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Hi Matt,
I just finished reading your Wavecrest memoirs and really
enjoyed the walk down "memory" lane. I was born in '52 and lived
in Wavecrest from ages 2-8. We continued to live in Far Rock until I was
21, moving to a new 2 family house on Grassmere Terrace after Wavecrest.
I got so absorbed in your stories! I too remember those 6 story bldgs.
and especially the elevator! If I recall, I once almost got 'stuck"
myself once, but for some reason I had a small chair with me so i could
push the emergency button. We lived on the first floor of 20-38 Seagirt
Blvd.
Reading your memoirs, I could even remember the "smells"
of the building (usually good cooking odors!!). And the incinerator...who
could ever forgot that! You also mentioned stores in town that I remember
seeing but not knowing what they sold..like "Vim". Even tho
we moved to Grassmere Terr. after Wavecrest to a brand new 2 family house
(with more room and no roaches LOL!) my fondest memories of FR are my
years in Wavecrest.
Thank you so very much for sharing yours....keep those
chapters coming!!!
Susan (Wilsker) Brownstein (FRHS, 1970)
Hello, Susan,
How nice of you to take the time to write to me!
I am so glad you have "discovered" my autobiography on the www.rockawaymemories.com
website. It is really a wonderful way to "meet and greet" our
old friends -- if only by reading interesting articles and reviewing the
old yearbook photographs.
I suppose that Wavecrest Gardens was really the first major apartment
complex to be constructed in the Far Rockaway area -- over the years,
I have spoken with so many former residents of the project. You say you
lived in 20-38, so then you lived on the north side of Seagirt Boulevard.
When I was growing up, I lived on the south side -- in the three-building
group which was the only set without a terrace. Of course you didn't have
to originally come from the Wavecrest group to appreciate the resort community
as it appeared in the early 1950s -- the area was a wonderful place in
which to live.
When I think of Grassmere Terrace, I will always remember the brand-new
school: P.S. 215 -- which was completed in early 1953 and opened to the
students for the very first time in September of that year. At that time,
it seem as if the school was situated in the middle of a great forest
-- for there were mighty trees just about everywhere. I suppose that the
home your family built in that area was one of the many new residences
being constructed at that time -- again I suppose in anticipation of the
new elementary school. Back in those days, one old huge wood-frame building
(former estate) sat in the middle of an entire city block -- and as those
old relics were demolished, a grouping of ten or so houses would "spring
up" on that very spot! It was so interesting to see. I returned to
that area recently and now ALL of those trees are long gone and apartment
houses occupy those lots. Even the major woods behind the school has been
developed into housing units. I hardly recognize the place anymore.
Well -- thanks again for writing to me and sharing some of your thoughts
and experiences. I sincerely hope you will continue to read my column
on the website and if you do, you will continue to "draw upon"
your own pleasant memories of much happier times.
I would appreciate it if you would continue to keep and touch and get
back to me every now and again with any comments and criticisms you might
be willing to share.
Matthew Bashie
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