NYC Tenement Air Shafts

One of the reasons I loved growing up in East Harlem during the 50’s was the neighborhood.  Family and friends were all so close.  Although we grew up on the streets of New York, we lived in a world of our own.  People on the block knew one another and we felt safe because we knew everyone had our back.  The buildings were very old and I still remember the black and white tiled floor on each level.  The apartments were worn and needed fixing, but we all lived together in harmony and there was no competing with one another like there is nowadays.

When we wanted to give a message or get in touch with someone in our building all we had to do was call out in the stairwells. The other means of communication was the air shafts.  This was the openings [see side photo] inside between the buildings.  You could call out for someone out of the window of the air shaft and they would come to their window.  We would also pass things through the windows to our neighbor whose window was right next to ours in the air shaft.  The windows were close enough that you could even climb into your neighbor’s apartment.  If any of you saw the Godfather Part II … there was a scene when they were younger that Clemenza passes a package to Vito Corleone through the apartment building air shaft window…

You could also see neighbors climbing the stairs in the hallways of the building across from your’s through the air shafts.  They were wide double pane windows with window seats.  I remember when I was a kid sitting on the window seat in the stairwell listening to the music playing from the apartments in the building and the building across the air shaft.  Grandpa playing Caruso on the old Victrola, Joe Petito singing Billy Eckstine’s “Caravan” on his way home and up the stairs.   On Sunday mornings you didn’t know whose meatballs were frying for the gravy (yes I said gravy – that’s what we called it back then) because everyone was frying meatballs.  We had macaroni and gravy every single Sunday without fail.  Mondays we had soup because you had to clean out the stomach from everything we ate on Sundays and WE ATE…..at grandma’s and grandpa’s every single Sunday.  This was my mother’s family and she was the oldest of 14 children.  Most of her sisters and brothers were married and had children (all my cousins).  You can imagine what chaos there was every Sunday; including a few fights between the uncles.

As I tell these stories, I remember so many good times with family and with friends.  Hope you are enjoying the stories and hope it brings some of you back as well.