marc frydman

You Can Have All The Gelt In The World, But It’s Worthless Without Family.

ouchie:

“…Warbasse was across the street from Trump Village, Trump Village was across from my elementary school and P.S. 100 was across the street from the boardwalk, beach and Atlantic Ocean respectively. During the holidays, when you passed Warbasse and Trump Village on the Belt Parkway you could count the number of Christmas lights on terraces and would easily go cross-eyed from the orange bulbed electric menorahs. It was, in short, pretty fuc*ing Jewish. After all, this is the neighborhood that gave the world Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, The Neil’s: Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and Neil Simon the fodder and neuroses are endless…”  (read more)

Trump Village, the Jewish ghetto, the white projects.. I’ve heard so many names for the apartment complex that I grew up in. A series of twenty three story buildings within a three block radius, surrounded by a Russian community in Brighton Beach, a very Italian Gravesend around Avenue X, and the rest of Coney Island was predominately black and hispanic. We learned how to navigate safely through the neighborhoods at a real early age.. most of the time we got along, and sometimes we didn’t. No matter, the area was so diverse, full of culture and the feeling of such a tight knit neighborhood would be difficult to describe.. looking back now, it was all a scene from some movie.

I stumbled upon your post and through your words came the closest to experiencing that old neighborhood feeling. I can’t tell your age, though I sense we were there around the same time. I lived right across from you in Trump, building 4 facing the ocean and PS 100. Which apparently was your elementary school too? I was unfortunate enough to attend Lincoln for high school as well before moving to Jersey with the family. I can relate to every word in your post.. but, it got better as I continued to read… my Great Grandfather’s name was also Eliazer.. and is my hebrew name. That part of your post surely took me by surprise! So.. we’re not long lost cousins, I checked, though its clear from your writing that you have an amazing family. And, this truly was an interesting post for me to tumble across, to say the least.