MacDonough Place, in the Bronx, is a service road which feeds into the New England thruway or I95 as it is called. Our house at 1520 MacDonough Place was 'across' the street from the New England thruway. Before the highway was a hill that led up to it. This slope was all green grass and covered in dandelions all spring and summer long. One of my childhood memories is sitting on our stoop and watching elderly women and men gather the dandelions in paper bags. They would pull and pluck for hours filling their bags with these weeds. I would sit there and wonder what the heck are they going to do with those flowers?
One of these pluckers happened to be a grandparent of a friend who lived on my 'block'. She told me that her Grandfather made wine from the flowers. This satisfied the curiosity of a 12 year old and I never wondered again. In fact I had never even thought of it again until recently. The dandelions that are now popping up all over our CT landscape brought this memory back.
Country Club was a great neighborhood to grow up in and is still a beautiful area to this day. I visit frequently since my son is at SUNY Maritime in Throggs Neck. The area was mainly filled with Italian and Irish families. Most, if not all, of our parents were immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Poland and Puerto Rico. Many of my friends were bilingual and when I would 'call' for them I would hear them speaking to their parents in languages I had no concept of. It fascinated me.
The neighborhood was bordered by Pelham Bay Park, for us, the forbidden fruit. PBP, with it's 2700 acres, is the largest park in NYC. My father forbade us from entering the park, he was aware of the danger that may a wait us there. I never even crossed Middletown Rd. to walk on that part of the sidewalk for fear of the boogie man that might be waiting for me behind the wall. It was the seventies and drugs and race issues were rampant and my parents feared for us. Part of the reason as to why they moved us out of the Bronx and up to Connecticut.
Rice Stadium was in Pelham Bay Park and if I was in the park with a school activity that's where we hung out. I do remember seeing old needles and burnt spoons and bottle caps in the park which was proof enough that my parents fears were valid. But with school, the park was a great adventure. The Italian men playing boccie ball and screaming at the ball in Italian always cracked me up. There was always a few card games being played and a few softball games going on. PS71 and PS14 would have a field day at the park in the spring and we would compete against each other in relay races and sprints. I always did well thanks to my long lanky legs, wish I could run like that today. We got blue ribbons for our efforts and a box lunch. My mom would walk the one block down to the park with Maureen, the baby at the time, to watch us compete.
Just recently I was down in the Bronx and drove by the park. I decided to pull over, sit and gaze. The park was filled to capacity. Families picnicking, softball games, kids on bikes, teens fist pumping and blasting their music and, sweetly, an elderly couple just strolling by holding hands. Good to see all is alive and well in Country Club.
