Stratton Park Message Board

I KNOW WE HAVE SHARED SOME GREAT STORIES IN THE PAST 2 YEARS. BUT IT SEEMS WE HAVE SOME NEW READERS ON THIS SITE. PERHAPS WE CAN STIR UP SOME SUMMERTIME MEMORIES. I KNOW I HAVE SHARED SOME MEMORIES, NOT JUST WITH EVERYONE ON THIS SITE. BUT WITH MY KIDS TOO. ANYONE OUT THERE HAVE A FAVORITE SUMMERTIME STORY. PERHAPS GETTING "THROWN IN THE HYDRANT OR THE SPRINKLERS/SHOWERS AT P.S. 102.
BESIDES, WAITING FOR STEVIE TO COME BY. WHAT ELSE DID YOU DO ALL SUMMER LONG?
DON'T BE SHY. ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS, WAS PLACING MY TOWEL UNDER THE SLIDE, IN THE PARK. SO I COULD HAVE SHADE, WHEN I CAME OUT OF THE WATER. I DIDN'T WANT TO EAT MY SANDWICH IN THE SUN. OF COURSE, I NEVER BROUGHT ANYTHING TO DRINK. I DRANK FROM THE WATERFOUNTAIN. WHICH NONE OF US GOT ANY DISEASES FROM. CONSIDERING, HALF THE PEOPLE WHO DRANK FROM IT, PUT THEIR MOUTHS ON IT, WHILE DRINKING. TO THINK WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY HAND SANITIZER, BACK THEN. HOW WE SURVIVED WITH ALL THOSE GERMS. I WILL NEVER KNOW.
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This is pretty lame but on REALLY hot days I would go to Macy's to the furniture department and camp out in the A/C. Remember those little bedrooms they set up with the fake windows?

To most of us the Park/Schoolyard was the center of fun and enternment in the summertime.
And as we got a bit older it was also the center of attention in the evening, hanging around with friends on the park benches, eyeballing the good looking girls, of which there were many.
I had one vivid memory of Barbara D. with a tan, probably from Orchard Beach, wearing "white short-shorts" was that a popular song?) and a light blue sweater-"Vive la difference". (I didn't know what exactly that meant but I felt it!)
But what about the Community Center? I am sure most of us had great experiences there (and not only in the summer) with all the games-like table tennis, knock-hockey, etc or just running in the cool open play area with the high ceilings and thick concrete walls.
And what about the excurions from the CC to Monroe HS pool for the boys to go "skinny dipping". What did the girls do about bathing suits?

The end of the school year was so much fun - gleefully singing "no more rule books and no more teacher's dirty looks". After school we would head over to the little grassy knoll in Noble Field right next to the Bronx River parkway for picnics. I thought it was paradise.

Later it would be trips to Ferry Point Park and Orchard Beach and then endless hours in the playground playing puck hockey or making acryllic key chains. We had no A/C but it never seemed to be that hot. Patty

Do you remember how we had to bring in cleaning items to tidy up our classrooms at the end of the school year? To this day when I smell "old Pledge" - not the lemon stuff they have now - it takes me right back to those brutally hot days when we were sweating our butts off to clean our desks and whatever else the teacher wanted us to clean.

We did it without complaining. Whom would we have complained to anyway? I have to laugh because after our most recent "heatwave" here in the Bronx a few weeks ago, there was a massive "poor me, I'm so hot" whining fest going on in the public schools by student and teachers alike. They are demanding air conditioning. Good luck.

o.k., here is my reply to the comment about new york school teachers complaining. yes i agree it was very hot in st anthony's & public school. even when we were kids. but, as an education assistant/paraprofessional, i have to defend them. yes there were a lot of complaints from the new york educators.
1st let me explain, when i went to public school 1964-77,the schools were a bit different. we had little windows above the classroom door & the closets. which we could open & get some air flowing. the classrooms now are mostly cut in 1/2. the windows and the windows above the coat closets are painted shut. we now have 30 kids in a class. mostly immigrants (trying not to be politically incorrect) who do not understand the words deodorant,soap & water. the water fountains are gross. no pipes have been replaced in a new york city public school in 40 years. so the kids won't drink from the fountains. the milk is usually warm/sour or frozen. we have very little juice products, in the cafetreria. most of the classroom windows are busted, too. so you can't open them. if you are lucky to have received the new shades that came out 4 years ago. they don't work either. most schools are 4 stories high. which is equal to a 6 story apartment building.
you can't open the bathroom windows either for "safety" reasons. mostly because the custodians have a crazy union contract, they don't have to do 3/4 of the repairs in the schools. if you are lucky enough to have an air conditioner, you pray you can use it. most classrooms only have 1 outlet, per classroom, that isn't burnt out (since the rooms are cut in 1/2, we only have maybe 2 in a room). the yellow "cheese" buses, do not have air conditioning either. yes, we did have it rough, but at least we had those big fans, in some of the classrooms. so forgive some of those dedicated educators, who tried to keep students from dehydrating or passing out. at least we were allowed to go play in the sprinklers, at the park. these kids today, can't go to some of their neighborhood parks, cause there are too many gangbangers or drug dealers. so yes we did have it a bit better back then.

so sorry, didn't mean to get on my soapbox. i agree, it was hot, when we were kids. but now, there are so many health issues involved. also the population in the new york city school system, is so overcrowded, its really a sad situation. please do not get offended by my last statement. but i have been with the dept of education for 9 years. let's just say we treat people locked up in jail better than we do in the new york city public schools. so glad school will be closed after thursday. we have parents begging us to let their kids, go to summer school. not because they failed. but because they have working parents & don't want their kids on the streets. how lucky were we! have a great summer.

Wow, Marie-elena - guess I opened up a can of worms with that post! I do think of the nuns, though, in those heavy black habits. How did they not pass out?

I just wanted to comment on Marie Elaine's memory of drinking water out of the fountain at 102 park. This has become one of my pet peeves and I was wondering if anyone else feels the same. Why have we all of a sudden become "allergic" to non-bottled water? What's going on? My daughter and I went to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jersey last month (for my 50th birthday) where they charge $4 for a warm bottle of water. We were the ONLY people drinking from the water fountains (which, by the way were FREEZING cold.) Do you remember when you used to have to stand on line for water at the fountain?

I swear, I think years from now people will watch movies & TV shows from the 1990's and think that must have been the decade when all public water went toxic. Because everybody fridge is filled with bottled water.

Does anyone else think this is a scam. Does anyone know ANYBODY that ever got sick from drinking tap water?

Hi Lydia:
I agree the water from the water-fountain in 102 was just as good as any bottled water today and if you remeber you sometimes had to wait on line for your turn.
Bobby Roth

I would have to agree with the scam about bottled water. NYC could get out of the current economic crisis by just botteling NYC tap water. It would outsell any other brand. I have to admit that I drink bottled water, because the water in Rockland ~~. Whanever I go back down to the Bronx, I'll bring a few empty bottles to fill up with good old NYC tap water to take home.

Summer Memories/Adventures with no money; no bathing suit; no lunch; no problem

It was a very Hot summer day in early 1950’s; it was so hot that the tar melted on the streets and stuck to sneakers. In my age group no one was around except Joe Mullaly. We decided to go to Bronx Pool and Beach. But we had the challenges of: how to get there; we had no money; no bathing suits; no lunch; but as we saw this as “no problem”.
We started hitching a ride on Tremont Avenue. Thankfully, a young man agreed to give us a ride to Westchester SQ. As we rode with him we told him we wanted to go beach and asked him if had any loose change/10 cents each/ which then was a pretty big deal. He said you guys have “chutzpah”. I don’t know if this spelling is correct but you know what I mean. Lucky day, he gave us a dime each. If you don’t play the game you can’t win at the game.
We then snuck on bus to the pool by back door which was no problem, as there many kids on line. We arrived at the pool around 10:30 AM but we were faced with our next challenge. Initially the lady who collected money ($.25 or $.30/remember this is early in 1950’s) wouldn’t let us in w/o paying. We had to hang to around looking forlorn. She was not up to our acting abilities. Remember we watched a lot of movies and TV. After awhile she asked how much money did we have? We said 20 cents.
Eventually she let us in but we had to fork over our money-we were not as good we thought we were. By this time she felt she thought was helping out some of the street urchins from the ghetto-she was not far from the truth Then we asked if we could borrow some bathing suits. She gave us another scowl but she let us look in lost /found, found some too large bathing suits and we changed to but “beggars cannot be choosy.”
After we took a cool dip-remember the great salt water they had in pool-and found some older friends ~12-13 years old. Now it was ~ 12PM and we were very hungry. Lucky we met a nice girl ( Mary Katinas-found on 1954 Class photos which are great) and a classmate Jean Rojinski who was at a blossoming state which meant to me she was reaching a point of being classified at well-developed which was being more and more important at 12 years. But that is another story. She gave us each a meat loaf sandwich. Now with 2 nubile young women and a delicious sandwich we were in “fat city”.
After having a good time swimming (some problems holding up bathing suits) and a good meal we had the challenge to get home but this proved to be pretty easy as we again snuck on bus-back door again. At Westchester SQ. it proved to be difficult to sneak on bus with the inspector there and not enough people on line to distract driver. Therefore, we ran/walked home to Taylor Ave. and arrived before 6 PM. As long as one got home by dinner time-no problem
Joe asked me what about me about Orchard beach for next day. Great, let’s do it!
When I met my mother she asked me: “What did you do today?” and I replied “Oh nothing much, hung around with Joe and went to Throggs Neck” and then asked “What’s for dinner?”

“Summertime and the life is easy…your Momma is good looking and …”
No Problem!
There were thousands of stories about the Stratton Park neighborhood (Maybe tens
of thousands residing in the collective memories of those who lived there) and hopefully this was one of those. [b]Did you ever a very lucky summer day like we had? Maybe you would like to relate it to the website.[/b]Les

Summer Memories/Adventures with no money; no bathing suit; no lunch; no problem

It was a very Hot summer day in early 1950’s; it was so hot that the tar melted on the streets and stuck to sneakers. In my age group no one was around except Joe Mullaly. We decided to go to Bronx Pool and Beach. But we had the challenges of: how to get there; we had no money; no bathing suits; no lunch; but as we saw this as “no problem”.
We started hitching a ride on Tremont Avenue. Thankfully, a young man agreed to give us a ride to Westchester SQ. As we rode with him we told him we wanted to go beach and asked him if had any loose change/10 cents each/ which then was a pretty big deal. He said you guys have “chutzpah”. I don’t know if this spelling is correct but you know what I mean. Lucky day, he gave us a dime each. If you don’t play the game you can’t win at the game.
We then snuck on bus to the pool by back door which was no problem, as there many kids on line. We arrived at the pool around 10:30 AM but we were faced with our next challenge. Initially the lady who collected money ($.25 or $.30/remember this is early in 1950’s) wouldn’t let us in w/o paying. We had to hang to around looking forlorn. She was not up to our acting abilities. Remember we watched a lot of movies and TV. After awhile she asked how much money did we have? We said 20 cents.
Eventually she let us in but we had to fork over our money-we were not as good we thought we were. By this time she felt she thought was helping out some of the street urchins from the ghetto-she was not far from the truth Then we asked if we could borrow some bathing suits. She gave us another scowl but she let us look in lost /found, found some too large bathing suits and we changed to but “beggars cannot be choosy.”
After we took a cool dip-remember the great salt water they had in pool-and found some older friends ~12-13 years old. Now it was ~ 12PM and we were very hungry. Lucky we met a nice girl ( Mary Katinas-found on 1954 Class photos which are great) and a classmate Jean Rojinski who was at a blossoming state which meant to me she was reaching a point of being classified at well-developed which was being more and more important at 12 years. But that is another story. She gave us each a meat loaf sandwich. Now with 2 nubile young women and a delicious sandwich we were in “fat city”.
After having a good time swimming (some problems holding up bathing suits) and a good meal we had the challenge to get home but this proved to be pretty easy as we again snuck on bus-back door again. At Westchester SQ. it proved to be difficult to sneak on bus with the inspector there and not enough people on line to distract driver. Therefore, we ran/walked home to Taylor Ave. and arrived before 6 PM. As long as one got home by dinner time-no problem
Joe asked me what about me about Orchard beach for next day. Great, let’s do it!
When I met my mother she asked me: “What did you do today?” and I replied “Oh nothing much, hung around with Joe and went to Throggs Neck” and then asked “What’s for dinner?”

“Summertime and the life is easy…your Momma is good looking and …”
No Problem!
There were thousands of stories about the Stratton Park neighborhood (Maybe tens
of thousands residing in the collective memories of those who lived there) and hopefully this was one of those. [b]Did you ever a very lucky summer day like we had? Maybe you would like to relate it to the website.[/b]Les