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By Vanessa Ogle
Brooklyn Daily
They’re so Brooklyn, they remember Canarsie before it was Canarsie.
A group of about 40 Canarsie baby boomers, who referred to the neighborhood they grew up in as Futurama Homes, gathered together for a reunion on Aug. 17. The classmates from Canarsie High School and South Shore High School — many now no longer living in the area — gathered in Marine Park and laughed and reminisced about their cherished memories of barbecuing in the snow, eating Chinese food on Sundays, and smelling fresh bagels from bakeries that no longer exist.
The reunions started in 2010 and Paul Levine, who said this is the last reunion he will organize, said he doesn’t stress about preparing for the get-together, because it is the memories that matter most.
“You don’t need some catering — throw some hotdogs and beer in the back of the truck and everyone comes,” said Levine, who now lives in Flatlands.
For this reunion, though, there was plenty of prepared food — flank steak, Swedish meatballs, rigatoni with sausage and broccoli, and potato pie — all from classmate Dino Piarulli’s catering company, Dino’s Delights.
Though Piarulli lives out on Long Island now, he said the classmates have an unbreakable bond.
“The Canarsie people are very tight,” said Piarulli.
One classmate said the gang went through hard times while growing up, but they all got by with a little help from their friends.
“We stayed friends all these years,” said Jesse Eisenpress, who now lives in Virginia. “We shared together — good and bad.”
Levine said while he was growing up, everyone hung out on the street — and no one was distracted by the technology that today’s teenagers use.
“You had anywhere from 200 to 300 kids,” said Levine. “That’s where people gathered before there were cell phones, beepers.”