Third Avenue

I'm a sucker for anything nostalgic about Third Avenue, particularly anything set around the time the elevated tracks were there.  The "El" was torn down in 1956, but I clearly remember it, although never needed to ride on it.  The family flower shop was there on 18th Street, in the same building my grandfather, grandmother and great uncle lived, where my father and his brothers had moved after Second Avenue.

So when I read of a book titled 'This Place on Third Avenue' by John McNulty, a collection of stories written about the comings and goings of the population from a gin mill named Tim and Joe Costello's, I had to look into it further.

John McNulty wrote these stories from the mid 30s to the mid 50s and they appeared in The New Yorker.  John was a reporter for the Daily News, but found an additional outlet for his writing in these sketches.

Talk about being gobsmacked! Yogi Berra once stated, "I really didn't say everything I said."  And he should believed.

By the second page of McNulty's stories I'm reading about a cab driver, 'hackman,' who misses the old days regarding a certain joint that was a favorite.  The cabby comes into Costello's and moans, "Nobody goes there anymore.  It's too crowded."

This is one of the most famous Yogi Berra sayings ever.  I can't tell when the piece was written, but nothing in the book has a copyright after 1956.  If McNulty was having the cabby quote Berra, he'd likely would have attributed his statement to Berra.

Despite a limited education, I'm sure Yogi learned to read.  With no disrespect, it's not likely however he was a reader of The New Yorker. 

I can't wait to read what else might come to light that's been underneath the rumbling of those tracks all these years.

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