99th STREET

 99th STREET

There were two ways to to get to

99th Street

You could go down to the basement 

Of the Mandalay building where we lived

Walk through Lefrak City

Up a short hill until you

Reached a small tunnel

That led you there

Or you could walk along Horace Harding Parkway 

And make a left turn

99th Street was where 

Hills supermarket was located

Having just arrived from Gibraltar 

Hills supermarket seemed

Like paradise on Earth

They even had fresh milk

In Gibraltar we could only buy 

Carnation condensed milk

 Mixing it with water

From Hills supermarket 

My mom would get me 

French bread 

Coleslaw 

Gulden's yellow mustard 

A pound each of Genoa salami and ham 

We'd put the French bread in the oven

Then I would spread the mustard 

Quickly place the Genoa salami slices 

And the ham slices

Topping it off with the coleslaw

The result was most delicious hero ever

I opened my first savings account on 99th Street

The East New York Savings Bank 

Receiving a passbook and an ID Card

Every week I'd wait on line to

Deposit a dollar

I'd hand the teller the passbook

Who would record the transaction

Afterwards I'd closely inspect the passbook 

Making sure all was done properly

If it looked right

Which it always did 

I'd carefully put away the passbook

In a plastic cover

99th Street was also where my sister 

Found her first job

L.H.  Martin 

She started out as a cashier

Working herself up to doing the books

In the office overlooking the sales floor

L.H. Martin sold a little bit of everything

I bought my mom some plastic spoons

For mother's day 

Once I was tempted to shoplift

Seeing myself all alone 

In the back of the store 

Surrounded by so much nice stuff 

Just as I was going to strike 

In the corner of my eye

I saw Adolfo

The security guard

Who fortunately happened to be friendly with my sister 

He stared at me with a knowing look 

But he let me slide

Across from 99th Street  was Sherwood Village 

When I was 12 or 13

I started delivering the Long Island Press there

Every afternoon

 I would travel to all these strange buildings 

And leave the newspaper by the door of each subscriber

Twice a month in the evening 

I would try collect the payments

Sometimes I'd go with Milton to the candy store on 99th Street

To buy the NY Post  for his father Abbie

Once we waved the back of the newspaper 

All the way home

Yelling at the top of our lungs

Ya Gotta Believe

After the Mets had won the pennant 

Beating the Big Red Machine

The church had a parking lot on 99th Street

Where we played stick ball

If you hit a home run the

Rubber ball would land

Over a high fence 

Into a landscape of menacing towers

Something Dr. Frankenstein would have 

Used to power his monster

99th Street was also where the

Movie theater was located 

I tried to go see True Grit with John Wayne by myself 

With no luck

Later with others I saw Jaws

I never wanted to go swimming in the ocean again

It's the street I walked to get to middle school

The place Ross punched me in the eye 

After I told him I had a fight with Kenny 

And no punches were thrown

It was also where I showed Luisa my 

Graduation pictures from I.S. 61

My father had died of cancer that April

Shattering my world forever

Luisa looked at my pictures

Said I was cute and I was happy

At least for a moment

On 99th Street