Ah, there is nothing like the temperature dipping below freezing to make you reminisce about the past. It seems like it was only a week ago when the weather was a balmy 60 degrees and I was roaming the streets of Brooklyn, reliving my childhood. Wait. It was only a week ago!
For those of you who don’t know – I spent the first 19 years of my life in Brooklyn. It was where all four of my grandparents lived after emigrating from Italy. It is where my parents were born. It is where I was born.
Brooklyn is also where our friends had their first apartment when they were first married. Thus they, too, have a history there. Our friends have a family day where they drive into Brooklyn with their girls and last weekend, we were invited along for the ride.
As I said, it was a beautiful day for a trip into Brooklyn. Our first stop was for lunch at an Italian restaurant for pizza. Now I have been to many pizzerias during my days of life in Brooklyn but this was no pizzeria. This was a restaurant that seemed to be lifted right out of Rome onto 18th Avenue. Oh, wait. It is no longer called 18th Avenue (or THE Avenue, as we called it back in the day). It is now Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard.
In any case, there was just something about the way the restaurant was set up, how everyone in there, even the patrons, spoke Italian. And the pizza? It was way better than any pizza I’ve had in a long time. Well, except maybe my own, although I don’t have a brick oven so I’m thinking they have an edge over me.
After lunch, we drove down to the street I grew up on. As we drove along 18th Avenue, I didn’t see much that remained of my past so the few shops that were there? Let’s just say everyone in the car was subjected to my excited yelling, “There’s Silver Rod! That was our drugstore. Oh, look! Silver Star restaurant is still there! Maple Lanes! We used to bowl there!”
Our next stop was the Italian market. Again, it was like we stepped into a shop in Italy. That was where I bought my buffalo mozzarella. I also grabbed an espresso pot my father had just been talking about on Christmas. “When your grandmother was alive, we didn’t use any electric garbage. When my mom made espresso, she used one of those pots where you put it on the stove and boil the water and then turn it upside down.” Okay, he may not have worded it just like that but when I saw that pot, I had to grab it. We won’t mention how he had absolutely no recall of that conversation when I told him about my purchase.
Then it was on to our last stop – a bakery. They sold all sorts of pastries and fancy cakes. So fancy that there was a huge sign warning, “No photos or videos allowed! If we catch you with one, we will take you out back and beat you up!” Well, that last sentence might not have been there but hey, it was implied. Again, it was like Rome. If you ordered espresso, you stood to drink it. They had gelato. And let me tell ya, that gelato was so good!
The big question is this: how did I not know about any of these stores when I lived there?
I’m thinking we’ll be going back to the future a bit more often.
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