If there is one thing Brooklyn has that no one can disagree with, it’s neighborhoods. And every neighborhood has blocks. And every block has people living on it. And if you live on the block for a long period of time, you make friends and the friends you make become a large part of your growing up.

Growing up. There are two words that have so much meaning. The years of your “growing up” can help shape your life in a major way. Besides what you learn about in school, you learn a lot from the friends you make. You learn about things like togetherness, camaraderie, and friendship. Every one who grew up in Brooklyn has lived on one of “these blocks,” let me tell you about mine.

From when I was three until I was fourteen, I lived at 951 East 29th Street between Avenues I & J. I loved that house. I spent most of what I would consider my “Wonder Years” there. I made some great friends on that block, Jimmy Maher and his sister Danielle who lived in the brick stairhouse, and Jennifer Casey who lived in the house on the corner that was closer to Avenue J.

The four of us, after a while, became inseparable. We would be together everyday, and for a group of little kids, we were pretty imaginative. We formed a club, which we called “Kids, Inc.” and our hideout was the bushes in front of my house.

As members of “Kids, Inc.,” we would spend our days inside our “hideout” pretending to fight everyone from the Legion of Doom to the Injustice Society to the never-ending army of Visitors from the then-popular sci-fi series V. I must tell you that the times that we had together are some of my favorite memories.

Besides us, the real hero of our group was my mother. I now can thank her for all of the barbecues and sleepovers and parties and friends I had over the house on a constant basis. Thanks, mom.

By the summer of 1982, some new kids moved onto “our” block. We welcomed them with open arms, (but not my mother, because she knew that more kids would be checking into the “Hotel Wein”). By the time I was thirteen, there were about ten kids on that block, and we all hung out together. We became like a family. It was a wonderful feeling to know that on a summer’s day or a school year Saturday, you would have so many friends to play with.

Then came the summer of 1986. I was told that we were moving to East 19th Street between Avenues U & T. It was time for me to leave.

It was hard to come to grips with the fact that I would be moving and leaving my friends and my hideout behind.

If I learned anything from that block, I learned that if you take a small handful of kids, and add some imagination and a little adventure, you would get a family. I have done a lot since then, but I will never forget East 29th Street between I & J.

Who knows, maybe I’ll look up Jimmy, Danielle and Jennifer. My new house on Brigham Street has two bushes!!