I graduated from JHS 246 which is Walt Whitman Junior High School. They eventually changed the moniker to “Middle School”.

We lived on Bedford Avenue near the intersection with Clarkson Avenue. My brother and I spent most of our lives hanging out in the P.S. 92 schoolyard on Winthrop Street. We played every sport imaginable including stick ball and softball, but our two favorites were basketball and football. And unlike today’s world where everything is run by the parents, we organized all our activities and games ourselves. I vividly remember our father coming to the schoolyard and ordering us to come home for dinner, otherwise we would spend both the afternoon and evening in our beloved schoolyard.

We had quite a cast of characters and I remember many of the names and here they are in no particular order. They included Lester Adler, Bobby Chalik, Billy Gowan, Michael and Tony Bowles, Vinnie Selman, Jimmy Cymbala, Jimmy Donahue, Big Frank, David Rothschild, Dean Wein, Al Traegar, Mark Lazarus, Stuart Neirenstein, and Tommy Cahill.

I don’t have any photos from the schoolyard itself but here are some of my old photos from my Middle School era.