A Bigger Slice of Sky

A Bigger Slice of Sky The sky was only visible in long narrow slices while we played on one-way Brooklyn streets Thick with kids apartment houses one next to the other lined the sidewalks like great canyon walls rising six or eight stories while the sun moved through the day creating hard edged shadows that flowed and softened with each passing hour street level storefronts shoulder to shoulder with large plate glass windows that invited you to witness what was happening inside candy stores next to tailor shops shoeshine parlors drug stores butchers and purveyors of pickles each with the proprietor's name etched in big bold letters at Cohen’s candy store mr. Cohen made your egg cream and gave you a 2 cent pretzel to munch Joey Thomazula shined your shoes at Joey’s bootblack parlor and took bets in the back room Doc Felcher mixed your cough syrup at Felcher’s drug store and crazy Louie the pickle man dipped into the brine barrel barehanded to get you a big fat kosher dill Brooklyn one-way streets were a great place to be in those days every block it’s own self-contained universe but I ran from them as soon as I could far from towering beehive apartments desperate for a bigger slice of sky...