You and your family were the backbone that made the city great. Once you were gone, pfffft, it was all over.
My mom grew up here, met my Dad after WWII at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where they put down stakes. Finally sick of commuting into Manhattan, they moved us to Rochester.
I worked 35 years @ Kodak ... about 15 years at Elmgrove and the rest downtown at KO.
Back when we lived there, everyone knew everybody on the block. We kids all played together, and were taught to respect our elders. And back then, we never locked our doors at night. We had Henchen's Bowling Alley less than five minutes away. There was also Oddo's Dairy/Fountain Shoppe, where you could go in, sit at the counter, and order a banana split, milk shake, ice cream soda, hot fudge sundae...whatever you wanted. Even the neighborhood pharmacy had it's own soda fountain section. Then there was Grassi's Dry Good store, with all sorts of great things for kids. We used to go to the old Lincoln Theater on Jay Street. My mother would give us a quarter. It would cost us 15 cents to get in, and 10 cents for a box of popcorn.
There was also a neighborhood grocery/meat store run by an old Italian couple. They had every kind of penny candy you could want, plus comic books galore. We weren't too far from the Hostess Cupcake Factory which was just off Murray Street...near Lyell Avenue. They had an outlet shoppe there, and we used to go get packages of cupcakes for a nickel, and of course they were much bigger then. The smell of baking bread would permeate the neighborhood. Schuler's Potato Chips wasn't that far either, and we used to be able to smell them cooking the potatoes in the oil. Back then a bag of chips cost 5 cents. Still remember Neisner's, Woolworth's, Sibley's and McCurdy's back in the good, old days. We never had a car so either walked or took the bus to get where we wanted to go. Great memories. Glad I was born at that time.