791 Coney Island Avenue: Brooklyn: What it was like to grow up in Brooklyn in the 1920s, '30s and '40s before WWII

A kid of Italian immigrants grows up in South Brooklyn and Flatbush during the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, playing Johnny-on-the-Pony, Ringalevio and Spin-the-Bottle.

Life was simpler then, before the breakup of “Ma Bell,” the corporate takeovers, and junk mail. His generation was deeply affected by the Great depression; the Big Band music of Goodman, Dorsey, Ellington; movies of Cowboy and Indians, Fred and Ginger; Mickey and Judy; the New York World’s Fair; and Pearl Harbor, which forced them t...