Mill Road

 Every summer, each of us kids got to stay at our Aunt Marion's for a couple of weeks. Since only one of us at a time got to stay; I can only talk about one of my mini summer vacations.
        I mentioned in the Coney Island post that they (my Aunt, Uncle and cousins) lived about two miles from the beach. Where they lived had to be the coolest place in Brooklyn. To help paint the picture, my Aunt had three kids; Gina, Vinnie and Anthony. Gina is a couple of years younger than me, Vinnie about a year younger than her and Anthony about a year younger than Vinnie. Their street; Mill Road, was a dirt road that was only about two or three blocks long and sat lower than the streets around it. It was like two blocks of country smack dab in the middle of a city. There were only about a dozen tiny wood framed houses all tolled on Mill Road. My Aunt's house was only about 600 square feet on two floors. Living room and kitchen on the bottom floor and two bedrooms and a tiny bathroom on the second floor.
        Now when one of us stayed there, my Aunt and Uncle would sleep on the "Castro" in the living room and we would get their bedroom. These accounts are from about 1959, I was about eleven years old. I spent most of my time with my cousin Gina, as she was closest to my age.
    

Picture is the property or nycsubway.org (click to enlarge)

        I arrived at the "Bay 50th Street" station about noon time and walked the eight or ten blocks to Mill Road. When I got to the house, like all kids, we jumped and screamed and all talked at once till we finally ran out of gas. Then I took my suitcase; which was a large paper bag with a few changes of clothes and underwear, to my Aunt's bedroom and we all proceeded to the kids bedroom. The room was about 10x12 and had a bunk bed for the boys and a small single bed for Gina. There were shelves all around the room which is where they kept their toys and stuff. When we weren't playing outside,(which was usually only on rainy days) this tiny room was our whole world. I'm not sure but I don't think we ever watched TV; maybe once in a while before bedtime.
  
       A typical day would go something like this: When I woke up I would go into my cousin's room and we would play with games and toys for a while then go down for breakfast. After breakfast we would get dressed and go outside. The boys would usually go off to play somewhere and Gina and I would get her best friend Elizabeth and sit on her stoop deciding what to do. After some deliberation, we usually went to Cropsy Park, about three or four blocks from Mill Road.  The front of the park had a big playground with swings and slides and monkey-bars and see-saws and stuff like that. At the back of the park there was a wooded area with with paths that zig-zaged around. We would play for a while in the playground area and then walk the paths through the wooded area. Now at the very back of the park there was a chain-link fence and beyond that was a sand lot that led to another fence that ran along the parkway. Ssomeone had cut an opening in the fence and we would go through it and cross the sand lot to watch the cars go by on the parkway. This was always a bad idea cause the sand lot had weeds that we called "sticky-burrs". These "sticky-burrs" would cling to your socks and were sharp as a needle; it was murder trying to get them off.
        After a while we'd go back to my Aunts for lunch. After lunch we might go up the road to the paved street and play some of our "street games" (SEE: "The Games We Played" post) until supper-time.
    
        In the evening after supper, we would all go back up to the corner. (the paved street) Sometimes, a bunch of other kids were out also and we would all play "street games". We would play "hide-and-seek" until it got dark, then, under the street light, we would play other games like; "I declare war", "may I?", (sometimes called "giant step") and some other games until it was time for bed. We would go back to Aunt Marion's, have some milk and cookies, take bathes, change into our PJs and fall fast asleep exhausted.
        What a great time it was to be growing up.

NOTE: I am now 62. I've watched two more generations grow up. With all the hi-tech stuff that kids have now, I can honestly say, I don't think I've ever seen kids have nearly as much fun as we had with nothing but out imaginations.
        As I was writing this, I stopped to look outside at the snow. My 11 year old daughter Sarah and a friend are playing; making snow angels, having a snow-ball fight, making a snow fort and sliding down the hill on their sleds. It reminded me of my youth......... Maybe there is some hope for this generation.

Kids! (and parents), put down your ipods and computer games and wiis and 4G cell phones and go outside and have some real fun.
Don

PS to Gina:
Of all the family, I believe you have worked hardest at preserving the traditions, and more importantly, the values we learned as kids. I thank the Lord Jesus for you in my life. God bless you.