Yesterday our old downstairs’ neighbors dropped by for a visit. It was a blast from the past, a trip down memory lane…

Who can forget the day the F’s moved into our building. It must have been around 1995 or so.

Kathy and Jay had two children at the time, Eddie and Mary. They’d lived in Park Slope before Eddie was born. And they stayed until Eddie was 1 or 2. When Kathy got pregnant with Mary, they moved to New Rochelle, but they never adjusted to suburban life.

So they came back to the Slope, to Third Street, to regain what they’d lost. Life in a big city small town.

Teen Spirit was thrilled when he  found out that a little boy was moving into the building; he could hardly wait for the day when they would move into the apartment right below us.

On the day they moved in, I remember telling Teen Spirit to wait until they’d been in the apartment for at least an hour before going down for a play date.

Finally I told Teen Spirit he could go downstairs and introduce himself and from that moment on, 5-year-old Teen Spirit and 6-year-old Eddie were the very best of friends. And Mary, who must have been about 4 at the time, was always on hand because wherever Eddie went Mary was close behind.

Mary was very quiet at the time with the world’s biggest, darkest and most inquisitive eyes, but she just loved to watch Teen Spirit and Eddie play.

“I’m going down to Eddie’s,” became Teen Spirit’s constant refrain. If Teen Spirit was home he wanted to be with Eddie and visa versa.  And Mary was never far behind.

Action figures, video games, board games, imaginary games. Eddie, Mary and Teen Spirit played and played. It was a childhood’s worth of playing. And a childhood’s worth of fun.

Indoors. Outdoors. In the front yard. In Prospect Park. The families even vacationed together one July, quite by accident, in Wellfleet, Mass. Unbeknownst to the other, both families made plans to spend the same week in the same town.

“What a coincidence,” I said when the accidental vacation was discovered.

“We really can’t get away from each other,” Jay said mostly in jest.

Understandably the kids were ecstatic about going on a vacation with their apartment building friends and they boogie boarded at the ocean, swam at the bay, played mini-golf and barbecued burgers in rented backyards.

In general the kids  got along unusually well, as did the parents. Sure there were  disagreements, some rocky moments, it wouldn’t be a friendship without that.

One time Teen Spirit had to write, “I will not put my hands around Mary’s neck” 100 times on a piece of paper.

Mostly it was easy, seamless, a god-send to have such good friends in the building…

To be continued