read with interest Jack Treacy's reminiscences in the Winter 1998 issue of growing upon Stanley Avenue. We were practically neighbors as my brothers and I grew up on Purser Place during the same time. Yet, despite the proximity of time and place, our activities and "hangouts" were different. What we have in common is memories of the fun we had growing up in South Yonkers.

The elementary schools that served the neighborhood then were P.5.3 on Hamilton Avenue, P.S. 27 on Valentine Lane, and St. Peter's School. I went to P.S. 27. It was a long walk uphill to school, but we did it. Coming down was easier. I'm told the school is still there. I wonder if it is still the charming, sprawling white school I remember.

We lived next door to Hawthorne Junior High School, and of course we went there. The building is still there but it's now an elementary school. When it came time for high school we walked to South Broadway and took the trolley car to Gorton, Blessed Sacrament, or Sacred Heart.

Much of our social life revolved around St. Peter's Church. If we didn't go there to school went twice a week for religious instruction. We made our first communion and were confirmed there. We also went there for girl scouts. The ultimate right of passage was to become old enough to sing in the chorus of the annual St. Peter's minstrel show.

Shopping was done on a Riverdale Avenue. Children would spend hours choosing penny candy in Rosenthal's. The proprietors must have had incredible patience. We got cold cuts at Tiedemann's. Schwartz's was the pharmacy and the place where at Christmas time we could buy the loveliest gifts for our teachers. Each December we walked down Riverdale Avenue searching for a lot that had the very best Christmas tree. Of course, Dad had to bargain with the owner to get the tree for no more than $1.50. Once we had our prize, Dad took the heavier end while I took the lighter and we toted it back to Purser Place where it stayed in the cellar until Christmas Eve.

The dry goods store Siegler's seemed to have everything. There was a tiny store called Markman's where we bought our comic hooks: "Captain Marvel" or "Superman" for the boys is but definitely "Archie" for the girls.

We were children during the years of World War Two. We filled Red Cross boxes in school to send to children in England and collected scrap metal and newspapers in our red wagons for the war effort. Since most of us could not remember any other way of life we seemed to adjust well to those years. But who could forget the day the lights came back on, V J day.

We played all sorts of a seasonal games which we organized ourselves. In the winter we would take our ice skates and walk to the lakes at Tibbetts or Van Cortlandt parks or we could pull our sleds--they had to be flexible Flyers--to the top of the Bailey Avenue and ride all the way down to the bottom. There were fewer cars and, I guess, no snowplows.

In the spring we played marbles and jacks, rode our bikes and roller skated. If we were really lucky we always had a skate key and a bike with balloon tires. We played Hide-and-go-seek, Red Rover, Giant Steps, ball games, and jump rope. On hot summer at nights after the Good Humor, Eskimo Pie, or a Bungalow Bar ice cream trucks came by, we sat on the curb and played "Time."

Autumn of course brought a return to school. Most of the girls had new plaid dresses. The highlight of autumn was Halloween. During the war years we were on double daylight saving time and it seemed to take forever for darkness to come. Neighbors invited us in to bob for apples and pretended never to be able to guess who we were in our costumes. We traveled from house to house not threatening trick or treat but asking "anything for Halloween." We didn't care much about getting candy. Money was big jackpot.

The boys got jobs delivering groceries or setting up pins in the bowling alley. The girls baby at for 25 cents an hour. There was no shortage of families living in the large apartment house on the corner of Purser Place and Morris Street who needed baby sitters. As we got older we got jobs as camp counselors or shop assistants but those first baby-sitting jobs were special.

Most of us eventually moved away from south Yonkers but many of us have kept in touch over the years. In fact, it was a friend from the neighborhood who introduced me to this publication. Purser Place has changed. It used to go through from Morris to Culver Street but doesn't anymore. We still remember the fun of growing up in a neighborhood where people cared about us, were interested in our comings and goings, and probably put up with a lot more than people do today. In those days, that was what being but child was all about.