My dad's side of the family hails from Brooklyn, in a line that extends back several generations. As it happens, my grandfather — Poppy, né Arthur Edward, Sr. — had the forethought to commit his earliest childhood memories to audiotape in 1995, a year before he died. (Thanks, Poppy.)
Now, since no one in the world besides Poppy has a cassette player, the tape hasn't done much but gather dust for the past decade. Fearing the toll ten years might have taken, I decided this Christmas to find a tape player, cost and strange looks from young electronics clerks be damned. Success came at the everyday low price of $9.99 at National Wholesale Liquidators, Broadway at Houston St.
FF>> I transfer the tape to disc and give it to Arthur Edward, Jr., for Christmas.
PLAY> I had never heard the tape before. Apparently Poppy, with his six brothers and one sister, spent early childhood in Bed-Stuy (who knew he was so tough?) before moving to Park Slope, which abuts Prospect Park. He described the park in cheerful detail, recalling one snowfall when his inventive brothers Jasper and Charlie made their own skis.
|
Harold, Jasper, Charlie
Arthur ("Poppy") & Ed
c. 1914
|
|
|
Hear Poppy tell it:
With little extra money in the ten-person household, Jasper and Charlie foraged for some planks of wood, brought them home and set about curving the tips. Together they instituted a laborious process: Jasper used the kitchen kettle to steam one pair while Charlie clamped the other pair in the basement vise and suspended weights from the backs, then they switched. It took a lot of running up and down the stairs, but they soon hit the trails with the only homemade skis in Park Slope, Brooklyn.