“So before we go any further, I want my ends.” -Everlast
We can all agree there were many people in the neighborhood who did drugs. I’m not talking Bayer or Advil. I’m talking Cocaine, Heroin, Weed, Quaaludes and Mescaline.
I used to see men and women who were addicted walking the streets barely able to stand up. They looked like zombies. Not to be funny or make light of the situation, sometimes it felt like I was in the film, “Night of the Living Dead.”
I also witnessed the problem close up, at home.
It wouldn’t be long before I would be using.
Call it “peer pressure,” I guess. Started with booze, then weed. Let me stop there.
The 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s were wild.
Bob Powers wrote a book about his drug addiction in the neighborhood called, “Bobby’s Book.” I highly recommend it. Powers was better known as “Bengie.”
I think you will enjoy the book. Emily Haas Davidson is the author.
The other day I heard someone mention “mescaline.”
It brought back memories.
My friends and I used to take it often. For $3 a pop, you couldn’t beat it.
Power Ball – Lottery – Numbers – Moving back to the neighborhood.
Yeah you guessed it; I hit…
The payout was $850 million dollars. Jesus, Mary and Joseph…
Let’s move back to Brooklyn, first thing I said to my wife.
Hey, a guy could dream, right?
I always wanted to live in a house when I was a kid. A stoop out front. Backyard. Upstairs. A basement to hang out in.
We lived over Bob’s Hardware store on the avenue.
Now the question was where to buy?
Which Street? Maybe the Avenue? Possibly a spot in Park Slope down by 7th Avenue?
Or look at places by the Barclays Center? I could walk to Nets games. Gonna buy season tickets. Thinking about Knicks season tickets too.
How about living in Manhattan? Nice crib in the Village? Hang out by West 4th street. Watch NYU home games. Midtown? Get an apartment close to the Garden. Maybe up by Central Park?
Would love to buy a building on 9th avenue. Rent out the top floor? Heard rent in New York City is ridiculous. 26 years ago we were paying $1,700 a month for a two-bedroom on 11th avenue.
In my dream we looked at a house on Windsor Place between 10th and 11th avenues. Andrew Purdy’s block. Yo Andy, think anyone believes me when I tell them we used to meet on the corner of 10th avenue and Windsor at 1:30 AM, after watching a West Coast NBA game? We’d go down to PS 154 schoolyard and get some shots up.
We checked out 10th street between 8th avenue and Prospect Park West. That was the block I was born on. 1964 to 1969. We rented. Top floor of a brownstone. 665. Still remember the address.
Looked at a house on Howard Place, across the street from the boys schoolyard at Holy Name. I figured each morning I could wake up, grab my basketball and shoot some hoops. Speaking of which, I want to turn the yard into basketball heaven. New pavement. New rims. Three full-courts. Make it fresh. Maybe run a summer basketball league? Show the kids how to play our favorite game, “taps.”
Run free basketball clinics every Saturday morning.
Choice, choices, choices…
We decided to live across the street from Prospect Park.
Prospect Park Southwest.
Between the circle and 10th avenue. “The Parkside.”
My childhood friend Edmund Gallahue lived there.
We moved our stuff in. Didn’t take much with us, left a lot behind. Parked the U-Haul a few blocks away. Couldn’t find a parking space. Same with our car. Parking sucks.
Up early the following morning took a short walk to Connecticut Muffin for a coffee and blueberry muffin.
Sitting outside the busy establishment, I didn’t recognize anyone. Stayed for about thirty minutes. Saying hello and good morning to strangers. My new neighbors. Young and old. This is going to be my spot every morning. Also have to visit Terrace Bagels and Dunkin’ Donuts.
I was back in the neighborhood. I wanted to announce to each and every one of them.
“HEY, I USED TO LIVE HERE. I GREW UP HERE! WENT TO HOLY NAME.GRADUATING CLASS OF 78.”
But they could care less. They were too busy getting their java fix and running back home.
Go back inside and order another cup of coffee. Head back down the parkside, gotta fix up the place. Lots of work to do. Before I head inside our new place, I sit on the stoop to take everything in. We hung out on the stoops all over the neighborhood as kids. Breathe in, breathe out, I’m home.
Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home.”
A few people walk past the house, they seem friendly. I say good morning to all of them. Lots of traffic. Sun is out. Feels good to be back. 68 bus zooms past. A few cars going over the speed limit. I look across someone is walking their dog.
I miss this place.
As my friend Jimmy Peterson once said, “you keep dreamin’.”
I was born on June 7, 1964 in Methodist hospital on 7th avenue and 6th street in Brooklyn, New York.
Mom, me and the Gooch went home from the hospital in a yellow taxi cab that Gooch probably hailed on the corner. When he would try to track down a cab, he had this loud whistle which he used two fingers. I always wanted to whistle like him but he never taught me.
We lived a few blocks away in a brownstone at 665 tenth street between 8th avenue and Prospect Park West.
We had a stoop in front and our bathroom was in the hallway. There were a few trees on the block. The families were cool. I recall the Basile family living down the block closer to 8th avenue.
Prospect Park was up the block, we went there a lot. Mom let us play at the 11th street playground.
A few years later in 1970 we moved to ninth avenue and Windsor Place. (228A Prospect Park West).It was about six blocks away. The place was awful. Five-room, railroad apartment over Bob’s Hardware. In the winters we would go without heat and hot water.
When we moved my older brother was in the fourth grade at Saint Saviour on 8th avenue. Or maybe he was in the fifth? I attended Kindergarten at P.S. 107, also on 8th avenue. My brother transferred to Holy Name after we moved, I began the first grade. We lived across the street from Holy Name. For some strange reason I was always late for school. Mom believed in that catholic school education. I guess we could have attended PS 154’s, PS 10’s or I.S. 88’s? One day a teacher embarrassed the shit out of me in front of my classmates.
“You’re always late Finamore. And you live across the street.”
I’m sure that did a lot for my self-esteem.
Tenth street was a cool block. Wonder how my life would have turned out if we stayed there? I probably would have played basketball for Carl Manco.
Mom once told me we moved because Gooch left us, so we were forced to find a cheaper apartment. Mom had to go out and look for a job too.
Remember going to confession back in the day and you would start off with, “Bless me father for I have sinned, it’s been 2 weeks since my last confession?”
I never had so much anxiety built up leading to those words and never had I been so scared in my life. After telling the priest all the things I did wrong he asked me if I was sorry for my sins? Then the magic words; say 2 Hail Mary’s and 1 Our Father. I hustled out of the booth a new boy.
It was like a “do-over” in the game of life. Only to go out and sin some more. And I don’t think I ever said the Hail Mary’s or the Our Father. Remember Rosary Beads?
Hello everyone. I hope you’re doing well. It’s been a while since I last posted. Sometimes it’s beneficial to step back and smell the roses. I worry about fixing my life every day and forget about living my life. The time off from composing has been helpful.
We’ve been dealing with crazy times here in the U.S.A – for 19 months things have changed so much. I’m not sure what to think anymore – people have lost their minds. I miss the days of playing ball in the boys schoolyard at Holy Name.
Each day I try to do my job, be nice to others and stay positive. I rarely watch the news or read newspapers. I have cut back on social media. Texts, emails and phone calls to friends still happen but it’s been less and less. I shake my head at some of the things they say and their posts on social media.
(Update: As of 8:00 PM, October 10, 2021, I officially deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts.)
I have been in Michigan the past 25 years. I used to miss Brooklyn a lot. From everything I hear things are not the same in the place where I was born and raised for 32 years. I love Michigan, it’s a wonderful place. I do miss hanging out on the avenue and chopping it up with friends. I miss the schoolyards, riding the subway to the city and playing ball at East 5th street. What I would do to ride my mountain bike down Ocean Parkway with Jackie Ryan and Turk to play some ball at Manhattan Beach.
That’s all for now, I will try and post on a regular basis – positive memories from the good old days.