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Plum Thickets and Field Daisies
A Jewish Friend
AFTER OUR FATHER’S DEATH, our older brother began working when he was ten years old to supplement the family income. His salary was only one dollar and a half per week, but it was a great financial help to my mother, especially during the summer.
Churches and Religious Activities of Various Members of the Brooklyn Community
THE COLORED RACE as a whole was markedly religious during the dark days of slavery, and out of many a fervent gathering held in the recesses of dark swamps or other forbidden places came the simple, sincere thoughts expressed in many grand old spirituals.
June Bugs
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Peddlers
MANY PEOPLE OF FOREIGN BIRTH walked the Brooklyn streets daily. People called them peddlers. Mr. Harry Golden has written an interesting history of Jewish peddlers in one of his recent books. Perhaps some of these peddlers who came to Brooklyn were Jews.
We could never differentiate between peddlers as far as their nationalities were concerned, but we thought them to be mainly Italians and Syrians. Most of them had swarthy complexions, straight black hair and could have been easily mistaken for some types of colored people.
A Great Tenor - Mr. Oscar Jackson
EVERYBODY SEEMED TO LOVE Mr. Oscar. Oscar, as almost everyone called him, was a remarkable man and the possessor of a remarkable talent. Few people who heard his magnificent tenor voice in action whether he was singing the Episcopal church hymns he loved so well, the tenor notes in a quartet, or the touching strains of “Deep River” would deny this. His was an extraordinary talent which he used freely to sing God’s praise and to give other people joy.
I Remember Brooklyn
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Transportation
BEFORE THE COMING OF THE STREETCARS, most people who were early settlers in Brooklyn walked wherever they wanted to go, especially to and from work. Later, a very few people had automobiles, but most of them who were able to afford riding used a horse and a carriage.
Old Myers Street School
A RAMBLING WOODEN, two-story building known as Myers Street School was the hubcap in the spoke wheel of Brooklyn. This enormous, ungainly structure with several large shade trees surrounding it was in the middle of a square plot of land fronting on Myers Street. Reports from various sources say that the school was named in honor of Mr. Myers who sold the land to the city for a school for colored children in 1887. At one time, it was the only school in the city they could attend.
Homes and Their Surroundings
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