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by Maralyn Matlick (Author)
Venus and the Crescent Moon: Blue-Collar Memories is a story about growing up in the working-class neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn called Bensonhurst. It was the latter part of the 20th century-before the internet, the cellphone, and the 24-hour news cycle brought the world into the palms of our hands.
The neighborhood was an unplanned mix of small homes with tiny yards, multi-family dwellings with no yards at all, and brick apartment buildings with tar-covered rooftops that supported water towers, TV antennas, and beach chairs. In winter, whistling radiators provided heat for apartment sand were used to melt tinfoil-covered chocolates, later known as Hershey's Kisses. In summer, uncapped fireplugs spewed geysers of icy water, feeding rivers that rushed over the asphalt with enough force to launch an armada of plastic toy boats.
There was little awareness of the world outside Bensonhurst's loosely defined three-square-mile border. It wasn't a good neighborhood or a bad neighborhood; it was just home, and the people who lived there were happy and nourished by close bonds with family and neighbors. Over time, through chance and choices, the author discovered the vast outside world, with places and people beyond her imagination.
