“Brighton Beach Memoirs” penned by Neil Simon was never like this.
How could the creative one of the two siblings foretaste Hurricane Sandy
decades later what was once the Berighton Beach bathes, later a high rise condo
complex,(Neil Diamond’s mother’s habitat)
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, its surge acting out the half moon’s ocean rise..
“Ralphie boy your very word is
my command, just like when we were alive and active with Alice and Tootsie. I’m
your man,”he said, responding to his civic duty. “I always wanted to be an
investigator. Not like I’m back in the sewers. But like a L.A. earthquake or
the San Francisco. biggie.
“A natural calamity in our
beloved Brooklyn... why Ralphie, it’s a charge the Nortons always will
remember.”.
“Cherish the moment,. Nortron,”
said Ralphie, spitting on his many splendored rag,tarnishing the edges round
his plaque. . “We put in our time, . I
know you can do a first class job. A
problem solver with your open mind. You’re a million dollar man Nortron.. You transcend trivia.
Gimme a high five.”
. A mission impossible?
Nevah!
III
“Awet war zone,” said Ed Norton to himself, as he recycled decades
and decades of living out his dream as a comedian. A gift of selflessness and
big mucho grande empathy,
Brought up on 14th
Street off the Ave H station. The same line decades later he was being
recognized, cognizant of the Mayor, Governor, the civic fathers back in City
Hall.
“Maybe even the Cossacks,” said Norton, ruminating about friends with
wired coils, in potato hard boxed ears..
“Marie Anotoinette trying to
find her place in the world. Can y’ blame her?,” he said, side steping one
of his over flowing sewers, the debris like stench and garbage unto the
sidewalk, the eerie silence broken by Norton’s boots, slushing through the
water, where once pedestrians talked their Russian walk and gossip in this
Russian outpost, once the bailiwick for Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs”..
IV
Looks like half of Breezy Point
‘s club had been here earlier. A 30 mile jaunt past Floyd Bennet Field. The sea
planes below the Bridge to Breezy Point, the Belt to and from JFK and Staten
Island’s Verrazano Bridge,
Chairs, tables wooden steps.
Hugh sections of piers, a blue rowboat stenciled RPYC or BPYC. Can’t tell.......Al
sorts of metal...a refrigerator. Children’s toys. An erector se, electric
trains, puzzles.
V
Homes off Bay 7, where
“Norton&Ralphie boy”, frolicked as high school kids ... a shanty town without power for weeks.
Coney Island creek is loaded with smelly sentiments. Coal cars flooded
it,. Hurricane Sandy under its half
moon, raking its toll.
Lots of seniors 20 floors up in
the cold dark and with n o water. 2 buildings of the Ocean/Millenium luxury
condos at Coney Island Avenue have had major damage to their elevators and had
to be evacuated.
VI
Behind my building , was once a
lovely old coop building. High end design circa 1960,WQ. Hershkowitz, the
Inspector) Several steps up to the lobby, thinking they were still flying half
mast so I dared the worst.
VII
In the next door condo, adjacent to the boardwalk and Bay 7
where we romped as kidsthe cars in the underground garage were buried in the
sand, from that Bay
The windows on the first floor blown out. How tenuous and
fragile are our lives. God forbid, the prognosticators on their computer models
saying a Northeastern is expected to hit what was once our shore in 2 or 3
days....counting the hours, the ticks....
To our someday,
dump tr ucks will come and put back
those mountains of sand on the beach, wence they rightly belong....sand castles
pop bvottles for deposits, sifting snd for lost treasures.
All but fantasies bnefore the surge.’s violence ,its turmoil
on Brighton Beach, changing how we thin k of ourselves and mortality. In the
City that never sleeps.
Of course the nay sayers would say Hurricane Sndy in no ways
mirrors the massacre of 3000 of us, in the Twin Towers ambush of 9/11/2001
Brighton Beach Avenue boarded up. But thru the knotholes,
foot may still be sold “Fresh?”
“Defrosted?” “Soaked?” ion more ways than one could
imagine.Rocco’s pizza made by the light of a generator.
“Fresh cold cuts and cheese tomorrow” said the honcho to the
crowd, hoping they won’t be sold. “Save my place in line,” said one hungry
Brighton Beacher...
On line...... a prayer to a higher power .
VIII
On West 5th, the handball players shoveling the
courts.. The basketball courts at the projects stalled for the moment and
beyond. NBA dreams put on hold for the Brooklyn Nets.
No one has a car but no one. Rumors circulating the
insurance companies are not sending adjusters out in the field . Assuming the
cars are totaled.
Some folks have cars but no way to get gas. Bloomy rationing
it out on odd and even license plates. A driver got on line at 4:30 a.m. At 5
p.m., he waved the whiue flag, surrendering. Hee found agas pump at a station
nearby.
IXI
“The French Connection” subway ? A joke! Nothing until Kings
Highway.
Buses are packed, the strap hangers energy ,mightier than
pre Hurricane Sandy
crushing crashing
surge..
No way to slosh over to Ira Waldbaum’s super market on Ocean
Avenue&Voorhees...rumors that his “friendly service” is reopening...
******
Ed Norton closed his lap top. “The sewers were never like
this”.
