I was a Neighbor

I never lived in Spanish Camp so I don't have the memories that many of you have related, but I hope to be able to contribute something useful to this blog every now and then.

By way of introduction, my family (Marge Hughes and her children--Johannah, Tom, Mary, Jimmy, and Johnny) lived across Poillon Avenue from the Camp, down at the end of Poillon by the beach (in the second bungalow on what was then Barat Lane and is now called Zephyr Avenue), from 1959 through the early 1960s. I myself lived there only briefly until I graduated from Tottenville High School, but my mother and siblings were friendly with many people from the Camp and Poillon Avenue. I remember the Camp as charming, vibrant, peaceful. In particular I remember the lanterns and the music, sometimes flamenco, on summer nights. I loved walking through Camp, stopping at the Cantina, checking out activity at the Salon, going over Renda's Bridge and down the path to Hylan Boulevard. We shared a wild, wonderful beach. I remember swimming, beachcombing, the boats, the men fishing with seining nets, the horseshoe crabs, and jellyfish glowing in the surf or at the stroke of an oar at night. I've seen the Spanish Camp Exhibition at the Staten Island Museum and I'm thrilled that people are now able to reconnect with each other and with their own history by way of the Internet. I'm grateful to Peter Quiñones for preserving and sharing so many elements of our history and to Catherine Burgos for creating this forum for our use as an alternative to the circulating emails.