The Bronx: Lost, Found, and Remembered 1935-1975
1999; Wiley; Volume: 22; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1542-734X
Autores Tópico(s)Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
ResumoThe Bronx: Lost, Found, and Remembered 1935-- 1975. Stephen Samtur and Martin Jackson. New York: Back in the Bronx, 1999. 248 pp., index. By what authority does a boy from Brooklyn and a lifelong resident of this special place which brought Jackie Robinson into history critique a book on the Bronx? Let me count the ways. I had a significant sojourn in the northern borough during my formative years. My radical mother would deposit me with an aunt while she made the revolution in Manhattan. Nurtured by my Bronx relatives, I parked in Crotona, movied (primarily) at the Loew's Elsmere, shopped on Tremont Avenue, roosted in the Coops, rooted at Yankee Stadium (where I also peddled peanuts and popcorn) and romanced a college co-ed (she was the moon over Mosholu Parkway) on Gun-Hill Road. Thus, I jumped at the chance. The book starts on high ground with a view of Art Deco from the vantage of the Grand Concourse, the Bronx equivalent of the Champs-Elysees. Then we go to the parks, beaches, and pools. Not quite on par with Coney Island (what is?), Orchard Beach beckoned to the masses yearning to breathe free salted air and eager to enjoy its bracing baptismal waters. No subways stretched to the blistering sands, so Bronxites were compelled to ride buses minus air conditioning. For those residents who could not make the trek (like my family), Crotona Park with playgrounds, diamonds, and lake provided respite from the sweltering city. And who could forget those voyages into the heart of darkness: the Bronx Zoo? For the more aesthetically minded crowd, the Bronx Botanical Gardens offered the best collection of flowers outside the Floriade of Holland. For Yankee fans, like me, the big ball orchard in the Bronx represented mecca. The House that Ruth Built became the home of such heroes as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Reggie Jackson. Those who came after 1975, Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Paul O'Neill, and Derek Jeter to name some of the best, also merit mention for sustaining that glorious tradition. Here, in the absence of a chapter devoted to sports, one can question the authors' otherwise fine judgment. Where's the beef? After all, the Bronx created the dominant team in baseball. Yet, one looks in vain for reference to the Bronx Bombers, who have captured 24 World Series titles and 34 American League pennants. The Bronx also produced great baseball players who found fame with other teams. Hank Greenberg, Rod Carew, and Manny Ramirez spring immediately to mind. In football, the seven blocks of granite brought glory to the Fordham Rams of Rose Hill featuring the unconquerable Vince Lombardi. Basketball deserves mention, too. The great CCNY team in 1950-- 51, which won an unprecedented double victory in the NIT and NCAA, had two Bronxites in the starting line-up: Ed Roman and Irwin Dambrot, not to mention several like Joe Galiber who provided punch off the bench. That enigma wrapped in a riddle, Jack Molinas, a Columbia Lion, learned his basketball craft in the Creston Avenue playground as did North Carolina Tar-Heel star, Lenny Rosenbluth. The all-- black team at Texas-El Paso which whipped an all-- white Kentucky five in the 1967 NCAA championship had Morris High School graduate Nevil Shed leading the way. Evidently, Samtur and Jackson prefer nosh and nostalgia to guts and glory in sports. How else could they justify entire chapters on the candy stores and restaurants of this benighted borough? Take the candy stores, please. The authors list the addresses and provide photos of and data for these vanished entities of confection. Such a voyage into the past no doubt resonates with the fifty and over crowd of mostly white ethnics in the Bronx. But it creates a we-them polarity which might repel the outsider looking at the borough through a glass darkly. When Samtur and Jackson get into street games, they draw us back in. A veritable cornucopia of anthropological lore especially coupled with outstanding photographs, this chapter is like a contemplation of Brueghel's marvelous paintings of Flemish children at play. …
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