Flatlands Friday

Adventuring in the Flatlands at Flatbush and Avenue P led us to Golden Gate Fancy Fruits and Vegetables, founded in 1939, which I heard from its owner, John Cortez, is featured on a page of Paul Lacy's Brooklyn Storefronts.

John preferred to talk about his tour of duty in WWII, the events of Battle of the Bulge and Omaha Beach, where he experienced things he could not describe around youngsters. He had returned there for the first time last August with his three grown children. I had actually stood outside his temporarily closed store at the end of the summer, hoping to go in, unaware that its owner was at the time retracing his war duty through Normandy.

I bothered the man with the photography, he didn't mind the close up of the Golden Delicious but didn't feel the store was photo ready on account of low produce volume due to the holidays. TOOOO BAD, the place is like a museum! I really wanted a picture of the wood stove with which he heats the place but he also felt the scene wasn't up to snuff (those military people fold tight corners) so I relinquished my fervor, with great difficulty. There's something about going to the Flatlands and taking pictures of heat generating fixtures that makes me deeply happy. The flatness of the place resonates, reminding me of the plank roads that I believe once led from that area through the farmland to the populous areas in Western Brooklyn and Manhattan.

I bought 3 lemons and a dozen eggs from John, he wrote out the tally by hand on pink paper. The total: $3.66, which he rounded down to $3.65.

We went to Lenny and John's Pizza down the street, where in August I'd snuck a picture of their enormous rice cooker on high flame. They're very nice there and the pizza appeals even to the hyper-discriminating taste buds of my eldest daughter Sophie. I never saw the movie All Saints Day, advertised in the framed poster that hung on the wall above our table, so I don't really know what role the fish with money in its mouth plays in the plot. I have my suspicions. I note that this movie does not appear on the wikipedia category page: Films set in Brooklyn. The list includes 44 titles. Let's round that up to 45.

A House for a Dollar

From a Brooklynite who prefers to remain anonymous comes this story of her family's house in Victorian Flatbush. Thank you!

"...my mom's two great aunts bought the house together when it was built in 1909. My family was fairly well-to-do back then, but they lost their money in the Depression. My grandfather was going to lose the house to taxes. He made a deal with a friend of his, a wealthy lady from out West. She bought the house for a dollar (and of course had to pay off the taxes), with the stipulation that she would leave the house to my mother in her will. Thankfully she was an honest person, and she did just that, so the house is now back in the family. Between the early 40's when this deal took place, and the time of her death in the late 70s, she turned the house into a boarding house. Sailors, soldiers, merchant marines, businessmen, and even a few businesswomen (including my mother when she was in her early 20s) rented rooms there. It was run very strictly; no visitors allowed upstairs, and doors had to be left unlocked during the day so the homeowner could come in and clean up/make the beds. She also made breakfast for the roomers. When she died in the 70s, my mom moved in with her family."