Woodhaven, Land of My Yout
by Nathan Walpow
A few weeks ago my sister Robin (who’s written for FourStory) sent me a link to a New Tork Times story about Woodhaven, the neighborhood in Queens we grew up in. I just got around to reading it, and discovered that, while a lot of things have changed, a lot haven’t. One thing that’s changed is the ethnic mix; nearly half the population is Hispanic now, while when I was a kid there wasn’t a Puerto Rican in sight, Mexicans were something we heard about on TV, and Dominicans were something we’d never heard of at all.
What hasn’t changed is the nature of Jamaica Avenue, the place I walked to for school supplies and comic books and Spaldeens. Many of the stores are gone, of course, and now some of the proprietors are Asian; but it’s still a stretch of small businesses of every stripe, where you might believe you were in Small Town U.S.A. if it weren’t for the El rumbling by overhead. Franklin K. Lane High School still lies a couple of stops away, and I like to think it’s still churning out the same kind of juvenile delinquents it did when I was young.
Anyway, if you think I’m fascinating and want to learn about where I grew up, check out the story, and don’t miss the slideshow that goes with it.
Suzanne DeChillo / The New York Times
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