And speaking of Brooklyn (no one recently spoke of Brooklyn) here's a video clip that never gathered the attention it deserved. I suppose I should have posted it to that surprisingly active Boro Park group over on Facebook. But Facebook is such a circus these days. Not even a very lively circus. It feels like a carnival teetering on bankruptcy. And whatever they did to "design" peoples pages? Total house of mirrors; I should change my icon to some Picasso-esque fragmented image of myself. Or someone else -- who'd know?

Anyway, here's some footage we found on the old film reels from up in Vito's closet. That's 38th Street, facing down toward Dahill, then across the playground to the el over 37th Street. And yes, that's an old Culver Shuttle train silently clattering along. (At least I'm pretty sure it had already been relegated to a "shuttle" by the early 1960s.)

Gotta be some rail-fans out there jonesing for some rare footage of this bygone Brooklyn classic. Now if I only had video of those old guys who stood under the el playing bocce over by 14th Ave.