Memoirs Of A Bronx Kid

Delightful memoirs of a girl growing up in the Bronx, between the years 1938-1950's, by Tina O'Leary

"Still known as "Baby", although a younger brother has come along, young Charyn makes pocket money delivering eggs, belongs to a group of twelve-year-old wannabe gangsters who meet in a soda shop run by an ex-con, and spends afternoons telling stories to the adoring wife of a wealthy Russian emigre. He becomes famous for his black-and-tans - a concoction of coffee ice cream, seltzer, milk, chocolate sauce, crushed pecans, and "a touch of bitterness that may have been the Bronx". So famous, indeed, that he walks away the winner of an annual black-and-tan contest sponsored by the real-life top gangster, called "The Little Man", Meyer Lansky."--BOOK JACKET.

Funny and poignant memories of growing up Italian in the Bronx in the '50s and '60s.

"A down-to-earth, inspiring book about the American promise fulfilled." —President Bill Clinton "Fascinating . . . . Made me wish I had been born in the Bronx." —Barbara Walters A touching and provocative collection of memories that evoke the history of one of America's most influential boroughs—the Bronx—through some of its many success stories The vivid oral histories in Arlene Alda's Just Kids from the Bronx reveal what it was like to grow up in the place that bred the influencers in just about every field of endeavor today. The Bronx is where Michael Kay, the New York Yankees' play-by-play broadcaster, first experienced baseball, where J. Crew's CEO Millard (Mickey) Drexler found his ambition, where Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dava Sobel fell in love with science early on and where music-making inspired hip hop's Grandmaster Melle Mel to change the world of music forever. The parks, the pick-up games, the tough and tender mothers, the politics, the gangs, the food—for people who grew up in the Bronx, childhood recollections are fresh. Arlene Alda's own Bronx memories were a jumping-off point from which to reminisce with a nun, a police officer, an urban planner, and with Al Pacino, Mary Higgins Clark, Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Maira Kalman, Bobby Bonilla, and many other leading artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs—experiences spanning six decades of Bronx living. Alda then arranged these pieces of the past, from looking for violets along the banks of the Bronx River to the wake-up calls from teachers who recognized potential, into one great collective story, a film-like portrait of the Bronx from the early twentieth century until today.

We played stickball games outside Beekman's candy store, as young teenagers, almost every day of the week, from spring until the first snowflake fell. A line drive off Beekman's store window brought him flying out the front door, white apron strings trailing behind him. A broomstick might fly from a batter's hands and rocket toward Beekman's front windows. Unofficial records and fading memories indicate that although Mr. Beekman may have lost his breath on several occasions during our stickball games, he never lost a window. In this engaging memoir, author Marty Toohey paints a vibrant portrait of growing up in the Bronx during the 1930s and 40s. In the Bronx's cultural melting pot, Toohey and his friends delighted in the simple pleasures of life. Toohey shares his memories of roasting stolen potatoes or "mickies" in an empty lot on 167th Street, of the milkman's horse tapping an early morning cadence on the cobblestones of Fulton Avenue, and of hiding from the nuns at St. Augustine's Church, known as the "Cathedral of the Bronx." Brimming with the simple charm of the past, Bronx Boy is rich with details, transporting its readers into a forgotten time of innocence.

Although the streets of the Bronx in New York were not paved with gold, the 1940s and 1950s were the golden years for author Eugene Racond. In this personal memoir, he shares his experiences and what it was like growing up in that era in this special borough. Now in his mid-seventies, Racond chronicles his life from childhood to adolescence. Written with humor and heart, Stickball and Egg Creams provides a glimpse into this special time in America. From vacations in the Jewish Catskills, to his escapades sneaking cigarettes, excursions to Coney Island, and stickball games with friends, this narrative provides a nostalgic look at the 1940s and '50s. In addition, Racond recounts his family's hardships in Poland and Russia, their arrival from Europe, and their strong will to succeed in the United States. Racond shares his oftentimes humorous views on modern society and politics in Stickball and Egg Creams. But more than anything, this heartwarming memoir portrays the feeling that growing up in the Bronx was something to be proud of.

My Play Ground-The Bronx: My Memoirs is the autobiography of Anthony F. Marano, a baby boomer born and raised in New York City who shares his poignant recollections of the good times including long-forgotten television shows, street games, amusement parks, movies, music, and much more. Marano grew up during the 1940s in Country Club Spencer Estates in the midst of the Bronx as a member of a group of boys fondly nicknamed "the Four Amigos." Marano's brother Frank, their next-door neighbor Willie Jr., and their friend John, also known as Butchie, were thick as thieves during both good times and bad. Marano begins retelling his life story with chapters about his rambunctious childhood that include entertaining tales about cap guns with ammunition that could be purchased at any candy store; his Remington truck bike, black with chrome trim, found next to the Christmas tree in 1956; and his first job as a soda jerk. This delightful collection of anecdotes will spark a desire in baby boomers everywhere to reflect warmheartedly on the joys of their own childhoods, their old neighborhoods, and the young friends who were once such an important part of their young lives.

The Rat That Got Away is an inspiring story of one man's odyssey from the streets of the Bronx to a life as a professional athlete and banker in Europe, but it is also provides a unique vantage point on the history of the Bronx and sheds new light on a neglected period in American urban history. Allen Jones grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx at a time--the 1950s--when that neighborhood was a place of optimism and hope for upwardly mobile Black and Latino families. Brought up in a two-parent household, with many neighborhood mentors, Jones led an almost charmed life as a budding basketball star until his teen years, when his once peaceful neighborhood was torn by job losses, white flight, and a crippling drug epidemic. Drawn into the heroin trade, first as a user, then as a dealer, Jones spent four months on Rikers Island, where he experienced a crisis of conscience and a determination to turn his life around. Sent to a New England prep school upon his release, Jones used his basketball skills and street smarts to forge a life outside the Bronx, first as a college athlete in the South, then as a professional basketball player, radio personality, and banker in Europe. A brilliant storyteller with a gift for dialogue, Jones brings Bronx streets and housing projects to life as places of possibility as well as tragedy, where racism and economic hardship never completely suppressed the resilient spirit of its residents. A book that will change the way people view the South Bronx.