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My conversion to Judaism in 1977 began while having lunch with my girlfriend at the original Purity Diner on Seventh Avenue and Union Street.A few guys came into the diner who knew her and said hello. She introduced me to them, and one asked if I liked to play basketball. I said very much, and he said we have a [...]
When I was a boy in 1950’s South Brooklyn, Easter Sunday was a day of celebration for my family. Wearing our newest dress clothes, we went to the 11 AM mass at Saint Michael’s and then to my maternal grandmother’s apartment for a sumptuous dinner. My parents sat with my aunts and uncles at a large kitchen table, while my [...]
I was going through some old family papers recently and chanced upon my father’s New York City peddler’s license. It is a document not just from another time, but also another world. He is wearing a tan Big Apple hat and a black shirt and stares straight at the camera, looking incredibly fresh and handsome. The address on the license [...]
Pizzaiolo, Flatbush Avenue 1975 On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2022, it might have been easy to let slip the New York Times obituary of an Italian-American octogenarian. But I sat up straight when I saw the name Domenico DeMarco, the legendary pizza maker who founded Di Fara’s Pizza on Avenue J in 1965. I had read about him for [...]
February 13, 1975 Yesterday shot a roll of people leaving Ash Wednesday church. Should be good. Since the front entrance was locked due to snow, only exit available was small side one. The walk is only about four feet wide, but only two feet were shoveled. So…people had to go by me. I swear, after a while people thought getting [...]
