Every once in a while, I discover that somebody got to this blog by "googling," searching the web for mentions of BPG, Bell Park Gardens. So far, none of the visitors has left a message, and I'm so curious as to who they may be.
Are these searchers young people, checking BPG out as a home? Or are they former residents looking for old friends?
I lived there from the last day in 1949 until summer 1962. It, all three apartments we rented over the close to thirteen years, was the first home I ever could remember. I was just an infant when we moved there. OK, now you know my age.
In all honesty, it was a wonderful place to grow up in. Everything was new and friendly. The families were basically the same age and so were most of the children. In the fifties, there were few cars, so we were able to use the parking lots for bicycles and roller skates. Tricycles stayed on the sidewalks. There were lots of playgrounds. Every building, or almost every, had washers and dryers. When weather permitted we hung the laundry to dry on communal lines. Yes, there were areas set aside for hanging the wash. The families that lived in the five room duplexes didn't need it, since they had back doors and "private" yards, where they could set up their own clothes lines.
Every summer there was a community day camp. I loved going. It ended when my sister was little, because there just weren't enough kids. Most families had two, around the ages of me and my brother, but very few had a third of my sister's age. And even fewer had some younger than her.
I went to PS 46, which was very crowded. We didn't need the lunchroom which was sometimes used as a classroom, since we all lived nearby. Classes were divided according to level, so forty good, ok, excellent students had no problems in one room with one teacher. The slower classes had fewer kids.
I always wanted to give my own kids a similar life, and that's one of the reasons I'm happy to have raised them in Shiloh. A yishuv in Israel is as similar as one can find. Yes, really.
For those curious, Linda and I have been emailing.
ReplyDeleteMuse:
ReplyDeleteI'd really enjoy seeing your extended thoughts and feelings, if you were to return to your old neighborhood and look around. Good stuff.
hi Muse...sorry I am late, just found this page. I too grew up in Bell Park Gardens. I am a bit younger than you, but my brother is around your age. Funny this is, I moved back to BPG once it went private and have been living here for 15.5 yrs, since 1990. Ask me if you have any questions about the old neighborhood. Nice to meet a fellow BPG'er. Take care...Binah
ReplyDeleteIf you were a friend of Richard's in the '50's and early '60's we were there at the same time and place. So, please who are you?
ReplyDeletecontact me at shilohmuse@yahoo.com
and my parents do remember yours
ReplyDeletel just left a messag. It cam up anonymous. Not my itent.
ReplyDeleteLee eisenberg
leedeisenberg@yahooo.com
there's something wrong with the address according to yahoo.
ReplyDeleteI came on this blog by accident. Does anyone remember the Horowitz family? We lived on 218th St near 73rd until 1956.
ReplyDeleterhorow4770@aol.com
I realize that your comment was quite some time ago but, if you see this, I want to know if you were inquiring about Cliff and Pearl Horowitz. We grew up as family and even though they and my parents are gone, we grown children are still in touch. Beth Adams (Friedman back then.)
DeleteI sent you a letter. If I get more info, I'll ask my mother. She knew everyone.
ReplyDeleteI too lived in Bell Park Gardens... I note the last post here was in 2005 so I expect this will "sit"... The Fried family. Sol, Ida, Joel, Suzanne, Richard... 1950's-197?, I was never good at dates... I remember Mrs. Innerfiled at PS 46, walking to JHS 74, Colony Card Shop, Yogi's candy store, Nicholes, Tom McCann shoes, the amazing bakery, Fuddermans deli.....
ReplyDeleteJoel, Mrs. Innerfield was the awful 6th grade teacher who gave me a zero on a book report, because she claimed that the book was "too hard for a sixth grader to have read." But I did read the book, Minister of Death by Quenton Renolds.
ReplyDeleteBatya,
ReplyDeleteWhat year did you have Innerfield? I was in her class 60/61
Steve Arkin
Steve, that's when I was there. I was then Beth Spiegelman.
ReplyDeleteIm looking to buy an apartment in bell park garden. When this came to my ipad please if any of you still leave there and you hear about any 3 bedroom let me know. azemalbani@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I haven't lived there for over half a century.
ReplyDeleteMy first address in Bayside was 223-15 69th Avenue. The family moved there from Brooklyn in 1950. A year or so later, we moved to 64-48 218th Street. My house was directly across the street from the front door of P.S. 46. I remember Bell Gardens was under construction and if I stood on the font porch and looked to the right, I could see 67th Avenue and the apartments in Bell Gardens. I remember vividly playing stickball and punch ball in the playground at P.S. 46. Check out the video at Hyperlink to A Short Tour of Bayside
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/CNFRpK2d4_k
Bob Casale email bufbob@juno.com
Bob, thanks for writing. Bell Park Gardens was finished by 1950, because we moved in Dec. 31, 1949. I do remember a different garden apt development next to us being built. Maybe it was Oakland Gardens. And of course I remember the LIE being constructed.
ReplyDeleteWe first moved to Bell Park Gardens in 1955, where I immediately started Kindergarten at PS 46. Now I am dating myself. We lived on 67 th avenue and 218 th street right opposite the school. So I never ate in the lunchroom. My memories include playing stoop ball, stick ball, hand ball, down hill sleigh riding at the golf course (now houses, I believe) and running through the sprinklers on a hot summer day. I also remember in the summer the school gym being open and table tennis and a host of games were setup. They also showed movies in the auditorium. It was a great place to grow up. In 1964 when I was 14 my mother died and we moved out of Bell Park Gardens shortly thereafter.
ReplyDeleteHoward email Howard@FCC1.biz
Howard nice to hear from you. I may have been a year ahead of you in PS 46 unless you moved to BPG in the middle of the year.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Nice to know so many of us havr great memories
ReplyDeleteI lived in Hollis Court on 215th Street between 69th and 73rd Ave from 1953 to 1972 I was born in Kew Gardens in 1952. I found this group while searching for mentions of Yogi's Candy Store. I'm surprised that I found virtually no mention of the place except for here. I went to PS 205, JHS 74 and Francis Lewis HS. Yes it was a great place to grow up in that period. The streets were swarming with Baby Boomers. All the great street games, punchball especially, with Spaldeesns and Pensy(?)Pinkies. I used to ride my bike to the World's Fair In Flushing during its 1964-65 run. One of my first jobs was at Food Fair, just down the block. Daitch Shopwell was the other supermarket across the street. I remember all the stores there. Whelans, Colony Card Shop, Hamburger Express (with trains), Nichols 5 & 10, Thom McCann, and that great bakery..what was its name?
ReplyDeleteAdrian's!
DeleteSuch memories. You're my brother's age, but he went to PS 46. And you're a year older than a cousin who went to PS 205. There are a couple of facebook groups that share memories of Bayside.
ReplyDeleteWe moved in 1962, but for me BPG was the best of my childhood.
My brother Richard, sister Suzanne and I lived there until I was drafter in 1968. From what I hear it "aint our BPG" anymore, but how could it now leave a "forever" impression... think I will drive by this summer when back in the NE..
ReplyDeleteI must visit again next time I'm in NY. It was a wonderful place to grow up in, at least way back when....
ReplyDeletehello to gary schaker. read your post. I too lived in hollis court 215th between 69th and 73rd. my family lived there from 1970 until 1974. my twin sister and I,although we were very young, remember that time as the best time of our lives as children. The name of the bakery was Adrians. As kids my father would walk us there to get black & white cookies. I remember key food and my twin sister once broke the storefront window at the 5 and dime. I remember the wonderful summer nights when all the wonderful neighbors in the court would play cards, have coffee, tables set up, kids playing til late into the night while the adults enjoyed themselves and you could go in and out of each others apts. My father "big Al the Kiddies Pal" would walk all of us to Baskin Robbins in the evenings for ice cream. we all had the same kind of bikes and rode them around and around that court. In the heat of those summer days, we would set up those cheap plastic pools and "pool hop".. I went to ps 205 and walked the whole way...not like today where the school bus stops at every corner. What a treat it was to go to the deli on the corner for knishs and the candy store down on the other corner for egg creams...I am almost 50yrs. old and remember the great feelings of that neighborhood back then. My mother bought us our winter coats(snorklers with the orange color inside the jacket) and our Danskin closes at the store on 73rd halfway down the block between deli and candy store. and when done shopping we went to the pizza parlor just around the corner of 73rd and bell blvd. and your mention of the pink spaldine, that and a penny and we had fun for hours hitting that penny. I know I was just a little girl, but my twin sister and I loved it there and were so happy as kids there. thanks for your post. it made me feel proud to post mine...my email is laneparke3@gmail.com. maybe we could share more hollis court memories about the people who were there back then. tx again. Helane Levy
ReplyDeleteI was just speaking with a friend about the memorable lime rickeys at Yogi's and found this blog about Bell Park Gardens. I knew the area as Windsor Park. Is it that Bell Park Gardens was east of Bell Boulevard and Windsor Park was west of Bell? I recall when PS 205 was built, and we had those brand new handball and basketball courts. What an event! and what a wonderful addition to a great neighborhood, as others have observed. Paul Bergman (from Hollis Hills; Van Buren class of '60)
ReplyDeleteYes, BPG is east of Bell Blvd. PS 205 was opened around 1954 possibly or earlier. I had forgotten that Van Buren was the high school before Francis Lewis.
ReplyDeleteHi all,
ReplyDeletea friend in L.A. found a bunch of photos of BPG and sent them to me..on line links, of course. My older brother Joel posted here a few years ago. I went to P.S. 46, JHS 74 and Francis Lewis H.School. I loved Yogi's candy store! The bakery on 73rd avenue was Adrian's!! Loved their fresh rye bread, challah on Fridays, charlotte russe's etc!
We lived in two places there. First was on 67th avenue then moved to 218-27 68th avenue? In the circle near the flagpole area..
We lived there from about 1953 until our parents moved away, in 1991, to of course, Florida, though my mom disliked it, her health needed no more snow and cold.
I live in the bay area of California since 1978. Hi to all
Suzanne
I"m glad to see your comments. The only people from BPG of the 1950's I'm still in touch with are Connie Zalk, who's a relative, Lisa Elian and Margie Gruen. You can email me at shilohmuse@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteHi... moved to BPG in 1949 when I was 4. Lived at 220-39 73rd until I went away to college. Mr. McNally principal PS 46, Mr. Kostiner princ.at 74, then was first class at Francis Lewis. Member of SAR. Still remember fresh rye from Adrian's! Playing ball and picnics in Alley Pond Park. Moved to Maine after NYC and still there!
ReplyDeleteWe moved in around the same time, but you're a few years older. I miss that rye and pumpernickel bread. Nothing like it.
ReplyDelete