Celebrating Community
I was working the day shift at the bustling Star Revue offices. George was pointing his big cigar at staff demanding more copy as I feverishly surfed the wholesome parts of the Internet, desperate for a story. And suddenly there it was. A 1940 photo of an old two-story federal house at 150 Van Dyke Street. The clapboard frame building […]
Nino Pantano is an 81-year-old lifelong South Brooklyn resident and a man of many passions, accomplishments and interests. He has lived much of his life in and near the Columbia Waterfront District, where his father, Sam Pantano, owned Pantano’s Shoes at 215 Columbia Street. Nino’s grandfather gave Sam the shoe store as a wedding gift during the depression. In those […]
Red Hook, Brooklyn has been my home for four years via Long Island, Queens, and Harlem. Of all the neighborhoods I have lived in, Red Hook easily best represents the epitome of what it means to be a New Yorker. We are a blue collar, hard-nosed, resilient, and resourceful neighborhood. Some people believe Red Hook is a forgotten piece of […]
In 1922, Nicky Defonte opened a sandwich shop on Columbia Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. After his retirement, the family business was passed along to his sons, Danny and Vito. Through decades of change, the sandwich stop still stands. One man is hoping to honor their legacy. Angel Conde, better known as “Spanky,” started hanging around Defontes when he […]
During much of the 19th century, most of Red Hook east of Dwight Street was basically underwater. Even while they built up the criss-crossing grid of streets, the lots between graded roads were dominated by marshes and tidal pools. To fill it in, the owner, William Beard, leased it out to “carters,” who would pick up people’s garbage and the […]
I recall when a very young lad around 5 years of age living at 113 Bush Street in 1934-35. It was truly a slum tenement type building, cold water, and toilets in the hallway. Heat was made by the occupants using wood fires in a cast iron kitchen stove. The people on Bush Street were tough as nails, worked at […]
Dear Readers, this is an important message to all parents who may have children who suffer from some form of addiction. The message conveyed here is a strong one, and it comes from my heart as a saddened father. I urge every one of you fathers and mothers to never give up on your child. Because my son Richard passed […]
It was barely a few days before Christmas when my son, John reminded me that we had not yet bought fish for our traditional Christmas Eve Fish Fest. I admit, I was dragging my foot about the whole holiday in general since the only surviving patriarch in our family was hospital bound with a stroke – and then, a serious […]
“Back when I was a kid Red Hook was an area of recreation. We had a lot of parks, and we always had the water… As kids we were always very active on the docks. Lots of swimming, and just hanging out down there. It use to be more like a beach so that we could just walk right up […]