500 W. 135th Street

I think I'm around 5 or 6 in this picture. I had ring worm and when my hair grew back in it was very curly. I hated it but Mom loved it. Behind me is 499 to the left and 487 to the right. The store front straight ahead was a student co op from either CCNY or Music and Art. To the left of that was the Chinese laundry. Remember Pang and machahow ding ding. Pang was the boss of the laundry and machahow, if that's how you spell it, was supposed to be a Chinese curse word. After you said it you were supposed to rub your teeth with your right index finger.

500 was a typical building in the neighborhood. It was 5 stories and was a walk up. If you lived in an elevator building you were rich. If you went up to the roof you could connect to the buildings on Amsterdam Ave. all the way to 134Th St. That would have been 1512 Amsterdam, 1508 and then 501 on 134Th St. Through the back alleys is wasn't as easy because, if I remember correctly, there was about an 8 to 10 foot jump from the alleys on 135Th St. to the alleys on 134Th St. If you ran the alleys at night ,playing hide and seek, there was always a good chance that you would get clothes lined by one of the supers wash lines.

We had a great apartment, 3A. It was in the front of the building and we had windows not only on 135Th St. but also Amsterdam Ave. It was six rooms, as the real estate ads would say 3BR, LR, DR, EIK. In the bath there was a tub, toilet and sink but no shower. The thought of sitting in that tub grosses me out. After all, up until I went to high school, we only took a bath once a week, Saturday night. You can just imagine the black ring around the tub when I got out. We always had mice and so we always had a cat. Pepsi is the one I remember the most. It was the funniest thing to see that cat come running down the hall and it loved to leap into the tub when it got into the bathroom. What a surprise it would get when the tub was full. The highest rent I recall being paid and this was in the early 60's was like $60 a month + gas and electric. Mom lived in the apartment until around 1970 when she was burned out by an accidental fire from the apartment below her. The night of the fire I gathered up what was left of her possessions and locked them in the one bedroom that wasn't touched. I went to the hardware store and got a big lock and hasp to secure the bedroom door. When we came back the next afternoon the junkies had broken in and what little was left had been thoroughly ransacked looking for valuables. All of her pictures were strewn all over the room and we only managed to salvage a few of them. The neighbor hood had radically changed from when we had moved in but even after the fire Mom wanted to move back there. She just couldn't.

We always had a superintendent, better known as the super and some of them that I remember were the Sanchez's. They had a son named Mario. He was a midget and I when they moved out I lost track of him. Then there was the Feeley's. That was Genie Feeley's family. His grandpa was the super and I think Gene had just been born. I believe Dan was the grandpa's name, and I think it was him who had a fondness for the drink and when the fondness got the best of him we had no heat. Banging on the pipes didn't mean a thing. Knock three times and you got nothing but a noisy radiator. Then came the Murry's and we had all the heat we wanted. Ann and Mike had 4 boys and they all got a turn to take care of the furnace which in those days meant they had to shovel the coal in and collect the ashes and then bring up the ashes from the basement to the street. Those cans were very heavy. Mike Jr. was the oldest and he lived in England before coming to join his Mom and Dad and brothers. He went to Fordham and majored in Russian. He went into the Air Force from the ROTC and of course became an interpreter. I don't think I ever saw him after he went on active duty and he made a career out of the Air Force. Eddie was the next oldest and I believe that he is out on Long Island. I haven't seen him in years. Vinny was very active in coming to all of the V.H. reunions but I understand that he has moved to someplace near Valley Forge in Pa. Tommy, may God rest his soul, passed a few years ago at a much too early of an age. I can always picture Tommy and Artie LaMarch playing the bagpipes when we had a reunion in Van Saun Park in Paramus, NJ.

The Murry's quit being the supers and moved up stairs to the apartment next to us. Mr. Murry passed away and left Tommy,Vinny and Eddie and their Mother, Anne. I don't remember any of the supers after the Murry's left the job.

The super always lived on the second floor. I think it was 2B. In 2A , directly under us was originally the Coynes and after them came the family that owned the beauty parlor in the building, the Diaz's. Of course they were Spanish and because of the language we didn't talk that much with them. Across from them in 2C was the Wenz's. I only remember old Mrs. Wenz and her daughter May, the dancer. I think Mrs. Wenz had 2 son's who lived in he neighborhood, George and Dick. I'll talk about them later. Old Mrs. Wenz would get mad at the guys who hung out in the candy store and when they would get too loud she would pour hot water out the window onto them. Sometimes there would be a customer coming out of the candy store and they would also get doused.

Next to Mrs. Wenz was the Sullivan's. I don't remember a Mr. Sullivan but there was 2 sons. Jimmy was the oldest and after WW2 Jimmy had an affinity for the bottle. He was getting a check from the government and that kept him viable. So many guys came back from the military after the war with that affliction. Dennis was my brother Harry's age. He and Dennis were both avid comic book collectors and a least once a week they would get together and trade

comics. Harry said, one time, that if he had kept his comic book collection he would be a millionaire today. They would also go down to the candy store and you could trade comics with them but I think there was a small fee. I think Dennis fell into the hands of the junkies but the last time I saw him he was living with his cousin Sheila Sweeney out in Rockaway. It had been a number of years since I had seen him and he had a terrible accident while working for the post office. He was delivering something to a hangar out at JFK and when he went into the hangar he walked right into a rotating propeller on an aircraft. He was seriously hurt but survived. Mrs. Sullivan was a corpulent women but she always had this little bitty dog. Was it Princess? Anyway, she had this squeaky little voice and between her and the size of the dog it was a comical sight.

Up to the third floor now. Before the Murry's moved up, next door to us was the Redmond

family, a mother and father and 2 sons. I remember Hal. He was older than us and he had a car.

Mr. Redmond worked for the Fifth Ave. Coach Co. where many of the fathers in the neighborhood worked. The bus garage was on 132Nd St. off Broadway so it was just a short walk to work. Across the hall from us in 3C was the Amezaga's. He was from Spain and she was from Czechoslovakia. They had one son, Danny. My memory goes back to when he was married and I think Mrs. Amezaga never liked her daughter in law. Mrs. Amezaga, Lucy; Mrs. Murry, Anne; and my mother, Renee always got together and Lucy was always complaining about the daughter in law. Lucy was a phenomenal cook and she did quite a bit of catering. I can still remember all the fancy stuff she made for my eighth grade graduation, all kinds of fancy salads and beautiful cuts of meat. My mouth is watering. Next to the Amezaga's in 3D was the Mac Alindons. Mrs. Mac Alindon passed away when her only daughter, Mary, was still in high school.

Mr. Mac continued in the apartment until he passed away many years later. Mary married Jim Costello and is living in Rockland County. Sadly she is suffering from Alzheimers. What a beautiful girl. I think she was only a year or two older than my brother and I but on occaision she would babysit for us. I met her and Jimmy a few years ago and introduced her to my friends as my former baby sitter. We had a good laugh.

On the fourth floor, in 4A was a fellow named Jimmy Cinque. He was there for at least 20 years and the few things I remember about Jimmy are that he was very quiet, we never heard a noise from upstairs. He never had a room mate or a girl friend and all we ever did was exchange hellos.

Next to Jimmy was the Dunican family. Mr. and Mrs. and John, Brendan, Pat and Mary. Mr. Dunican worked for the Third Ave. Transit down on 126Th Street. He was a trolly driver and then when they came in, he was a bus driver. Mrs. Dunican was a homemaker as were almost all the Moms in our generation. She was a wonderful lady, always had a smile on her face. In the summer time she would take me along with all of her family to Rockaway. She always went with Mrs. Barry and her family, Leo and Mary.They were from 134Th Street. All of us would troop off to the subway and then to the Long Island Railroad on the train to Rockaway. What great times we had. When I got a little older Pat and Brendan would go with me to Palisades Amusement Park. We'd take the 125Th Street ferry over to Edgewater. When we got down to the ferry we always asked the guys driving their cars on to the ferry if we could ride with them to get on the ferry to avoid paying the fair. Once we got on the ferry we would ask the driver if he was going "up the hill" past the park entrance. Most of them were and we'd save the fare money to play some of the games at the park. The salt water pool at Palisades was the greatest. On the way home most of the guys would ride the water pipe that went down the side of the hill down to the ferry terminal. I was always a wimp and too fat so I chickened out and walked down the hill. I usually got home thirty minutes later than everyone else.

Across the hall on the fourth floor in 4C was the Cassidy family. Mr. and Mrs. and Mike, Ann, Peggy and John. Mr. Cassidy was a bus driver for the Fifth Ave. Coach Co. down on 132nd Street. Lots of Sundays they would invite me up for Sunday dinner. Being a chubby kid I never refused and after dinner with the Cassidy's, I'd go downstairs and have dinner with my family.

I alway remember that Mike and his dad had made a shoeshine box and Mike would shine shoes down on Broadway near Bickford's by the subway station. I wasn't allowed to shine shoes so I'd go as Mike's salesman. I'd try to get the people to come over to Mike to get their shoes shined. I think Mike got ten cents a shine. I don't recall if I ever got a "commission". Who cared, we were having fun. The Cassidy's had a dog, Lady. When Lady had a litter of pups I begged my parents to let me have one of the pups. They finally relented and I had my puppy, for one night. The puppy was so unhappy away from its mother that it cried all night. Nothing would stop it. In the morning I took the puppy down to walk it. Mrs. Cassidy stuck her head out the window and hollered down to me, "How was he last night?" I told her I slept all night but the puppy and my father never slept. I had to return the puppy. Good thing I did as I understand that he grew up to be the size of a German Shepherd, a big dog. Mr. Cassidy and my dad were for a long time the only car owners in the building. I remember the Cassidy's always went down to Freehold, NJ and I think Mr. Cassidy eventually built a house down there.

Next to the Cassidy's was Mrs. Kaplan, a Jewish lady. I didn't know too much about her, she had no family and she had a dog. I think it was a Pomeranian. She was always giving advice. I don't remember if she worked.
On the fifth floor in 5A was the Walsh's. It was old Mrs. Walsh and her daughter Helen. Helen never married and worked and took care of her mother. Some time after the war Helen's brothers children Dickie and his sister, I can't remember her name, came to live with them. Dickie was a good athlete and his sister was very pretty. They were a bit older than me and I never hung out with them.

I think that next to them was the Hanson's Peggy and Tommy. I don't remember anything about their parents. Peggy used to babysit for me and my brother and I know I had a crush on her. I was six and she was thirteen. What a chance I had.

In 5C was the Milton's. I remember Mrs. Milton, she was a very sickly woman and she always wore black. I'm not sure if she was a widow but I don't remember a husband. Her daughter Jeanne was much older that us and after her Mom passed she moved away. Would you believe, I forget who was in 5D.

I'm a little hazy about the sixth floor but I do remember that Dennis Hurlihy's sister Theresa married Tom Lovett and they lived on the sixth floor. Theresa had two children and I recall her wheezing as she climbed the stairs with the two kids and the groceries. Some times she sounded like she was gasping for air. I understand that she did have a bad heart and I believe she did pass.

After the Milton's moved out the Tully family moved in. They were from Ireland and I recall two children. Their daughter was beautiful and I think she did some modeling. I do remember some unhappiness and I don't know what ever happened to them. At one time there was also the Garvey family. I remember Mary with the beautiful red hair. I think they were also on the fifth floor.

Most of the families moved out of 500 by the early sixties but Mom, Mrs. Murry and Mrs. Amezaga remained for awhile longer. They were the greatest of friends and looked after one another. Mrs. Amezaga passed away and Mrs. Murry moved to Astoria. Mom remained until she had the fire.

I drove by the building after our reunion this October and I was thinking of all the stories that one building could tell. We had moved in , 1942 and the building was old then. Sixty seven years later the building still stands and I'd say it doesn't look too bad. There are still twenty families living there but I don't think they will ever be as close as we were.

I plan to work my way down the block and I'll continue next with 502.