The only people I remember upstairs was Red Foley. He was seven or eight years older than me and he hung out with Sonny Grosso, and Boppo DeGracia. The Grosso's lived in 505 and Boppo lived in 507. The MacIntyres were also in 505. There was the twins, Tommy and Charlie and they had a younger sister. Was it Mary Ellen? The Emanuel's (the tailor) were also in 505.
This picture was taken in front of 501. On the left is Billy Barton, my brother Harry is in the middle and that's me hiding behind the fudge pop. That little trap door in the left corner is the chute door where they used to deliver the coal. To the right is Louie's drugstore. (not too neat looking, is it?)
. Upstairs was the Montiel's. Bobby and Johnny both became NYC cops and they .both passed away much too young. They had a much younger brother. Mrs. Montiel (Nellie) was Polish and her husband was from Spain. They were still living in the building as little as five years ago. I haven't seen Mrs. Montiel for about five years now. She was funny. One time Jim Considine was at one of the reunions. I'm not sure but I think Jim and his sister lived in 511. Anyway, Jim was a very brilliant young fellow, I think he graduated from Annunciation when he was 10 or 11. At this particular reunion Mrs. Montiel walks up to him and says, "Did you know you were a genius?" We all had a good laugh.
Matthew McGarry was in the building. His mother never let him out of her sight. She was still walking him to school when he was in the eighth grade. As I said before, the DeGracia's also were in 507. They moved shortly after they sold the candy store. I think the "older guys", Red Foley, Sonny Grosso et al had a reunion one time, honoring Tony.
509 was loaded with kids. There was a handicapped fellow on the first floor. I think his name was Majeski. He was pretty much house bound. Upstairs was the MacIver's, there was Donald, my age and his older brother Kenny. Their mother was Barbra and their dad, and I was sworn to never tell this, but his name was Angus and he was a Scotchman. He worked in the Ford plant over in Edgewater and he used to take the 125th Street ferry to work every day. Upstairs from them was the Wenz's. They had one son, Jerry. Mrs. Wenz worked for the Marchione Ice Cream factory down around 129th St. Their popular ice cream was buiscuit tortoni. It came in a little pleated paper cup and was sold in all the Italian restaurants. Mrs Wenz used to bring a box of them home every week and whenever we went to Jerry's house we got buiscuit tortoni. It was delicious and another reason I was such a fat little kid. Mrs. Wenz maiden name was Tracy and Mr. Wenz first name was Dick. We always used to joke that if, when they got married, he had to take her name, he'd be Dick Tracy. Next door to them was the McVeigh's. Hughy was in my crowd and then there was Eddie his older brother, a sister who I think was the oldest and then Charlotte who was the youngest. Hughy had built in rhythm and most days could be found sitting on the fender of a car banging out his imaginary drums on the hood. If he didn't like the sound from a particular hood he would move to another car. Sometimes he would move to four or five cars before he got the right sound. When he found the right one he did sound terrific. Hughy had protruding ears, we used to call them Dumbo ears. For as long as I can remember he was always pulling them back with his hands. You know it worked, he succeed in flattening them.
After I got married I was invited to a party one weekend at the home of a friend of my neighbor. The hostess was Charlotte McVeigh and she had married a guy whom I went to high school with. What a small world.
On the same floor as the Wenz's and McVeigh's was the Saxton's. They had one son, Jimmy. Mr. and Mrs. Saxton both worked for the Fifth Ave. Coach Company on 133rd St. Her name was Theresa and his was Cliff. Mrs. Saxton and my mother were good friends. They would get together and gossip for hours. When she would leave our house my mother would complain that she never shut up. Meanwhile Mom spoke just as much as she did. Jimmy was a hapless kid and we would torment him no end. He was really just a sad sack. He was always the brunt of our practical jokes. One time the guys tied him up in one of those wooden vegetable baskets and put him in front of his apartment door with a note pinned on him. It read, "Please take care of this child." His mother was furious.
Upstairs again, was the Fallon family. They were all redheads. Fanny was in our crowd and he had two sisters and an older brother, Junie. Junie served a full tour in Korea and came home without a scratch. He walked out of the Vinegar Hill bar one night , got hit by a car, and was killed. It was a terrible tradgedy and the family moved away shortly after that. Mr. Fallon owned a bar up in Inwood somewhere. One night Jimmy Magner (521) and I were both home on leave from the service. We decided to go looking for his bar to find Fanny, whom we had lost track of. We never did find him but we had one heck of a night. Incidentally, Fanny's real name was Francis.
Upstairs from the Fallon's I remember the McKeon's. She was Catherine Hartney from 499 and when she got married, 509 is where she moved to.
That wraps if up for this time. Maureen and I have been down in Florida since the 18th of January and weather wise it has not been the greatest. If this was the first time we'd come to Florida it might be the last. We did have some great times though, in spite of the weather. On February 22nd we got together with a bunch of Vinegar Hillers in West Palm Beach. Bobby McKenna sent out a picture of our gathering and it is such a large file that I'll send it separately at another time. I only have dial up here and that takes forever. There was Bob McKenna and his lady, Jimmy Cavanaugh and Pat, Jimmy's sister, Betty, Artie Lamarche and Rosemary, Tom Sakel, Charlie Ortiz, Gene Feeley and his lady and Maureen and I. ( Sorry, Bob and Gene, I forgot the girls names. Great memory,ha!). Had we more time to plan we probably could have gotten more to come as there are many Vinegar Hillers here in Florida.
Walter Wheatley and his wife Margie (Maher) were down in March. The Wheatley's had come down to see their friends, the Ascerbo's. Fortunately the Ascerbo's are good friends of my wife and so we all got together at the Delray Beach St. Pat's day celebration. The following day they got to see Maureen and I doing our Irish set dancing with a group at the Irish Festival in West Palm Beach.
Next up I plan to go over to the other side of 135th Street and cover 499, 487 and 485. Don't look for those buildings on vpike.com, they are not there anymore. I hope I don't take as long to post again.
All the Best,
Tom Read
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