You are currently browsing the stories about the Williamsburg neighborhood

We Need Someone Who Speaks English

by 07/08/2011
Neighborhood: Midwood, Williamsburg

Before I came to a stop at Bedford and Broadway the workers were attempting to flag me down like I was piloting a rescue helicopter. I’d asked Rob to translate for me in order to get the best guy for the job. Two young men approached the passenger side with hopeful expressions. “You speak English?” […]

Door Buzzers that Never Ring

by 12/19/2010
Neighborhood: Williamsburg

I leap down the stairs, unlock and swing open the wrought iron gate. Priscilla, my best friend and playmate, is leaning against the fire hydrant, fidgeting with her treasured Elvis Pez dispenser. She runs to me, pulls on my sweater, and drags me to the corner of Madison Street. Speechless and excited, she nudges my […]

The Haters: The Angriest Softball Team in New York City

by 10/01/2009
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

Last August, on a brutally hot Sunday afternoon, after a debilitating outdoor 90-degree basketball game courtesy of The Word bookstore league, I was shuffling along the sidewalks from Greenpoint to the Bedford L stop trying to bring my core temperature below triple-digits. Needing a respite, I stopped to watch a softball game on a playground […]

A Snow Storm in Brooklyn

by 09/07/2009
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

A tree grows in Brooklyn, and snow falls. Both are scarce, as were friendships on Madison Street. My only friend was a girl my age whose single mother was a police officer. Only once was I invited to her house to play. It was a row house like mine with three long rooms: windows in […]

The Diner

by 04/09/2009
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

The Diner in Williamsburg is a 21st century institution now, I guess (just celebrated its tenth anniversary)—you can get arugula there! And the rest of their food is good too. It’s pleasant at their sidewalk tables if the weather’s fine, though you have to watch your step if you don’t want to trip over two […]

Disappointment with the Color Brown

by 03/09/2008
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

At the tender age of seventeen, I discovered that tigers were not in fact yellow and brown, but are rather orange and black. It never did much harm, my color deficiency, nor did it prevent me from getting my own way. It certainly never interfered with my love life. However, by no fault of my […]

Survivorship

by 02/23/2008
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

I went out with my friend Dylan last night. We met in 2003 on the internet. Tried dating, but were better friends than anything. He was the first person I met when I moved back to New York and looking to date. I had left because my husband was killed in the World Trade Center. […]

One Snort

by 10/09/2007
Neighborhood: Williamsburg

Cocaine did not ruin my life any more than video games or an overprotective mother ruined my life. Which is to say, not at all. Whether or not cocaine impaired my intellectual abilities (I am not a member of MENSA) is something I’ll never know but as for my physical development (I’m six foot nine) […]

The Cry of the Water Wolf

by 07/06/2006
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

Last July, a friend of mine called to tip me off about an upcoming water gun assassination tournament. I was swamped at work when he called, crimping duvets for a big Neiman Marcus order—but seconds later I was on the tournament’s website, reading the requirements for entry. By midnight I was in the back of […]

BQE Sunrise

by 05/05/2006
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

It was 4 am. Maybe 4:30. The sun was just coming out, shading the city gorgeous cool oranges and blues and pinks and yellows. It was late spring, early summer. We had been up all night listening to Johnny Cash, smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey. We were on Skillman Avenue, Brooklyn, in my canted railroad […]

A Boy & His Dog-Poop

by 12/01/2005
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

It’s January 2, 1997. I head out to the corner bodega to buy coffee and a New York Times. I wear a robe and slippers. I am still hung over from New Year’s Eve. It is the time of year when the frozen ground in Williamsburg forms an admixture of leftover snow and dog turd […]

Antihistamines

by 11/10/2005
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

They say she’s holed up like a squirrel, nuts to last the winter, glimpses of green bath- robe when she shuffles down the hill to her mailbox to collect more rejection. People start laying bets, perhaps she has a corpse hidden like, what’s her name, was it Emily? Maybe she’s taken a bad spell, some […]