Growing Up on Foster

The conservative blogger Karol Sheinin, who came from Russia to Foster between Coney and East 10th, writes a really lovely ode to her childhood today:

My grandmother and her sister lived in apt.2E and we lived in 3E. My mom and grandma would coordinate the time, open their doors and I would run down the stairs talking to my mom halfway down and to my grandma the rest of the way. It was their version of letting me have a little freedom…but not too much.

All the hallways smelled like soup or fried vareniki or galooptsi or some other Russian dish. The hallway by my grandmother’s place always smelled best, her kitchen was always broiling with pots and pans on every burner of her tiny stove. She was ready to feed a small army which could come through at any moment. G-d, I miss my grandma.

These days my old neighborhood is slowly getting hipsterfied (that sounds right!) but back then it was pretty rough. While I was aware of dangers around me I had such an idyllic childhood there. I knew the plaza (Newkirk Plaza, nicknamed New Crack Plaza back then) containing the subway station was scary because my grandmother clutched my hand, and her bag, extra hard as we walked by it.