It’s great to find a site where our childhood experiences resonate. I grew up on Ave. B (bet. 3rd and 4th,) in a cold flat. (I stopped telling co-workers where I grew up when I heard “We bought drugs there when I was in college” once too often.)
Guys with beards sold hot knishes from little metal carts on Ave. B in winter, and shave ice in the summer. Ave. C and D and the surrounding streets were like Orchard Street now – a bazaar with wooden boxes on stands on the sidewalk, full of comic books and baseball cards. The Loew’s movie theater on B between 4 and 5 – or wasit 5 and 6? – with those gorgeous yellow plaster lions rampant, clutching blue shields with a wide red sash. Riding the subway at the 2nd Avenue stop with my big brother, wistfully looking at the pea green candy machines in the station, even though mom said the candy was wormy. (And the grease used by the French Fry Guy at B and 4th was rancid.) She couldn’t come up with a story to prevent me from asking about the dolls for sale at the supermarket at B and Second street, though.
Anyone else with any memories of the lower east side are welcome to drop me an email anytime.