Dana were roommates in Colorado the previous year. We then asked Hoolie who was behind the bar and got about ten dollars in quarters and called Sweden from a pay phone (for this was before phone cards and cell phones.) It was around 2-3AM in NYC which made it 8-9AM in Sweden for Sweden is six hours ahead. It turned out that this girl Dana was the same girl that was roomates with Eileen Magee. Talk about the chances of that happening! It truly is a small world at times!
Maureen Rice (Flanagan) said:
Jack Kelly, I am sorry to hear of Red’s passing. I went to Woodstock with him, his friend Chickie, John Rice and his wife Mary, and my ex-husband Junior Rice! We left late, and didn’t actually stay, by the time we got there, things had deteriorated, we would have had to walk 12 miles, it was raining, we saw people selling water for $2, and it just didn’t seem feasible. In one of the all-time miscalculations, I remember saying “Ah, it’s not gonna be that good anyway”! “)
I was just at VooDoo Fest in New Orleans, I got into a conversation with a Scotsman who lived in Alabama. When he asked what part of Brooklyn I was from, I said Park Slope, because more people are familiar with that area. He said, oh, I lived in Windsor Terrace for awhile on PPSW. He knew Farrell’s! I was on a cruise once, and everyone I told that I was from Brooklyn (because people always ask when you’re traveling) anyway, everybody had some kind of connection, an aunt, a parent etc. who came from Brooklyn. Another time in New Orleans, my hotel room wasn’t ready, so I went to a place called Mother’s for breakfast. I saw some guys with Toys for Tots shirts on, and pegged them for firefighters. On the way out, one of them had a L105 Dean St. jacket on, so I said hello, that I was a friend of Kathy Brunton. Turns out, it was Vinnie’s good friend and we had both been at the Vinnie Brunton event in Ford just a couple of weeks earlier. There were four guys at Mother’s and we started looking for other connections, I asked if the did the Tunnel to Towers walk/run, and they said, that’s who we are down here with. Twenty-five FDNY guys took three tractor-trailers down the Gulf Coast with toys for Katrina victims. They end up in New Orleans, stay for a day and fly home. The Steven Siller Foundation financed the trip. I know this is going long, but one more thing happened. Mother’s is a place where you line up, order your food, take a seat and they call you when your order is up. As we were leaving, there was a military unit on line, the captain stopped the guys on the way out, saying FDNY- I had one of your guys in my unit. Vinnie’s friend says – Engeldrum? I want you to meet my friend here, he ran Engeldrum’s funeral. It truly was a small world that day in Mother’s.
Bill LaVasseur said:
Farrell’s is a landmark throughout this country. While working as a NYPD Detective, I went to Hong Kong and was approached by a Royal Hong Police Inspector from Scotland. The Inspector picked up on my Brooklyn accent and asked what part of NYC I was from. I told him WT and he did not know where that was. He then asked if Farrell’s was near WT and I told him Farrell’s was in WT. He told me that he had traveled a number of times to NYC for “Holiday” and a NYC friend brought him to Farrell’s twice, he loved the place. Needless to say, that Inspector made my 24 1/2 total flight enjoyable for the rest of my time in Hong Kong. I was in LA and met some of the LAPD boxing team who told me whenever they travel to NYC they make a mandatory trip to Farrell’s; after their bouts of course.
Kevin Mahoney said:
Steve,
I’m actually a Mets fan, and my freshman year in Boston was the Fall of ’86, Mets vs. Red Sox, a wild time. I remember being at a party for game 6, and one minute I had Sox fans in my face gloating about their apparant Series victory, and the next minute they were crying in their beers.
Wasn’t Brian Corrigan’s nickname Daffy, or something like that?
And yeah, Jimmy Peterson was a good guy, and a great athlete.
Jim Vack,
I’m a Family Court Magistrate, which is basically a lawyer employed by NY state. I decide child support cases in Family Court in Queens and Staten Island. I split the week between the two counties.
maryTRAPPmurphy said:
JUST THE OTHER DAY LISTENED TO A GUY SAY HE GREW UP IN BROOKLYN….AND MOVED TO LONG ISLAND…NOW HE’S IN TOMS RIVER….TOLD HIM I WAS FROM PARK SLOPE, HE ASKED THE QUESTION, WHAT PARISH? HOLY NAME HE SAID ST. SAVIOURS…SOUTHERN OCEAN COUNTY NJ IS WHERE WE SLOPERS TALKED ABOUT THE WORLD IS GETTING SMALLER…HE HAD 2 BUSINESSES 1 ON L.I. THE OTHER QUEENS…WAS INTERESTED AND SEEMED SURPRISED WHEN WAS TOLD FARRELLS WAS STILL IN BUSINESS….KEEP THE ECONOMY GOING UP THERE IN FARRELLS…..
Dan Mahoney said:
I can’t tell you how many times over the years, no matter what city, state or country that I was in that somebody made a connection to the neighborhood and most times Farrell’s. I literally could go on for hours on the connections. But here is one that a lot of people can connect with !
I was on a crusie with the wife and kids about five years ago that left out of Baltimore ,Md. First day on the ship ,I hear a guy speaking and his voice sounds very familar,obviously from Brooklyn and I’m thinking … damm I know that voice ! So I walk over, ask him okay where ya from ? He says Staten Island. Originally ?? No he says, I was originally from 9th Ave between Windsor and Prospect.
turns out he was Michael Bonnalli from the neighborhood landmark “Bonnalli’s.” We ended up talking for quite some time about the nieghborhood , his Mom and Dad and the great ice cream and ices from that store.
Betty T.B.K. said:
I was at a party on Long Island where I have been living for the past 28 yrs. This friend of mine who I have know for a couple of yrs invited a group of us over. His sister-in-law came in with her children and he began to introduce everyone, and when he got to me, she said I know Betty, it was my nephew Martins first cousin from his dads side and what a small world yessssss, her mom grew up in our great neighaborhood. A girl I met at a parent conference meeting, got to talking came from our great neighaborhood and she also knew my family and many people I knew also. Traveling to Chicago also I met someone I knew at the airport, yes what a small world. Its great running into people who share the same memories of our great area.
Kenny Whelan said:
When my wife and I ran into John Powers in Paris, the first thing that crossed my mind was that the Farrell’s football club was in Paris for some Giant game and there were about 40 of them around the corner in a bar hanging out with a bunch of French guys with berets on their head.
Jack Kelly said:
While I was in a pub in County Wexford being introduced to several pints of guinness I was talking to a Mr. Hammond who was asking if I knew a list of people from New York. After explaining to him that NY is a very big place he turns to me and says most seriously ” hey yank one thing I have to ask you is why do they call it Sheapshead Bay”
Bobby Burke said:
Hey Coach and all the other ” neighborhood ” contributors,
There is no question we live in a small world and sometimes it seems that Brooklyn is the center of it.
I lived on Martha’s Vineyard Island in Massachusetts for about 20 years. I was in the hotel business and as you might guess met loads of New Yorkers as The Vineyard is a haven for NYer’s in the summer. The truth of the matter though is that most of them were not like ” us “. They were upper eastsider’s who mostly were transplants to NY and were not very easy or pleasant to deal with but that is a whole different subject. Now and again though I would meet some ” regular Joe ” nyer’s and bklynites, many who knew of Farrell’s or had actually consumed a few cold ones there and it was always a good experience especially when they found out I was part of the fabric of the neighborhood – of course they always wanted to know how I found my way to Martha’s Vineyard from a rough and tumble Brooklyn neighborhood. With a straight face, I would reply ” Witness Protection “.
A NY guy once came into a restaurant I owned on Cape Cod – he was a wall st guy with about 9 people with him. He showed up without a reservation and said with a straight face that he wanted a table on the veranda right away – ( this is a different kind of NY’er than us Bklynites ) I said well, It’s August, its late we are full and you have no reservation and 9 people but I can do something in about a half hour. Well the guy moaned and groaned and finally after 20 mins of whining I got a table put together for them- On the veranda no less – the guy was a horror head – he just wanted to impress his friends and flex his ego so after two hours of this guy plus it was late August and I was shorthanded and tired, I had it ! I switched gears from New England Innkeeper and went in to ” Take no S— Brooklyn mode ” I said to the guy ala Ralph Kramden ” out – Get out – geeeet out ! – I said next year when you show up and you come around the main road and you see my big white house that says Colonial House Inn do me a favor and keep going ! Well back in those days I still liked to have a few or more cold ones so I went to my bar with a thirst and the guy mumbled something,paid the tab and ran out the door. His buddy comes up to me and says ” hey where are you from ?” I figure ” here we go ” I say ” Brooklyn, you got a problem with that ? He says ” I knew it, I’m from flatbush avenue, I knew you were a NY guy and the truth is we don’t even like that guy – we are on vacation and we do business with the guy so we have to meet him every year but we loved it when you ripped him up, New York style ! ”
So this guy becomes a regular customer of mine and sends me loads of business from NY – moral of the story – there’s no spirit like the Brooklyn spirit and who says the customer is ALWAYS right !!
Living in the Boston area I always took a pounding for wearing my NY Yankee hat but after a while it was a good natured ribbing – back in those days the Sox always got eliminated except for 86 against the mets and I would say what is the difference between Fenway and Yankee stadium ? The answer Yankee stadium was always open in October and Fenway was always closed ! That kept the New Englanders quiet. I have loads of stories about NY’ers lost in New England – another time.
Ken Whelan I will send you a line, got ur email address.
Betty tbk – yes I know your Brothers, Booby, Gerard and Mike and knew your Brother Ritchie, a sweet guy – you mentioned that Mike knew my Dad – he certainly did – they did alot of arguing over softball leagues – my Dad was one of a kind and at times impossible but still a lovable sweet guy – Please say hi to Mike and Bobby – they are great guys in my book.
Bobby Burke said:
Betty TBK –
Thats Bobby not booby- SORRY !
Bobby Burke
Eileen Slavin Mcelroy said:
Brian Corrigan’s nickname was Quacky.
My husband, who was born upstate, is still amazed that no matter where I go, I run into someone from the neighborhood or someone who knows someone I know. I always tell him we were more “small town” than most small towns…we all knew each other and looked out for each other
hoopscoach said:
Bobby,
Great hearing from you, don’t be a stranger – you add much value!
Tommy Cole said:
Never mind Brooklyn, Holy Name is all over…I have met HN people in so many places around the world. Check out these two examples…In Africa I met a guy from Holy Name and a woman from St. Saviour. He was about 30 years older than me and had Miss. Hubbard and Miss Lynn in school; she went to St. Savoiur’s HS with my mom. When I worked at St. Bonaventure there were a slew of Brooklyn people working there including Ford’s own Brian Nash, a guy from Brooklyn Prep, and yet again, a guy who was taught by Miss. Hubbard and Miss. Lynn…I guess they started there wityh the building…LOL!!! 237 best in Brooklyn!!!