Sunset Park from Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, from Forty-First Street to Forty-Fourth Street with its handball courts, huge pools and sloping hills.
It was here I loved to come for the namesake of the park, to watch the sun setting over the rooftops of the houses, the factories, heading down the long hills into the waters of the Narrows.
To sit in peace and watch the rose pinks and purples of the sun as it moved closer to the horizon.
Sunset Park is where we grew up. Had we grown up in small towns or villages with funny sounding names like our parents, we might have known we came from the wrong side of the tracks. The families in the surrounding neighborhoods knew.
We lived below the park, destined to find out later in life we were underprivileged.
The neighborhoods surrounding the park have changed, different groups settling in, other groups leaving. Part of the upper half of the neighborhood is now called “Brooklyn’s China Town.”
Growing up a street urchin, in a factory district with every pound of the scale balanced against us, the fact that most of us survived is in itself a miracle. That so many of us went beyond survival to successful careers is the stuff dreams are made of.
* Time it was
and what a time it was,
A time of innocence,
A time of confidences,
Long ago it must be,
I have a photograph,
Preserve your memories,
They’re all that’s left you …
and what a time it was,
A time of innocence,
A time of confidences,
Long ago it must be,
I have a photograph,
Preserve your memories,
They’re all that’s left you …
I am fOIS In The City
Picture taken from this Brooklyn Blog. *Old Friends, lyrics and music by Paul Simon.
Love getting to know you better thru these colorful memories of yours.
F,
This is a great post! I really like your description of the setting sun…very lyrical.
I grew up without a lot growing up, but didn’t know it thanks to wonderful parents.
Christi Corbett
http://christicorbett.wordpress.com