David F. lived on Rugby Road from 1976(?) to 2021. He planted tree nº 001, the Red Maple that’s now taller than his house, on a Tuesday in May.
My wife and I were on the Upper West Side and pregnant, in that order. We saw an ad in the Voice for a top-floor flat with a turret. Came out on a Saturday in February. The Q ran on the BMT then. We signed the lease that afternoon. The kitchen had linoleum from 1948.
Marlborough between Beverley and Cortelyou. The light is good and there’s usually somebody pruning something. Followed by Argyle, which has the best stoops.
Brooklyn Hardware on Cortelyou for anything that takes a screw. Café Madeline if the answer is coffee. The library if it’s a quiet place to think. The kitchen tables of three or four neighbors if what I need is an opinion.
There was a quiet woman on Argyle for years — kept to herself, gave a small wave from the porch — who turned out to have run the longest supper club in Brooklyn out of her parlor. Twenty-some years. We didn’t know until her daughter mentioned it at the cleanup.
Three things. One: walk every block within the year. You’ll meet someone. Two: do not feed the cats on Coney Island Avenue, no matter what the older woman in the green coat says. Three: come to Arbor Day even if you do nothing but hold a shovel.
How to ask for help without making it a big thing. You walk over with a question; you walk back with a casserole and three opinions about the boiler.
— What was here before you?