19 February 2011

The Best Dressed Kids On Todt Hill






My Mother (in a home-sewn half-man, half-woman costume) with my Aunt Susan (the clown) and my Aunt Karen (the black cat)...  Dressed to kill in front of my grandparents' home in Staten Island on Halloween 1964.  If my Uncle Kevin wasn't too busy trying to set fire to something in the woods, he was probably wearing this...




Uncle Kevin, though athletic and "all boy", could clean up rather nicely...


Once again, we see my Mom (with her siblings) below in front of the house on 95 Browning Avenue.  Today, all of them will continually marvel at how immaculately dressed my grandparents were able to keep them, even when money was tight.  This, of course, was many years before Gap Kids, Juicy Couture Juniors and Abercrombie Zombies trudged in a trend-happy, hypnotic state through the malls of the USA.  Staten Island didn't even have a mall when these photos were taken.  Any clothing that was not bought in a department store was probably bought at a kids' specialty store on the commercial Avenues of Hylan or Victory, Forest Avenue or New Dorp Lane.