April 28, 2006
That's SNOW, not JOE.
Jeff Trevas
[To contact Jeff Trevas, click here]


April 27, 2006
House and Garden Tour 2006
    You are invited to participate in the Eighth House and Garden Tour sponsored by the Richmond Hill Chapter of the Friends of the Queens Library on Sunday, May 21, 2006. This is the Friends' major fundraiser each year. Proceeds from the Tour supplement existing and fund new services and programs at the local branch.
    Six residences will be open to the public between the hours of 12 noon and 4 pm. The tour is self-guided and ticket holders can visit any or all of the homes at their own leisure. You will see beautifully preserved, meticulously restored or tastefully updated exteriors and interiors as well as private gardens in Spring bloom. You will enjoy majestic staircases, stained glass windows, ornate fireplace mantels, pocket doors, inlaid floors, rare bluestone sidewalks, period antiques and furnishings and eclectic personal art collections.
    Most homes are within a moderate walking distance of each other while one is in Glendale but easily reachable by car of Q55 Myrtle Avenue bus. Ticket holders will receive a guidebook with the location and description and of each house accompanied by a sketch by Richmond Hill architect Ivan Mrakovcic.
    Tickets are $15 each if purchased in advance and $20 on the day of the tour at the local branch. Tickets can now be obtained at the Richmond Hill Branch located at 118-14 Hillside Avenue, Richmond Hill NY 11418 during regular business hours and also on the day of tour.
    Ticket mail orders are also now being accepted. Make your checks payable to Queens Library and mail your order to:
        House and Garden Tour
        c/o 86-39 108th Street
        Richmond Hill NY 11418.
Please indicate the number of tickets being ordered and the guidebooks will be mailed about a week before the tour date.
    Light refreshments and bathroom facilities will also be available at the branch library during tour hours.
    Even further information can be found at www.richmondhillny.com/Library/FRHL.html
Philip Skabeikis
For the Friends of the Richmond Hill Library
[To contact Philip Skabeikis, click here]


I'm Moving On
April 27, 2006
Click on thumbnail to enlarge.
Editor's Note:  It's been a great 6 years here at Old Kew Gardens [.com], but I have decided to leave here and accept a new position as George Bush's press secretary. Thanks to all of you for your loyal support. See you on the tube.


April 26, 2006
The Kew Gardens Spring Into Summer Art and Crafts Show
To be held: Sunday, June 4, 2006, 11:00 - 6:00pm
(Rain Date June 11th)
    The Kew Gardens Improvement Association (KGIA) is currently recruiting Artists and Crafters who would like an opportunity to sell their work at our neighborhood Community Day
    $35 a space, charitable donation
    On Sunday June 4 (rain date June 11) the KGIA will be sponsoring its first annual Spring Art and Crafts Show from 11:00 ~ 6:00pm. This show will be held outdoors (there are 25 spaces) in the Kew Gardens LIRR north parking lot and it is part of a full neighborhood event, the Kew Gardens Spring Into Summer Community Day.
    The mission of this day is to encourage a sense of community spirit and to provide a family day while fundraising for beautification of Kew Gardens. It will include art clinics, games, entertainment, demonstrations, educational activities and more. We expect that it will be well attended as we will be publicizing in the neighborhood newspapers as well as on posters in several Queens communities.
    We are currently recruiting artists and crafters to participate in our Spring Art and Crafts Show. The cost of each space (7' X 3', please bring your own table) will be a $35 tax deductible donation to Jamaica Hospital's Pediatric Unit. If you are interested in funding out more information about this exciting opportunity, please contact Carol Lacks (718) 847-2045.
Carol Lacks
[To contact Carol Lacks, click here]


April 26, 2006
    David Carp asks who the magician was. Her name was Dell O'Dell. David: Google Dell O'Dell. Some great sites will bring back the details and memories of all the neat things she did for the kids. Remember the little dancing feet? Remember the pencil she instantly attached to a button hole on your shirt that was "impossible" to remove? Do you remember that the shirts boys wore to school then always had button holes? The show we saw would have been in 1943 or 1944. Among many other things, my mother, Mildred Rogers, was President of the PTA during the War years and arranged the show with Dell O'Dell. They had remained friends since their days in Vaudeville.
    I was in the PS99 Tonette Band too. It was, I believe, for sixth graders who couldn't make orchestra. I still have the tonette and can still do a fair rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". But that was and remains the sum total of my musical accomplishments.
Jay Rogers
[To contact Jay Rogers, click here]


April 25, 2006
My memories of K.G are still emerging. There were a couple of events I now recall at P.S. 99, one a magic show in the school auditorium featuring a great female magician -- I don't remember her name but she was really terrific. Does anyone else remember this? Another very striking event was a Russian cultural festival held in the school basement, probably around 1944. Books and craft items were sold there to raise money for the Russian War Relief. (How odd that three or four years down the road the Cold War would begin, and we would deny our warm and friendly feelings for the Russian people!)
David Carp



Kew Gardens Civic Association Web Site
April 24, 2006
Editor's Note:  The Kew Gardens Civic Association now has its own web site which you can access by clicking on the following link.
http://www.kewgardenscivic.org/


April 24, 2006
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The attached photo, dated Fall 1944, shows (l. to r.) my brother Joel Carp, my mother Helen Carp, my grandfather (her father) Joseph Goldstein, and myself. (My mother's original family name, Mariansky, was changed to Goldstein by an Ellis Island immigration clerk in the 1880s who couldn't spell the name.
David Carp



April 24, 2006
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Dear Joe,
Here are two more pictures I took from an old family album after verifying that they were taken in front of our apartment in Dale Gardens. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was able to restore them to their original appearance on my scanning device. The children in the first photo, taken in spring 1943, are (r. to l.) me, my brother Joel and most likely Adele Mintz, who lived a few doors to the right on the same side of the complex. The second photo, taken a year later, features a family gathering consisting of (l.to r.) my great uncle Will Goldstone, my brother Joel, my uncle Herman Rottenberg, my third cousin Alan Jay Pakula (who was about 17 when this picture was taken and later became famous as a great Hollywood producer/director), his father Paul Pakula, and my great uncle (his uncle) Nathaniel Golding.
    A few more memories of my Kew Gardens days (1943 to 1946):
    Playing in a tonette band in P.S. 99. (A tonette was a plastic whistle-flute similar to a recorder and had a range of slighly more than one octive.) I remember endlessly rehearsing two pieces by Percy Grainger -- Amaryllis and Country Gardens, which we played in a concert in the school auditorium... Being sent to the school nurse when my classroom teacher panicked after noticing my eyes were red and puffy. The nurse, unable to determine the nature of the disorder and obviously afraid I would start a classroom epidemic, telephoned my mother and sent me home. (A few years later, after I moved to Syracuse and was tested for allergies, I found out that the culprit was giant ragweed, a huge, ugly weed that flourished in abundance in the vacant lots that I used to cross every day on the way to school.)... Our trips on the streetcar to Jamaica for shopping and one time to attend the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, where after the show ended, we encountered a clown in the aisle heading to his dressing room. My father, stopping him, asked excitedly "Aren't you Emmett Kelly?" He and Dad chatted for several minutes, and on the way home Dad explained how lucky we were to meet such a famous person...Taking the Long Island Railroad and then the Subway to uptown Manhattan, accompanied by my mother, where I attended classes at the Juilliard School Preparatory Division every Saturday (in the original building near Riverside Church). ...I later became quite angry at my parents for moving the family to Syracuse because I knew it would curtail my musical development. (I was able to partially compensate for it by taking piano lessons with a jazz pianist who had a small following in Central New York but was unknown elsewhere. Many years later, I minored in music at Cornell and finally got a master's degree in musical composition at San Francisco State University in 1974. During the intervening years, I had to settle for a succession of non-music-related jobs but was able to squeeze out a couple of string quartets and small symphonies over a long period of time. Now I am all set to enter the 21st century with my state-of-the-art MIDI studio in my home in Desert Hot Springs.)
David Carp



April 22, 2006
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    Your site is amazing, incredibly beautiful, and historicly right on !! Many kudos to your fantasic work... I was born on Nov. 1, 1946 @ Kew Gardens Hospital...I grew up in Kew Gardens and attended kindergarten @ PS 99 in 1951-1952...(no pic) Kew Gardens in the 50's was a kid's wonderland with still many vacant lots and parks for a kid to revel. I have attached a few photos which I hope that you find interesting. Attached Photos.
    #1 Pic...A baby snapshot taken around 1946 on Austin St & Lefferts Blvd....Notice that Developement had yet to take place.
    #2 Pic Shows a 2 year old chip on Lefferts Blvd. circa 1948, probably on a Sunday Morning...On my left was Mildred Rogers Ballet Studio, followed by Eddie's Dellie, Mr B's 5&10 Store, Charlie's Chinese Laundry, Chuck's TV Repair, & The Corner IGA Grocery Mart. Across the street on your left was the corner Rexall Pharmacy, followed by Manny's Shoe Repair and then the old Austin Movie Theater..At the top of the LIRR overpass was The Old Hoffbrau. To your right side of the street on the corner was always a Women's Boutique, followed by Frank's Barber Shop & the newspaper stand/store. Infamously to the right of that far right corner on Austin St. was the neighborhood Bar..".The Old Bailey"....It was two doors down that a notorious crime made nation wide Headlines w/ the slaying of Kitty Genovese. I remember as a youngster neighbors recalling hearing her screams in the wee hours of the morning!
    #3 Pic Shows myself with wife and pets @ Fort Funston, just south Of San Francisco in 2005.
    To sum up the above ....I enjoyed a wonderful childhood in Kew Gardens thru the 1950's & early 60's. I attended Our Lady of The Cenacle Parochial School, Archbishop Molloy H.S., & Fordham College.. My life has been very blessed and I am so proud to claim Kew Gardens as my home.
    I would like to add thanks to all my old friends and neighbors..Jimmy & Bobby Blake,, Peter and Heather Walsh, The Wager Family, & 100 others.. Hi Philomena Donnelly (first girlfriend...Love you always..)
Also thanks and hello to The Wager Family w/ mother Helen & daughters Margaret and Susan, Michael Lo Cascio,Jeffrey Manfredi & Steven Kelly.All were neighbors and great childhood friends.I am hoping to get some responses..everybody knew chip krumenaker back then! I am attaching two more scans that you may not use but might find interesting.
    Thanks for all your terrific work!
Frank Krumenaker (aka chip)


[Editor's Note:  Chip's fourth black and white photograph looks like it was taken on Lefferts Boulevard looking north from Austin Street. Thank you, Chip.]


Bob Sheppard
April 22, 2006
Editor's Note:  Until I read the following "Time Out - New York" article today, I had no idea that New York Yankees public address announcer, Bob Sheppard, had lived in Kew Gardens. Thanks to Richmond Hill Historical Society president,Nancy Cataldi, for the heads up.
Click here to read the full story.


April 19, 2006
    This website has become �my addiction.� I lived in Kew Gardens from 1979 to 2005, I currently live upstate in Red Hook, NY (Dutchess County) and my children (now adults) have chosen to still live in Kew Gardens � excellent! You can count on me to visit the website several times a week � it�s absolutely fascinating and a great acknowledgment to one of the best places to live in New York City. Although I did not attend PS 99 (I attended PS 87 in Manhattan), I did serve on the PS 99 Parents Association during the 80�s for several years. My children graduated from PS 99.
    I was very excited to see �us� on Law and Order CI last Sunday, but what was up with Hastings-on-Hudson?!?!? I don�t think so! Well, I guess imitation is flattery, but what would have been nice to actually let Kew Gardens be credited?
    I will look through my photos and post some interesting ones that I have of the neighborhood soon.
    Hello to Peggy and Louie Flefleh � it was great to see you both on the website!
Susan (Spivack) Simon
[To contact Susan (Spivack) Simon, click here]


April 16, 2006
    You web site is amazing. I lived in KG from 1951 until 1967 � ages 4 to 18. My dad had a business there on the bridge over the LIRR. It was a luncheonette and later named �Ray�s Village Fountain.� It was next to Conti�s barber shop where as I kid I received numerous bad haircuts. Conti was famous for taking stripped-to-waist sponge baths in the front window of his shop. There are many pictures of �the bridge� on your site � just incredible to see them. My dad sold the business in 1963-64 � got too much for him.
    We moved to Suffolk Co. and I in 1978 I settled in Virginia. I�ve never been back to KG but since I�ve discovered your web site � just two days ago � I think I�ve relived a lot of childhood memories. Many thanks.
Kevin Gordon
Hamilton, Virginia



Poetry and Music at Linda's Organic
April 15, 2006
Hi Joe----just to let you know: the next poetry and music show will be held at Linda's Organic at 81-22 Lefferts Blvd. on Earth Day, Saturday April 22nd, beginning at 7:30 P.M.
Aaron Adler
[To contact Aaron Adler, click here]


April 15, 2006
    Does anyone know about the large apartment building being built behind the Homestead building? Are any other buildings being built in Kew Gardens that are replacing homes?
    Please contact me at
Jeremy Rosenberg


April 14, 2006
Hello,
Very strange to think someone is looking for me. Hello Ernie, I remember you well, Howie too,and most of the gang. I am alive and well in Virginia.
Warm Regards.
Kevin Gordon



Special Event at Maple Grove Cemetery
Quilting Stories of African American Heritage
Saturday, April 29. 2006 at 2 p.m.
(Rain-date April 30th)
Sponsored by: The Honorable Helen Marshall and The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center
    The Friends of Maple Grove will sponsor an afternoon of tribute to African American Heritage in a series of programs at the entrance gate of Maple Grove Cemetery, located at: 83-15 Kew Gardens Road at the top of Lefferts Boulevard in Kew Gardens, Queens.
    Among the events will be a hands on Quilting Project, sponsored by the Quilt-N-Queens Guild of Jamaica, demonstrating the history of the craft of quilt making, as well as a hands on mini quilting project for everyone to participate in and take home. A quilt that will hang in the new center being constructed in Maple Grove will serve as a group project of the day's participants.
    A walking tour will also take place on the hour, led by historians Nancy Cataldi and Carl Ballenas of the Richmond Hill Historical Society. They will talk about the notable African Americans buried in Maple Grove, such as early settlers and activists in early Jamaica, as well as authors and musicians. Some of the people included in the tour will be Millie Tunnell 111 year old former slave who served George Washington, Lavern Baker 1950�s songstress, George W. Johnson, first African American to record a song, Victoria Earle Matthews author and activist for women And Samuel Cisco who fought for the right to have his children in white only schools.
    There will be book signings by authors of topics that relate to the event.
    Illustrator Hudson Talbott will sign copies of the award winning �SHOW WAY� - a children's book and the story of quilts that once served as secret maps for freedom seeking slaves and is the story of seven generations of girls and women who were QUILTERS and artists and freedom fighters, written by Jacqueline Woodson. Sponsored by JP Morgan Chase Bank
    Authors of:
     - Friends Of Freedom, Underground Railroad In Queens And Long Island and
     - Road To Freedom-The Underground Railroad, New York And Beyond
will also be on hand to sign these two wonderful historical books.
Sponsored by The Queens Historical Society
This event is free to the public.
Refreshments will be served.
Please call 718-847-6070 for further information.
�E� or �F� train to front of train UNION TURNPIKE walk up Kew Gardens Rd. a few blocks to front gate of cemetery.
Nancy Cataldi
President, Richmond Hill Historical Society


April 11, 2006
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The memories of my Kew Gardens years are inseparable from those of World War II. To a small child, the perception of time is very different from that of adults. The four short years that our country was involved in that terrible war seemed to go on forever. Kew Gardens with its large population of newly-arrived refugees fresh from Europe was probably more strongly focused on the War than the rest of America. We all took it very personally My friend Herbert Dahl kept battle campaign maps on his wall to mark the progress of the Allied armies in their onslaught against the Nazis. The residents of Kew Gardens were relieved to be in America and showed their appreciation in symbolic acts of patriotism. They planted their Victory Gardens and recycled their tin cans for scrap metal. I distinctly remember one day, going to Bohacks market with my mother, when she ran into a few other neighborhood friends. They were all standing in a huddle exchanging gossip, with me trapped in the middle, when I heard one of them say, "Do you know Mr. so-and-so, the butcher down the street? Well, he sells black market!" The other women appeared shocked, throwing up their hands and gasping "No!". "What's black market?" I asked my mother. That was the first time I had heard the term.
    Plastics and synthetics had not evolved enough to replace the steel and natural rubber that were needed for the war effort, so our toys were mostly lithographed cardboard sheets (press out, fold on the dotted line, and insert Tab A into Slot A and Tab B into Slot B). One of my favorite playthings was a periscope I assembled myself, made of cardboard with two small mirrors placed at 45-degree angles. I think I had more fun with these do-it-yourself toys than present-day kids have with their automated, hi-tech gadgets, where everything is done for them. When I was ten, my father felt I was old enough to learn how to ride a bicycle and he tried to find a suitable one for me. Because of the restrictions on steel, new bicycles were not available, so Dad found a used one -- a very heavy old klunk from the 1930's that had solid tubing (apparently they hadn't learned to make them out of hollow tubing then). It needed new tires, and when Dad tried to buy them, they weren't available, so he took me to Jamaica, where he bought a pair of used bicycle tires from a bike shop. He then took me out on 126th Street, where I was able to stay upright on the two-wheeler for about a minute before I flipped over and fractured my right arm. Dad took me to Kew Gardens Hospital, where the arm was set in an elbow cast, and I was afraid to venture out on a bicycle again for another two years.
    The standard 1940s outfit for young boys in P.S. 99 consisted of tweeduroy knickers and polo shirts. (Tweeduroy was a blotchy grey-and-white or brown-and-white form of corduroy that was supposed to resemble tweed but looked rather ugly. It appears to have fallen out of favor after WW II, when dungarees [now Levis] became the rage.) I remember that the material in the knickers would rub together and make a whish-whish sound when I walked, so it was impossible for me to sneak around without being heard. In winter, the girls in school all wore kerchiefs and mouton coats. Mouton is a fancy name for sheepskin or lambskin fur (derived from the French word for sheep, as is the English word "mutton". No substitute for mink, the fur soon became frizzy and matted and was quite unflattering, making all the girls look chunky.) During the War, all the P.S. 99 students were issued ID tags attached to nylon thongs, which they had to wear around their necks. I still have mine. Attached is a photocopy of the one that I wore. It was originally white, but has yellowed somewhat with aging.
    If my septuagenarian mind is able to recall any more memories of my Kew Gardens childhood, I'll be happy to send them to you.
Sincerely,
David Carp



April 10, 2006
    I want to commend David Carp for the amazing memories of Kew Gardens he shared with us through his guestbook posting. He is a little younger than I (isn't everyone these days?) but many of the recollections resonated, particularly the effects of World War II on our everyday lives and sense of awareness, and the dedication of PS 99 teachers to rise to the challenges imposed during those tough times.
    Many of us "pensioners" now view with dismay the downward trends in and often abysmal results of America's public school educational system. When I revisited PS 99 several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the deterioration was not apparent there, even though there is an even larger diversity of students than there was in the war years, when most of the immigrants came from occupied Europe.
    Despite the fact that we did not have hi-tech teaching tools, we nevertheless had high expectations -- and the majority of students from PS 99 subsequently went on to college or beyond. Mrs. Goldberg, the math teacher -- indeed THE math teacher -- exemplified this dedication to excellence. I do not remember the Spanish teacher cited by Mr. Carp, but she is another example of creativity and determination, recognized -- at the very least-- by the fact that she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in Spain.
    Success stories like that of David Carp and many other Kew Gardens "kids" may not have been a dime a dozen, as the cliche goes, but they were plentiful. The aspirations of probably 70% of my high school class (FHHS) was to attend college. I contrast this with a recent report in my small town in California where far less than half of the students enroll or eventually get a degree from a four-year university, even though there are many more institutions of higher learning now than a half-century ago. This is not to denigrate the alternatives to college. Our economy is dependent on all forms of work. But despite the "hype" that a college education gets nowadays in terms of earning power and prestige -- even of just plain necessity -- a college degree does not mean as much now as it did then.
    Bravo to Mr. Carp for the milestones in his life -- from his entrepreneurial spirit as a newspaper boy to his mastery of the State Regents exam in Spanish. (Amazing, isn't it, how teachers and students today gripe about taking standardized tests when we in New York grew up with them and accepted them as a measure of our ability to learn subject matter? ) As someone who appreciates more and more the education I received at PS 99, Forest Hills H.S., Wellesley College, and then Northwestern Univ. I enjoy reading of the successes of others from "Old Kew Gardens" and --hope more will sit down at their computer to tell their tales !
Doris Schaffer O'Brien -K.G. '33-'55
PS 99 - Summer '46
FHHS '50
[To contact Doris Schaffer O'Brien, click here]


April 9, 2006
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Imagine my surprise when I suddenly stumbled upon your website, replete with childhood memories! My family, originally from Brooklyn, moved around quite a bit because of my father's career. However, we did live in Kew Gardens from 1943 to 1946, when my father was transferred to Syracuse, New York. I subsequently attended high school there and got my undergraduate degree at Cornell, then moving to Providence, Boston, and back to New York for a short time before finally settling in California in 1963. I am now living in Desert Hot Springs, near Palm Springs, where I am still working parttime at a resort, supplementing my pension.
    I attended P.S. 99 from the second through the fifth grade during World War II and the War was very much a part of our lives there. We lived in a duplex apartment in Dale Gardens (I think the address was 84-10 126th St, if my memory serves me right). At the time, the neighborhood was full of war refugees, mostly Jews who were lucky enough to get out, and their children were my classmates. One of my closest friends was Herbert Dahl (shown in your 1949 graduation photo). Herbert and I shared the same birthdate. His father had been a civil servant in Berlin until the Nazis came in, and the family fled to Holland, eventually making their way here. Herbert used to tell me horror stories of being dragged by his mother across fields in order to escape the bombs that were being dropped behind them. I remember that every time when we were outside playing, he would instinctively duck whenever an airplane flew overhead. A few years later, in the summer of 1953, I returned to my old neighborhood for a visit and found Herbert there, now a student at Dartmouth home for the summer recess. When we were standing outside talking, a plane flew overhead and I remembered how he used to react. This time, he didn't duck; he merely blinked.
    There was a moratorium on most construction during the War, and P.S. 99 was hardly able to hold the large influx of new students. I remember that my morning classes were held in the school auditorium until 11, when we went into a classroom for an hour to allow the teacher to use the blackboard to teach arithmetic. After lunch, we had our class in the school basement. The school made up for the lack of facilities by having a dedicated bunch of teachers and the war-refugee students were more mature than most American children, having been forced to grow up before they were chronologically ready. My 4th-grade teacher, Mrs. DeAzoff, had some ideas about teaching languages to young children that were apparently considered quite revolutionary at the time. She experimented by teaching Spanish for half an hour a day to her own class, and it worked out so well that she organized a Spanish Club the next semester, open to any students who wished to learn the language. We had coloring books in Spanish, with pictures of a Mexican family. Later that year, the Spanish Club put on a musical in the auditorium, with a few songs ("Rolito es Mexicano, si, si", "Amapolo", etc.). An interesting followup to the success of the experiment: when I moved to Syracuse, several years later I studied Spanish in high school. When I graduated, I was awarded the school Spanish medal for having the highest Regents examination grade in that language. However, it didn't stop there; when they checked, they found I had the highest Spanish Regents grade in the entire 25-year history of that school! At Cornell, I passed the Spanish proficiency examination, thereby exempting myself from having to take a college language course. When I revisited Kew Gardens in 1953, I went back to P.S. 99 and found the old principal Mrs. Oliver still there. I asked her if Mrs. DeAzoff was still around, and Mrs. Oliver replied, "I'm sorry you missed her. She's away in Spain right now on a Fullbright fellowship. It seems she got into some trouble here with the Board of Education. They didn't like her ideas about teaching languages to children." I told Mrs. Oliver about my own experience, but it did not seem to register.
    I have a few interesting memories of Dale Gardens: when we moved there in 1943, the interior of the block was like a small park, and an artificial brook ran through the center of it. Later, the water was shut off and the brook was filled in, probably because of maintenance problems. We actually lived in two apartments there. I remember being outside with my mother, who was talking to her friend and neighbor Mrs. Korodi, a Hungarian refugee and sister-in-law of Antol Dorati, the conductor. Then, my mother invited Mrs.Karodi to come inside our apartment. When we opened our front door, Mrs. Karodi's small wire-haired terrier broke away and dashed inside, coming back carrying a live rat in its jaws. Mrs. Karodi, nonplused but angry, pried the rat from the dog's mouth, holding it by the tail, ran back to her house and threw it in a box, which she mailed to the Dale Gardens janitor. We did not hear directly of the janitor's reaction upon receipt of this package, but we were moved posthaste into another unit a few doors down, where we continued to reside until we left the area.
    We indulged our patriotism by planting a small "victory garden" in a roughly 5'x10' patch near the doorway of our apartment. I remember trying to pull up a few tiny, shrivelled carrots from the hard yellow clay soil and proudly plucking some limp, withered heads of lettuce from it. I also have memories of playing marbles with the neighborhood kids in the sand in the middle of the inner courtyard. I also remember when, one day in 1944 or 1945, my younger brother and I were out in front of the apartment playing, when we looked up and watched the terrifying black clouds of a hurricane rolling in. I remember running inside, where my mother was frantically locking the wooden sash-type windows to keep the rain from pouring in. This didn't work, and she had to resort to wadding up towels in the cracks to keep the house dry. The next day, when we went outside, we saw that all the willow trees in the neighborhood had been uprooted. (These trees constituted a large part of the original landscape scheme.)
    I never thought of myself as much of a businessman, but when I was about ten and my brother Joel was about seven, I noticed that most of the people in the area were avid readers of the New York Times; yet in those days there was no delivery service. I got the bright idea of starting one, so I went door-to-door, canvassing the neighbor to see if people would like to have the Sunday Times delivered to their door. When most of them were happy to have this service, we made arrangements with the owner of the corner store to buy a stack of these papers every week, and we would take a wagon to the store early in the morning to pick them up and deliver them to the Dale Gardens residents, who paid us a nickel for each delivery. The following year before we moved to Syracuse, I sold the business to another boy (I'm not sure now, but I think it was Jerry Portnoy). When I came back to the neighborhood in 1953, I asked about the business and was told it was still going strong. Now, the New York Times is available all over the country (and in many other parts of the world) and we have delivery service available even here in California. I don't know if my venture was the first one, but if it was, Dale Gardens could very well be the first place in the world to have New York Times delivery.
    Attached is a picture I found in an old family album that was taken in front of our Dale Gardens home in the spring of 1943. I think the woman on the left is either Mrs. Korodi or a Mrs. Mintz. If it is Mrs. Mintz, the little girl is her daughter Adele, one of my playmates; if it is Mrs. Korodi, I don't remember whether she had any children. The woman on the right is my mother, Helen Carp, who passed away in 1999 at age 88. Sitting on the fence, looking at my mother, is my brother Joel (who now lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire), and I am sitting in front of him, looking at the camera.
    I hope these recollections will enrich your website and fill in a few gaps in your history.
Sincerely,
David Carp



Kitty Genovese
April 7, 2006
[Editor's Note:  This message has been moved to the Kitty Genovese Message Board.]


Disappearing Act
April 1, 2006
In an April 1st. Guest Book letter Doris O'Brien asks if anyone can remember a family of professional magicians that lived in K.G. sometime in the 30's or 40's. I do vaguely recollect them, and the fact that they may have been the same group that entertained us on stage during intermissions at the Austin Theater on Saturday afternoons. I believe their specialty was a 'disappearing act' that they may have attempted one too many times because suddenly they were never seen or heard from again!
A. Linsky
[To contact A. Linsky, click here]


The Courthouse Restaurant Closes
April 1, 2006
Editor's Note:  Click on the link below to read an article from today's New York Daily News newspaper about the closing of the long time Courthouse Restaurant on Queens Boulevard across from the Courthouse. The link will open in a new window. Close out the window to return here.
Click here to read the full story


April 1, 2006
    My name is Yoi Iwasaki. My full name is Yoichiro, but it was shortened to Yoi in order to make it easier for my American friends to pronounce it. This was all many many years before Ichiro, the ball player became so famous. I lived in Kew Gardens from about 1933 until 1938, when I went back to my native country, Japan. I went to PS 99 from 1935 until the day I left for Tokyo.
    I am in the Class Photo of 1935, Grade 1A. From the photo, I was able to contact Faith Goldberg (now Mrs. Hailparn) and Renee Goodman (now Mrs. Corman), and am exchanging e-mails from time to time. After approximately 70 years of silence, it is a small miracle that we are corresponding. We were only 9 years old, when we separated, and there was a major war in-between, so we had lost contact and did not know whether we were still alive. It is another small miracle that we remember ech other after so many years. The reason I saw the Class Photo on your home-page is due to a whim. When I was at PS 99, I took a fancy to a girl called Betty Bredin. She was cute and kind to me. She allowed me to carry her books back from school, which was considered a gesture that she was fond of me too. I searched for her on Google, and found her when she posed for a War Bond Campaign. This led to the Class Photo, and Faith, who had contibuted to posting it. Faith led me to Renee. It was surprising that both remembered me. I along with my elder sister were the only Japanese in PS 99. I lived first at Kew Halls, an apartment rather close to school, then later moved to a house on 78 Beverly Road.
    You may post this article on the website. I prefer not to place my address. If anyone knows what became of Betty Bredin, I would appreciate letting me know.
Thank you
Yoi Iwasaki
[To contact Yoi Iwasaki, click here]


April 1, 2006
Does anyone remember a family of professional magicians who lived in KG in the late 30's and possibly the 40's? The young daughter, who attended PS 99, occasionally entertained at birthday parties. I remember how at one "performance" she tore a long paper banner into pieces and then "magically" made it whole again! I assume the older members of her family were professionals in the craft.
Doris Schaffer O'Brien
KG 1933-55
PS 99 '46, FHHS '50
[To contact Doris Schaffer O'Brien, click here]


Bigger Images
April 1, 2006
    Editor's Note: Since more people now have broadband connections and higher resolution screens, I am beginning to bump up the size and resolution of the images I display here. So, instead of averaging 20 - 35 KB, images will start to average 60 - 80 KB. If enough dial up users find these file sizes make viewing the web pages too slow, let me know and I will reduce the file sizes.


Get a Gmail Account Free
April 1, 2006
    Editor's Note: As of February 1, 2005, Old Kew Gardens [.com] got with Gmail, which is the Google web based email service. You've probably heard that Gmail offers two gigabytes [2,000 MB] of free storage. It's free, but available by invitation only. Invitations are so sought after that they are being offered for sale on eBay. I have invitations I can distribute to friends. I'm not selling them, I'm giving them away. They are available on a first come first serve basis. Just send me an email telling me you'd like one.
    Update: Unless I know you, your request must come from a bona fide working ISP email address. To prevent abuse, email requests coming from free web based email services like Yahoo or Hotmail will not be honored.
    Update: I will remove this post when I run out of invitations. If you're reading this, then there are still invitations left to give out.


Posting Messages Here
April 1, 2006
[Ed.'s Note: The reason each guest book posting does not appear here immediately is that I review each message individually before posting to eliminate spam or unwanted adult content. Email me if you want to make a correction to a message you have already posted or if you would like a message removed.]




How to contact Guestbook signers

Some Guestbook signers choose not to publish their email addresses. If you wish to contact one of them, send me an email identifying the guestbook signer you wish to contact and giving me the date his or her message was posted. Your email to me must contain your full name, and may also include anything else you wish to tell the signer. I will forward your email to the Guestbook signer you wish to contact, but with no cc or bcc to you. It will be the signer's decision whether or not to make contact with you. Any emails which contain spam, adult content, or appear suspect for any other reason will not be forwarded. ~The Editor.