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Are you a Brooklynite?
If you ain't from Brooklyn, just forget this; you wouldn't understand.
You're truly from Brooklyn if you can relate to any of the following:
1. Alternate side of the street parking.
2. Ate at Chock Full O' Nuts Shops (date nut bread and powdered donuts that were
crunchy).
3. Ate dinner every Sunday night at Fong Fongs on Church Avenue.
4. Ate Italian food at Collaro's on Coney Island Ave.
5. Bought bobka at the original Ebingers on Flatbush Avenue. Or Butterbun on
Nostrand Ave.
6. Bought Ebinger's Black-Out Cake (and didn't count the calories)
7. Bought knishes from Mrs. Stahls in Brighton, or Ruby the Kinish Man.
8. Bought knishes on the beach and didn't mind the sand.
9. Bought pickles out of a barrel. The salt made you pucker.
10. Can name all the Brooklyn High Schools. Just try and do that today
(impossible).
11. Can remember Delaney cards (unless you went to a private school).
12. Can remember when the Brookly-Battery Tunnel was white.
13. Don't speak with an accent - everybody else does.
14. Drove over the Marine Park Bridge for a 10-cent toll, and Brooklyn Battery
Tunnel for 35 cents.
15. Everybody knows somebody from the neighborhood, even if it is your mother's
cousin's son-in-law's sister's boyfriend.
16. Prom night at the Riviera nightclub in the Palisades, New Jersey (Tony
Martin singing).
17. Got a “Kitchen Sink” at Jahn's.
18. Got a J.D. card and feeling like Al Capone.
19. Had a prom date at the Club Elegante.
20. Had roller skates with keys.
21. Handball in the park.
22. Hit two sewers in punch ball.
23. It's not the “shore”, its the “beach” idiot.
24. Kings Plaza.... how come we get the crappy mall?
25. Knew who the neighborhood wise guy was, but you'd never tell the cops.
26. Know that NBC's main production studio is on Avenue M.
27. Know what E.J. Korvettes stands for (Eight Jewish Korean Veterans).
28. Know what the F.W.I.L. on the Lundy's Restaurant in “The Bay” stands for
(It's the brothers, Frederick, William, Irving and Louis).
29. Know, or at least your hips do, what a Charlotte Russe is.
30. Owned a pair of pumps from Miles or National's
31. Played at ( Eddy) Faber's Fascination and Skeeball - saved tickets for junk.
32. Played “Hide 'n Go Seek” at dusk (say it quickly and you'll know why we
called it “hang-o-seek”..
33. Played Hit The Penny, Stoop Ball, Skelly, and Potsy.
34. Private beach? What's that?
35. Remember a time when the Greeks didn't own ALL the diners and the Koreans
didn't own ALL fruit stands. Except the Greeks on Utica and Church, where you
just said going to the Greeks for lunch.
36. Remember Bohack's, Packer's, and Smilen Brothers fruit store (on Nostrand
Avenue).
37. Remember Coney Island fireworks every Tuesday night in the summer, and
watching it from your roof.
38. Remember submarine race watching at Plumb Beach. Heck, if you even know
where Plumb Beach is.
39. Sheepshead Bay is for fishing and seafood.
40. Shopped on Fulton Street and Pitkin Ave. before the mall and all the dreck.
41. Swear that Grabstein's Deli had the l-e-a-n-e-s-t pastrami (see note below).
42. The first bar that you hung out in when you were 15 is “so young now”.
43. There is a bagel bakery a few blocks away.
44. There is at least one pizzeria within 1 block of your house and a candy
store on the corner.
45. Thought “Buddy's Fairyland Kiddie Park” on Utica Ave. was a major
amusement park.
46. Thought going “away to college” means NYU, Pace, or Pratt.
47. Waited for the Good Humor or Bungalow Bar guy to come around your block.
48. Walked along the Coney Island Boardwalk, with a Shatzkins knish.
49. Washed it down with a Sunny Boy orange drink.
50. Went to a Bar Mitzvah at the Colonial Mansion, sometimes two on a weekend.
51. Went to Big Daddy's on Coney Island Avenue as a change from Nathan's.
52. Went to Brennan and Carr for a double dip roast beef that dripped all over
you.
53. Went to Murray the K rock concerts at the Brooklyn Fox or the Brooklyn
Paramount. Went the night before for good seats.
54. Went to Saturday matinees at the Oriental, Oceana, Canarsie, Kingsway,
Avalon, Elm, Midwood, the Vogue, the Kent, Rugby, Sheepshead, Tilyou, Mayfair,
Kenmore, or Marboro theaters.
55. You ate at the Horn and Hardart Automat.
56. You can correctly pronounce Long Island (well, you might incorrectly sound
that “g”), but aren't exactly sure where Long Island begins.
57. You curse. A lot. Or can at least out curse anyone from anywhere else.
58. You don't go to Manhattan, you go to "The City."
59. You have no reason to go to Queens, except for Met games.
60. You know and go to the REAL Nathan's – the one in Coney Island.
61. You know someone with mob ties.
62. You know the difference between going with, seeing, fooling around with and
going out with someone.
63. You know what a “johnny pump” is.
64. You love “Welcome Back Kotter” (and not because of the crisp writing or
great acting).
65. You made a scooter from orange crates and an old skate.
66. You made carpet guns that shot old linoleum projectiles.
67. You never realize you have an accent until you leave.
68. You waited for the rides on a truck to come to your neighborhood for 10
cents a ride.
69. You walk down “The Avenue” and see at least a handful of the people you
knew growing up.
70. Your friends came over to hang out on the stoop.
71. You've had a pigeon crap on your car and/or your head.
AND the most important reason that you are a Brooklynite, or at least have
the soul of one, is ... You're still angry that the Dodgers left.
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