Brooklyn in the 70's

[Nam Vet]

This was my life in the 70's in the Bensonhurst Section of Brooklyn. The guy in the Caddy didn't make it.

[RanchRoper]

Very cool photos. Yikes, caddy got whacked!

[CT_Shooter]

Keep them coming, Nam Vet. I'm lovin' it. Did you ever learn the backstory on the guy in the Caddy?

[RetiredSeabee]

I like the way your pictures tell a story.
Tough neighborhood.

[Sir Henry]

Keep them coming, Nam Vet. I'm lovin' it. Did you ever learn the backstory on the guy in the Caddy?

Please tell us.

[Steve51]

Looks way to crowded for me. A crowd of about nine people is my limit. There were 16 at our wedding and that was way too crowded.

[Nam Vet]

Keep them coming, Nam Vet. I'm lovin' it. Did you ever learn the backstory on the guy in the Caddy?

Please tell us.

OK, it happened around the corner from my house.The guy in the car was a friend of mine's father. He owned money to some mob people. He had been warned many times but always thought he was a step head of them. He was soooooooooooo wrong. They got him about 6 am when he was leaving for work. Mob shooting were not uncommon in the 70's-80's in Brooklyn. If we heard a car making a fast turn around a corner we would all hit the deck. Sometimes I thought was safer in Nam.

[Sir Henry]

Keep them coming, Nam Vet. I'm lovin' it. Did you ever learn the backstory on the guy in the Caddy?

Please tell us.

OK, it happened around the corner from my house.The guy in the car was a friend of mine's father. He owned money to some mob people. He had been warned many times but always thought he was a step head of them. He was soooooooooooo wrong. They got him about 6 am when he was leaving for work. Mob shooting were not uncommon in the 70's-80's in Brooklyn. If we heard a car making a fast turn around a corner we would all hit the deck. Sometimes I thought was safer in Nam.

What's it like there now?

[Nam Vet]

It very expensive to buy a house there now. Much safer nothing like it used to be. All the homes on my old block are in the upper 8's. My dad bought our house in 1956 for 47K. Times changed big time.

[Sir Henry]

I bet he grumbled at paying 47K too.

[CT_Shooter]

Forty seven thousand dollars in 1956 was fortune. My parent's first CT house in 1953 cost under $7000. Thanks for the backstory.

[Deadwood Dutch]

I was there one time in 1964. A buddy and I went to see his friend who lived in a house on Flatbush Ave. and that is all I can recall about being there. But I have been to Manhattan several times.

[PT7]

Makes my younger years in a near-west Chicago suburb seem kind of tame. The only serious incident I recall, not near the level of your caddy story, was on my FROSH orientation day in high school. It was a large high school -- about 5000 students, and my FROSH incoming class was 1100. School was highly integrated. A motorcycle gang from Chicago came west and started a pretty wild melee at the school, beating up on kids, who were non-white. Walking the halls the first days of high school was tense, as fights continued even there. Tough high school days at times....but again, comparatively mild to your neighborhood, Nam.

And your statement really tells the depth of your story: "Sometimes I thought was safer in Nam." That's pretty heavy stuff.

[Nam Vet]

I bet he grumbled at paying 47K too.

Sorry I had my dates wrong. We moved from NYC to Bklyn in 57 but didn't buy our house till 64. Your right 47k in 54 would have been a fortune.

[Sir Henry]

I bet he grumbled at paying 47K too.

Sorry I had my dates wrong. We moved from NYC to Bklyn in 57 but didn't buy our house till 64. Your right 47k in 54 would have been a fortune.

We paid $77K for our first home in 1978. That was a fortune back then.