and I attended P. S. 236 at Mill Basin in the 50's. I started first grade with Mrs. Rose in 1945. I lived on East 72nd Street, half a block from Avenue U. My old duplex home is still standing. It was so sad to learn of the stable fire. I kept my first paint horse, "Cherokee" there in 1956-57. I began riding at the stable next door "Ryan's Riding Academy" where learned English Horsemanship and jumping by a tough trainer Mike Ryan. He and his wife also ran a luncheonette right down the street. I also exercised race horses there for a Japanese trainer who stabled his mounts at Carroll's Stables across the street. Jamaica Race Track was still open at that time, but these horses raced at Aqueduct, later Belmont. I rode them on the flats at low tide on Jamaica Bay beach, taking care not to have my chargers fall over the migrating horseshoe crabs. The water was not polluted. I swam under the Mill Basin Drawbridge and dug for clams at the beach there. We also swam in Padergaat Basin, bordering Canarsie. We could ride to Canarsie over the landfill which are now houses, so we could avoid sneaking our horses over the bridge. NY's finest didn't like us to ride on the pedestrian walkway on the Belt Parkway. We did it anyway. It was a wonderful time and a wonderful place to grow up!
