B Is for Brooklyn - D Is for Dog

A butcher block table in a Southold, New York, eatery brings back flavors of a Brooklyn delicatessen. Taxis roam under the Queensborough Bridge of the East River while real and model airplanes soar aloft. Out west, Chavez Ravine, a converted sandpit, pinch hits for Ebbets Field. California is cool even in the 1950s. Drive-in movies, car hops on roller skates, and open-air school cafeterias present scenes reminiscent of the movie Grease. A Doberman named Nana is first prize on a kids TV game show. Then its off to college in the Midwest, and Nana leaves for a farm in California. This is a series of essays that move from East Coast to West Coast, from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and back. Race cars in the sands of the fabled Hamptons compare with bicycles along the trees of Brooklyn. Back East again, Shea Stadium was being built, and the expressway was headed into suburbia. There, a hairy black dog, King, came along, and we adopted each other while discovering our boundaries. Writing came after involvement in a Southold memoirs workshop. The class allowed the memories to flow as easily as the East River flows under the most graceful bridges in the world. I hope these stories will recapture some of your memoriesthey do for me.