The Old Days

“Back in the old days”…..  funny when you realize you’re old enough to say that.

Growing up on Staten Island in the shadow of the Big Apple, I knew from a very young age I was meant for a more countrified life.  And so I set my sights on getting out of the ‘burbs as soon as possible.  In my case that was 19 years of age with  an old abandoned race horse I had adopted, with not a pot to piss in, really, except for a few important things –   a Ford pinto my father had handed down to me,  my mother’s support to attend college and a job opportunity on my aunt’s horse farm to work off that old horses board and my own.

All these many moons later, I did manage to build the countrified life complete with horses, dogs, chickens, goats, rabbits, fish etc. etc. and this family I cherish beyond the beyond.  But I won’t deny, and I wouldn’t have believed it when I was a teenager…. there are things I cherish about my time growing up in those ‘burbs.   Our streets were safe and we played all kinds of games with the neighborhood crew. Stores were walking distance, the ice cream truck came regularly.  Family lived nearby and we visited frequently.

A facebook page devoted to Staten Island in Days Gone By has been a joy to follow, with many people either still on Island or having moved on long ago like myself… reminiscing about some of those wonderful things you find in a community such as the one we grew up in.   The thing about Staten Island is….. it was once truly a beautiful place years ago, a respite from city life and employment, a safe place to raise families.  It does still have it’s charm… but  sadly, poor zoning and corruption have allowed horrendous overdevelopment and many of the old green spaces and beautiful neighborhoods are being destroyed by truly ugly housing developments.  An example is the farm house I grew up in on a pretty green lot.. now demolished and all the tall oaks and old lilac and  white and purple mulberry trees long gone.  In their place are two duplexes with zero curb appeal. No greenery.

Anyway… on that facebook page a popular deli was highlighted… Silvestro’s. My mom remembers it was a very busy place that sometimes was hard to get into because no parking spaces could be found on her way home from work and we weren’t exactly easy walking distance.  On that facebook page old neighbors, friends and patrons of that deli happily reminisced about the deli, and in particular… its famous potato salad.

I grew up with a whole lot of kids in our neighborhood and school system and one boy in particular was an old soul, the kind of kid you just knew was going to be a very decent man in life.  For me that was Charlie.  From the time we were in grade school chasing each other on bikes or walking home from school talking about whatever thing seemed important at the time… to the weekends when I’d come home from college and Connecticut life to visit mom…  Charlie would occasionally stop in to say hello if he saw my car parked out in front of 14 Miller.   He was a steady friend, a childhood rock  in a sea of rambling pebbles.  That was before cell phones and texting and facebook, etc… so people didn’t have the ease of staying in touch the way we do now, if we so choose.    I lost track of Charlie when life on the Island for my family drew to a close, but I didn’t ever forget him.

Facebook does have some great traits… one of them being reconnecting people, and keeping friends and family in touch.  And so Charlie and I caught up with each other’s lives and it’s no surprise he is a loving father and husband, a career police officer and trucker.

So… that potato salad.  I discovered through that deli facebook post on that Old Staten Island page… that for a while it had been Charlie’s grandparents deli, something I did not know back in the day…. and he shared with the rest of us that famous potato salad recipe. His grandmother kept it in a jar on top of her refrigerator at home and made it for the Deli and her family.   I made it last week… notice she didn’t measure ingredients. As Charlie describes it.. she added a little of this and a little of that until it tasted just right…. And so I did the same.

IT.. IS… DELICIOUS.   Simple and simply good.  In honor of a dear old friend, Charlie.. and his grandparents beloved deli, Silvestro’s on Staten Island…. I’ll share it with you, too.

Till soon –