Thursday, December 06, 2007

When The Gowanus Canal Was A Playground: A 1960's Carroll Gardens Childhood

oo
Back In The Days: Sprinkler In Carroll Park
The Gowanus Canal
Both Pictures from the Brooklyn Public Library

One of the cool things about writing a neighborhood blog is that people often share their stories of growing up in Carroll Gardens with me. A few days ago, I received an email from Sean who lived right on Huntington Street in the 1960's. Sean was nice enough to share some of his childhood memories with me. They are quite wonderful and a great glimpse into Carroll Gardens' past. Below is his story:

I moved to Carroll Gardens in 1967. We lived on Huntington Street.
I am the youngest of six children from an Irish Catholic family. I have two sisters who still live in the neighborhood, one on Sackett Street and one sister who still lives on Huntington Street.
Well, growing up in the old neighborhood was fun and rough. It was very family oriented and the neighbors were your parent's police. Court Street was a busy street with many Italian stores,great food and some pretty stringent store owners..."you're not buying....GET OUT!"


The Gowanus Canal used to be a great place to play...we used to jump on the sand and gravel barges. Pretty dumb now that I think about it, but you know, kids will be kids. The canal was absolutely filthy. On warm days, you could smell it for a half a mile or more. One time, my friends and I constructed a make-shift raft and paddled our way around the passage of the canal as far up as the Hamilton Avenue drawbridge. Each stroke of our paddles drew up such an awful smell that we figured it wasn't worth the adventure and gave up. I can recall when I was really young, my father telling me that the man-made canal was actually a dry trench where mules used to pull coal and other materials. The mule team rider would crack his whip at them as the animals struggled with their heavy load. He would yell out GO ON ASS!!! GO ON ASS!!! Hence the name "Gowanus."

Prior to the Transit Mix cement company taking over, the place was used by a company called Ryan's Ready Mix. Many of us children played atop the high sand and rock hills and at certain times of the day we would hear the three tone call of the tugboat as it approached the old 9th Street Bridge requesting the bridge watcher to open up the bridge for entry to pick up barges. But to us it was a war call. The bridge attendant would respond by blaring off three tones as well. This soon was followed by bells ringing. The stop arm would go down and the 9th Street Bridge would go up.
The tugboat would enter the narrow passage for Ryan to pick up the barges. My friends and I would gather up as many rocks as possible to bombard the vessel. But don't be fooled. The barge had rock guns. We used to call them Fred Flintstone guns. The cement company had vicious guard dogs to deter us from playing there, but the dogs were easily tamed and became our friends. Soon, they turned against their employers for yelling at us. Come to think of it, I miss Brownie! He was a good boy, but he needed a bath something awful.

For many years, the canal was supposed to be cleaned up, but many a generation saw that dream come and go.
One time, they even tried putting bright florescent green dye in the water to brighten it up in the late 70's. It was nice to look at, but the effect didn't last very long. Buddy Scotto who owns the funeral home, had tried in the early eighties, but I think it was just a dream. There were even fliers passed around of people jet skiing in the water....ha, what a laugh, we all said. The canal was a rumored gangster dumping ground, especially the spot at the end of Bond Street. Seeing floaters was a common place. They would usually drift up towards the bay toward Hamilton Avenue where the N.Y.P.D. scuba team would hook em out. Then, it was play time as usual for us children.
Well, the Gowanus Canal, though not your upper class playground of course, taught me fear, friendship and adventure. Even to this day, I can still sometimes have nightmares of falling into it.
I can also recall playing many a day with my friends on the (Public Place) lot on Smith Street and 5th Street . We would always see empty drums with green liquid around them. We never gave it much thought back then, but in recent years, some of my friends have died of cancer at young ages. I always wondered if those drums had something to do with it.
Back in those days, Carroll Park was actually the meeting place for all the neighborhood winos. They wore long trench coats and had beards but they were some of the most intelligent men you would have a conversation with. I used to bring them canned food which they used to cook over the boiler in the park house's mechanical room opposite the bathrooms. Smith Street was a no man's land. You would never walk there at dark past Union Street..it was just the times, you know. I'm now 43, live in Middletown, New Jersey. I own 2 acres and a 14 room house with a 4 car garage. I own my own business and am a refrigeration engineer. I had worked for Bruce Ratner for a short time as the building engineer at 1 Metro Tech Center on Jay Street. I opted to go into business for myself as an appliance and commercial cooking equipment repair man.
I enjoy recalling the old times and miss my friends who have passed on. Gone are the old ladies who would hose down and sweep the sidewalks, the fruit man coming down Court Street yelling: "APPLES,ORANGES,APPLES ORANGES," and the green ice truck. Believe it or not I'm not that old, but I caught the tail end of an era. I am still recognized by some of the neighborhood old timers as that "Hooligan from the canal." Yea, I'm proud of it and of my old neighborhood.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are great stories from the real Carroll Gardners. Though, I am sure the Gowanus name story was just a funny joke. (" (sic) The early settlers of the area named the waterway "Gowanes Creek" after Gouwane, sachem( Indian Leader) of the local Lenape tribe called the Canarsee, who lived and farmed on the rich shorelines." It's sad, most of the CG newbees don't care about the neighborhood history. Thanks for this entry.

Kelly said...

You are quite welcome...
I love Sean's tale. He is a natural story teller.

Anonymous said...

More, please, more tales of Carroll Gardens.
This stuff is great!

Kelly said...

I will try to get him to tell me more tales of the hood.
And if you have your own stories, please pass them along.
History like this too often gets lost if its not written down.

Anonymous said...

There were quite a few kids like Sean all along the Canal's route. That's what me and my friends used to call it,"the canal". Every once and awhile we'd see a struggling dog in the water and do our best to rescue him.Watching the dog shake off the filthy water and run away gave us great satisfaction.There certainly was "wildlife" in and around the canal.Rats,cats and junkyard dogs.

Tim Giangiobbe said...

Urban Stories of How it was is always interesting and REAL.The Progress has wiped out some of Our childhood.Like PLayland in San Francisco being a Dan SAFEWAY now.I STILL will not shop there over forty years later.

When I was a Kid I remember Carrol Park when we went to Brooklyn from Syracuse to Visit,I am in San Francisco Now,I was born in SF.I now know what happened with Carrol Park.I would not know one area from another in Brooklyn I was a KID.When I have visited NYC since I went to The Bronx and Manhattan.What I do remember seemed safe to me.I Know so much has changed since 1960.It sure has in San Francisco.Most for the better I suppose but the Excessive Poverty that NYC,LA,Chicago,Philli and SF
sees is due to Loss of inexpensive SRO Hotels and Family Units.The Bad Planning has effected the QUALITY of LIFE for all concerned.
The simple realities are it wasn't as Much of a stigma to be poor in The 30s until the 60s.Dignity was Much cheaper.The Price of Dignity went SKY HIGH for many Baby Boomers who did not have a safe nest egg or became disabled at a bad time when they had a Physical Job.The Corporate Financial Shark's Shenanigans with peoples retirement money has been evil straight from the devil!
Brooklyn had a BUNCH of Manufacturing jobs then.Those CORPORATE Jobs have been moved to other counries.That left room for gentrification,Poverty,Greed and Unemployment.

The NEWCOMERS will never CARE about what BROOKLYN or San Francisco Used to be.Some of the NEWLY Minted MBAs are so Damn Narcissistic it is scary.They do not have a CLUE about history nor do they Care.I am starting to believe that Apathy 1-a is a Subject in MBA Schools.They really do not care about some of the sacrifices of The Baby Boomer Veterans who helped keep this Nation Viable so they can Destroy the economy Drafting Collateral Debt Obligations that will once again fall apart and be Bailed out by the Mindless Politicians who will once again say They are TOO WEALTHY TOO FAIL.
Who is The Real Enemy?

Wall Street or The Terrorists?

Some of The Citizens Here in San Francisco do not GET what New Yorkers GET.That there are Bad People out there trying to Break us Finacially and hurt us and BOTH of them are Not through!DUH!New York has Been through Hell.I am afraid some of the West Coasts Infrastructure is next.

My Guess is The Terrorists will wait until the dollar devalues some more and be sure we are in DIRE Financial straights and THEN HIT US on the West Coast.The Equity Holdings will COLLAPSE even forther than they did after 911.The SUB PRIME Fiasco and Trillions of Dollars of Propped up CDOs will blow Up and will Finally Have a Devstating effect.
It's not that I want this,Hell No!!!
I Just do not have my Head up my Ass suffering from Acute Apathy.

PEACE

Tim Giangiobbe said...

Urban Stories of How it was is always interesting and REAL.The Progress has wiped out some of Our childhood.Like PLayland in San Francisco being a Dan SAFEWAY now.I STILL will not shop there over forty years later.

When I was a Kid I remember Carrol Park when we went to Brooklyn from Syracuse to Visit,I am in San Francisco Now,I was born in SF.I now know what happened with Carrol Park.I would not know one area from another in Brooklyn I was a KID.When I have visited NYC since I went to The Bronx and Manhattan.What I do remember seemed safe to me.I Know so much has changed since 1960.It sure has in San Francisco.Most for the better I suppose but the Excessive Poverty that NYC,LA,Chicago,Philli and SF
sees is due to Loss of inexpensive SRO Hotels and Family Units.The Bad Planning has effected the QUALITY of LIFE for all concerned.
The simple realities are it wasn't as Much of a stigma to be poor in The 30s until the 60s.Dignity was Much cheaper.The Price of Dignity went SKY HIGH for many Baby Boomers who did not have a safe nest egg or became disabled at a bad time when they had a Physical Job.The Corporate Financial Shark's Shenanigans with peoples retirement money has been evil straight from the devil!
Brooklyn had a BUNCH of Manufacturing jobs then.Those CORPORATE Jobs have been moved to other counries.That left room for gentrification,Poverty,Greed and Unemployment.

The NEWCOMERS will never CARE about what BROOKLYN or San Francisco Used to be.Some of the NEWLY Minted MBAs are so Damn Narcissistic it is scary.They do not have a CLUE about history nor do they Care.I am starting to believe that Apathy 1-a is a Subject in MBA Schools.They really do not care about some of the sacrifices of The Baby Boomer Veterans who helped keep this Nation Viable so they can Destroy the economy Drafting Collateral Debt Obligations that will once again fall apart and be Bailed out by the Mindless Politicians who will once again say They are TOO WEALTHY TOO FAIL.
Who is The Real Enemy?

Wall Street or The Terrorists?

Some of The Citizens Here in San Francisco do not GET what New Yorkers GET.That there are Bad People out there trying to Break us Finacially and hurt us and BOTH of them are Not through!DUH!New York has Been through Hell.I am afraid some of the West Coasts Infrastructure is next.

My Guess is The Terrorists will wait until the dollar devalues some more and be sure we are in DIRE Financial straights and THEN HIT US on the West Coast.The Equity Holdings will COLLAPSE even forther than they did after 911.The SUB PRIME Fiasco and Trillions of Dollars of Propped up CDOs will blow Up and will Finally Have a Devstating effect.
It's not that I want this,Hell No!!!
I Just do not have my Head up my Ass suffering from Acute Apathy.

PEACE