23 Monday Jan 2017
Posted in Blog, Friends, Windsor Place, Windsor Terrace
Tags
10th avenue, Bill Kahaly, Bruce Springsteen, Container Diaries, Dog, Holy Name of Jesus, Martin Cottingham
“The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive.”
-Bruce Springsteen
15 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in Blog, Denis Hamill
Love this mini-documentary on the church we all grew up in…
13 Friday Sep 2013
Holy Name of Jesus Church Restoration Project Update from Fr. Jim:
We have reached an important milestone in the restoration of our church. As announced last weekend, starting tomorrow, Saturday 9/14 the church will be closed. There has been no change to the Mass schedule, only the locations have changed. Weekday and Saturday morning Masses will be held in the rectory basement. Saturday evening and all Sunday Masses will be held in Shepherds Hall.
We ask everyone to be patient as we all adjust to these temporary locations, the final results will make these inconveniences well worth it. When you get to Shepherds Hall, you will be able to see all of the new steel that was installed to support our new marble altar. Work will continue in Shepherds Hall during weekdays as the work begins upstairs in the church.
May God continue to watch over us during this project.
Fr. Jim
05 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted in Blog
Tags
Container Diaries, Father Jim Cunningham, Holy Name of Jesus, Holy Name Restoration, James Renwick Jr., Lynch Development Associates, St. Vincent DePaul Alter
“The Restoration of Holy Name of Jesus Church, 135 Years – Fulfilling Our Vision” team wanted to give Container Diaries readers a look at some of the possible “conceptual design plans” for a restored Holy Name of Jesus Church. Our final plans are directly tied to our level of fundraising capabilities.
As you can see, the James Renwick Jr. designed St. Vincent De Paul Altar is the centerpiece of the feature set. There are a number of items we want to include in the project. The possibilities are:
• Upgraded Liturgical Furnishings and Appointments.
• Stenciling on Sanctuary walls, under Arches and side Altars.
• Relocate Tabernacle.
• Repair Walls and Repaint Church.
• Install Air Conditioning System & upgrade Lighting & Electrical systems.
• Install New Marble, Tile and Carpeting throughout.
• Wood Ceiling and Columns to become design highlights.
• Repair Narthex (Vestibule).
• Renew, Add and Refinish Pews.
• Repair Stained Glass Windows.
The goal of our Capital Campaign is $1,500,000.00. In a little over two weeks’ time, we’ve raised over $675,000.00. This is a huge testament to people’s love and commitment to Holy Name of Jesus Parish near and far. With that, we have a long way to go. We’ve partnered with Lynch Development Associates to help with our campaign. Please consider making a pledge, there are many types and levels available.
If you visit the Holy Name of Jesus parish, you can find the campaign brochure:
http://www.holynamebrooklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/HNJ_Brooklyn_Restoration_Brochure.pdf
Your help is needed to achieve this dream that has been in the making for more than 30 years. To get involved and for more information, please like us on Facebook (Holy Name of Jesus Brooklyn Church Restoration Project), visit Holy Name Parish Web site at (www.holynamebrooklyn.com) ,contact Fr. Jim at (frjimholyname@aol.com) or call the Holy Name Rectory at 718-768-3071.
15 Friday Feb 2013
Posted in Blog
Tags
Father Jim Cunningham, Holy Name of Jesus, James A. Renwick Reredos, Marble Alter, Restoration Project, St. Vincent DePaul Church
The folks at Holy Name wanted me to alert you to a new project. With Container Diaries reaching many people across the country, everyone thought it would be a great way to spread the word.
Holy Name of Jesus Parish is formally announcing a major project called, “The Restoration of Holy Name of Jesus Church, 135 years – Fulfilling Our Vision”.
The project is a historical restoration of the Church. The centerpiece of the restoration is our hopeful acquisition of a James A. Renwick Reredos. Renwick is a famed 19th century American architect known for designing St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Smithsonian Institution Building. Renwick is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. The Reredos; a marble altar and its associated elements were saved from St. Vincent DePaul Church in Williamsburg prior to the property’s sale. In additional to the altar, the restoration is projecting a new paint design, marble and tile floors, stenciling and liturgical art elements, new air conditioning, pew updating and cathedral lighting.
Under the leadership of Fr. Jim Cunningham, so many people along with the Buildings Committee have been working with various liturgical design firms to better understand the types of renovations that can happen. There are many elements that go into this type of project. The team is also working with a development firm to help us understand the project logistics and fundraising options. A formal design will be presented in the coming weeks.
Next weekend, February 23rd and February 24th is the official project launch at all the masses.
So many people have wanted this day to come. It will only happen if we all pull together and make it happen. We invite you to join us.
Help us get the word out. To get involved and for more information, please like us on Facebook (Holy Name of Jesus Brooklyn Church Restoration Project), contact the Buildings Committee at HNJBuildings@aol.com or call the Holy Name Rectory at 718-768-3071.
-Steve
Hoops135@hotmail.com
04 Friday Jan 2013
Posted in Blog
Tags
Buffalo New York, Detroit, Father Jim Cunningham, Holy Name of Jesus, Hurricane Sandy, Mitch Albom, Pat Williams, The Magic of Teamwork
“The only way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others. Devote yourself to your community and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” -Mitch Albom
I came across this video on Facebook. Please take five minutes out of your busy schedule to have a look.
Pat Williams has a fantastic book out titled, ‘The Magic of Team Work.” Well Father Jim Cunningham and a few good people from Buffalo got together and did all they could to work their magic and help hurricane Sandy victims right before Christmas.
Please take time to view this video; with all the crazy stuff that goes on in our nation, just know that there are some very good souls out there willing to help. Willing to work as a team in order to, as Father Jim says in the video, “Ease the pain.”
-Steve
Hoops135@hotmail.com
28 Sunday Oct 2012
Posted in Blog
Tags
Bridget Bardot, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Gang, Bruce Davidson, Cannonball, Coney Island, Gangs, Holy Name of Jesus, Park Slope, Prospect Park, The Jokers, Windsor Terrace
Thanks to JFH for this essay on her days growing up in the neighborhood.
Lately, nostalgia has been calling my name and I often find myself surfing the net for any information about my old neighborhood, Park Slope, Brooklyn.
You can imagine my surprise when one day I keyed in Brooklyn and the 50s and the name of the Jokers, which was the gang from my old neighborhood, appeared on several websites. I excitedly opened one of the sites and couldn’t believe my eyes. Several photos of the gang members from the Slope, in which Park Slope, Brooklyn was known at the time, were posted. These pictures were taken by a professional photographer, Bruce Davidson, who had hooked up with a social service agency working with juvenile delinquents of the 50’s, and the Jokers in particular. It’s hard for me to describe the feeling of euphoria I encountered upon seeing these photos. To say I was elated would be an understatement. Memories of my youth bubbled to the surface.
These gang members, who used to fight the Puerto Ricans or anyone else invading their territory, as most sections of Brooklyn were partitioned off according to turf, hung out at the candy store around the corner from the tenement where I had lived. The photos displayed many of the gang members who were familiar to me: There’s Joey Douglas who always got in trouble. There’s Michael Galvin, my girlfriend’s brother. There’s Cagi with whom I had a crush on as a 12-year-old. There’s Tony, the only Italian in an Irish neighborhood. I wallowed in the surroundings of my youth depicted in these pictures: Pictures of Prospect Park. Pictures of Holy Name of Jesus. Pictures of Coney Island. Pictures of a ride that used to come around and I could swear my older brother and sister were on it. Pictures of the candy store where Helen, the proprietor, used to make the most delicious chocolate egg creams.
As 12-year-olds, my friends and I would call the Jokers at this same candy story pretending we were older in order to talk and make dates. We would arrange to meet them at the bus stop and when the day arrived we would be sitting on our tenement stoop watching them waiting for the bus and making fools of themselves. Each time a bus came they would kick it when their so-called dates did not appear. Of course, they did not notice the 12-year-olds sitting next door.
Other memories of the old neighborhood began to emerge. When I was much younger. I would put on my bathing suit and walk around the corner in my bare feet successfully avoiding broken glass or any other obstacles that might appear on the pavement to cool off under the Johnny pump. This is what a fire hydrant in Brooklyn was called. Cannonball, a member of the senior Jokers, would open the Johnny pump in the sweltering heat to the delight of all the little kids in the neighborhood. His wife was the exact image of Bridget Bardot.
The claim has been made that there are “six degrees of separation” between each person. I truly believe this finding. After I excitedly told my dear friend about my discovery on the internet, she nonchalantly stated that she has these photos in a book given to her as a present. The book is called the Brooklyn Gang: Summer 1959. In my mind, the chances of this happening, especially because of our dissimilar backgrounds, were nil.
I guess you can also call this Karma.
HOOPS135@HOTMAIL.COM
03 Friday Aug 2012
Posted in Blog
Not sure if you can tell by my writing but I was a dummy in grammar school.
Guess what? I have no problem admitting how poorly I did at Holy Name.
Look, it’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish, right?
My grades were awful; how I didn’t get left back, I’ll never know!
Thanks to Jeanne Cummins for posting these pictures on Facebook and I stole them (nah, just kidding, got her permission)
You will not find my name, so don’t look!
Enjoy.
By the way, I have some church bulletins that were sent to me from the 1960’s that I will be posting too.
Double click on each image…it will grow before your eyes!
18 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in Blog
As a kid, do you remember the last day of school?
Do you recall singing the hit song written and performed by Alice Cooper, ‘School’s Out‘?
School’s out for summer… School’s out forever… School’s been blown to pieces.
Well blown to pieces is a bit extreme.
I heard that today is the last official day of school at Holy Name.
I mean really the last day.
They are changing the name to St Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy in September!
A lot of people who visit the blog attended HNS as kids. We all have some sort of memory or two inside of us whether positive or negative.
I’m sure there’s a good reason behind this move as they merge with I.H.M (Boy that will make for a really good CYO boys basketball team).
One good thing is the church name is staying the same.
Raise your glass in honor of the one of the best catholic schools ever!
Have a drink with me and think back to some of your fun times at H.N.
A toast, to everyone who attended the grammar school at 241 Prospect Park West, Holy Name of Jesus.
-Steve
Hoops135@hotmail.com
26 Sunday Feb 2012
Posted in Blog
Tags
Brooklyn, Connecticut Muffin, Holy Name of Jesus, Methodist Hospital, Only the Dead Know Brooklyn, Prospect Park, Schoolyard, Street Life, Thomas Wolfe, Windsor Terrace
Quote of the Day:
“It’d take a guy a lifetime to know Brooklyn t’roo and t’roo. An’ even den, yuh wouldn’t know it all.”
-Thomas Wolfe, -Only the Dead Know Brooklyn
I was born in Methodist Hospital on 7th avenue back in 1964.
We lived at 665 10th street between 8th and 9th avenues from 1964 to 1969. When I was 5 years old, my father left us so we were forced to pack up and move 7 blocks away to 228A Prospect Park West. Our new home was a 5 room apartment over Bob’s Hardware Store. I’m sure the reason for the move was financial.
On 10th street we lived in a very cool brownstone.
Growing up on 9th avenue, the streets of Windsor Terrace became my classroom.
I’ll be honest, I probably learned more from being on the streets than I did as a student at Holy Name. (I was enrolled in H.N.S. from 1970-1978)
The boys & girls schoolyard, any street corner, someone’s stoop, and of course Prospect Park. In those places we took notes, contributed to the discussion and of course were tested on a daily basis.
The education was priceless.
If you were lucky enough to get through, you earned a Ph.D in streetology; the course was ‘Street Life 101’. It was a pass-fail; No credits, no tuition.
Hanging out with friends you learned to figure things out. (Hopefully some of the people who grew up in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s) have figured it out by now?
You learned how to play sports taught by excellent coaches and of course you learned how to relate to people. You learned about teamwork, discipline and of course toughness.
There were no parents packing your lunch in the morning and driving you three blocks away in a mini-van to meet your friends. There was no cell phones where mom was texting you every 30 minutes to see if you were ok. There were no parents standing around the field shouting words of encouragement or even standing at the pitcher’s mound with a baseball cap and glove, tossing the ball underhand to us.
In our neighborhood classroom you learned how to make it through in the ‘Game of Life‘.
Today, I’m not so sure Street Life 101 is a class that is offered in the course catalog.
When I was in the 8th grade at Holy Name (1978) at dismissal we’d run home, change out of our school uniform, slip into a pair of jeans, lace up our sneakers and jog to the schoolyard.
We played basketball, football, punchball and stickball. There was no gymnasium for us to play in. There was no expensive health club where we were members. There were no personal trainers and no specialization in one sport where we had a coach working with us. There was no shooting or pitching coach. One friend told me, ‘My speed and agility drills were ducking punched from my father’.
If you weren’t shooting a jump-shot or rounding the bases after punching the ball into the well, you were sitting on the side bullshitting with your buddies.
Our “lunch period” was walking to Joe’s on Prospect avenue and getting a slice. If you were lucky enough to have extra money you walked across the street and picked up an iced tea from Henry’s. There were no juice boxes.
I’m sure the very nice people who have moved into the neighborhood in recent years are very nice people with good jobs, happy family and high aspirations; but boy did they miss out.
Growing up in the neighborhood during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s was a magical. Doesn’t matter if you started a blog and write about the daily happenings at Connecticut Muffin; if you didn’t experience an egg cream from Rae and Otto’s, or if you didn’t hang out on the parkside at night with a bunch of friends, you missed out.
If you didn’t have the opportunity to hang out in the boys or girls schoolyard with friends, chill out on a stoop and shoot the breeze late into the night or even shoot a few jump shots all alone at night in the boys schoolyard, you missed out on a great time.
Respectfully,
Steve
Hoops135@hotmail.com
