After a lingering Everything Must Go, the shutters are down at Tip Top Gift, the martial arts & sundries store that held down a spot next to Smith's for thirty-five years. It's another piece of the Fifth I got to know when I first moved to Brooklyn, thirty years ago. The era of those 1980's tax photos! Fifth to me back then meant bargain stores & cheap boutiques, bakeries with cozy cafe con leche counters & brightly decorated cake-filled windows. It meant Glasgow's, Timboo's & the OTB. O'Neil's, Classico Man, Capri Fashions & Queen-in-Bazaar. Farther down the avenue, others - Stavenhagen pawnshop, Eagle Provisions, & Morisi's pasta. Too many more to remember. Whenever I walk on Fifth in Sunset Park, I get flashbacks to my piece of the avenue back in the 80's. I miss it.
We all look back to the city we knew when we were younger, the city we arrived in. I live with a New Yorker who trumps my 80's Manhattan & Brooklyn with apocryphal tales of a 70's East Village, checker-cab driving adventures, concerts at the Fillmore East, and a Soho dark & desolate at night. I wish I had that New York decade tucked in my mind. And of course, I envy those whose city memories go far, far farther back in time. Oh, to have seen the city then.
But we've been lucky.
Glasgow's - 198-?
2 comments:
So sad to hear that Tip Top closed. We remember photographing it the day we also captured Fifth Avenue Record Shop.
Yes, it's a shame. That block has (had) a good concentration of older businesses, what with Square Stores, Smith's, the diner, the Record & Tape Center, & the liquor store. I wonder what will ever happen to Garry's - I used to run into Michael, but haven't seen him for a while. He had dreams of re-opening, but I can't see that happening. Nice that Neergaard's - my go-to-pharmacy - is still going strong. Did you ever photograph Catene's when it was around? I see one of the former owners every so often - lovely guy. He gave me a great deli recommendation!
Post a Comment