Some Scenes From South Brooklyn's Past

I sometimes talk on this blog about Leonardo's, the brick-oven pizza place that used to be on Court Street, near First Place. But I've never had a picture to post. Here it is, on a snowy day in, I don't know, the late '90s. There's a Dunkin' Donuts there now. How I hate it.

Some sort of parade (Halloween?) down Court Street in, I'm guessing, the 1980s. That must be the first incarnation of Casa Rosa in the background. The building's been salmon pink as long as I've known it, and that's 16 years.

I'm reaching way back here to a place only few people living still remember. A long time ago, there used to be an ice cream parlor on Court Street, near Baltic, called Ebel's. It was one of three beloved ice cream joints on Court, one of them called Swede's, near Carroll Street. In 1964, the New York Times referred to it as "a candy store with a good reputation." Every old South Brooklyn kid who recalls it describes it as a popular hangout of its day. This photo is from Ebel's earliest days. Jeez. What a place. I'd hang out there, too. I'd never leave.