Friday, April 27, 2012
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Catherine's Spanish Camp story
"My young summers at Spanish Camp" by Catherine Burgos has been published on January 13, 2008, on silive.com website of the Staten Island Real-Time News.
I don't need to say "GREAT STORY" to Catherine because when she read it at the Staten Island Museum, I said it then. I loved the story for its close-to-the-heart honesty, and clarity, and love, which mirrored the essence of Spanish Camp. I do want to say congradulations to Catherine on it's publication, and still keeping Spanish Camp real as we remember it.
Sandra Serrano
I don't need to say "GREAT STORY" to Catherine because when she read it at the Staten Island Museum, I said it then. I loved the story for its close-to-the-heart honesty, and clarity, and love, which mirrored the essence of Spanish Camp. I do want to say congradulations to Catherine on it's publication, and still keeping Spanish Camp real as we remember it.
Sandra Serrano
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Buddy Martinez discovers a shark on Annadale/Barat beach
Early one morning in August 1963, an 8-foot shark that washed up on the Annadale beach was discovered by two 5-year-old boys. One of them was Buddy Martinez of Spanish Camp. The other was my youngest brother, John Hughes, who lived in the second bungalow on Barat Lane (Zephyr Avenue). I assume someone who follows this blog will remember Buddy Martinez. I didn't know him and don't know anything about his family. St. Josephs by the Sea appears in the background. (Click the photo to see it larger.)
The Staten Island Advance published a different shark photo with a caption that was wildly incorrect in several respects (e.g., referring to Spanish Camp as the Spanish Village). I can't reproduce that one because my only copy is a clipping, deeply faded and stuck to a board.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
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.
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.
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