The Bay-View Chronicles

There was little mischief a kid could get into within the borders of the Bayview Projects and get away with it. The entire community was one family. I must admit, being a “busy kid”, that was not always to my delight. Black, White, cops, storeowners; all worked in unison to keep the community speaking in one voice and with one purpose, which was taking care of one another. I am not sure what makes a community come together in that way, but the inhabitants of Bayview made it happen; whatever the recipe, whatever the balance, the coming together of Bayview was almost near perfection.

Summers in the Bayview housing development were a remarkable time to be a kid. Hell, it was a fantastic time to be most anyone. I didn’t realize it then, but there was just nothing better. Tuesday mornings were dubbed as Fishing Tuesday for Stan and me. We would be up at five a.m., fishing poles in hand, a gardening trowel to dig for worms, a bologna sandwich, maybe two, and we were armed with trash talk about who would out-fish whom.

Summers in Bayview was an awesome time for myself and my good friend Stan. He and I had an unshakable habit of taking the short walk down to the Canarsie Pier every Tuesday and spending the day fishing and talking about anything that came to mind.