487 and 485 West 135th Street

The Hayes family lived on the ground floor of 487. That would be Jackie and Denis. Denis was the youngest and he had Downs syndrome. At that time Downs wasn't a popular name and we always quietly said Denis was Mongoloid. He required a tremendous amount of attention and Mrs. Hayes was a little women and he really got to her. She passed at a much too early of an age. Denis and Jack were still teenagers. Like many of the parents in the neighborhood Mr. Hayes was born in Ireland and he must have had some connections because he got Denis full Irish citizenship. Denis was sent off to live with an aunt in Tipperary and when she could no longer take care of Denis he went to the national Irish health care system. He had wonderful care and only recently passed at the grand old age of 67. Jack Hayes and his wife Marian just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Awhile after Mrs. Hayes passed Mr. Hayes remarried and he and his wife, Josie, had two daughters in that same apartment. The daughters were Alma and Joanne. Josie, I guess short for Josephine, taught school at Annunciation for several years.
 Jack and Denis' mom was a sister to Joe Coughlin who lived upstairs in 487. Joe and his wife, Beatrice, had three children. There was Joe, Anne and Paddy. I recall Mr. Coughlin having a little dog and I think his name was Tippy. ( maybe that was short for Tipperary). Mrs. Coughlin had a great love for Bingo and she would be off six days a week to a game some where. The only reason she didn't play seven days was that she couldn't find a Catholic church that had Bingo on Sunday.
There was two Murray families in the building. The older family had two boys and I can't remember their names. I know one of the boys ( he's in his mid 70's now) lives up in Pearl River. His name escapes me. The other Murray's were my age and younger. ( I'm early 70's). Michael was in my class and I believe he had a younger brother and a sister. They were all redheads. Mr. Murray was a bus driver for the Third Ave. Transit.
Another family was the Manions. That would be Lawrence and Kiernan. I recall that Mr. Manion passed away and shortly after that Mrs. Manion died of a broken heart. I believe that Lawrence and Kiernan were sent back to live with family in Ireland.
Also there was the Ackerman's.That was two girls, Virginia and Denise. Virgina and Pete Mugan from 499 married. Mr. Ackerman was an insurance agent, not a salesman but an agent. He went around to all the policy holders in the neighborhood and collected the weekly premiums. I always remember my Mom straightening up the house because Mr. Ackerman was coming. I think the premium payment was something like $1.25.
Mr. and Mrs. Hannon were there. Mrs. Hannon and Mrs. Buonocore from down on Amsterdam were sisters. The Hannon's had no children and so she loved taking care of her niece and nephew, Sissy (Frances) and nephew Sonny (Vincent).
Billy Woznak and his sister Catherine lived on the top floor. I always remember Mrs. Woznak coming home with such a cheerful disposition after climbing those five flights of stairs. She was a widow and a lovely lady. Billy's son and my daughter Kathi went to Bergenfield H.S. together but never knew each other. At their graduation I found that out after running into Billy. Another guy was Georgie Knowles. He didn't go to Annunciation and if you didn't go there you were kind of like an alien. I'm not sure but he may have been from 485.
The families that I remember from 485 were the Finn's. Johnny was a great basketball player. I always remember his mother was a very attractive lady with beautiful silver gray hair. Another great basketballer in that building was Denis Hurlihy. I think Denis had a couple of sisters and I remember Theresa from my building (500) after she married Tom Lovett. Also there was the Moore sisters. Margie was my age and she had an older sister.
On the ground floor was the Lopez family. Norbert (Norbie) was in my class and he had a younger brother. Their mother was a very tiny lady and they were from South America, Venezuela or Columbia. There was another kid in the building and he went to public school. We called him Alex the Russian. If you weren't of Irish  decent we had to identify what country you came from.
If you look up vpike.com you won't find any of the buildings on that side of 135th Street. They are all gone thanks to City College expansion. That whole block from Amsterdam to Convent and 135th to 136th is no longer.  That includes the infamous pub, Vinegar Hill which was on the corner of 136th and Amsterdam. The only remnant is the street post sign on the corner of 135th Street that denotes Vinegar Hill Corner. The picture of it is on the 502 W. 135th Street blog.
Next up I'm going back over to the other side of 135th  and will try to cover the rest of the south side from 504 down to the garage. I'm a little fuzzy on who was in what building but I'll give it a try and see how close I come.
I am getting some very nice comments through the grape vine. I understand that it is not easy to comment at the end of the blog. If you would like to comment or make a suggestion, my email address is tomyread@aol.com. I'd love to hear from you.