From my point of view HB use to be the place of white picket fences and kids playing in the streets.    I'm not *that* old, it wasn't *that* long ago.  What happened?  New York Times has over 50 articles on HB and not one of them is positive!  Feedback please!

Ok, point granted.  But what is Howard Beach about these days?  I lived there late '60s to '81.  Time have changed, families have changed, values have changed.  Do you still live in HB?

Dee,

        I think that Mike hit the nail on the head, what you see in HB is just a natural 'progress'ion of events, I'm willing to bet that there are people in VA & NC who wonder how their neighborhoods changed and how all the 'Damn Yankees'  got there.   Back in the 70's I used to spend at least 3 months a year in Phoenix on business, I moved there in 1991 and didn't recognize the area.  We moved to HB in 1955 a year or so before they extended the subway to HB and points beyond,  in five years I didn't recognize that area.  I was in the USMC in the early 60's and used to have to put up with all the old salts with five years of service talk about the 'Old Corps', in Leon Uris' novel Battle Cry, the guys joining the Marines right after Pearl Harbor have to listen to how things were in the 'Old Corps'. 

Dee,

          Part of why I made the comments about the NY Times is that I think it is criminal that people who have never been there will base their opinions of what Howard Beach is like on the kind of tripe the Times revels in or the comments Al the buffoon makes about it.  I think that there is a great difference between change and what you termed 'real change', which I assume is a euphemistic way of pointing out that HB's racial and ethnic make up doesn't match the rest of NYC, not so much that it hasn't changed, but that it hasn't 'progress'ed.  The last time I was in HB was for my mother's funeral in 2001 and I couldn't get over the fact that it now has one way streets, to me that was a huge change, it was a sure sign that HB is losing the insular character that made it so different from the rest of NYC.   When I moved there, HB had a rather small A&P on 101 St., it was a big change when Waldbaum's opened a real supermarket on Cross Bay.  Your first comment stated that you went to St Helen's, this may seem ludicrous to you since the 'new' church has been there for fifty years, but St Helen's opening was a big change to me, unless I happen to see it mentioned here, I never think of HB as having a second parish.  Change within a neighborhood is what the residents see from within, not what the media or social pundits deem change.

What a lovely post and I share you sentiment as a former resident of HB for 18 years.  However, HB is seen by outsiders as a highly racist community, add to that the 'mob' culture that seems to have become a sense of pride.  What are your thoughts about outsiders looking into the community?

Bonnie: Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience.   I appreciate your candid response.  I have to say that although I share the sentiment of Ray and Johnny about our childhoods, I also acknowledge the drugs and dangerous teens that dominated the area in the late 70s.  My mother once said Howard Beach was like a rich Harlm; but we were much prettier. It sounds like you might share some of this sentiment.   hope you find peace and great success in college. 

By the way, I remember kids who were the first class is Beach Channel.  It was a really big deal when they first opened their doors.  I'd like to hear more of your experiences, both positive and negative if you have time to write.

Dee:

Thank you for the compliment! 

My profession requires a lot of writing and analysis.  The writings I do about things that I have an interest in, comes from my passions and/or interests.  In particular,  I have always been interested in exploring the topic of "growing up" in Howard Beach during the 1960's and 1970's and how things have changed since that time.  I believe that this story is representative of many stories in the US of how children today have such different chilhoods than the childhoods we had back then.  Howard Beach has such an interesting history withiin the context of the history of New York City........HB was once a summertime escape haven for the affluent of Manhattan.  Yet what makes HB so unique in the history of Queens and NYC is its geographic location within the Borough.  The fact that it has such "hard" boundary lines has helped to keep the community identity and physical definition.  At the same time, it has hindered the community and its residents from understanding and tolerating people who are "different" than those that traditionally have lived in HB.  This has lead to some of the unfortunate incidents that HB has experienced over the last few decades.

There are similar stories that exist in Queens, as well as some neigborhoods in Brooklyn.  Former residents of Whitestone, Douglaston, Ozone Park, Glendale, Maspeth, Richmond Hill, Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, all have fond memories of their childhoods in their neighborhoods.  Some are different than HB given the more "cosmopolitan" nature of the communities, but they all share the same memories of local candy stores, bakeries, grocery stores, street games, childhood friends and elementary schools.  Perhaps they were simplier times, missing the complex decisions and competing interests that children face today.  Perhaps I am just nostaglic and am remembering things through "rose-colored" glasses.

Anyway, I am very interested in your collection of stories that you are pulling together and I would love to read them when you complete your project.

Ray