JUST OVER THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Back in 1992 when TV was not yet at the reality stage of programming, when imagination ran hand in hand with reality, there was a show called Brooklyn Bridge. It was a show about growing up in 1950’s Brooklyn and it was mainly about two young brothers close in age in a Jewish family.

MARION ROSS

Brooklyn Bridge won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy Award as for outstanding television series (comedy/musical) in 1992, after its first season. The wonderful actress of Happy Days led the cast: Marion Ross, who played the grandmother.

In the beginning of the show, Art Garfunkel sings the intro music and it is a beautiful reminiscence of my youth, an honest assessment of living in Brooklyn in the mid 1950’s and is rendered so beautifully that it can bring only tears to my eyes.

It takes me back to the days of my grandmother, Grandma Frances, the el, the subways and the playgrounds. Mom tossing money down to me on the street to buy a loaf of bread or a pound of string beans from the vegetable cart, pulled by an old nag who drew a stench and horse flies, but was fascinating to get up close to. The fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the wonderful times spent in the hallways of our apartment buildings waiting out the rain or cold. We didn’t have a lot as children, but did own the best imaginations in the world. It was our imaginations that kept us from trouble, with the simple games of tag, ring-a-leevio and red light, green light. Stoop ball and stick ball occupied our time and taught us to be competitive, handball and punch ball and all these ‘ball’ games played with a Spaldeen, a simple pink rubber ball. And roller skates, every kid had a pair of roller skates, with a leather strap around your ankle, two steel grips on the side of your toes in your shoes and the metal wheels, as we swayed our arms in a rhythm-like motion, gliding and sometimes flying, always feeling the wind in our faces, circling the block for one more time.

There was something very magical about my childhood. It had to do with living in that special place called Brooklyn. You went out early in the morning on non-school days and went home for lunch. Mom would have a big loaf of crusty Italian bread and would fry up some peppers and eggs, that tasted so good, the smell of it frying enticing me up the stairs and speeding up the ascent through the two staircases.

At night, after supper, when Dad got home and we finished our dinner, we would race downstairs once more in the hot summer months and wait for Pete. Pete with his pitched roof Bungalow Bar truck and pencil thin moustache would single us that it was time for an Ice-cream pop, covered in chocolate and when it was finished, chocolate graced the sides of our mouth and fingers, the after taste of the chocolate and ice cream lingering for a delicious while.

As the night got darker, we all gravitated to the lamp-posts, and played tag or ‘Simon Says’ or we got our bottle caps and played skelzie. Then Mom would lean out the window and call. You first pretended you didn’t hear her, then you yelled back “OK” and when she threatened you turned and ran upstairs for the rest of the night.

Hopefully I left you with a thirst for more Brooklyn, then visit the perfect place: http://spaldeendreams.blogspot.com/

Song lyrics to Just Over The Brooklyn Bridge:
A world of its own,
The streets where we played,
The friends on every corner were the best we ever made.
The backyards, and the schoolyards
And the trees that watched us grow,
The days of love when dinner time was all you had to know.
Whenever I think of yesterday,
I close my eyes and see,
That place Just Over The Brooklyn Bridge
That will always be home to me.
It'll always be home to me.