A trip back to old stomping grounds

The unexpected colliding of two events motivated my family to return to my husband’s stomping grounds in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn one summer Sunday: Carmela “Mama” Sbarro’s passing earlier this season and our foodie son’s keen interest to try the local restaurant, well-known for its pizza and spumoni. A road trip was in order.

My daughter represents the fourth generation in our former one bedroom apartment — my home for six years — from just before my wedding until moving to East Meadow when my son was born. 

Though not a native, I now feel honored to have lived in the neighborhood. I was moved not only by how much had changed, but how much we remembered.

We walked the area like tourists, taking photos, showing our son his father’s elementary school as well as the family furniture store that lasted longer than the easy chair that we had just put out for bulk pick up. We wanted to share the bakery that made our Halloween baby shower cake and the site of the original Sbarro delicatessen where Mama ruled long before it was a conglomerate, but they were both long gone.

Our youngster remarked how much he would have liked to live there, to share in the attitude and ambiance of this neighborhood — its sights and sounds, access to the subway, small stores and local playgrounds. But the turf didn’t stay still. It too was gentrified — the bagel bakery now a Starbucks, the corner restaurant usurped by Dunkin’ Donuts. 

Despite everything, I was convinced we would meet someone we knew; an event we’ve come to call a “Dave moment.” Dave, a family friend, was in the old Queens neighborhood selling his parents’ apartment when, in the midst of packing and preparing, he stopped to get a bagel. He also got something he relished more when he recognized and talked with an elderly woman who knew him and his family for years.

Thinking of this phenomenon, we walked past our old apartment building and saw a man sitting on the stoop smoking a cigarette and saw Pete; our downstairs neighbor who watched my husband grow up. It was hard to say who was more thrilled for this moment — one we all could hardly envision, much less orchestrate; the “Dave moment.”

While the men shared a few stories and talked of change, I thought of the day, almost two decades old, when we packed up, bound for East Meadow, our history from upstairs neighbor to suburban friend. It’s funny how these moments happen before we even have a chance to examine them, but thanks to Pete, we got that opportunity.

Lauren Lev is an East Meadow resident and a direct marketing/advertising executive working on Long Island. She teaches advertising and marketing communications courses at the Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY and LIU Post. Her story on a Jewish education program impacting our local community appears in “Thin Threads: Real Stories of Hadassah Life Changing Moments,” published July 2012.