The Bronx, back in the day

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My Uncle's friend robbed Freedomland at gunpoint...he escaped in a boat up the canals....he had asked my Uncle to join him but he said no....later on, his friend cheated on his girlfriend and she turned him in...good thing my uncle stayed with just boosting cars....otherwise he would have done some real time...true story.

I remember visiting Freedomland...but it's a vague memory..I must have been around 5....the craphole that is there now is sad....Co-op city.
 
I'm way too young to remember Freedom Land. My mom never really said anything good about it though. My dad grew up in Brooklyn and my grandfather refused to drive to The Bronx when Coney Island was so close.

As for Co-Op City, well, the swamp should reclaim it.
 
Grew up in Brooklyn, on E56th Street, between Avenues L&M -
never made it Freedomland, but Coney Island was close, and the Navy was still flying out of Floyd Bennet Field (NAS New York). My father was born in the house we lived in, til we moved to NJ in the mid 60's .......
 
Great link thank you.

I hear all the stories about Freedom land but never saw pictures of it before. What a shame it was lost and what a shame we lost the country from then to now too. My mom grew up in the North Bronx and my Dad in Lower Westchester. My Grandfather had a small boat in Baychester around that time. My dad knew all those canals around there. Anyhow, thanks for the link I am sending it to a few friends :)

Can you imagine the political correct class going to Freedom Land :)


A Coop city story, I worked with a guy that lived their in the late 1980s. They would steal stuff from his car all the time. Once they stole his factory am/fm radio. They didnt just steal the radio, they smashed most of the dash to take it, the dash was just destroyed. He bought new tires plain factory wheels and plain tires. He put two of the puzzle lock nut on each wheel. Next day,he find his car laying on the ground no wheels. They used an oxy acetylene torch to cut the wheel studs... This car was parked in plain sight... I wont talk of the little "gifts" left in the elevators and hallways :(
 
My dad grew up in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan at 175th and Amsterdam. Went to Brooklyn Tech High School during WWII and came to Kansas to be an aeronautical engineer in 1947. I never heard him speak of the place you reference. However, his hometown baseball team was the NY Giants since the Polo Grounds were near his neighborhood. He passed away in 1998, but I am sure he would be smiling to see the SF Giants back in World Series.
 
Co-op city was originally designed to be a lower-middle income Jewish community...but they were pushed out in favor of residents who could not tell the difference between a bathroom and a stairwell.
 
Coming from the "projects", we thought anyone who owned their own home was rich. The north Bronx to us was like the country, and seemed so far away, though in reality it was not. But when you're a teen, or pre teen, 5 miles may as well be 500 miles.
 
Jimmy, Have you ever seen a cow?

Yes.

Where?

On a farm....on TV.

Jimmy, would you like to see a real farm?

Will you take me there?


Give to the fresh air fund so members like ladder13 can get out of the city....:)
 
I and my ex went to nyc in 84. Quite a experiance. It was a slow sunday so we just drove from one end to the other and back. What impressed me was the freeway reminded me of kuwaite. It looked like cars must have broke down, the owner walk off for gas or whatever and the cars were immediately stripped and left there forever! I recall in one place the road haveing a building you drove under! As I drove under I had my elbow sticking out the window and was showered with spit! I also remember stopping to ask directions from a shoddy looking group of NYPD doing something. Sorry, but just going by "looks" they wouldnt have got as far as the first cut from the acadamy back in LA! I saw the elephant and wont be back!
 
feralmerril said:
I and my ex went to nyc in 84. Quite a experiance. It was a slow sunday so we just drove from one end to the other and back. What impressed me was the freeway reminded me of kuwaite. It looked like cars must have broke down, the owner walk off for gas or whatever and the cars were immediately stripped and left there forever! I recall in one place the road haveing a building you drove under! As I drove under I had my elbow sticking out the window and was showered with spit! I also remember stopping to ask directions from a shoddy looking group of NYPD doing something. Sorry, but just going by "looks" they wouldnt have got as far as the first cut from the acadamy back in LA! I saw the elephant and wont be back!
Click to expand...

Haha...funny, but true. The Cross Bronx Expressway, connecting NJ to New England, was a graveyard back in the 70's and 80's. If you broke down or ran out of gas and went to get help, by the time you got back your car was stripped. Roving gangs used to wait on top of the expressway(a misnomer since most of the time traffic was crawling) and pounce on the crippled cars. They worked as a team, each guy had his job, be it taking off the wheels and tires...stripping the engine..ripping out the dash..etc.
Traffic jams didn't bother em' either, they just kept doing their thing.
The building you spoke off was right on top of the X Bronx leading to the George Washington Bridge.
 
sipowicz said:
Give to the fresh air fund so members like ladder13 can get out of the city....:)
Click to expand...

First time I got out of the City was when my parents took us on "vacation". We went to a motel in Elmsford that had a pool. :D Stayed there for the weekend. It was another world to us.
 
"The Bronx? No Thonx!" said Ogden Nash. Went to Freedomland to see Frankie Avalon around 1960. My favorite boss on the DSNY lived in Coop City until the early 90's when he finally retired. He was a "mensch". Other places originally inhabited by middle class civil servants were HA Red Hook and Sheepshead Bay Houses in Brooklyn. By the time my HA cop son got to the projects he was getting shot at from the rooftops.
 
My father-in-law dug the foundations and set all the pre-cast sidewalk blocks in the coop.

......moon
 
GREAT VIDEO! I went there two times as I recall, but I was 9 or 10 at the time and the memory is sort of blurry. By the way, I am also a graduate of Brooklyn Tech. H.S. Good times!!
 
ladder13 said:
First time I got out of the City was when my parents took us on "vacation". We went to a motel in Elmsford that had a pool. :D Stayed there for the weekend. It was another world to us.
Click to expand...

Back in the 1980's my friends mom worked the desk at the place...
 
I also remember stopping to ask directions from a shoddy looking group of NYPD doing something. Sorry, but just going by "looks" they wouldnt have got as far as the first cut from the acadamy back in LA!
Click to expand...

I made the mistake of doing that once many years ago. Flashed my tin and they took me to the bar and wouldn't let me go until 2:00am. I couldn't pay for anything either. Wife was angry so they got her and her sister tickets to some show to get rid of them for a while......God bless the NYPD!
 
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