You can tear a building down, but you can’t erase a memory. Living Colour
Been meaning to put these photographs (see below) up for several friends and their families who lived for two generations or more in these buildings at and near the southwest corner on York Avenue and 83rd Street. It made me blue seeing these homes go down in one swoop and vanish nine years ago in 2005.
A fond memory of mine.
It’s 1964; I see Mrs. Hauser with a kerchief wrapped around her head that’s full of small curlers. She’s leaning out her fourth floor window with her arms crossed over a throw pillow. I caught sight of her as I passed the Bellinger house on the other side of 83rd Street and looked up when she called my name. We start a conversation, on my side I slide in a hello to one of my favorite local football catch partners, Leo Claiborne leaning on the railing at the top of his stoop watching the girls go by with a sly smile on his face. I lift my head and shout, “Goodbye!” to Mrs. Hauser after passing Slayton’s Cleaners on the corner and run across the avenue as the yellow light is about to go red. Behind me I hear Mrs. Hauser’s drifting voice, “Tommy, say hello to your grandmother!”
My love goes out to the families I remember so well, the Hausers, Carmens, DiVitas and Mulherns.
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Thomas’s Blog: Yorkville Stoops To Nuts
