Snow Storms in the projects

I find it interesting or disturbing that I don't remember what I have already written about.  Of course I vaguely remember, possible events i covered.  In my early posts about growing up in  East New York, I know  I talked about the witches, the blue rats,fishing for rats in sewers with chewing gum on a string,weapons, packs of stray dogs, shoplifting, burning my moms kitchen down, lots of cool stuff.  I'm too lazy to look back and see what i wrote about. So for those who read all the old stuff, forgive me if i repeat myself. For those who didn't ,, what are you waiting for ,  read the old ones, those are the best, well they were the longest  haha.
       Since it is snowing outside now I think I'll recall the snow storms of the  50's.  My memory tells me the snow was at least 6 feet high. Considering that I must have been  4ft 6"  the snow was probably 2 ft high and some  deep drifts. All I know the  snow was over our heads in some places. One cool thing about  East new York was there was these barren fields  we called "the lots".  Some were once farms. Some were just  empty plots of land. But they were always  down a hill.  That being said,  hills and snow, that means  sled riding. We all had those wooden sleds with metal runner blades.  The brand was  something  Flyer,, maybe  Famous Flyer,  Sky Flyer , i can't recall.  But they were indestructible. We always had a  rope tied to the wooden steering handle.It didn't exactly steer it, it kind of bent the metal blades to guide you in a direction.  We would   hold the sled up , like holding a surf board. We would run with it and dive with it down onto the hill , and ride it down that snow so fast , it was scary.  We'd often end up buried in a snow bank. Or we would flip over  and roll down the hill with the sled. Sometimes we would crash into our friends and  ummm try to kill them.   No one ever  died that i know of.   The more  we sledded, the more packed down the snow got, and the faster we would go.  There was a hill, we heard about since we were little, but we were too young to go to. But when we were 13 we were old enough to attempt the deadly  "Snake Hill". It was  up by Highland Park. That was past East New York a few blocks after Fulton St or Jamaica Ave. The Park was bordered by Ridgewood on one side, and  Forest Park, Woodhaven  on the other side.   Anyway, the hill was  crazy. And it went across a road with traffic. And you couldn't stop . And you could surely  get killed. But we all tried it. Snake Hill was  for  ENY  sled heroes.  Houdini's grave is in Highland Park by the way. Every year someone steals his head from the statue of him.  Years later, drug addicts would hang out by his grave and leave cough medicine bottles on the monument there.  After a rough , scary sled ride there, we would stop by White Castle for a  9 cent or 12 cent hamburger. Well usually  several of them.
    The other thing we would do as kids, when it snowed was build a fort. We were obsessed with forts. We built some good forts and defended them against the enemy.  The enemy was always the kids from the  neighboring buildings. Like  740,  756, or maybe the guys from  "Dry Gulch" that was the area by our  elementary school. PS 273 aka The Wortman School.  There were good "lots"  near the school.
We would have our forts and  line up 100 snow balls to throw. We were well armed with  snow balls. Some were more like  ice balls.  I used to love when one of us would yell out  "Attack!"  We'd grab a  bunch of snow balls  run towards the enemy , and bombard them. then run back to the fort and  hide, and make more ammo.  It was fun.  By the end of the day we'd be frost bitten.  Even on more peaceful snowy days when we'd build a giant snowman, with carrot nose and  coal buttons, we'd still get frost bitten.  We would  go inside the building and put our  frozen gloves on the radiator in the lobby. the hallway was always  wet from our snowy boots.  We usually wore long underwear or two pairs of pants. Sometimes we even had  flannel lined jeans. You don't see those anymore.  We had our woolen beanie caps that we pulled over our faces .  You could see through that wool.  We'd love to throw snowballs at  tractor trailers.  To hear the sound of 20 snowballs hitting the side of the container was a wonderful drum- like sound.  Some friends of mine , one time ventured up to the train station on Van Siclen Ave. and were bombarding the subway trains with snow or ice balls as it went by.  My friend Sandy and Dennis got arrested for that. Imagine, all the shootings you hear about today and  my friends get arrested for throwing snowballs at a train.  Come on,,, what the heck.  Anyway, moving right along,  I learned fast that leather gloves turned into the hardest things after you wear them in the snow all day and put them on a radiator. The worst part of this learning experience was that it was my father's leather gloves,,Oh yeah, he was so pissed off.  But hey, at least my hands stayed warm most of the day.
   Well I hope it snows and snows tonite. It will bring back those fond memories of big snow storms in Brooklyn.  

Hurricane and phone service

Hurricane  Sandy left me with no phone service on my landline and fax line.
Both Verizon and At&t were and still are out of service.  They changing the  date repairs will be completed. I figure it will be in  6 months.  AT&T was a problem even before  Sandy. Their cells service was the worst.  I asked one of their representatives if  AT&T  meant  Always Telephone Trouble, they didn't laugh.
     I had a conversation the other day with a Verizon representative. I asked for a credit on  my bill, since I have had no service since the storm hit.   I called into repair  a few weeks later to see what their progress was.  I didn't think I had to call in immediately since my whole neighborhood is out of service.  They told  me credit is only from when I called in, they said I should have called sooner..I said  , "how could i have called, i didn't have phone service".    Then they said  , If i didn't pay the balance they would cut off my service.  I'm scratching my head... I don't have any service  ,,, now they want to cut  off my service.. So I ask them " if you cut off my service , how will I know?"  since I do not have any service ,,, hmmmmmmmm