The opening song Barbra Streisand sang in her television special, “Back to Brooklyn” reminded me that my first home in America was in Brooklyn. My parents came to America with me as the only family they had left in the world after surviving the Holocaust. This was before my father found a surviving brother and sister. He found his brother when they both were accidentally on the same street in Brooklyn. He found his sister through an agency that was helping survivors look for any family that might be alive. Of many family members that was it who was left. My mother was the only survivor of her entire town. That was the extent of my entire close family, the five of us, living together.
Barbra Streisand mentioned all of her fond memories of Brooklyn, and her coming home again. I have no memories of Brooklyn. I was a baby. My family quickly moved to Queens, which at that time was a move up. For us, it meant getting close to the beach, soothing sounds of the ocean calmed when terrible memories were remembered. Our family loves the ocean to this day.
I remembered that we lived on Kosciusko Street in Brooklyn. My parents, originally from Poland, mentioned that the street was named for an important Polish immigrant in America history, who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Like, he, we were immigrants too and we, like Kosciusko, owed a duty to give back to America which gave us asylum.
Of course, while listening to Barbra’s beautiful voice, I went web surfing to find what I could about Kosciusko and Kosciusko Street. Thanks to the internet, one can actually see pictures of any street at any decade! It was so interesting to see the brownstones that probably were there when I was there. It is amazing you can just scroll along the actual street on many websites.
We too can come home again and share those times and places with our grandchildren. Family history is important and taken for granted when one has a family history. This grandma spends a lot of time memorializing today for our grandchildren to share with their grandchildren. Thank you, Barbra, for reminding me of my brief home in Brooklyn.
Taking a family journey back in time is so easy with the Internet. Sharing it with Grandchildren brings even more
Joy,
Mema
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