Category Archives: Bronx

I grew up in the early 60’s…

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I grew up in the early 60’s on Lacombe Avenue in the Castle Hill Avenue projects in the Bronx. We were privilaged enough to have a skully (skelly) board neatly painted in yellow on the playground area outside. We experimented with a myriad of bottle cap types and fillers. The best “shooters” were the little white (soft) plastic prescription bottle tops. (This pre-dates child-proof caps.) Since the precription bottle caps were much lighter than metal bottle caps, we would weight each of them down with a penny and then fill the cap up to the top with candle or crayon wax. When the wax dryed, we would rub the top of the cap on the ground until it was super-smooth. The plastic precription bottle caps were the best shooters. When you would shoot one, it would ride smoothly along the ground, travel farther than a metal bottle cap, and, with the weight of the penny, it had enough weight to smash a competitor’s cap a mile away. I moved to Long Island, NY when I was 12 and miss playing skully.

hi joe, i was born in 1974…

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hi joe, i was born in 1974 so i probably was too young to remember. but i do remember my mom taking us to shop at alexanders. just the other day i was telling my brother we need to take a drive to fordham rd. we havent been there in a while.

Hi nynmary, Joe…

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Hi nynmary, Joe Rivera here. In my teen years, I grew up on Grand Avenue just off Fordham Road. That was from 1976 through 1980. We used to shop at Alexanders on Fordham Road. I enjoyed the Valentine Theater along with the Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. That may be before your time perhaps? Joe

i am 30 years old and what…

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i am 30 years old and what i see with the kids these days is there is no supervision. the parents still out enjoying their “youth” to care what their kids is doing. they think “well their gonna do it anyways” i cant stop them. thats why people is all messed up. no values. the kids dont even value themselves. and to the girl who post name is “help me out”…girl you just became a sucker of reverse pyschology. that guy played you. you fell for it. you need to have more brains then that. damn. i was raised in the bronx with no parents around but i had more brains and loved myself enough not to fall for lame tricks like that..grow up!!!!!

yo who remembers leland…

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yo who remembers leland ave in the bronx? the riddlers and pc’s on the corner. all us kids would be smart asses to everyone then we would run laughu=ing. anyone remeber this street ..share your memories…it will always have a place in my heart. it will always be in my blood.

i grew up on 1250 leland…

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i grew up on 1250 leland ave in the bronx, then on castle hill ave near the bingo hall. it was during the late 70’s- 93. i am now 30yrs old. i live now on long island. i always say i am so so happy i grew up in the bronx. no other place or time could replicate the good times i had with my 4 other siblings and friends. people just dont get that. all the street games, breakdancing, fourth of july, hanging out on the stoop from sun up to sun down, going to the corner store playing ms. pacman. teasing the old ladies sitting on the sidewalk in their lawn chairs as we rode our bikes passed them…..what a great group of kids from all nationalities…black, white, spanish,chinese and everything in between…we were one…we stuck up for eachother and looked out for one another…we were a real neighborhood. you dont see that anymore. i miss that. i just hope my son will have that experience,but somehow i doubt it…only in the bronx, kids!!!!

My Dad, Robert “Lefty” Gregory…

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My Dad, Robert “Lefty” Gregory played on The Presto in the late 30’s early 40’s. His brother Willie Gregory played on the Madision Ave Flashers. Dad went on to play in the Winter Baseball Leagues in Puerto Rico with the San Juan Senators in 47. He returned to Manhattan the following season and went to an open try out for the NY Giants in the old Polo Grounds. He put four consecutive shots in center field which got him a trip to North Carolina to play for the Giants Farm Team. Those were rough days for people of color. I was about five or six and can remember sitting in the stands in center field. Those folks were pretty hostile. Dad was a quiet man and always avoided confrontation. He deceided then to give up his dream of a professional career and we all retuned to live in Brooklyn. Dad played stickball for Home Relief during this time and spent the rest of the decade playing in the great Puertorican baseball leagues in Central Park. Not sure of his team’s name, but I remember the word “GOYA” on his uniform. To say Dad played stickball or baseball at another level was an understatement. When I was about sixteen we were living in the upper Bronx, East Chester Projects. Dad came down one Saturday afternoon to join us while we were playing stickball. We thought we were really good. Dad got up, pointed to each of us in order and said, “This is yours”. Bam! a blur of a warped spaldine would be coming at you at mach 5. BAM! one more for the guy on 2nd and Bam! another for 3rd. My buddies would duck, jump out of the way. To damn hot to handle! For us in the out field he would pop them up so high they come down whistling and dancing the bugaloo! He would place them just where he wanted to, every time. It was a reality check for us young punks! I really miss my Dad and am glad to see this site giving these guys and their generation their due. I was shocked to find out that my Dad was inducted along with my uncle Willie into the hall of fame. This was in the seventies and he never told any of the family. I only found out about it this year when his good friend Hector Arroyo was inducted. That was my Dad! A very humble but unforgetable man.