The Block - College Place in College pointe Queens New York was the name of the street where my older siblings and I grew up. The block was trapezoidal with two sides having parallel right angles. Bordered by 9th Ave. north, 11th Ave. south, 122nd street east, and College Place facing west serving as the angle. The block was narrow at the top, 11th Ave, and gradually got wider towards the bottom at the intersection of ninth Avenue and College Place. 122nd street was straight and had a downward slope to 9th Avenue. As you walked down College Place starting at 11th Ave., each adjacent house stood out further than the previous home, causing backyard space to increased going further down the block. My house was the third house from the corner of 9th Avenue, giving us one of the three biggest lots available. For a single family dwelling, the property size was large, 50 by 150 feet. The house was approximately 20 feet wide with a 10 foot wide driveway, and a 20-foot wide garden area. From west to east, the driveway was roughly 110 feet ending with a wooden framed and metal sided garage on a cement foundation. Directly behind the garage was a blackberry tree and a chain-link fence that divided a much lower adjacent yard with the front of that house facing 122nd street. The garage was boarded on the north by a granny smith apple tree planted at the far north east corner of the lot, and a partially covered second cement foundation on the south indicating where the garage once stood when the house was first built in 1922.

My house was a two-story home with a closed in porch including an attic and a basement and was originally covered in a dark brown textured brick shingle. It was then re-sided in the spring of 1964. The new siding was a corrugated ceramic shingle, yellow for the top floor and a rust red for the bottom. At the front of the house was a brick and cement stoop with a small garden area to the right. The foundational bricks that supported the porch had a small window and was covered in Ivy. At the back of the house was a closed in and roofed entry that had a right angle wooden staircase. The staircase went down to a narrow cement walkway leading to an alleyway between the next house five feet over. The walkway also went around the stairs to where the cellar door entrance was located. The large garden went from the front of the house all the way to the end of the property. The garden was surrounded by hedges for most of the length of the driveway. The garden ended by a slight depression with a grove of thin trees and plants that lead over to a second blackberry tree near the apple tree. The property was not completely flat but rather slightly tilted downward in the far back northeast corner of the yard caused by the slope of 122nd street.
 
Hurricane Donna - In 1960, Hurricane Donna blew through New York City, flooding houses along the shore of the east river by College Point, 4 blocks north of 9th avenue and College Place. The hurricane also changed the topography of the yard. The blackberry tree behind the garage once straight, now had a 45° angle. The hurricane moved the tree from standing over the garage to leaning next to the garage making it much easier to climb. It also made it easier to get onto the garage roof from the tree. The now bent blackberry tree extended over the entire backyard area outlined by the cement foundation where the original garage one stood. The old garage cement foundation was cracked with dirt and debris covering most of the foundation area. The only discernible part of the foundation was the outer cement rim and the mound remainders of a wooden sandbox, long time gone
 
The Garage - Before Hurricane Donna took her tole on the backyard, the garage had two swinging wooden doors with small tiled framed glass windows along with two wooden framed and glass windows on either side of the garage. Inside the back of the garage there was a wooden beam platform used for storage. Over the years, with no adult available to maintain the garage, it fell into disrepair facilitated by Hurricane Donna, and the foolishness of the kids. Most of the garage shingles were missing, the swinging doors were gone, and the windows were just empty frames.
 
The Incinerator (My Earliest Yard Memory.) - Before there were air quality concerns and safety standards, it was a common practice during the fall season in College Point for neighbors to burn their raked-up leaves in the street. This was especially true for people who had large pieces of tree covered property to care for and manage. As burning leaves in the street gutter became a danger and ruled illegal, other methods such as burning leaves in an aluminum garbage can was used. For my family, we had an upright rectangular metal incinerator in the yard, next to the east side of the garage. The incinerator was roughly 3-feet tall and had a square lid that covered the box opening. From what I can recall as it was there before my memory, it was gray and had holes up and down all the sides including the lid with metal support ribbing. It was easy to flip back the lid and throw leaves, twigs, small branches, and other plant material in the incinerator. Over time, the incinerator was used for more than just garden refuse by the kids. Everything and anything that could be burned, got thrown into the incinerator. The incinerator was used so much and burned so hot that the incinerator itself was incinerated. The entire top, including the lid literally was incinerated and melted away.
 
The Blackberry Tree - The Blackberry tree blown over by Hurricane Donna, split into two thick trunk size branches forming a “Y” shape leaning on its side. The first trunk branch having an angle of about 70°, went up and over the far back of the yard with branches hovering over the yard and that of the neighbor’s yard behind. The second trunk went up at an angle of about 45°, branching out and over the center part of the old cement garage foundation. Other branches from that second trunk stretched over to the garage’s shingle roof, allowing easy access to the garage roof from the tree.  If you went into the garage and climbed onto the garage’s wooden beam platform, in the far back corner cut into the garage roof, there were two rectangular holes at the back of the garage large enough to squeeze through and climb directly onto the garage roof without the need for the blackberry tree.
 
The Birth of the Rope Swing - It was early spring during one of the first warm days of summer coming, when the daffodils bloom in the garden, the apple tree starts to bud, and the blackberry tree began to flower, when the cooped up winter woes caused the kids to seek outdoor adventure. For this adventure my brother and I started not in the yard but a trip to Ripley’s beach at the end of ninth Avenue and 115th street. Ripley’s beach was a discarded weed, rock, gravel, and sandy beach inhabited by horseshoe crabs, large pieces of driftwood, and the empty hulks of sunken abandoned barges. The beach ended at a long and high wooden dock with a chain-link and barbwire fence on the right, separating Ripley’s beach from Mayors Boat Yard. If you got to the beach before hightide, you could climb onto a grounded sunken barge that had no flat deck, only crisscrossing wooden plank holes where you could look down in and see water. If you climbed onto that first barge, carefully walking around the exposed edge, it would lead you to another small thin wooden ledge that was a part of the adjacent boat yard dock. The ledge, only accessible during low tide was wide and low enough to put your feet on. With your feet on the ledge while holding onto the boatyard’s chain-link fencing, you could get onto a second much bigger and taller barge. This second barge had a huge 100 foot abandon red crane on a solid wooden deck. Hanging from the top of the crane tower was a long steel cable with a large loop that you could use as a swing from the crane’s pilot house over the adjacent sunken barge. On the crane’s wooden deck were bundles of rope at various thicknesses and lengths. My brother picked up a 20 foot, 2-inch thick rope used for mooring large barges, and a bundle of thinner rope that could be used as a possible rope swing. Walking home dragging the heavy 20-foot thick rope with the bundle of thinner rope over the shoulder, we proceeded to the yard, laying out our pirate booty onto the old crack cement garage foundation.
 
Back in the yard, my brother with the bundle of thinner rope over his shoulder, climbed up the second trunk and then shimmied up the branch that hovered directly over the center of the old garage foundation about 25 feet up in the air. He then dropped the rope down to the ground and wrapped the end he held in his hand around the branch several times, tying it up with a knot. Climbing back down, he then proceeded to climb up the steeper first trunk leg, and I passed him the heavier and larger piece of mooring rope. He pulled the thicker rope up and wrapped it around the highest part of the branch he could reach. The thick mooring rope was too heavy to swing but very easy to climb. Completing both rope installations, the birth of the yard’s rope swing was finished.
 
The Rope Swing - Having a rope swing in our yard became an Instant attraction for all the kids in the neighborhood. The bottom of the rope swing was tied into a thick nodded loop  where riders could put their foot and then sit on the knot. Climbing up to the branch that split off close to the garage, you could grab the rope, put your foot in the loop and swing out arcing high back and forth over the central part of the yard. All the kids who lived on College Place wanted to ride the rope swing. As time went on, other branch locations on the tree were used for swinging. As long as you could reach the rope, you could swing from any tree branch location you dared to try.
 
The Superman Branch - One of the more notable locations to swing from was known as the Superman branch. The Superman branch was one of the biggest backyard rope swing challenges. It branched off of the first trunk leg and was much higher than the place where you would usually jump and swing. Due to the height of the Superman branch, the rider would first need to climb all the way up to where the horizontal Superman branch split off from the first trunk leg. The rider would than sit on the thick branch,  place their foot in the loop, jump and free-fall for about 2-feet before the rope became taut and the rider would swing. The Superman branch didn’t create a faster swinging ark, just a higher and greater dare for all the neighborhood kids to face.
 
The Garage launchpad - Another fun and exciting place to swing from was the garage roof. After retrieving the rope from the previous rider, the next swinger would walk up to the garage roof peak at the back of the garage. They would then run forward, gradually curving down along the roof and swing off the bottom edge at the front of the garage. The garage launchpad provided the greatest swing speed and thrill. The rope swing did not go back and forth as usual, but rather around the range of the entire yard, coming very close to the garage’s mettle siding. After the first elliptical loop, each loop cycle decreased in circumference. At this point, if the rider positioned themselves correctly by facing the garage with their feet, they could spring off the side of the garage for a longer ride back and forth using the push off the garage side technique. This rope swing technique became extreme as riders would try to crash with their feet into the side of the garage as hard as possible, making significant marks and dense in the garage’s metal siding.
 
The Tire Game - After the novelty of swinging on the rope wore off, a series of rope swing games were invented. The first game was the tire game. Using an old car tire found at the local junkyard along with a four leg metal frame yellow kitchen chair with no seat cushion, only a back cushion, the tire game began. At first the kitchen chair was placed directly in the path of the rope swing. The rider would jump off from the established branch, swing and kick the chair and tire over. This required little skill. To make the game more difficult, the rider had to swing and avoid the chair and tire, and then on the back swing, kick the tire off the chair using only the feet, leaving the chair upright. The further the chair was placed away from the jumping off point, the harder the game became. As a rider, you had only enough momentum for one pass. If you missed it on your first attempt, you had to twist and turn two squeze out enough momentum to grab the inside of the tire with your feet. Hands were not allowed and if the chair fell over at any time during your turn, you lost the game. As time went on, more and more things were added to the placement of the chair and tire. Wooden planks, empty cans, whatever was around the yard at the time was incorporated into the tire game.
 
The Ladder Sled - During the time when the house was being re-sided by Lewis Home Development, lots of equipment was brought into the yard to accomplish the renovation. Cardboard boxes of red and yellow ceramic shingle, heavy metal (guillotine style) ceramic shingle cutters, wooden scaffolding to support workers siding the second floor, and of variety of ladders, both extension, and fixed length ladders. It took about 2-weeks for the men to finish the job and of course, they did not work on the weekends. That meant all their tools and equipment was up for exploration by the Kids. For my brother and I, the ladders became of great interest. The extension ladder had a rope-pulley mechanism that neither of us knew how to work. It was set up by my back bedroom window on the second floor of the house. Climbing up the extension ladder to get to my bedroom window became a high and shaky experience, so we abandoned the attempt. The fixed length ladder, about 25 feet and length, was easier to play with. As mentioned above, the back of the house had a short, peeked roofed shingle entryway about 6-feet in length. The door to the entryway lead to a set of right angle stairs going down to a cement walkway. The stairs had a wooden railing with 1-inch spaced square posts, attaching the railing to the staircase and deck platform. From the top of the staircase railing to the ground was about 8-feet high. Taking the fix length latter from the side of the house over to the staircase, we began assembling the ladder sled ride. The 25-foot length of the fix height ladder structure was narrow at the top and wider at the bottom. My brother and I placed the ladder’s narrow top, resting on the back stairs railing facing the next-door neighbor’s property. The ladder went from the top of the railing, over and across the driveway, ending down by the neighbor’s chain-link fence. This provided a 40° angle from the top of the railing to the bottom of the ladder. At the end of the ladder, there was still about 6-feet of space before hitting the chain-link fence. We placed an old rain soaked rug at the end of the ladders’ run, serving as a breaking point for the ride. Taking my winter snow sled, placing it on the ladder’s wrongs, we push the sled up towards the top of the narrow part of the ladder. The sled’s rails fit snuggly between the two wooden beam sides that held all the wrongs in place. The ladder, now resting on the staircase railing made for a ladder slide down to the rug at the bottom. Sitting on the sled, getting a slight push from my brother, the sled slid down the length of the latter and stopped on the rug. It was a great ride. To make the ladder sled faster, we put cooking oil on a paper towel and ran the towel over the sled’s rutters. This resulted in a much faster ride ending with a crash into the neighbor’s chain-link fence. When the workman came back on Monday, they would have no idea how much fun we had with their ladders.
 
The Sculpture Garden (The first art instillation.) - One of the great takeaways from my unconventional childhood was the continuous ability to freely exercise artistic creativity and imagination. That freedom allowed me to always think beyond the box and be totally original. It is the free spirit of creative expression that governs my artistic style and inspires my brother to be the thoughtful and insightful poet he is today. Art, in some manifestation has always permeated our lives throughout the years. When I lived in College Point, the unusual and isolated nature of that town a part, yet removed from New York City, resulted in so many interesting and exotic artistic experiences, and of course, the yard became a part of that expression.

At one point during the late 60s, the inside and outside of the house was transformed into a living work of art. Inside the house, colorful murals, circuit schematic diagrams, and progressive political statements adorned several of the walls in various rooms. Besides having a small recording studio in the dining room for our band, In the living room, many sheets of aluminum foil were taped to the ceiling, creating an ambient wind sculpture when the doors and windows were open. This artistic explosion moved out into the yard area. Placed in the garden at the front of the yard property, a giant wooden sculpture, made from broken ladders, wooden planks, empty paint cans, wooden crates, broken pieces of furniture, and so on, were stacked high in an artistically crafted pile facing the street. To complete this masterpiece, stereo speakers were subtly placed in the sculpture, providing the opportunity to send voice and music out into the world. It was a true instillation piece before anyone knew of that artistic concept.

The artistic Renaissance continue to flourish as it moved into the back yard. Of course, to build a yard sculpture, materials are required. It was not unusual to go around the neighborhood late at night to find interesting items that other people have discarded as junk. In one such search, the inside of an old cigarette machine, a broken refrigerator door, the front of an old fire engine, a heavy beach trashcan, the inside drum of a dryer, and a discarded toilet seat was reclaimed as artmaking material. These items, along with other materials already in the yard were put to good use as holes were artfully dug to partially plant the rescued items into the ground, this created a walkthrough junkyard museum. When finished, the sculpture garden was an incredible sight to hear and behold. As one passing  neighbor lady said when walking and talking to the installation exhibit at the front of the property, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.” Yes indeed, the sculpture garden along with the house was a real expression of free creative artistic spirit that has influenced and shaped the art we create today.
 
Epilogue – In 1975, my old home, where so many incredible memories and adventures took place, the house my mom was born in, and the house that stood out among all the other houses on the block, was sold to an unsuspecting family. At the end, in 2003, the house was raised to the ground and a modern 4-Plex unit took its place. It is interesting to note, before the demolition could proceed, every corrugated ceramic shingle had to be manually removed. It was determined that the yellow and rust-red shingle siding contained asbestos, which would have contaminated  the air throughout the neighborhood. Today, all the houses on College Place remain the same with the only exception being the complete annihilation of my old home 9-15, and my once upon a yard memory.