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Subject: Anyone remember the Canarsie Christmas

Author:
Jeff Smith (Canarsie Christmas)

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Date Posted: 05:53:26 12/08/08 Mon
In reply to: Joey Muller 's message, "LOOKING FOR OLD FRIENDS FROM CANARSIE, INCLUDING BAYVIEW" on 19:16:40 08/08/05 Mon

>I have very wondrful memories of Canarsie Christmas
the wild lights. As a child we always went (in our
Hudson Hornet!) to the Brooklyn Terminal Market to get our Christmas tree. My father would take the long way around and spend over an hour just crusing Carnarsie to look at the lights. It was AMAZING! lights everywhere!!!So many
lights (this was the era of C6, C7 and the outdoor C9's)
But the lights were placed with such precision and care and with a REAL artist's eye. On many, many streets EVERY
house was decorated to the absolute MAX! So many houses and lights that on many blocks it created a, well, Christ-
mas tunnel to drive through. The effect was GREAT!!!!

There was also a "competitive" atmosphere which wasn't
so "Christmas" in sprit. There was a kind of,"Oh you did
that, well watch what I do next year"..type attitude..all
of which wonderfully intensified the atmosphere.

My father would roll into the blocks long christmas tunnels
of canarsie, gun the glass packs on the 7X Hornet engine and say; "my god they have lights on the garbage cans"

Then we would go home with the tree to watch the Rhinegold
Theater's story of silent night on TV

Shift scene to 1980's Denver Colorado; I'm out in Denver to attend a convention. I go to a "revitalized" old industrial area of the city where they were trying to
create loft spaces in an old warehouse. They had tour-
ist oriented stores on the first floor mini mall. Much
like the fulton st pier mall in manhattan. Same formula.
In the mini mall was the standard open all year long Christmas store with a wide range of Christmas decorations.
But the store was named "A country Christmas"....
The picture in the window is the classic scene of city
kids being brought to the country for a Christmas with
grandparents who meet the train with a house drawn sleigh
with jungle bells....

Standing there in July in Denver in 1983 I automaticly
said aloud the great statement...

"I dont want a country Christmas, I WANT A CANARSIE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!"

People looked at me like I was a alien from another
planet. After the reaction I got I thought to myself
sure, I'm an alien...from a better place, and a MUCH
better time.

I would like to speak to anyone who feels about the
late 1940's to early 1960's Brooklyn especially Canarsie
Christmas memories.

Jeffrey Smith 212 532 2753, 646 510 6634

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