Brooklyn Scapes
A Tale
by Anne G
The more I think about “My Brooklyn” childhood, the sweeter the memories…
During these dog days of summer, I recently recalled the many adventures my sister and I had on the fire escape of the three story building we lived in, on the corner of Evergreen Avenue and Stanhope Street, during our early childhood years.
On especially hot days we would ask permission to camp outside our kitchen window, on the fire escape. We would recreate a pup tent using the old blankets and sheets mom would allow us to use. We would lay the thickest ones on the hard iron slats and use the sheets to create a tent, tying the sheets to the stairs above us with string. From our urban camp, we would spy on our neighbors going about their business and could watch our friends playing skelzie and stick ball on the street while big, black, shiny cars whizzed by honking horns at them, warning them to get out of the way.
Our supplies for these adventures consisted of sandwiches of salami and cheese on slices of Wonder Bread, cups of Kool-Aid and a variety of candies stuffed into #1 paper bags. Before commencing our urban camp excursion, we would always go to the candy store across the street with two or three shiny nickels we has saved for “rainy day” situations. Among the sweet treats we would choose would be; licorice, Mary Janes, Squirrels, Charm Lollipops and most importantly for us, Bazookas. Once the bags were stuffed to overflowing we would run upstairs and climb out of the window to begin our much anticipated foray.
We would play Casino with a pack of beat up cards, checkers and Parcheesi while munching on our sandwiches and sipping large cups of heavily sweetened red liquid with doses of our candy treasures. At some point we would chew a couple of Bazookas until soft in preparation for our gum wars; bubble blowing contest. The winner would be the one who could blow the largest bubble without it bursting and spreading all over our faces. What fun!
From our iron fortress we could observe our world undetected and unseen. At the end of the glorious day, we would climb back in feeling quite accomplished and so very fortunate all the while making plans for our next grand escapade.
Those were the days of innocent and unhurried summer fun and wonderful Brooklyn Scapes.
[bctt tweet=”From our iron fortress we could observe our world undetected and unseen.”]
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