Tags
Brooklyn, Container Diaries, Hanging Out, Park Slope, Prospect Park, Totem Poles, Windsor Terrace
Posted by Steve | Filed under Container Diaries, Parkside, Prospect Park, Steve Finamore, Totem Pole
25 Thursday Apr 2024
Tags
Brooklyn, Container Diaries, Hanging Out, Park Slope, Prospect Park, Totem Poles, Windsor Terrace
Posted by Steve | Filed under Container Diaries, Parkside, Prospect Park, Steve Finamore, Totem Pole
30 Saturday Apr 2022
Tags
Brooklyn, Container Diaries, Holy Name, IS 88, PS 10, PS 107, PS 154, Saint Saviour, Steve Finamore
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.
“Where’s dad?”
“He found a new family,” she answered.
“Found a new family? Why?”
Mom ignored me.
Those were the days my friend…
01 Tuesday Sep 2020
Posted Blog, Cherry Hill, Prospect Park
inThe rock is still there on the right…
04 Tuesday Aug 2020
Oh my!
13 Monday Jul 2020
Posted Blog, Container Diaries, Officer Doyle, Parkside, Prospect Park
inTags
What the heck is going on in New York City?
Each morning I pick up the newspaper there’s something crazy going down.
Can’t even watch the news anymore. It’s sad and so depressing.
My friends send me video clips of looters, protestors fighting with cops and shootings of innocent people. There’s graffiti all over buildings. Someone even tagged up on St. Patrick’s Cathedral. SMH.
Disrespect for the police in the city is at an all-time high.
Civilians on the streets throwing bottles at cop cars. A female tossed a Molotov cocktail at a police van.
Have you ever seen the film “Escape From New York?”
I saw a disturbing video clip of a guy fighting a cop, putting him in a headlock and taking him to the ground.
It’s bananas.
A recent article in the New York Post mentioned protestors at City Hall attacked a news reporter. In the article it mentions that a few of them were calling out to female cops telling them how much they want to “fuck them.”
Remember Officer Tommy Doyle from the 7-2? When you saw him you ran the other way. He once rolled up on us on the Parkside and poured out our beers.
There must have been 30 teenagers that night. We were all underage drinkers. We listened. Didn’t fight back.
Doyle told us to take a walk. We walked into Prospect Park, and after Doyle and his partner left, we made our way down to the Bodega on 15th street for more beer. Maybe we didn’t listen too well?
Is there any hope for better days ahead? Are we at a point of no return?
Everyone needs to keep a cool stool.
Is there any leadership in the Big Apple?
Stay safe my friends, stay safe.
-Steve
E-Mail: Hoops135@hotmail.com
20 Friday Sep 2019
24 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted Blog, Container Diaries, Prospect Park
inNo more cars in Prospect Park.
My memory of cars in Prospect Park? I was part of a group of kids who stole a car on 5th avenue and 9th street and went on a joy ride in the park. We must have went around the park about ten times. I never had a chance to get behind the wheel that night. I was 14.
Starting in the new year, vehicle traffic will be completely banned inside Prospect Park, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
The change will begin on Jan. 2 and will remain in effect “24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the mayor said.
The new rules come more than two years after the city banned cars on Prospect Park’s West Drive, keeping the park’s East Drive open a few hours each morning during rush hour. At the time, residents on the park’s east side fumed about the exception, while advocates continued to push the city to prohibit all cars.
19 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted Blog, Brooklyn, Prospect Park
inProspect Park…wow!
Cops corralled and tranquilized a rampaging bull that escaped a slaughterhouse and bowled over a 1-year-old girl as it scrambled into Prospect Park in Brooklyn on Tuesday, police and witnesses said.
18 Friday Aug 2017
Back in September of 2013, Kevin McPartland sent me his new novel.
I got through the first few chapters, then I put it down. Not that it was bad or anything, it’s just at times I’m a bit crazy when it comes to reading.
I take on many books at one time. I know, that’s a bad habit. I have trouble finishing. Always moving on to something else.
The other night in my basement while going through my book collection which is well over 200 books (Miss Monzillo would be proud of me) I pulled “Brownstone Dreams” and started it over.
Can’t put it down. Won’t put it down until I finish! I promise…
Great job Kevin, by the way, love Chapter 4, Prospect Park. I too had a similar experience.
LOL…
I highly recommend getting K-Mac’s book – you’ll love it.
30 Tuesday May 2017
Posted Blog, Container Diaries, Prospect Park
inDNA info with the disturbing story below…
The 60-year-old unidentified man was found by police Sunday afternoon after passersby reported a smell to authorities, police said. Officers discovered the man lying face up inside a small tent in a wooded area near the park’s Center Drive.