30 Signs You Grew Up in Brooklyn

 

5. And for your parents’ generation, summer days meant Coney Island followed by the Steeplechase — especially for Friday night fireworks.

 

6. Your summer nights were spent playing manhunt on your block.

 

7. You lived for birthday parties at Nellie Bly.

 

8. To you, a yard means a 5×5 square foot patch of grass.

 

9. Going to the movies at the UA in Sheepshead Bay sounded like a great idea…until you had to try and find a spot in the parking lot.

 

10. Your first encounter with a mall was the madhouse that is the Kings Plaza Mall or Staten Island Mall.

 

11. You know that a fire hydrant is a Johnny pump.

 

12. It will always be Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street to you.

 

13. You and your friends threw your sneakers over the telephone wires once you grew out of them.

 

14. Roast beef and cheese from Roll-N-Roaster was the answer to so many of life’s problems.

 

15. A rite of passage as a kid was riding the Cyclone and getting a Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog.

 

16. You spent your high school nights drinking 40s that you bought in the deli or corner bodega and hanging out on a street corner or in a park somewhere. You also probably snuck into Pash, Panache, or Rio with either a fake or chalked ID at some point during high school.

 

17. Your pizza loyalty rests with either L&B Spumoni Gardens or Di Fara. Though if you had your choice you’d go for the pizzeria on the corner.

 

18. Even though you grew up in New York City and can see the Statue of Liberty from the waterfront, chances are you’ve never actually visited it or many of the major landmarks. And if you did, you were probably too young to remember.

 

19. Class trips to the Bronx Zoo or the aquarium were the best class trips ever.

 

20. You know what an Italian ice is.

 

21. Your wardrobe probably came from stores under the L, Fulton Street, or 86th Street.

 

22. Stoop ball was one of your favorite games to play.

 

23. Cyclones’ games made the warm weather that much better.

 

24. You’ve proudly yelled out the line “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way” or some other Brooklyn song lyric when it’s on.

 

25. You don’t understand hipsters and never will.

 

26. You get excited when you see Goodfellas, Do The Right Thing, He Got Game, or any of the other movies filmed in Brooklyn.

 

27. Christmastime meant heading to Dyker Heights to see the ridiculously elaborate Christmas lights and decorations on all of the houses.

 

28. It doesn’t take long for you to tell someone that you’re from Brooklyn, and you know it’s a solid fact that it’s the best of the five boroughs.

 

29. Anywhere without street lights makes you feel like you are in the sticks.

 

30. One look at the city skyline, and you feel grateful to have been born and raised in one of the greatest cities on Earth.

This article was originally published on October 20, 2014.