The South Side of 135th Street (504 to Broadway)

Before I start, let me share some great news. J. Christopher Scott, (remember Johnny Scott) has published a book called  "The Boys from Vinegar Hill". If you want more information go to this website: theboysfromvinegarhill.com
The book is a great read, tells the story of an Irish kid from 136th Street and his friendship with some of the kids that lived in the old Hebrew Orphan Asylum that was on Amsterdam from 136th Street to 138th Street. Oh by the way, it's fiction. If you get a chance get a copy. Coming from the neighborhood , you will thoroughly enjoy it.
I'm going to start out at 504 but from here on in I'm not exactly sure who was in what building. I do believe that most of the people mentioned did live on the South side.
George Wenz and his two boys were there. They were young George and his brother Charlie. Both of them were terrific athletes. I remember one time seeing George hit a soft ball out of Jasper Oval from the field that was over by the handball courts. He did it more than once. The beautiful Crimmins girls were upstairs. That would be Joan, Rose and Frances. Rose married Sonny Grosso from 505. Their dad, another dapper guy, was  named Austin. Tony Alva was there with his Mom. I still remember him as Tony Alvarez. Tony became renowned through out the New York Fire Department.
Tommy and Kevin Talty were there with their sister whose name I believe was Joan. Over the years I ran into Tommy several times and it was always a fun encounter. I understand that Kevin developed a great career as a security expert. I seems that when Kevin was younger he was very successful in burglarizing the very posh residences along Sutton Place and Park Ave. After he paid his debt to society he was sought after for his expertise at his former pastime. Another funny guy in the building was a guy we called Portable Charlie. We never could figure out where the name came from in that no one ever saw him with a portable radio. He had two daughters, Elizabeth and Charlotte and I forget his wife's name. Elizabeth was my age and I think she went to public school. There was a dentist office and I don't remember if he was in 504 or 506. He was up on the second floor. There was another dentist on 134th Street in 501. One of them was named Dr. Ross but I don't remember the name of the other one. I didn't like either one but then again who liked dentists anyway.  Louis Carranza and his sister were also in 504. I can picture a brother and sister, her name was Didi and the brothers name and their last name escapes me. I remember a landlord and he had property on both sides of the street. He may have also had 504. His name was Lazaritas, a little bald headed Greek, or from that part of the world, guy. I always remember him going around collecting his rents and arguing with anybody and everybody. I never saw the guy smile. His nickname was Lousy Ritas. Can you imagine how long he'd stay alive if he went around collecting rents in that neighborhood today?
Moving on down there was the O'Rourkes, Anne, in her little white Indian beaded moccasins, Danny in my class, Billy and then a younger brother whose name escapes me. Earlier I related how their dad had the grocery store on Amsterdam and 135th St. Also in their building was the Davis family, Danny, Peter, Jane,and a younger sister who I remember had beautiful eyes. Danny , I understand, became a Judge up in Rockland County. I always remember Mr. and Mrs. Davis on the way to church Sunday mornings and all dressed up looking sharp. Tommy Atkinson and his brother John were there. Their Mom was a lovely lady and I think their Dad had passed. Tommy was one of the guys on our bus in the morning on the way to Regis. He was also one of the one's who graduated along with Billy Monahan and Harry Burke and my brother Harry. On the top floor was the Moran brothers. John was in my class and he had two or three brothers. After the eighth grade I totally lost track of them. Danny Sullivan and his sister Maureen were there.
Maureen was one of what I would call the "Stone Martin" girls. Now you have to remember that going to church on Sunday was an occasion and everyone would dress up. The older girls, when they would be off to work, would all buy these fur skin wraps that consisted of three or four stone martin fur skins, linked together. I guess you'd say they made it when they had their wrap and they were very stylish. Anyway, I remember Maureen and also Anne Donahue from 134th Street and Evelyn Lynch from Convent Avenue and the Sexton girls and the Clark sisters from 499. I know there were more but this is what I remember.
The Padian's were there, Jack, Kathleen and an older brother who was on the Fire Dept. I ran into Jack a few times at office equipment shows. He was selling mail inserters from a company called Phillipsburg and of course I was with Xerox. Kathleen was in my class and she and Kathy Nugent from 1525 Amst. were great friends. The Duffy brothers were there. Mike, a redhead, was in my class and he had an older brother who got involved with drugs. Their father packed up the whole family and moved them back to Ireland. I think the day after the boat landed the brother was back here. He always hung out at the pool hall down on 137th and B'Way. As the story goes, the narcs came in one night, Duffy was nodding off and all the other junkies stashed their stuff on him, so when search time came, he was the only one holding. That was the last I heard of Duffy. Duffy wasn't the only one on drugs and fifty years ago the problem was already an epidemic. The Hill lost quite a few good young men.
There was the Doherty family, Doc and Annamae. They had a whole bunch of kids. Doc was raised in St. Agatha's Orphanage up in Rockland County. I met them there at a reunion years ago. My wife at that time, had lived at the orphanage also. One of their kids, a beautiful little boy, had a very large head. Not realizing that he had a serious medical condition, we nicknamed him Johnny Pineapple. When I asked Doc how was Johnny doing he told me that he had passed. I was heartbroken, he was such a happy good looking little boy. Doc drove a bus for the Fifth Ave. and he was very active in the St. Agatha's Alunmni Assoc.
There was an older lady, her name was Mrs. Krasner. She was always walking her dog. I couldn't tell you his name but he was one of those Benji type of dogs.
I hope I spell their name correctly but there was the Detarjanni twins. They were also in my class. Their dad was a professor at one of the colleges and I must say he did have a very professorial look about him. He was a tall but stooped gent with a cane and he always had a book under his arm. The Belmar brothers were there. I'm not sure of the older brothers name but the younger guy was Ephron. I believe he became a priest. Carmen Alfafaro was there. Her family lived across the street in 517 but Carmen lived on this side of the  street. She had a Chow dog and they are known for their purple tongue. Naturally we always asked her to make the dog show us his tongue. The Larkin brothers were there,too, Donald and John. They were the only ones in the neighborhood who knew how to play Hurly and they were always over at Annunciation park practicing. No one else in the neighborhood had a Hurly stick to play along with them. Jimmy Yepes and John Lopez were there, too. They were some of the younger guys and they hung out with the likes of Vinny Murry, Jimmy Cavanaugh, The Joker, (Jimmy Harkin) and Paddy Coughlin and there was a guy called Baby.  As I write this more names are coming to me, Peter Henriquez,  Billy Blake, the Stacks, Tommy Rochford, Snoggy McCabe, the Coogans, John Mulrane, Ray Barrett, Robbie Broderick, John Mugan, Bernie Harrigan. Were they the Royal Knights?
Back to 135th St. I'm running out of memory, how about Eddie Sanchez? He was there, and last I recall he was engaged to Patsy Broderick from 501W134th.
There were two commercial buildings at the bottom of 135th on that side, a big garage and an abandoned beautiful white brick building. Only recently did I learn that building was originally built as a movie theater and it was called the Claremont Theater. It was built in 1914 and the first movies it showed were silent movies. No, I didn't see them. My dad kept the last car he owned in the garage that was just up from the Claremont. You could drive your car onto an elevator and go up to the second of third floor with it. The elevator was pretty primitives in that there was no buttons to push, just a cable you pulled to signal either floor. There were very few safety features and you could actually drive your car into the elevator shaft with no elevator waiting for you. A real quick way to get downstairs. Way back then he paid $15 a month to keep the car there. When money got tight he had to give up the garage. Wouldn't you know it, but when he did that, the city just introduced alternate side parking. The fine for not moving your car was $15. After two tickets he decided to junk the car and the junkie paid him $15. I was 16 at the time and wanted to buy the car from him. The car was a 1937 Packard and it was a big car, built like a tank. When it was new it sold for $625. He refused to sell it to me saying, "no son of mine is going to drive an old heap like that". Sure, Dad, I can walk instead. Anyway, I was too young, you had to be 17 to get your license.
Enough of my ramblings for now. My next endeavor will be the north side of 135th from 511 down to B'way. As always, any comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome. If you don't want to comment on this blogsite my address is tomyread@aol.com  Also don't forget the site vpike.com where you can see what the neighborhood looks like today. Not much has changed.