Part 1, From the Subway to the Synagogue, p. 30 - 47 Summary and Analysis

In this section, the author travels through some of Brownsville's streets. First is Belmont, "the merriest street in Brownsville", with its memories of shouting vendor women and their carts of fresh food. This leads him into a happy contemplation of the food and customs of eating of his childhood - the shops and delicatessens, the variety of available food, the forcefulness with which mothers insisted their (and other) children ate. Next is Pitkin Street, Brownsville's "show street", with its department stores, banks and cafes. He writes of how he always felt, and continues to feel, so "alien" there, but then describes how much he enjoyed walking along the street to visit with his father on the days when his father gathered with his fellow freelance...