By Geri Delfino, April 17, 2019 — During the summers in Brooklyn, we were too poor to really do anything. Most of my cousins lived in the same building as my family and I did, so when it was hot out we would all go upstairs to the roof and call it a “tar beach.” My aunts and uncles would set up a TV and watch talk shows and the kids and I would play, eat and lay out on towels. My aunt would make sugar white bread sandwiches as a treat for my cousins and I, but I was never allowed to tell my mother. It was literally two pieces of white bread with some sugar in between. It was a treat back then, but looking back it was pretty disgusting. I didn’t really understand how poor we were until I got older. All of my friends and family were in the same boat – so I never felt out of the ordinary.
When it got really hot during the day my cousins and I would play in the “sprinkler‚” in the street (which was just the fire hydrant). It would keep us busy for hours. My mother and my aunt would sit outside the brick building of our apartment to watch us. Sometimes they brought out chairs to sit on but most of the time they sat on these wooden Coca Cola boxes. If they were too busy doing housework they would just watch us from the window. Parenting was much more relaxed back then, and I think I’m better for it. It made me more independent, and my own person.
When the other kids wanted to play, they would come to the door and call for me: “We are callin’ for Geri, can she come out and play?” My cousins were my best friends, we played all sorts of games, mostly cards. We played old maid and rummy, and eventually my cousin Fran taught me how to play poker. I’ve been playing cards for as long as I can remember. To this day when I visit my cousins, we sit around the table and drink tea, talk, and play cards. I taught my kids and grandkids how to play and I hope they keep the tradition going.