There was a Comedian on You Tube who talked about how Italians used to be ready for company when they came over by having an Entamans cake and all the other things that he felt were funny now. When I was a little kid their was a rhythm to life.
As a little kid, I would go over to my friend Mikes house and knock on the front door like I was taught. Someone would answer and I would go in. There came a time when I would knock or ring the door bell. Mike's grandmother would answer and she would say, "Don't ring the bell, there is a new baby in the house." It took a while but I got into the habit of knocking instead of ringing the bell. As I got older I was told, "Don't ring the bell or knock, just come in." It took me the longest time to get to that point to do that. I was always told to knock on the door, never try to open the door.
My Aunt Elsie and Uncle Ken got me to come to their back door, because no one would hear me at the front door. I understood that, but it took me years to get comfortable doing that.
As a young kid I never understood why I called everyone Aunt or Uncle, they weren't related to me.
Everyone in the Neighborhood had been living beside each other for years. At the top of Klein Ave. and what was then called Old Route 59 (West Nyack Road) were the Natales, their house set well off the road and behind their strip mall. they had lived there for as long as I remember.
I was told by my mother, in the fifties, before the strip mall, the house had been closer to Old Route 59 and there was a big tree just off the corner of Klein Ave. That stump would stick out of the tar on Klein Ave. for years. I remember it being there as late as the early 90's.
Across the street from the Natales, lay an old house that in the 60's looked old, abandoned and unloved. In the late 60's a guy named Scott bought the place and turned it into a funeral home. For the longest time it was the big news on the block. Some time in the 70's as the rumor went Mr. Scott bought a gun out of his house when there was some problem or other in front of his house/ business. A few months later the Score's bought the Funeral Parlor.
On the same side after the Funeral Parlor was Mr. Nelsons house. He was a tour guide in the City. I would go over his house and I would use his stamp pad to stamp fliers with his phone number so people could use him for tours. One time he took my mom, myself, Karl and maybe Ruth into the city for an adventure. We rode the tour bus and stopped at an early version of an Arcade. We were not allowed to play any of the games. That was the mid-sixties. Mr Nelson moved to New City sometime around the early seventies and everyone lost touch with them.
Next to Mr. Nelson were the Seagrests. Mr. Seagrest was a TV repair men. I remember him coming over to the house to fix the TV. His Shop was in Nyack on Main Street, just east of Franklin Street. Gus and his Wife, Lee had two children, Gussy and Gege. They were the oldest kids on the block along with Nickie Lafascano and Tommy Martins older brother on West Street.
The Seagrests loved to party and boy they did. They had a pool in their back yard I swam in it in the mid-sixties. Across the street from the Seagrests was the swamp. When the Seagrests redid their house all the wall board went into the swamp. Someone, most likely Gussy had painted two bases on the street in front of his house, first and third. Either home plate and second were unimportant or they wore away from traffic. Either way whenever we wanted to play baseball on the street, a relatively safe past time then we had to find some thing to use for home and second. Someone discovered that the old wall board, that We called chalk board, I think you can see where this is going, was prefect to draw home and second on the road. The chalk was great for just drawing on the road. One time I remember drawing space ships on the road. They were about six feet long and I remember drawing a seat, a place for ray guns and so forth. The best thing about this 'chalk' or maybe the worst was after a rain, it was all gone from the street. And the 'chalk' was unusable if it was wet.
Next to the Seagrests were the Marsicos. Of any house on the street, this one was the fullest. Kay and Joe Marsico had five children, Terry, Ronnie, Steven, Micheal and Kevin. On top of that, Kay's mother, Mrs. Quinn lived there and Kay's brother Tommy, who was also an alcoholic. Joe worked for the Journal News when it was the Nyack Journal and Kay worked for the local school district. I would spend most of my childhood over there.
Across the Street from the Marsicos lived my Aunt Elsie and Uncle Ken. My Grandfather owned the land where he built his house.A large Shed was built on the property where he lived after losing the house next to it in the depression. My Aunt and Uncle had three children,Harriett, Kenny and Billy. My Dad and Uncle were so close that they never let anything come between them. Not even the time their wives were not talking to each other. Or the naming of their milk companies. They were as close as two brothers could be.
And of course, next to Uncle Ken was where I lived. My Grandfather lost the house in the depression. In the fifties, after my Dad got married he heard that the house was up for sale by the owners, the Demarests. He paid $9,000.00 for the house. In 1979 I paid over $10,000.00 for my first car. The House at that time consisted of the sun porch, a living room, a master bedroom, with access to the bathroom, a dining room and a small kitchen. My Grandfather, Joseph with the help of two of his sons Bill and Ken added on two back rooms and made the kitchen bigger. I am told that if you go down the cellar stairs, the cabinet/ access to the crawl space split door, that was the old back door to the back yard. Later the Bathroom door would be moved, the bathroom would be done over several times until it was done right, then the Kitchen would be down over in the seventies and the new living room added on with the sun porch and the two forward bedrooms being reconfigured around 1973.
Across the Street next to the Marsico's house was an empty lot that Joe Marsico's brother Junnie was supposed to build his house on like Joe did on his lot. Junnie just never got around to it and for many years it was one of the places everyone played baseball and pine trees grew that were planted to be harvested for Christmas trees, that never were.
Next to the empty lot, across from my house and a little north lived the Watkins. As a little kid, I'd go over to their house and have fun, Mr Watkins taught me either to start reading or how to add, something like that. In the middle sixties theu moved away. Years later they would come to visit and I would be amazed that they were black. After they moved, the Harrins moved in. They were a young profession couple that worked at Lamont-Doherty Labs.They stayed in the house for maybe half a dozen years. I remember one day Mrs. Harrin bringing over a loaf of freshly baked bread forus. That Bread had a short life span in that house.
When the Harrins moved to Upper Nyack, they gave us a big heavy duty desk made of a light color hard wood. It stayed in the Sun porch for a few years and then for some reason my mom cuts it up and I end up with the drawers section in my room. I had it for many years finally getting rid of it in the late 1970- early 80's. After the Harrins left, the Grosmuches bought the house. Mrs. Grosmuch was from Germany. They had one daughter and lived in the house until the late 80's selling to the Kelly's who have lived there since.
Down the Street lived the Perones. Vinnie and his wife had two kids. Joe the youngest was Karl's age and they became fast friends. The Family moved into the house when it was built in the late 60's and Vinnie worked on the Tappan Zee Bridge. They sold the house in the 90's I think and it has been sold several times since and I don't know to who.
Across the Street from the Perones, next to our house, in the early 60's was an empty lot that my Parents didn't own. A Builder wanted to come in an either build a house on it or move one to the lot. There was a second lot, just north of it that was also up for sale. Now the story gets a little foggy at this point. I believe the builder got so much grief from the people on the street that he offered the lot closest to our house to my Dad, who bought it. And the Builder then bought a house in to put on the second lot.
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