Photo Wednesday 3/27/13 - Sometimes the Past Sees You Edition

Its been a while since the last "Photo Wednesday" so considering I didn't stop taking photos (everyday even!) I am stocked with visual moments to share from many points Brooklyn.

"M. H. Koski, Inc" was apparently a pawn shop, this Brooklyn Eagle link shows an advertisement for the business from 1946.

I wanted to post a shot from what I think is about as far away in Brooklyn as a person can be from everything and still be in Brooklyn, but for now this one I picked up wins the day. I know this corner intimately.

I recall being about nine and standing across the street from this corner waiting and desperate to leave. Standing next to my little feet was a box big enough to hold a starship and it did. The Millennium Falcon. My mother bought it from Mays' Department store (Corner of Fulton St & Bond) and we'd stopped off from the bus to meet a friend of hers. The only thing that made the wait tolerable was the thrill I got from each kid walking by who's wide eyes spied the classically 70's photo of the spacey plastic hunk of junk.

I was headed down Putnam (which I still can't believe no longer awkwardly flows into Fulton Street, when I noted this space of wall that had not been painted over since I'm guessing at least the 60's. That day as a kid there was a billboard covering that patch of wall. When I moved to my second adult Brooklyn apartment up the block on Grand a billboard still covered it. When I saw the painted old sign beaming waves of yesterday outward I had to take a shot of it.

 Brownstowner and Faded Ad Blog beat me to publishing the pic (steamed) so here's links to them as well: http://www.fadingad.com/fadingadblog/?p=10347 & http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/03/signage-archaeology-on-grand-avenue/ Brownstoner was kind enough to point out that corner of the expose sign was an open air drug market in the "70's and 80's" a commenter posted they should include the "90's, 00's & 10's" yeah... as mentioned I lived right up the block, and I swear a more industrious and consistently staffed drug spot I've never seen. Hell I've worked in corporations were people weren't at their station as often as these guys were (are?). My question has been and still is what kind of economic model were those corner hustlers working in the 90's? They'd have more guys on the corner than customer regularly, yet everyone seemed paid. That's Buffet math.

Also I'm going to include a little "Best of.." Photo Wednesday this one from February 3rd 2010 when the Lowes Kings Theater was featured. I'd taken a few cools shots of the exterior and meant to post it, when months later the new broke that the formerly palatial long since condemned theater on Flatbush was poised to be restored to greatness. A few months back the plans were confirmed. Here's a quick look back with a personal story to boot:

http://umbrooklynborn.blogspot.com/2010/02/photo-wednesday-020310-retouched.html

PhotoWednesdayXmas Eve 08 Edition (Ho Ho Ho & a cake full'a rum)

I'm not big on Christmas. There. Smite me down oh jolly elf of western commerce! Go on fat man, make your move!! um ready for you, elfin magic is no substitute for street skillz!!

What I am big on (as my three point five devoted readers can attest) is telling stories about the spirit of Brooklyn past.

This Wednesday's photo was taken on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn at what was once the Abraham & Straus department store, which is now a Macy's.
Is there even a store in Brooklyn for kids to go to and see Santa anymore? And is he progressively multicultural like this one was in the mid 70's? Granted given my politics today, I doubt I'd want to expose my phantom children to the big red hoax but it's such a cute scene, no wonder parents cave.

The look on my face is me staring at his hat, (I was fascinated by the faux fur, in drawings I imagined it was like a white tire around his head, I was weird) but most of my time on Afro-Santa's knee was spent telling him he wasn't Santa cause he was black. Hopefully somewhere in the coming Obama age there's a Mexican kid trying to negotiate a Korean Santa thus demonstrating how far we've really come.

"A&S" as it was referred to for years, to understate, was a major store, rivaling all others of it's day. Real old Brooklynites will remember it as the big name on a Fulton Street crowded with stores like Korvette's, McCory's, Mays (not to be confused with Macy's) and Woolworths. All those stores are gone, no sadness, things change. But the A&S building still stands, it's a great grand Art Deco structure and worth it to check out even if you don't need to shop and if you want to get some history check the wiki entry for it here. Even better the NYTimes goes into architectural detail here.

All that to say I remember the photo, the day, being a kid and not really being excited to go see santa as much as I was excited to be outside, to see all the people shopping, walk thru that huge A&S first floor, take the ancient escalators, or even better, the elevators each had operators with that according fold gate they'd manually shut. I remember that experience and my family most of all. My grandmother took me have the photo taken. As we were leaving the apt my uncle, about 18 at the time insisted on coming and kept telling me what to do during the photo (that's his head from the left).

I remember that and more, all good times. I'm skimping on the story because the point is I hope these next days will bring you peace, warmth and if nothing else memories to love.