Mildred Lytch:  

I was born in QueensGeneral Hospital. Grew up in Brooklyn; Brownsville as a matter of fact,One of my earliest memories is of being carried outside in the middle of the night.Neighbors had seen black smoke billowing out from around the edges of the door of our apartment into the lighted hallway. The exhaust pipe had become dislodged from the hole in the wall that should have vented the smoke thru the chimney from the little potbellied stove that warmed us. The next day my father went out to buy a kerosene burning stove. He took my brother Sonny with him. Sonny went off riding in his little red "PF Flyer Wagon;"which would be used to transport the new heater back to the house. I was told that I couldn't go because I would not have wanted to walk back home. but to ride to and fro. Hey, I must have been about three years old. I was 4 when we moved around the corner to a more "modern " apt., on Thatford Ave. We had steam heat... from a gas radiator that my parents filled with water and then lit with a match. Our house was between Glenmore and Pitkin Avenues, Murray;s Bar on the Glenmore corner and Kishke King graced the Pitkin corner. Mmm, their foot long kosher frankfurters, knishes and french fries, I can smell them even now. The fall after the move I started kindergarten at P.S. 84, 0n the corner of Stone (now Mother Gaston) and Glenmore Aves, My teacher was The ideal kg teacher, Ms. McLean, a heavy set, white haired, elderly woman with a perpetual smile. I have no memories of even one moment of separation angst or anxiety, Mildred Henderson was in my class, & Marion Evans. There was Thomas Cantone, Anthony Russo, Patricia Chastain, Lila Horowitz, Paul Pendarvis, Josephine Amato, Harvey Sokolov, & Thomas Lee. I'm sure there were a few more,but those are the names that come to mind now. The elementary school went up to the third grade and occupied the first 2 floors of the building. The upper 2 floors housed the, "g...Expand for more