A friend, a former Park Sloper who now lives in Staten Island in a beautiful old barn, had a fourth of July BBQ. Lucky us.

Even in the light rain, it was fun to leave the borough and celebrate the fourth with a bunch of Brooklynites in a countrified setting.

The section of Staten Island near Snug Harbor is beautiful and historic. My friend’s house, a barn, belonged to the large 1859 house next door. It was converted into a home by a sculptor, who had a great architectural sense. Double height living room, exposed beams, lots of windows. A street near my friend’s house has numerous Stanford White houses.

The guest list was made up mostly of Park Slopers and some from Kensington, Old Mill Basin, and other spots in Brooklyn. There were of course plenty of friends from Staten Island.

No skinny backyard for this former Park Sloper. My friend has an acre or more with a stream, a pergola, a hot tub and more.

The food, chicken, dogs, hamburgers, pasta, salad and more was delish. The host and hostess asked everyone to bring "bevvies." And there were a lot of those. Bottles and bottles of wine and beer.

Typical Park Sloper’s, we were nervous about leaving the borough. Would there be traffic? Would we find the way?  Would we get back to Brooklyn in time for the fireworks?

Teen Spirit and OSFO opted to stay on Third Street for our building’s BBQ. Two other friends piled into the car for the ROAD TRIP adventure to Staten Island. Before entering the party exit plans were discussed.

"We have to leave no later than 6:30," I said.
"Give me a half-hour warning," my friend said.

It was just like the old days when I would would venture to a party in Brooklyn terrified that I wouldn’t know how to get home to Manhattan. Were there cabs in Brooklyn? Is  anyone driving? Parties would empty out at 11 pm as Manhattanites raced out if someone had a car or had called a car service.

It was like the last transport out of Saigon. 

We left Staten Island around 7 p.m. Scott Elliot, director of the Brooklyn Writer’s Space and his son came with us back to Brooklyn.

"I want you to know that I get car sick," his son said.

We braced for the worse but he fell asleep crossing the Verrazano Bridge.

Scott told us about the Writer’s Space baseball team. They’ll be playing Paragraph, a Manhattan writer’s space sometime in July. He also mentioned  Room 58, his new workspace designed for journalists and other
research-based writers on 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Park Slope/Gowanus. Soundsl ike a great space for those in need of work space (ahem: Hepcat: Can you hear me?).

Picture by Anonymous.